Eating Our Way Across Tokyo

Today was basically centered around food, whether going to get the food, eating the food, or waiting to eat the next food. That made it a good day. We started with our usual trek to Ueno, where we stopped in the Wired Cafe for breakfast

Pancakes with some mystery sweet sauce and yogurt with fresh fruit

We spent the next hour or so wandering around Ueno park, checking out the wildlife

or not-so-wild life

After getting our fill of waterfowl, we headed into Ameya Yokocho (America Alley), a sprawling open air market that used t be the black market for rationed goods right after WWII, is now just a bunch of shops that sell things cheaper than you find in other places. We needed some stuff for our planned excursion to a mountain tomorrow. I had managed to lose a glove yesterday, so I needed something for the climb, plus we needed a backpack so I could be the requisite pack mule. We found nearly everything we were looking for at the ¥100 store (their dollar store, but with useful stuff not all Made In China plastic).

This is the line of people waiting for the Pachinko parlor to open up. At first we thought there was some special thing going on, but no, this is just Japanese gambling addicts waiting to get their fix.

Cars have no business driving down Ameya, but they do anyway. This truck had about six inches total clearance. That was not counting the pedestrians.

Not the cutest mascot in Japan, that's for sure.

After we waited a sufficient amount of time so that we would not feel guilty eating again, we hopped on the train and went to the opposite end of town, to Meguro, where we finally returned to our favorite restaurant, perhaps anywhere, for the first time in over two years.

Rasoi. Best Indian food in Japan.

Start with a small salad and ginger dressing

Then add nan with spicy curry! Mine was vegetable, Sumi's was chicken

There is something to be said for comfort food on a cold day in January. I can safely say I haven't enjoyed a meal like this in a very long time. We waddled our way out of the restaurant and back to the station, then back to the hotel, where I promptly fell asleep for several hours (food coma).

I finally got back up around six, so we could go eat again. This time, back to Ikebukuro for some of their famous desserts. Sumi wanted to try something other than The Milky Way, a dessert bar in a prime location at the head of Ikebukuro's main road,

so we chose the place right below it :) called Spazio's. Nothing Italian about the place but the name. They had an interesting drink item

Items like "Lemon Squash with Perrier" and "Blue Apple Squash with Perrier"

along with a large assortment of desserts. We chose The Spiral

I don't know where the "spiral" comes in, but it was awesome

Finally, to complete our Japan experience, and to work off at least a few of the three thousand or so calories we ate, we did what anyone would do. Karaoke!

No video, don't worry! We mangled a few J-Pop tunes, then I mangled some western tunes, then we called it a night. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we'll go climb a mountain.