Tokyo Trip - Day 3

There's lots of places to visit in Tokyo, but there are also many places to visit in other parts of Japan. We took a short day trip to Yokohama, which was one of the first international ports of Japan, and also known as "Chinatown". Of course, a side trip comes with additional side trips before we made it back to our apartment to end our day.

Day 3:

Yokohama (Bay area), Mita, Roppongi

Catching an express train from Shibuya and realised that it goes straight to Yokohama bay area! The fan in the train really brings out the retro feel.

Amusement park with both wet and dry rides.

First stop at Yokohama, the cup noodles museum! (500 yen admission)

Founder

Short clip intro (with headset for translation).

DIY cup noodle packaging.

1. Buy empty cup from vending machine (300 yen)

2. Staff will issue a plastic cover for the cup and santitise both the cup and your hands.

3. Wait for staff to direct to decorating table and decorate the cup with the provided markers!

4. Get into queue to pack the ramen into the cup! Once the cup enters the kitchen, the staff will remove the plastic cup cover and ask you to crank the handle to drop noodle patty into cup.

5. Choose soup and ingredients.

6. Observe sealing of the cup noodles and the cup will be ready for collection!

7. Pack the cup noodle into the specially designed bag and pump air into it to protect the cup noodle!

How can we resist the food court?

We tried the Vietnamese pho, Korean cold noodles, the cup noodle ice cream. The noodles are all nissin noodles, and are just average in taste. But the savory ice cream is a must try!

Being a bustling port previously, many buildings in Yokohama are modelled after foreign designs. We saw people sketching the elegant architecture along our stroll to Chinatown.

Passing by the Red Brick Warehouse, which is now turned into a shopping mall of sorts. It was a great day for strolling, with the bright sun and strong winds, but not a good day for formal wedding shots as above... Hehe but it was a great opportunity for informal shots like mine (no filter, taking by GoPro)

Chinatown!!!

Slightly disappointing because it is an obvious tourist trap and being Chinese, we are totally unfazed by all the action. Almost all the restaurants and stalls along the street sell exactly the same stuff - steamed buns, steamed/ pan fried dumplings, ramen, all-you-can-eat buffet, meal sets etc.

In the end we entered a shop and ordered 1 set meal to share, just for the sake of "been there, done that". We chose this restaurant as it was 10 or 20 yen cheaper than the whole street. (Lol cheapskate) 

The meal consisted of: small ramen, small fried rice (too salty), small siewmai x2, small bowl of seaweed soup, small bowl of almond tofu (tasteless). It was rather cheap to get such a portion and variety, but the quality kinda sucks? Anyways we were the only guests in the shop and then we figured from the cook's conversation to the staff that this is a Hong Konger owned shop lol!!!

No photos of this meal... maybe we were too tired and unimpressed by then. We left Yokohama earlier than planned and managed to get back to Tokyo with some time to spare. We then headed to Mita for our next tourist check point - Fugu!

Tora-fugu Tei - Tamachi (few minutes walk from Mita station)

Fugu is a type of poisonous fish which intrigue many curious and adventurous diners. Torafugutei is a chain store and uses farmed fugu, so the price will be less steep than the other fugu restaurants. Anyways there are English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese menus, but do request for them. The table charge is the most expensive - 1000 yen per person, but will come with a free portion of Kawa-sashi each (Sashimi of parboiled skin). We then split a plate of Fugu-kawa Sembei (Fried skin sashimi with cayenne pepper) and a plate of Oyogi-Tessa (Tiger blowfish sashimi). Sighs the table charge costs almost the same as each dish (｡•́︿•̀｡) 

But then I will still recommend for curious ones to give it a try. The fugu has no taste, and the ponzu shoyu sauce will be the flavour of the dishes. The chewiness of the fish is similar to squid sashimi, but without the creaminess. No worries as there is absolutely no numbness of tongue etc.

And since that was not a filling dinner, we moved on to Roppongi for our Ichiran ramen fix. The real deal!

Japan Ichiran requires you to purchase your meal tickets from the vending machine before finding an available seat on your own. After sitting down, the staff behind the curtain will greet you in Japanese, and we think it is a test to see if the guests can response in Japanese. Do press the bell to request for English/ Chinese order chits. Other than that, the experience and taste is similar to the branch in Hong Kong. And for some reason, the Roppongi branch do not have collapsible partition, unlike some other branches elsewhere.

Roppongi seems to be teeming with expats at night, with much visible police and triads? patrolling on the streets. We do not feel comfortable to be around for long, so we left the area without much exploration.

But then we couldn't resist taking pictures of Tokyo tower.

Passing by the TV station hoping for celebrity sighting.

Home food! 

Since Roppongi area houses many expats and foreign embassies, it is no surprise to see such cultural restaurants around the area.

It's a long day, and we headed back with more konbini food for supper before getting a good rest.