I was wondering if the food in Kyoto could possibly live up to the non-stop greatness of Tokyo; well, my first meal in the city– an insanely delicious bowl of udon noodles — was here to pat me on the head and let me know that everything was going to be okay.
The bus going from the Jigokudani Monkey Park to Nagano station isn’t super frequent, so after getting my fill of monkey business, I had a little bit of time to kill.
Enter: Enza Cafe, a small restaurant that specializes in ramen near the beginning of the monkey trail.
Curry isn’t necessarily the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Japanese food, but yeah, they love it here. And if a hole-in-the-wall joint called Kitchen Nankai is any indication, that love is very much justified. Like pretty much all of the food I’ve had in Tokyo, it’s good.
Remember that old SNL sketch from the ’90s where Chris Kattan played Antonio Banderas as the host of a talk show? And every time he tried to unbutton his shirt, the members of his band would plead with him to stop, because he was too sexy? Well that’s how I feel about Tokyo at this point. It needs to stop, because it’s clearly too sexy.
You’ve probably noticed from some of my posts, but there are lines everywhere here. Everywhere.
They don’t bother me all that much (and in fact, sometimes I’ll seek out a line since it’s a fairly reliable indicator that a restaurant is serving tasty food). But I was going to Kanda Matsuya, a really well-regarded restaurant that’s been serving up soba noodles for over 130 years. There was no possible way there wasn’t going to be a line.
So there I am, just walking around in Tokyo and minding my own business, and wham. Attacked by crazy deliciousness, completely out of nowhere.
The food at Disneyland/DisneySea in Tokyo was shockingly good. I was expecting something along the lines of Disneyland Paris, which was pretty much nothing but boring theme park staples like chicken strips, hot dogs, and hamburgers.
Instead, there was a veritable cornucopia of interesting (and surprisingly delicious) treats. It was so amazing that I felt compelled to write a whole post about it. So buckle up, because here’s a breakdown of everything I ate in both parks (it’s interesting, trust me! No? Everyone stopped reading several sentences ago? Yeah, I get it).
Tokyo is trying way too hard to make me fall in love with it. But you know what? It’s kinda succeeding.
Its latest attempt to make me never want to leave: a little restaurant called Tempura Imoya. I think you can take a wild guess at what they specialize in.
Like pretty much every place I’ve been to so far, there was a line to get in. Hot tip: if you’re coming to Tokyo, bring a good book, because you’re going to be standing in a lot of lines (at least if you want to eat well — and trust me, if you’re in Tokyo, you want to eat well).
Remember when I mentioned that the eel at Hashimoto was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten? Well, I’ve got another dish to add to that list.
Tokyo is a magical place.
I love ramen, but apparently the ramen back home is garbage, because the bowl I had at Hayashi in the Shibuya district of Toyko was life-changing. It’s almost implausible how good it was. Like, did that really happen? Did I dream it?
