I met Winn & Steve in the lobby, where we planned to meet up with some friends of theirs who were also in town. Their friends arrived shortly, and we left the hotel headed for Suidobashi station. Our destination was Kappabashi, Tokyo's kitchen town where all things epicurean can be purchased. Winn was looking for a nice chef's knife - so we planned to meander down the street browsing the goods available before finishing up at Kamata and Kamaasa - the two most well known knife makers in the area. We spent a few minutes looking at tableware for Winn's mother, who collects plates. Winn wasn't able to find anything that he really loved, so we kept wandering, picking up some chopsticks at a bespoke chopstick vendor before meandering over to Kamata.
Kamata's selection of knives was quite nice, but they didn't have anything that really appealed to Winn, so we kept moving and headed to Kamaasa, just a block away. There, Winn found a beautiful chef's knife and waited in line to purchase it before we split up the group to head for Senso-ji temple which is located in the Asakusa ward of Tokyo and is a 1 kilometer walk from Kappabashi. Upon arrival at Senso-ji, we met up with Lauren, Devin and Neil who were already exploring the grounds.
We spent a few minutes photographing the temple and its grounds before meeting back up with Winn & Steve's friends for a street food tour. There's an extensive market next to Senso-ji, stuffed with food vendors, so it's easy to wander around and follow your nose. In our case, that wasn't necessary as Lauren had over-prepared as usual, and researched the best places to eat. Armed with a list of vendors to try, the group set out. Our first stop was Asakusa Menchikatsu, a vendor serving the breaded and deep friend meat balls we had tried a few days ago in Kichijoji. These were definitely even better than the ones in Kichijoji and the entire group loved them, greasy fingers aside.
From there, Lauren and I stopped next door at a vendor that sold Curry Pan (curry filled bread), as they smelled delicious. The next stop for the group as a whole was a spot called Sekine Pork Bun, which serves steamed pork buns and dumplings. The steamed pork buns were only 450 yen, and came out piping hot. With the cool breeze, it was a nice and unexpected way to warm up our hands while eating. The group then moved on to a nearby yakitori vendor where we found ourselves surrounded by very drunk locals who kept trying to speak but even Lauren struggled to understand their slurred Japanese. The yakitori skewers themselves were quite nice, though we all realized belatedly that we were getting full. Our temporary group members had been hoping to try Melon Pan (melon bread), so we swung by a melon pan shop on our way back to the subway station.
Our next stop would take us all the way down to the southern tip of Tokyo right against the waterfront, where we would be attending the Digital Art Museum - a relatively new attraction here that we were all extremely eager to see. The museum itself is a massive installation spanning an entire building, and two very large floors. Entry is rather slow, as you have to wait in line - but once you are in there is no time limit and you are free to explore. Rather than explain what we saw, I'll share some video from my GoPro below:
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| A fuzzy picture of me playing with some "floating light balloons" at the Digital Art Museum |
Extremely impressed by the museum, our group walked back to the nearby subway station where we would head back into town. Here we parted ways with Winn & Steve's friends, as they had dinner plans in Ginza at a kobe beef restaurant we had recommended named Gyuan. We were headed to Sushisho Masa, a Michelin starred sushi restaurant that is among the best in Tokyo with Winn, Steve, Devin and Neil. The six of us had the entire restaurant to ourselves, and Chef Masa and his staff treated us to an amazing feast including many exotic items like grouper spine (you suck out the marrow), shirako, uni, and a variety of clams, in addition to the usual fish. Below are some photographs of the sushi:
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| Kohada (gizzard shad) |
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| O-toro braided around wasabi. Amazing! |
When we finally wrapped up, we were all entirely satisfied, even if the bill was approximately 1500 USD for the six of us. Expensive, but amazing!
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