Went to Tokyo train station late morning to do some shopping. At this point, I'm refraining myself from heavy shopping since I have 10 more days to go (hence 10 more days of extra baggage), and I'll return to Tokyo for 3 more nights after Nikko. Last year's sickness towards the end of the trip scares me. If I got sick like last year, then I'll have no time to shop… Let's be optimistic.
According to my experience last year, it'll be harder and harder to find food this time of the year. I know it sounds like a hungry bear warning his kids, but most restaurants in Japan closes from Dec 28 through Jan 3. So far, it's not a problem. And speaking about food, you may wonder why I haven't had any sushi or sashimi yet, given that I love them so much. Well, my Japanese co-worker told me that the fish market closes after Christmas and throughout the New Year, and therefore fish is not as fresh this time of the year. So, I'll have to wait until I return from Nikko, hopefully.
Enough paranoia. Let's get to lunch. I found out a Ramen street (literally らーめんストリート) inside the Tokyo train station. There're 6-8 different Ramen shops. There's a huge TV that continuously advertised each ramen shop in turn. The chefs all posed like challengers in Iron Chef!
At 12 noon, there's a long line in front of each restaurant. And this was the longest line, going for the Ramen place Rokurinsha (六厘舎).
And it continues...
And continues...
And continues...
The sign in front of the line said "Head of 2nd line." And at the end of this 2nd line, there's a sign that told you in case there's a need for a 3rd line, it should start in front of the staircase at the corner!
I would usually line up at the longest line, but this time I chose a ramen place called Mutsumiya (むつみ屋), which turned out to have the shortest line.
It serves Hokkaido style ramen, a style that I love. Maybe it's because the noodle resembles the instant noodle, Doll (公仔麵), that I used to eat in Hong Kong. So, here they are: thick miso ramen + gyoza.
The soup was interesting because it had a strong taste of onion.
After lunch, I went to Starbucks for a grande latte. It's much more expensive than US due to the recent (well, I guess not so recent) surge of the yen :(
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