Woke up naturally this morning and cracked open some onsen eggs purchases from the supermarket the night before. It looked like Yakun's soft boiled eggs, except the eggs were very good quality, and every one of those eggs cooked uniformly! A yummy way to start the day!
After gobbling down the eggs, it was straight to Tsujiki Fish Market, the largest of its kind in the world. I was here exactly a year ago where I suffered from high fever and extreme fatigue and hence did not enjoy myself. This time round, it was an all new experience where I got to immerse myself in the fishy business of the market. First up, to find a sushi shop and start queuing. The popular ones (those names with 大 characters are supposedly all popular) were already filled and not accepting any new customers. Still, I had to wait for an hour at the store with relatively shorter queue.
But first, getting a strawberry mochi to accompany my long wait. This was the same store I bought last year, and was exactly as tasty with plum juicy strawberry, velvety red bean paste and super soft whit mochi exterior. A great perk me up during the hour long wait!
Finally, the moment to enter the store, and both feeling hungry and with anticipation. Dishes ordered were a bowl of seasonal sushi don, sea urchin sashimi done in 3 ways (salted, original and flamed), a whitish looking sashimi that looked either like fish intestines or sperm but oh so soft and creamy, salmon and roe combi sushi, large sweet prawn sushi, otoro sushi and a very interesting salmon fat sushi. The most memorable ones were probably the Uni and salmon fat. The Uni, which was in season, just melted in the mouth and flavoured the entire throat with creamy richness of sweetness. It was tasty for all 3 ways of preparation, and I could still remember the taste as I was writing this down! The salmon fat, now that was a new thing to me. I had initially thought it would be salmon belly, but it turned out to be pure fat and no meat! The fat was gently flame-grilled with some char at the edges and had a distinctive flavour some scent. When put into the mouth, the fat immediately melted into the rice and the fresh sweetness of salmon could be savoured. This was probably the main highlight of my most expensive meal of this trip!
After the sushi meal, it was time to walk off the guilt, with an interesting stroll of the Tsujiki market. Of course, with so many stores selling on the go food, one could never be able to resist trying some. Hence, a scallop shell that was topped with freshly grilled large scallop, a plum fresh oyster and a dollop of sweet Uni, and then flame-grilled for extra sweetness. The freshness and sweetness were beyond words as I slowly enjoyed every bite of this JPY 1000 snack.
Another snack I had was grilled unagi, which is essentially grilled eel meat. This is a very typical Japanese dish and I was having it on a stick without the rice. As it was pipping hot, it tasted great and fantastic. Of course, I also had the usual free samples along the way. This is probably the place in Tokyo to be able to get full just by eating samples!
You could never not buy anything here as well, with things so fresh and abundance in variety. In comparison, Sydney Fish Market (2nd largest in the world) was pretty and orderly with limited variety. I bought a box of crunchy prawn crackers, marinated scallops, black garlic (at a faction of Singapore's price), and seaweed. And this was after undergoing heavy deliberation to restrain my purchases!
After the purchases, it was a stroll towards nearby Ginza district. Along the way, I found my cheese ice cream again! Well, with a slight variation. This time it was cheese cake ice cream, so there were bits of cakes embedded all over. However, it still tasted divine with the richness of the creamy cheese and vanilla ice cream mixed in perfect proportion. How apt to have the cheese ice cream again on the last day in Japan! (I had cheese ice cream on my first day in Yugawara).
The walk towards Ginza was only to soak in some of the glitz before taking a metro back to Shinjuku for some last minute shopping at Uniqlo and MUJI. Back to the apartment to drop off all the shopping before heading back to Shimiyuzu Onsen, by now my favorite onsen in Tokyo. This time would be the first time I was there when the sky was still lit. Surprisingly, there was still a sizable crowd there. Where did they come from??? I spent another wonderful hour soaking in the black water, soy water, and the brown sea water. It was so therapeutic
After onsen, it was yet another round of last minute shopping in the vicinity. For some strange reasons, things here were much cheaper than the rest of Tokyo, even cheaper than Chiba (according to my local colleagues). I stocked up on sparking alcohol, snacks, fruits, masks and other items before heading back to Shinjuku.
Once at Shinjuku, it was almost a mad dash as I headed towards Takashimaya to purchase some Fancl products for my sister. Why mad dash? Cos Takashimaya closes at 8.30pm on Fridays, and it was already 8pm! After grabbing the items and claiming the tax refund, another mad dash to the basement to pick up my dinner items. Even though it was near closing hour, all the staff was so polite and gracious, they guided me to the section I wanted to, and even recommended me to get food from another stall if they had ran out!
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| my takeaway dinner, not too shabby at all! |
Well, after all the running about, I still managed to soldier through and explored 7 levels of Tokyu Hands and got some gift items as well! After that, it was a brisk walk back to the apartment and ready myself for a late dinner. And I was rather proud of myself for transforming a takeaway into something that looked like restaurant serving :)
It was some final packing up to do before heading to bed.
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