June 23, 2010

• Song of the Day
  
  Some parts in “Echoes of The Rainbow” (歲月神偷) reminded me of my carefree days in Hong Kong – browsing in the aquariums, high school meet, etc. If I could travel back time and start all over again, I wish…..

  Tokyo – Day One – After a good night’s sleep, we started off in the morning having breakfast in one of the sushi restaurants at the Tsukiji Fish Market . Afterwards, we explored the fish market and other small shops in the area. We then headed north to Ginza, spent a good part of the afternoon there window shopping, touring a few interesting buildings and had afternoon tea. Afterwards, we met up with a friend of W’s and had a delicious ramen dinner……

  On the left side are the sushi restaurants, with the souvenir shops on the right side. It was only 10am and there were already large crowds waiting to be seated…..
  

  Each restaurant is very compact and can only seat a handful of diners, I did not have much elbow space while taking photos…..
  

  The sushi did not come out beautifully crafted due to the rush of orders, but the taste is deliciously fresh and juicy…..
  

  

  

  (left) small shrine inside the fish market / (right) view of the fish market complex, there were people everywhere, business as usual, I guess…..
  

  Inside, there were seafood everywhere, we were out-numbered by the huge varieties of sea creatures…..
  

  Business as usual everywhere, shoppers too…..
  

  I felt somewhat hearbreaking to watch these huge tunas being cut up into pieces, preferably to consume their petite pieces rather than witnessing the carnage…..
  

  We sampled electronic gadgets inside the eight-story Sony Building / strolled near the Dior Building / Tokyo International Forum, with the skywalks amongst the glass and girders…..
  

  Ladurée is located on the second floor of the Ginza Mitsukoshi, photography is not permitted inside the patisserie, but we managed to snap a few dishes inside the tea room…..
  

  

  
  The tea set costs around US$40 for two, it was delicious, and on our way out, we got a small box of macarons as well.

  Food everywhere at the basement of the Mitsukoshi Department Store , this is one of the many food counters selling delicious looking delicacies…..
  

  Those tomatoes look so perfect…..
  

  Ippudo Ramen , with their trademark large bowls of spicy moyashi, karashi takana (spicy greens) and shoga at your table to eat on your rice or on your ramen…..
  

  The rich, savory flavor of the ramen and soup, I was just floored by the complexity of the soup — it was a melange of mysterious minced beans (probably from the spicy paste) and punchy meatiness…..
  

  Ask for the noodles to be “katame” (somewhat firm), although you can get them extremely hard “harigane”. The noodles were all silky smooth and slippery, making everyone at the table slurp in silent appreciation. Oishiiiii..…
  

  

  Consumed these macarons for night snack…..
  

  

  • 6:33 pm
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