I love my meats, and I love my Japanese BBQ or Yakiniku. There are many Yakiniku restaurants in Tokyo, but finding one that is well priced and has great cuts, well thats hard.

My favourite place is this small restaurant in Shinjuku. It’s a very local place, packed with locals and smokey. There are almost no foreigners there that I noticed. Don’t expect any of the waiters to speak English fluently. The younger staff may understand bits and pieces of the language, and sometimes, being in Shinjuku, there may be chinese immigrant waiters working there.

There is an English menu though, and you can ask for one. Though the descriptions may not be very clear for some. A hint, if you’re look for good ‘ol beef cuts and not any of the innards or weird stuff, then order the Cow Outside Skirt.

As you can see from the pic above, it’s smokey! Which adds to the atmosphere. Just take note, you need to have a bath after to wash off the BBQ smell! lol.

This place lies in one of the many alleys in Shinjuku, a bit closer to the red light area. It’s not dangerous, so don’t worry. You can check out the google map below for clearer directions.

View Tokyo Foods in a larger map

Another popular place for locals to go for Yakiniku is the every popular Gyu-Kaku. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because they have a few outlets in Singapore, at Chijmes, UE Square and Holland Village. The outlets in Singapore are good would be the better places for Yakiniku in Singapore. But they are more premium and expensive than compared to the outlets in Japan. In Japan, Gyu-Kaku are more family friendly restaurants and are definitely cheaper.

The outlet I visited was in Shinjuku and because of the crowd, we had to book a day in advance. Or you can try going early. Gyu-Kaku can be found in nearly every suburb in Tokyo, yups, it’s that popular.

The BBQ is good, but I must say it does lack the atmosphere and maybe I’m being biased, but not as good cuts of meet than compared to the other Yakiniku restaurant. Below is a google map directing you to Gyu-Kaku, Shinjuku. Have a blast!

View Tokyo Foods in a larger map

If there’s one thing the Japanese are good in doing, it’s making deserts. They make their deserts with such passion. Even the way they are displayed and packaged, are second to none. A lot of the Japanese cakes and deserts have a French influence about them. And they taste great! Not too sweet, but more like a tinge of sweetness. Just right!

One of my fave deserts is the Japanese Mochi, in particular, the strawberry mochi! Japanese strawberries are huge and are normally always sweet! Put the strawberries into a soft mochi covering, and you get a fantastic desert!

There aren’t that many stores selling this delicacy, and even if you find one, they are not always good as the flour covering may either be too sticky or hard. I managed to find and try a few around Tokyo, but the best in my opinion is from the basement at Shinjuku Isetan. Don’t go too late in the evening though, they are usually sold out!

To me, Royce chocolate in Singapore is the best of the gourmet chocs. And When I found the ice cream in the local AM/PM (something like 7 Eleven) store, I just had to try it. And it didn’t disappoint. Good chocolaty goodness with some soft choc bits added in.

I spoke about the cakes earlier, and this black forest cake was beautiful.

And they packed the slice of cake so nicely. With a small pack of dry ice to keep it cool and fresh. I don’t know anywhere in Singapore that does packaging with such care and detail. Though you do end up paying a tad bit more for the packaging. heh

There was this one store in the basement of Shinjuku Isetan that stood out for me. They had the best almond jelly deserts and also carved out fruits with jelly inside! Pretty creative and mighty tasty too!

As usual the fruit jellies were packed nicely with packs of dry ice to keep them cold. Do bare in mind it’s nearing the end of winter and averaging around 12 degrees, so it’s already pretty cold. But hey, the Japs love their packaging.

The fun thing was opening the fruits and digging into them. I felt like a kid again, eating my favourite jellies!

Apart from the Strawberry Mochis, the almond jelly deserts were the best. Each one came nicely packed in a hard plastic cup of it’s own. The cup also had it’s own top and bottom half. The top was the different savoury fruity toppings such as Strawberry, Passionfruit, melon and mango. While the bottom was the jelly.

