Japan 2016 - Tokyo Day 1

2016/07/06

First Stop : Sarabeth's

For a special breakfast treat today, we headed to Sarabeth's, New York's famous breakfast joint. It is located right near Shinagawa station. We wanted to beat the crowds so we arrived right after the opening time.

The atmosphere of the restaurant was clean, bright, and simple, a great way to start off a new day!

During our visit, they are offering a limited edition menu of the churro french toast and the avocado toast. Which instantly caught our eye.

We heard they are famous for their fluffy french toast so that was a must to order as well!

The churro french toast was exactly how I imagined. Sweet with a slight cinnamon kick, paired with fresh fruits and the lemon curd got us asking for more.

Everything tasted amazing and the service was excellent, I will definitely come back :)

Second Stop : Harajuku 原宿 / alice on wednesday

After our wonderful breakfast, we headed to Harajuku.

Harajuku station has a special appearance, it retains the architecture from the past. This is a great contrast, since Harajuku is considered a popular place for young people.

We shopped around the area for awhile then found ourselves at the cute fairy tale themed shop Alice on Wednesday.

Right from the get go, BOOM, it's like I've arrived in the story where Alice has to choose a door to go through. If they hadn't open one of them, I would probably try to open all of the doors to find the entrance haha.

But of course, knowing the story, the real entrance is the smallest door!

This shop has a total of 3 floors, each with a special theme.

Once I enter, it was like I have fallen down the rabbit hole as well, into a mysterious world.

Cheshire cat is watching...

the smoking caterpillar

the mad hatter's tea party

I think I'm secretly the Queen of Hearts ♥

There were little details here and there inside this adorable shop. I'm sure you guys can point them out easily lol.

And when you come down to the end of the trail, is where the sweets section is located.

First thing I spotted was...

Oh yes! the "drink me" potions. I've been longing to try these out,

Maybe I will turn into a giant! or did I actually become tiny instead? :l

LOOL

Third Stop : Nicolas House

Also around the Harajuku area is Nicolas House. Frequently seen from news reports and variety shows, it is a super cute, bunny themed restaurant/cafe!

Once we got inside the restaurant, they gave each of us a pair of bunny ears, and a group photo (apparently some kind of ritual they insisted on LOL)

The decor is outrageously cute, probably every little girl's dream come true haha.

A billion bunny decorations on the walls, tables, shelves, everywhere.

The ceiling is covered with colourful balloons~

bunny cream puffs anyone?

So after being overwhelmed by the cuteness here we ordered our food.

We ordered a salad, a couple of mains, and a parfait.

Something interesting they have on the menu is the お子様ランチ大人用 aka. Kid's meal for adults!

How adorable is this?!

I'm sure many of you are always more attracted the the kid's meal on the menu than the regular foods HAHA.

Also a great choice because you get a bit of everything on your plate :D

& for dessert is this cutie ♥

I ordered the pistachio icecream parfait.

I was soo full by this point so I could barely finish this which was quite sad...

on the way out...

Nicolas says byee lol

Fourth Stop: アメヤ横丁 Ameyayokocho

After hanging around Harajuku for a little while more, we quickly headed over to Ameyayokocho, since they seem to close at a pretty early hour.

My main reason for coming here is the famous omiyage shop 二木の菓子 Nikinokashi for all the snack goodies 😋

Ameyayokocho is like a open market street. There are many vendors selling seafood, cooked foods, clothes and pretty much anything you could imagine in a market.

We actually didn't spend too much time here, we had plans to meet up with my dad's friend for dinner!

So off we go~

Final Stop: 香家 Koya

One of my dad's friend who currently lives in Japan took us to an authentic Japanese izakaya in Ueno called Koya.

They gave us our little own room, so it was nice and quiet, very comfortable.

I dont really drink alcohol so all I ordered was a pear cider. It only has a little hint of vodka so it was quite tasty. My brother thought it was pretty good and kept drinking it... and a while later he got tipsy... HAHAH

WEAK.

Anyways, to start they gave us each a bowl of these Japanese pickles.

We weren't all that hungry so we didn't order that much food. We just shared a little bit of everything on the table.

Every plate's presentation was amazing! Therefore I have to show you guys one by one.

御造り三点盛り合せ

LOOK AT THIS.

what beautiful sashimi!

I'm not usually a fan of sashimi, but this is too good to not eat.

from top left to right:

Hokkigai (surf clams), Aurora Salmon

Kanpachi (Greater Amberjack), Sawara (Spanish Mackerel), Tai (Red Seabream)

Next this was kind of like a Japanese version of the Chinese crystal dumplings.

霜降り和牛と山芋の胡麻みそ陶板焼き

Wagyu beef mixed with mountain yam. The meat was chewy and cooked really well, served with the mountain yam was an interesting combination.

Kushiyaki and meatball set!

not much to say here but YUM.

The last thing we ordered was a yuzu octopus ochazuke. Which is rice soaked in tea.

This wasn't a flavour usually offered at Japanese restaurants where I live so I had to order it and try it out.

The dish was just as I imagined, very delicious. The octopus bits were small so the texture of the rice wasn't too chunky, and the yuzu really brought out the flavour of the seafood.

...we thought it was the best dish of the night LOL

After dinner, right around the corner was a sweets shop called みはし Mihashi. My dad's friends said they sell good anmitsu a Japanese red bean dessert.

They were super sweet and got us an anmitsu and a shirotama kintoki (red bean paste and dango) to go :)