Friday

Sandy and I spent the morning waiting in our hotel room for a non-smoking room to be cleaned, and what better way to pass the time then watch sumo matches on TV! Seriously, I actually, officially, like a sport. Sumo is unlike anything I've ever seen. There's a cool shinto quality to the whole thing, and the matches themselves get pretty vicious. I'd like to see a match in person.

We finally moved into our new room, on the tenth floor, and headed out on the town. If Sandy had her wish, we would eat curry for every meal, so we went to this newish looking place near the train station called "Curry Kitchen Spice" but forgot to take pictures of our meals. It wasn't excellent, it was just food. We then hopped on the Yamanote train line to Sugamo, one of our favorite little wards of Tokyo.

Curry Kitchen Spice in Akiba

Sugamo is all old people. All the stores are old people stores, but everything is so cute and non-touristy. We saw only one gaijin there, on the train platform, and he looked lost. We bought a bunch of treasures at this little place crowded with old Japanese women, and they were all so sweet and nice to us. I bought a jinbei, but with long pants instead of the shorts shown in the picture. It is soooo comfortable, for serious, and since I bought it in Sugamo, it was only about 15 bucks! We also found a place with black sesame ice cream. Freaking delicious.

Kurogome ice cream in Sugamo

Since Sugamo is the only place (besides Osaka) that we have seen taiyaki in Japan, and since taiyaki are Sandy's most absolute favorite dessert thing, we had to hunt down the little taiyaki stand we found last time we were here... and we did. We didn't take any pictures because we were too busy eating them.

Oops! A sign in Sugamo!

So we ate taiyaki on these little chairs and walked around a bit afterwards, eventually boarding the train with a million kids just out of class and heading back to Akiba. It was very warm that day, and we wanted a Cooling Beverage, so we went to Excelsior Cafe for iced coffee drinks. Excelsior Cafe is sort of like the Starbucks of Japan... even though there are Starbucks stores all over Japan. It was overpriced but okay.

Excelsior Cafe in Akiba

After a short nap in the hotel, we set out once again, this time eating ten don (tempura don, not tendon) for dinner. Mine had oysters, octopus, chicken, shrimp and vegetables! Yummers! Somehow though, we only got a picture of Sandy's meal.

Tempura don in Akiba

I bought a manga, which are half the price over here then in the U.S. I figure that translating it will help me read Japanese quicker, as it takes me a bit to decipher stuff. I try to read everything we pass, and I'm recognizing a few kanji as well (I just need to know how to pronounce them). I have also tried speaking to everyone, which is frustrating at times, but it really helps me.

Wait - vending machine dining time. There are vending machines everywhere. In Akiba, they are more than everywhere. I didn't see it as much last time, but recently they have started offering quite a few hot, canned meals in vending machines. Oden, udon, ramen... so I was intrigued. I got the ramen, which had a piggy on the can, because ramen broth is made of piggies.

This was HOT!

It was hot, ready to eat, and came with a little fold-out plastic fork. For some reason I totally trust beverages from vending machines, but food from them makes me a bit uneasy.

Noodle, broth and piggy slab

The noodles were a cross between wheat and rice, kinda rubbery, like shirataki noodles. The broth was salty and oily, and the slab of fatty piggy slice looked boiled and tasted just fine. It was okay. I would eat this crap if I were homeless and they wouldn't let me into stores and restaurants, but I'm pretty sure if you ate this for a week you would get all oily and just die. I want to try some of the other stuff now.

Well, it is off to bed for me now.

Labels: Akihabara, canned ramen, curry, Japan08, Sugamo, taiyaki, vending machine

posted by tangentbot @ 7:26 AM 


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