The topping together with the jelly bottom made for a fantastic desert. It just tasted amazing. Nothing like I’ve every tasted in Singapore. Seriously.

While there’s so much variety of foods in Tokyo and Japan, don’t forget the deserts, they can be just as unusual and great tasting. There’s many more unique and creative deserts out there to be found. In case you’re wondering where Isetan Shinjuku is, see the map below.

View Tokyo Foods in a larger map

There’s a lot to love about Tokyo, and one of my main loves is the food. There’s so much variety in Japanese food and different flavours from eating sushi to eating yakiniku. In anticipation of my last two posts about my Tokyo 2010 trip, in particular the foods, here are some food pics I couldn’t classify into single posts.

Takopachi! Huge and freshly made. And you can add your own garnishings. As much as you want!

Something different instead of the usual Jap food, German!

Tully’s coffee during a freezing night in Shinjuku.

Great and cheap sushi. So much cheaper than what you can find in Singapore.

Yoshinoya is much better quality than compared to Singapore. It’s more like a proper meal than compared to the skimpy meals we get here. Yummmm

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Yakitori, skewers of chicken, beef, etc. cocked over a charcoal flame. Simple food if you ask me. Add in some beer or sake together with that, and it’s the perfect pub food. One place to check out is Yakitori Doori in Shinjuku. It’s right next to the train tracks.

Walking along Yakitori Doori is like going back in time. The small narrow streets and red lanterns hark back to a bygone era.

Along the streets you will find Yakitori restaurants. The restaurants are small and cramp, but the cooking skewers smell sooo good. Most of the menus here are in Japanese, but you can point to the chicken or beef skewers to signal what you want. There are english menus in some places.

I was lucky as walking along the alley, someone approached us in Mandarin. The restaurant owners were Chinese immigrants! So ordering from them wasn’t a problem. There are quite a few Chinese immigrants in Shinjuku, and you’ll find them working in many restaurants.

I wouldn’t call the Yakitori really very delicious. It is bland with a bit of salt sprinkled on. But that’s how it’s done in in Japan. Like I said, it’s a great pub food, so mix it with beer or sake, and you’ll be fine. The atmosphere in this street and restaurants are second to none though, and that’s the main thing.

View Tokyo Foods in a larger map

I love my korean BBQ. And BBQ in Japan rocks. Yakiniku in Japan does have much influence from Korean BBQ. But Yakiniku is a post for another day.

We decided to check out this Korean BBQ place in Shinjuku which specialised in pork. Big fatty pieces of pork which were prepared and placed on the hot place by the waiters.

At first look, the pork pieces look like huge, thick pieces of bacon (which is pork, ha). The huge pieces with the large amounts of fat urked the stomach.

But after some cookin and cuttin, the pieces called out to be eaten! A leaf of lettuce, some miso sauce, garlic pieces and finally the pork. Shiok!

And there’s nothing better than downing it all with some Orion beer. I thought Asahi beer was good, but Orion takes the cup! slurp!

It was freezing in Tokyo and what better food than Sukiyaki on a cold night? We checked out this all-you-can-eat Sukiyaki place in Shinjuku. It was fantastic!

It was pretty simple, they served us the Sukiyaki broth in the hot pot and a whole stack of sliced beef! yummm

And the best way to eat the beef is to dip it into raw beaten egg. Somehow is smoothens the meat and makes for a delicious bite!

We had a great feast and were totally stuffed with meat. Better still, the restaurant had a pretty good view!

View Tokyo Foods in a larger map

Tokyo is one of those cities which captures my imagination. It’s fast moving, ever changing, amazing pop culture and the food’s fantastic! My Tokyo trip earlier this year was a blast. It was the 2nd time in a year that I was there and no regrets. This begins the series of posts over the next month of my trip, where I’ll share pics and some recommendations.

