Japan, Day 1

One of the main reasons I went to Japan was for eating. No joke. I'm posting my Japan journal online so that you can see and read about the things I did, saw, and most importantly ate.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Our first day in Japan! We flew into Narita, the airport located outside of Tokyo around 2:45 p.m. The flight was about 11 1/2 hours (we left on Friday morning, PST), and easier to take than I thought. Dad had to sit in the middle next to some guy who was going on a mission trip in Japan...Converting all of the heathens I guess...They showed the Lakehouse movie with Sandra Bullock, which was great because it looked like a really sappy movie that I wanted to watch without having to ask Andy to rent it for me. It was sooo sappy but sooo good. Anyway, on to the fun stuff. Japan! Surprisingly, I wasn't too tired, but it was drizzling and kind of cold outside, so it helped to wake me up. Katsumi picked us up and drove us directly to our hotel--the APA (Always Pleasurable Amenities--haha, no that's really what it stands for but you're supposed to call it "Appah") Hotel in Hiroo.

Bear with me, I had to download these photos from the hotel's website since Dad lost his camera and sadly the memory card was lost with it. This is a picture of the outside of the hotel. It's a business hotel so Dad and I each had our own room. The nice thing about staying in Hiroo is that we were about a 5 minute walk from Katsumi's apartment. Plus, it's a really nice (what isn't?) and convenient area of Tokyo.

This is a picture of a room at the hotel. Definitely not mine. For example my room had only one window at the foot of the bed, and my bed looked more like a twin bed than that bed. The bathroom was immaculate, but tiny and kind of spaceship like. There was no closet space either, because these hotels are meant for businessmen who are far away from home and need to spend the night. I found that navigating places like the airport can be really easy since everything is written in English and Japanese--however as soon as you need to figure something out, such as how to use the TV, how to flush the toilet...the English conveniently disappears.

There were some pretty cool things, though: when you take a shower, the mirror has a square that is heated so it doesn't get fogged up; also, all of the lights in the room, the alarm and the A/C can be controlled from the headboard (because it was soooo big and I couldn't walk six inches to reach the light switch). This is a picture, courtesy of Uncle Lionel, of the cool toilets in Japan. They come with deodorizers, bidets, sprays, and special flushing noises to mask any other noises you might be making. I was really curious about the bidet, but it seemed kind of suspect to use one in a hotel, so I stood next to the toilet and decided to try and figure it out. I pushed the button and this little arm came out of the toilet. As if in slow motion, I realized that it was going to start spraying water right into my face, so I moved away as quickly as I could, and the water shot into the bathroom door. Pretty powerful stuff. Kind of embarrassing, but fortunately I had the privacy of my own room.

As soon as I set my suitcase down, Katsumi took us for a walk around Hiroo, and we ended up at a tiny local restaurant. I know this is a food blog, but it's going to be impossible to tell you how to get there and what to order should you find the place. I'll try just for kicks. Katsumi said that the restaurant is called "Tomiya." It is located about a block away from the subway station in Hiroo, one floor underground (you have to get in an elevator to get there), below "Bagel+Bagel," yes, a New York style bagel shop in a tiny walkway next to a Starbucks. Good luck. If you get to a place that seems remotely like what I described, the people inside should look and cook like this:

Tomiya is a neighborhood teppanyaki place. Teppanyaki is I guess what you could say Benihana tries to be. The chefs have a hot grill in front of them, and they grill veggies, meat and seafood, pretty much seasoning with only salt, pepper, and garlic. I'm so sad because we had more pictures of this place and the amazing food, but they were all on Dad's camera. Now if you get this far, you still probably won't eat what we ate because you don't have Katsumi with you. Sorry. He ordered everything for us, which I will now describe in great detail.

We started out with a pork dish ("Satsuma Pork"), which Katsumi said is his son Kohta's favorite dish. It was very beautifully presented. We were given about five very tiny (maybe 1.5 square inches), thin slices of pork that were grilled and seasoned with some salt. We had to take pieces of lettuce and wrap the pork inside with some mild shaved white onion and red chili pepper sauce. When I first saw what we were eating, I didn't think I'd even be able to taste the pork because there was so much lettuce. I was wrong--the pork was so flavorful that it shone through everything else.

Next came these new Japanese mushrooms which are not yet available in the U.S. They are called aringi mushrooms, and they are grilled in a bit of oil/butter, sprinkled with salt and pepper and then served with a lemon wedge. I'm still craving these mushrooms. They are so crunchy and meaty--unlike any other mushroom I've had, because it's mostly the stem that you eat. This little guy here is also an aringi mushroom. Sort of. Katsumi got me 3 of these when we left because he knew how much I liked them. I don't think this one would be too stoked about being eaten.

Katsumi then ordered a vegetable plate, which again was simple but packed with flavor. We got thick lotus root slices (that's what the guy is cooking above--the mushrooms are on the far left, lotus root in the middle, and taro root on the right), which were grilled until each side was golden brown and had a crispy, almost fried texture, taro root--also cut in thick slices, and giant green asparagus spears. All were lightly grilled, sprinkled with salt and served as-is on simple black plates. It was gorgeous.

We then moved onto seafood. Katsumi ordered garlic shrimp, which was prepared by grilling jumbo shrimp on the grill and sauteing chopped garlic until it was crispy. The garlic was then put onto the shrimp and grilled for a bit longer. This was served with a mayo-based dipping sauce. The garlic stuck to the outside of the shrimp so we could pick it up with our fingers. It provided a really crunchy exterior until I got to the meatiness of the shrimp on the inside. Since the garlic was cooked for so long it wasn't too strong, just perfect. Since November is supposed to be the best time to get oysters in Japan, that was what we got next. Already shelled, we were given a giant plate of oysters piled on top of one another. The chef put them on the grill for a good two seconds, maybe just to firm them up a tiny bit. They were seasoned with a vinegar/lemon/garlic sauce. Even Dad liked these, and he never eats oysters. They had the consistency of raw oysters, and also had that very fresh taste and smooth consistency.

Finally, the last two dishes we had were more carb-based. The first was a kimchee pancake ("Okonomiyaki"). The chefs mixed kimchee and fresh cabbage together, grilled it, and then put a sweet BBQ-like sauce ("Tonkatsu") on top and grilled it for longer. So long that the sauce was kind of chewy on top. I liked the idea of cooked kimchee, but I'm not really into the whole sweet sauce mixed with a savory chili sauce. It wasn't bad, just not one of my favorites. The other dish was similar--the chef mixed kimchee, squid, shrimp and octopus together with fresh cabbage, and topped it with more Tonkatsu sauce. This was grilled in the same way as the other pancake, but then he added noodles. To add to the madness, this was formed into a pancake and topped with dried seaweed and a runny fried egg. Again, I'm not a fan of the kimchee mixed with Tonkatsu sauce, but I really really liked the octopus. Unlike at home, it was bite-sized and crunchy, not chewy.

As we finished up our meal, Katsumi told them that the reason we were taking so many photos was because I had a food blog. I think they thought that I have a food blog that people (lots of people) read on a regular basis, so they were thanking me profusely and gave me their card. I'd post a picture of the card they gave but it's all in Japanese. So, if you can read it and decipher the address and map on the back, I might even give it to you.

After dinner, I started to get really tired, so we headed back to the hotel. The A/C wasn't turned on in the hotel, so I ended up having to sleep with the window open. Tokyo is no New York City (or even Berkeley for that matter)...I didn't wake up once because of sirens or homeless people yelling at the top of their lungs.

That's all for now, I have to go get bread and soup for my sad sick boyfriend. More posting later.