The Art of Queue-ing?
Sugamo
Tsuta Ramen pt.1
We woke up at 6am to get to Tsuta Ramen by 7am to line up for tickets. When we got there, about 24 people were already in front of us lol. Around 7:30am, they started handing tickets out and we were able to get two for the 11am time slot. Each ticket requires an 1000 yen deposit so bring cash (they were able to give us change just because so many people ahead of us gave them 1000 yen notes)! After that, we wandered around to Sugamo Jizodori shopping street.
Jizodori shopping street pt. 1
It was a bit too early to really enjoy it because street vendors were only just starting to set up. So we first went to a 7eleven for breakfast and then pulled out Google Maps and then wandered to a nearby park, Nishigahara Minnano Park, to chill for an hour or so.
Nishigahara Minnano Park
This park was a fun side stop just because we found these little exercise stations for the elderly. Of course we had to try them out. In general, it seemed like neighborhood residents were out and about. One kid ran laps the entire hour we were there. One bro was doing tricep dips, handstands, and etc. And then a couple of older people were being awesome–I love watching elderly asian women doing random exercises and stretches in public.
Jizodori Shopping street pt.2
As we walked back towards Tsuta ramen around 10am, the Jizodori shopping street was way more alive. I could see why it was called “Grandma’s Harajuku”–there were a lot of old lady undies for sale. But also in general, a lot of the knickknacks and products were geared toward an older crowd. But food wise, it seemed similar to most of the things we’d seen before. There are also plenty of shops on the street and I kept sidetracking us into all the bakeries. I had to get bread from the Tokyo Melon Anpan shop that we had walked by twice already when it was closed. I loved the store front design and the plain melon bread was so good–the bread was so soft but the topping was so crunchy. We also got an apple pie per Henry’s request. We ended up also grabbing a curry bun and this red bean filled pancake (doriyaki?) for later on the way. Everything we got was somewhere in the ballpark of 100 to 200 yen.
Tsuta ramen pt. 2 – the finale
We got back to Tsuta around 10:30am and we ended up 7th and 8th in line for the 11am time slot! Around 10:45am, they had us start ordering at the vending machine. We got lucky and made the first seating of 9 people. We ordered shoyu ramen with char siu and seasoned egg + truffle topping (which cost an extra 1000 yen) as well as the shio with char siu and seasoned egg + extra char siu. In total, the meal cost us 4000 yen. The vending machine prints out your order and then the waiter collects it from you and checks to see what toppings go with which bowl. After that, you exit to wait outside again to be seated lol. Basically, we lined up three times–luckily the first time was only 30min, the 2nd time was only 15min, and the 3rd was another 15min.
The ramen itself was amazeballs. For sure, the shoyu with truffle topping was the best. We’re not sure if it’s because we like shoyu more or if the truffle topping just made a world of difference–but I would recommend the shoyu. And seriously, look at the size of those triffle shavings. I legitimately think that was the best ramen I’ve ever had. As for the shio, I wasn’t a huge fan of the clam/seafood flavor. It was well done, but the truffle flavor wasn’t that strong. And once I had the shoyu broth with truffle shavings, anything else wasn’t going to match up. Eating took us about 30min total and then we walked back to our hotel fighting food comas.
Iidabashi
Kinozen
“Kanmi nomi zo shiru!”
Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman
We went to Kinozen in Iidabashi because of the show “Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman” for specifically the Matcha Bavarian Cream but we also ordered the Cream Ammitsu which surprisingly stole the show for us. I’m glad we got the Matcha Bavarian Cream but I really, really loved the Cream Ammitsu. In both of the desserts, the red bean paste was absolutely the most amazing ingredient. And the in general, the ammitsu was such a refreshing and delicious dessert with really awesome textures because of the mix of agar cubes, mochi, fruit, and ice cream. I’m so glad we went to this restaurant and I’m honestly thinking about trying ammitsu in more places.
Kagurazaka slope
After we finished eating at Kinozen, we just walked up and down Kagurazaka slope which is a street full of restaurants and shops. Apparently this area has a lot of French influence and we did notice a bunch of patisserie shops and other French restaurants. In general, nothing really stood out to us besides a shop with crane machines and a hippe/yoga shop that attracted us with loud music.
Akihabara
When we first got to Akihabara station, we definitely left through the wrong exit. Pro tip: always just go to the exit labelled, “Electric Town Gate.” It took us forever to find the main streets of Akihabara and we finally did, the first thing we got to see was a group of girls performing. I think they were an amateur J-idol girl group just because the crowd was small and they looked a little green. After taking videos of that, we spotted the Gundam Cafe nearby and then took off to explore.
I would cover each store we went to but we were so tired and running out of gas and I honestly don’t remember all the places we went. I swear we went to at least four different shops with crane machines and at least two of them were SEGA stores. We definitely went to Gamers, Animate, and two of the Sofmap shops. We scoured the crane machines for something we actually wanted but we weren’t too interested in a lot of the figurines and I think our tastes are a little old school–I felt like I didn’t recognize 85% of the anime characters. We saw only ONE dude who managed to get a figurine at a claw machine. We also kept looking at the gashapon for things that might interest us but no luck tonight.
At our last two stops, which were the Sofmap shops, we found something called Paper Theater and ended up splurging so hard on ones that were Studio Ghibli, Pokemon, DBZ, and Star Wars themed. Some lucky friends are getting a few of these! Our original plan was to get everybody stuff from cool gashapon but these Paper Theater things really caught our eye and we spent enough to finally take advantage of the tax-free thing.
The whole time, we were trying to make our way to the Don Quijote and Gachapon Hall but by the time we were done at the two Sofmaps stores, we were ready to call it quits. We jumped on the Yamanote line and then headed back to our hotel while grabbing Wendy’s on the way–the Wendy’s was a mistake. Not sure if this is true everywhere, but we’re unlikely to try any US food chains here from now on. Would rather eat at the convenience stores which really had delicious, cheap food.
2019 NIPPON 