One thing I love about Tokyo city, are the lights at night. It really brings a certain vibrancy to Tokyo. Shinjuku is a great place to start.

But of course, one of the most famous spots in Tokyo is the Shibuya crossing. The location itself is a hive of activity. It’s fantastic to just soak in the atmosphere just by crossing the street!

And of course when you’re walking along the streets of Tokyo, you’re bound to come across something unusual. Like this party bus in the pics below. Or even their police vehicles! Reminds me of a certain Transformer, Prowl, whose vehicle mode was a Jap police car. heh

Getting around Tokyo is piss easy. If you thought our Singapore public transport system was good, well you gotta visit Japan. Tokyo’s train lines connects you to nearly everywhere and their trains come every 2 – 3 mins. From their JR lines to their Metro lines, it’s so well connected! And there are English names and directions which make it super easy to navigate. Though don’t travel during peak hours, or you’ll get squashed like sardines!

My trip this year fell just after New Years and I managed to catch the beautiful Shinjuku lights. Was like being in a ferry tale.

There’s so much more to share. And I hope my posts go a long way to helping entice you to plan your own trip to Tokyo. So watch this space in the next few weeks for more!

A day of sightseeing to some famous spots in Tokyo, Ginza & Odaiba.

Tokyo trains, they run faster than our MRT’s and most of them have real time maps on a screen which tell you what stop is coming up next.

Having just arrived at Ginza, we saw Cherry Blossoms. A good start to the day. And better yet, a traditionally dressed Japanese man under a Sakura tree. nice.

We came across this Mochi shop in Ginza which had the loveliest shop front. They had Strawberry Mochi’s, which sadly wasn’t ready when we were there. So we grabbed some apricot and sakura mochis. Both were very delicious.

Our first stop was the Sony Building. I had read stuff about how this show room was state of the art and had really cool interpretations of Sony’s new tech. Well, none of that, it’s just an over glorified showroom. yawn yawn

The famous Ginza 4-chome intersection.

It seems that every luxury brand in Tokyo has their own big building in Ginza. Good to know how rich they are and that at least some of them have the decency to have unique buildings.

The Advertising Museum run by Dentsu, the advertising agency. The building, or should I say skyscraper the museum is located in is owned by Dentsu. Yes, they whole freaking building. Anywayz, the museum was pretty interesting. Showing ads done by not only Dentsu, but other ad agencies around the whole. It showed the evolution of ads from the past to the present. A pretty interesting museum and good to help inspire your creativity.

The Venus Fort mall at Odaiba. It has some nice interiors. But on the whole, a bit of a boring place and a tourist trap. lol Decks and Aqua City nearby are much better.

The famous Rainbow Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. Yups, New York and Paris are not the only places you can find the statue. This one was given to Tokyo by France.

The FUJ TV Headquarters, known for it’s unique architecture.

There was a beautiful sunset by the beach, and I decided to play with some of the camera settings. Nice.

Back to Shinjuku after a day of sightseeing. Shinjuku is one of those places that never seems to sleep. The neon lights light up the streets and locals come out in force at night.

Down at the Isetan basement, we were checking out the huge variety of food. And came across Strawberry Mochi’s!!! Woot! We bought 6 to go and boy did they go… down our throats. They were extremely delicious!

Nothing better than ending the night at our fave BBQ place. Look at the amount of meat that is about to be gobbled up!

Nakano is not as well known a place to find toys, but down at Nakano is Nakano Broadway with 4 floors of toy shops. Mandarake’s main shop is situated there amongst a variety of shops where you will find anything from Star Wars, Macross, Otaku, transformers, 12 inch figures, etc. I found this place has some rare finds as well as some good vintage toy shops. So how do you get there? Well Nakano lies 3 stops away from Shinjuku station on the JR Chuo line (Rapid). You can also take the line from Tokyo or Kanda station. The line is the orange coloured line. One you reach Nakano station, there are only two exits, North or South.

