Ultimate Tokyo Travel & Food Guide – Part 2

This is part 2 of my 2 part Tokyo Guide, click here for part 1!

Sushi Katsu Midori

Whenever I think of covenyor belt sushi, I automatically think of our delicious meal at Sushi Katsu Midori. They are located steps away from the Shibuya Crossing and have a great selection of items to choose from whether its from the conveyor belt or the iPad menu. Expect to wait in line anytime of the day – we visited the restaurant around 3PM on a weekday and waited about 20 minutes. The line moves fairly quickly and they even have chairs for you to sit on while you wait!

The sushi here is decently priced and I especially find the quality well worth the price. Make sure you order their aburi pieces!

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teamLab Planets

There are two main teamLab exhibitions in Tokyo (Planets vs Borderless) and we went back and forth deciding between the two for quite some time before ultimately deciding on Planets. It’s not a permanent exhibit and we were fascinated that some of the rooms in Planets are filled with water (knee high). I thought the water aspect of the museum was quite unique and something you won’t ever find in any other exhibit.

If you are curious about teamLab in general, I would recommend doing both. I’ve heard teamLab Borderless has a lot more exhibits and the rooms are more spread out and in all directions!

I recommend arriving at teamLab an hour before opening. We were the second group that arrived and were pretty much the first ones entering all the rooms! I also highly recommend purchasing tickets online before going. It will save you a lot of time at the door!

Asakusa

I recommend allocating a morning in Asakusa to visit Senso-ji Temple, Tokyo’s oldest temple. It is always quite packed here anytime of the day so be prepared to eat and shop through the crowds. There are aisles and aisles of stalls surrounding the temple selling snacks and souvenirs. If you walk off to the side streets, you’ll find a very popular Kagetsudo selling their famous melon-pans. And if you walk further in, you’ll send a lot of tents set up that have izakaya type snacks.

Fuunji

Tucked away on a side street in Shinjuku is Fuunji – a very popular tsukemen shop. We were in the area around 7pm one evening and planned to walk past just to check out the ramen shop as they are notorious for their huge line ups. When we arrived at the shop, to our surprise, we didn’t find a line outside the door! We immediately ditched our dinner plans and joined a quick moving 10 minute queue inside Fuunji.

Eden and I both ordered the special tsukemen and it definitely lived up to the hype. The bowl contained heaps of chunky pork and it just paired so well with the chilled plate of noodles.

Side note: when you sit down, they will immediately ask if you want a large or small plate of noodles. The picture below shows a small plate of noodles. There are no extra charges for a large plate of noodles.

Don Quijote

Don Quijote is my one stop shop for souvenirs and my day to day needs! This place literally has everything you can possibly think of and in an overwhelming kind of way. They have suitcases, make up, head phones, clothes, shoes, electronics, Gundam figurines and some locations even have luxury branded goods! I remember trying to purchase headphones and just stood in the aisle for a good 40 minutes not knowing where to begin, which brand to buy, what style to go for and then having to choose a colour after all that! If you’re indecisive like me, be prepare to stay at Don Quijote for a very long time!

Souvenir idea: If you want to bring back some fancy Kit-Kats back home, you’ll definitely find a wide selection here to impress your friends with!

Tsukiji Fish Market

Although the “indoor” Tsujiki Market has moved to Toyosu Fish Market, the outdoor market of the Tsujiki Market is still opened and still worth a visit! There are a lot of vendors selling baked oysters, other seafood items and omelettes! We ended up grabbing sushi at Tsukiji Kagura Sushi. There was quite a selection of fresh tuna and aburi and quite nice to dine at a small intimate sushi shop in the market while watching the chef composes the pieces of sushi right in front of you.

Hamarikyu Gardens

Hamarikya Park is a beautiful 62 acre park in the middle of Tokyo. If you enjoy parks like Eden, then you definitely don’t want to miss this beautiful scenery. The park does have a small entrance of 300¥ per person but it’s totally worth it! The park is really peaceful and you can enjoy aimlessly strolling around the park without worrying about crowds.

Tokyo Tower

There are a lot of great spots to get a shot of Tokyo Tower around the city but we recently discovered Zozoji Temple is the best place to grab a close up photo of the Tokyo Tower without the crowds! For some reason not a lot of tourists know about this spot, so it’s actually really quiet. We arrived in the afternoon with not a lot of people in sight. The Tokyo Tower is surrounded by two temples.

Coco Curry House Ichibanya

Eden loves curry in any way, shape or form so evidently visiting Coco Curry House is a must. Luckily for us, Coco Curry House is a chain across Japan which makes our lives easier when it comes to a spontaneous visit. The curry menu here is extensive! They have pages after pages of different toppings and combinations of curry you can possibly think of. You can select how much rice you’d like and how spicy you’d like your curry (zero for me please!) Basically, at Coco Curry House, you can pretty much customize your curry any way you like!

Alfred Tea House

Alfred Tea House is a cute little cafe that serves up some instagrammable foods & beverages. There are several locations across Tokyo. We visited the one in Aoyama which is only about a 20 minute walk from Shibuya Crossing. If you check out the Alfred Tea House’s instagram page or geo tag, you’ll definitely know why I had to drag Eden here! They’re most known for their bubble teas and matcha croissants. Our male server, without us asking, recommended items on the menu were the most Instgrammable and visually appealing – which I thought was pretty funny!

Side note: This location at Aoyama felt more like a sit down cafe and it has 2 stories so you don’t feel rushed. The other location we passed by was pretty packed and seemed more like a “grab and go” type cafe.

Tokyo Cruising

Whenever Eden and I travel, we always try to squeeze in a sunset boat ride in our itinerary. After doing some research deciding between which route and cruise ship company to go with, we ultimately decided to enjoy a boat ride from Odaiba to Asakusa with Tokyo Cruise Ship Companies. The boat ride was 35 minutes and very comfortable and heavily air conditioned. The boat itself looked like a spaceship from the outside and very clean & modern from the inside. Please note that not all the boats are like the Emeraldas, Himiko and Hotaluna boats that we were in. If you want to travel in this specific boat, you will need to check their schedule on their website as it will indicate which times these boats will operate.

As we didn’t want to be restricted with a particular departure time from Odaiba, we decided to purchase tickets at the ticket booth to only find out there were only 5 other people with us during the entire boat ride!

Mensho San Francisco

I discovered Mensho San Francisco from a blog and I KNEW I had to make a stop at this ramen shop in Shinjuku. I’m not sure if there are a lot of places that offer A5 Waygu Shoyu ramen in Tokyo but once I saw photos of the fatty piece of waygu taking up the entire bowl of ramen, I knew I had to come give it a try.

This A5 Waygu Shoyu definitely lives up to its hype, the noodles are a perfect wavy & chewy texture & the broth is not too salty. I would definitely order this bowl of ramen again for 1950¥.

A lot of the reviews online mentioned this waygu ramen only being available after 5PM for dinner service. We actually visited around 3PM on a weekday and we had no issues ordering.

Tokyu Plaza Omotesando

The bending mirrors at Omotesando is one of the most popular places for travelers and Instagrammers. This incredible architecture is actually an entrance to a mall and is pretty unique and worth a visit. The mall itself has many brand name shops with restaurants and cafes as well.

Well that is part 2 of my 2 part guide to Tokyo! Stay tuned for more posts as I will be posting a travel guide to Kyoto and day trip ideas from Kyoto as well. Please be sure to leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions. Feel free to also follow along my Instagram page where I update daily with what I’m up to.

Written by Grace Yeung
Edited by Eden Yeung


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