Tokyo: Midori Sushi, Shibuya Mark City

We've always loved this sushi restaurant which is right in the middle of Shibuya, and such good value for money. It's at Shibuya Mark City, just above the JR station and right next to the crazy junction where everyone crosses in every direction imaginable.


If you're keen to go just print this photo out.


Cos you should get there before everyone else does. I've drawn a blue arrow to indicate where the husband was.

Entrance to the restaurant


Not so hard to remember the name of the shop


We waited for one whole hour. But when you see the Japanese queue, you know it has to be something really good.

The restaurant isn't very large inside, plus we had 6 persons. So we were really fortunate not to have to watch smaller groups go in front of us.

The specials for the week. The curly things on the top right corner are cod sperm. Should have ordered some for the husband.

They have a really nice house sake. Order the cold Midori sake - absolutely no regrets.

Their sets are super good value for money, with the 1680Y (or approx $28) basic set being already very filling.

Good stuff.

Their crab liver salad is very yummy - with crab milt over crab meat. It was worth licking up the bowl for.

We ordered a serve of sashimi for 840Y (approx $14). I forgot to find out what fish this was (hamachi or kanpachi?) but it really didn't matter since it was so fresh. It was rich, smooth, buttery - almost like otoro, but a lot less fatty.

This was the 1680Y set, which was very substantial on its own. It came with uni, ikura, a huge ama ebi (I'm not even sure it's called that since it's a prawn not a shrimp), hotate, hamachi, tamago and chutoro.

The california roll was a sight to behold.

This was the 2100Y (approx $36) set. Came with lots of exciting stuff too.
Chutoro, hamachi, ikura and uni

Hotate, kani and some shellfish which I didn't know the name of. Plus the super duper large prawn, and a negi toro handroll.

Close up of the anago (freshwater eel)

Our table in its entire glory : )

One last point to highlight - if you look at the scale of the sushi piece carefully, you'll notice that the fish is almost twice as long as the rice, making it so different from other places in that there's more fish than rice.

We spent around 12000Y, or $190 for 6 people including drinks. Extremely good value for money considering that we were all stuffed, and getting a meal of similar quality in Singapore would have cost twice the price. Highly highly recommended.

Crab Advertisement

While channel surfing one day, I caught this advertisement shot a la Japan Hour style. 2 presenters were eating crab in the studio waxing lyrical about how wonderful the crabs were.
Honestly, if I had that much crab in front of me, I wouldn't be looking at the old dude and laughing as if he was the most charming man in the world. I would be staring at the crabs.

This is how we catch 'em

And we even take time off our crab catching schedule to ensure we qualify for quality assessment. Maybe the Japan Quality Award. The Crab-Catching Innovation of the Year.

We put 'em on conveyor belts within 2 hours of catching them.

And look how gorgeous the packaging is

I would love to have this kid's job

The shell is bigger than her face

Various ways of cooking crab - see how amazingly versatile it is

Only S$160!

Ads should be like this all the time! : )

Toraji

We took the kids out for dinner so that the parents to have their own date night. We walked to this yakiniku place in Nishi Azabu called Korean Diner Toraji.

No fears - they have an English menu.

Fire getting started

Seaweed, to toast. Or to eat directly. The kids managed to charm the waiters into giving them an extra serve FOC.

Dipping stuff. Left: the sweet yakiniku sauce; centre: salt; right: lemon juice

Mochi for grilling

Cucumbers with spicy dip

Mixed set of prawns, tongue, pork and beef

On the grill they went

Mixed platter of beef cuts - including some very fatty ones

On the grill they went too

Very fatty cuts

Cooking with the fats dripping off

Sirloin sushi - with the beef lightly seared.

An extra serve of tongue

Tongue being cooked

We also got free ice cream and chewing gum at the end of the meal. Including rice and drinks, it set us back about S$180.

This website has their list of outlets, complete with maps, phone numbers and opening/closing times: http://www.ebisu-toraji.com/shop-list.html. They're open at the Nishi Azabu outlet from 5pm to 5am, with the last order at 4.10am.

Oedo Onsen, Odaiba

After our cycling adventure and late lunch, the BIL suggested heading to the onsen which he knew was open on New Year's Day. Just about all of Tokyo knew that too, because they went to the onsen too. Oedo Onsen at Odaiba was extremely packed but that was probably also because they had a post-6pm special which meant that 4 adults+2 kids paid just under 12000Y to enter, which was a pretty good deal. The prices apparently change all the time. But the amazing thing is that they are open through the night, until 9am, which means you can go to the onsen before work.

Everyone queueing up to get in for the 6pm special price.

This chap giving a welcome speech was sort of the main clown - after we got inside, we saw him single-handedly entertain the onsen patrons inside with a tuba, flute, clarinet and goodness knows what other instruments.

The onsen was like a mini-neighbourhood inside, with streets of food stalls and shops.

They had green tea and roasted barley tea on tap.

Meal-time entertainment.

The audience throughly enjoying the show. Everyone wears a yukata inside, and you get to choose your own yukata design (out of 10 options) before entering. There were 2 change stations - one where you get out of your normal clothes into the yukata, and another where you get out of the yukata into...absolutely nothing. No photos taken of the latter.

Almost like a real restaurant.

They had practically every type of Japanese food for sale.

Oden.

Ramen.

So you order, and they give you this electronic token that beeps when your food is ready.

I had more chicken cartilege : ) Deep fried this time.

Quite a surreal experience - everyone was walking around and eating in their yukatas. They give you an electronic wrist tag at the front, which has a bar code, and you just wear the wrist tag and they scan the bar code. So there's no need for cash, cos you pay when you leave the onsen.

I had a ramen. Big mistake :( It was not yummy at all.

The husband had an even less yummy looking/tasting (but definitely healthier) chicken udon.

The nephew had a sushi platter. Smart boy.

The niece had a bimimbap...smarter girl.

You can get to Odaiba via the Yurikamone monorial from Shiodome. Here's the website: http://www.ooedoonsen.jp/higaeri/english/index.html