So there I am, just walking around in Tokyo and minding my own business, and wham. Attacked by crazy deliciousness, completely out of nowhere.
One of those things that’s huge in Asia and virtually unheard of in the west is putting beans in desserts. It’s a little bit off-putting at first, but then you quickly realize it’s delicious and wonder why you haven’t spent your whole life eating beany sweets.
Tokyo seems to be pretty good about making sure that the city has a bunch of green space mixed in with the in-your-face modernity of the majority of the city. I’ve been to a few of these areas so far, though I think the Imperial Palace East Gardens might be my favourite.
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).
After the amazingness that was DisneySea in Tokyo, I sort of figured Disneyland would have a hard time measuring up. And yeah, it’s definitely not as good; DisneySea was such a memorable experience that I could easily recommend it to anyone, even people who wouldn’t otherwise be all that interested in visiting a theme park.
You might recall that while I was in Paris, I took a trip to the local Disneyland (because that’s what any reasonable person visiting one of the greatest cities in the world would do, right? Go to a theme park?).
Well, I’m in another of the greatest cities in the world, and there’s a Disneyland here, so take a guess at what I did (hint: it involves both Disney and Land).
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).
I mentioned the Meiji Shrine in a recent post — one of the city’s many other shrines is the Nezu Shrine, and though it’s not nearly as popular, I’d say it’s equally worth visiting.
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?
Walking around cemeteries is becoming a bit of a theme on this blog, isn’t it? What can I say? It seems like a weirdly dark thing to do on a trip (and yeah, it kinda is), but it’s also really interesting.