Jan 2010 UPDATE: Updates in Blue. Check the pics out below!

Take the North exit and you will see the crossing and building as in the first picture above. Walk towards the glass covered walkway and walk all the way till you see Nakano Broadway as in the visual below.

Once you enter there is an escalator on the left. That will lead you to the 3rd floor right to Mandarake.

Mandarake has smaller shops on the other floors as well. Altogether, check out the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors. You can use the staircase to navigate thru the floors.

I took more pics of Mandarake to give you an idea of the kinda stuff you can find there. Boxes and boxes of 2nd hand stuff. Some brand new too!

Just opposite the main store, Mandarake also sells comics! Though mainly Japanese comics with some english ones spread about.

Mandarake’s smaller stores on the other levels are themed and specialises in different toys and genres. Below is the vintage toys store.

Below is their store which has more mainstream stuff, especially new and old Transformers!

Below is one that specialises on SciFi stuff, including 12 & 31/4 inch toys. This has pretty cool stuff! New and 2nd hand.

And of course there are the random stores that sells all kinda stuff, heaps of Star Wars toys, Gundam, 12 inches, DC, Marvel, Marcross, Transformers, etc. I could keep on going.

Below is where it lies on Google maps. Nakano and Akihabara are the places I recommend to visit if you are short of time.

I couldn’t find many toy shops in Shinjuku except for two. Yodobashi is basically an electronics store which has a pretty neat toy section. The store has a few shops in the buildings around the area, you can check the store’s map when you get there to find your way around. The toy section lies in the basement of the section that sells the PS3, Wii and Xbox. It has a large variety of Star Wars, Gundam, Macross, Otaku and many others. Worth a look.

Pics of the Macross shelf.

I’m finally back in Singapore and I thought I’ll continue to post pics of my Tokyo trip.

We had to wake up extra early in order to catch the bus to DisneySEA. It has been quite some time since Jas and me visited a Disney park and we were both pretty excited. DisneySEA is the newest addition to Tokyo Disney parks and it is the only one of it’s kind worldwide. The entrance to the park was packed to the max and as soon as the gates opened, the Japanese visitors literally started running to the various rides to queue. The pic above shows the massive crowd entering DisneySEA.

The DisneySEA worlds are all themed after various aquatic lands. In the middle of the park is the huge volcano.

You can see how much effort went into designing the park when you walk around. From the top two pics, the Arabian Coast, Mediterranean Harbour and Mermaid Lagoon. Mermaid Lagoon was a spectacle to behold. You literally felt that you were underwater.

They even had this real cruise chip, the SS Columbia which was docked in American Waterfront. Managed to take some pics on the ship.

What I really liked was how each of the Disney shops kept to the theme of the various lands. From the top, American Waterfront, Arabian Coast and Mermaid Lagoon.

Of course any trip to a Disney park would not be complete without the rides. And we managed to catch the main ones. The Indiana Jones Adventure was the main attraction with queues up to over 3 hrs with the Fastpass ticketing running out before noon.

Though even with the queues, the rides were worth waiting for and a whole lot of fun!

The landscaping of the park was also one to note with beautiful Tulips, Sun Flowers, etc. blooming here and there.

On the whole, DisneySEA was heaps of fun. A bit more adult oriented, but still good for the whole family!

After DisneySEA, we had a bit of time for my first of 3 visits to Akihabara, famous for it’s electronics and toys

Yes I was more excited about the toys, but I’ll leave that to another post soon.

We ended our day with some Krispy Kreme that was kinda opposite our hotel. There were queues for the donuts 2 years ago when I last visited, and there are still queues after all this time. Even in the freezing cold (8 degrees) of the nite! I was happy that they gave out fresh hot donuts while we waited in the queue. Goooo customer service!

Nothing better than watching the donuts that you are about to buy come straight out of the production line. yumm