I had a zoom pitch early this morning, still hungover from that 60+ pieces of sushi/double sake carafe feast from last night.  And I thought it went pretty well.  Anyway, here are a few of the highlights from last night’s dinner I didn’t get around to posting as part of yesterday’s entry…

Always the culinary highlight of our trip to Tokyo

Chef Masa is a firm believer in the unifying power of anime in bringing people together regardless of culture or language – which is why he adorns his bathroom with his favorite anime, One Piece.

Akemi’s post-Masa breakfast: lots of veggies and a very tart dressing

Back at the Sanya coffee truck for some morning mocha

We started our day with a trip to Omotesando and the weekend farmer’s market.

Akemi explored the special pet section where she loaded up on treats for Sharky.

This woman catches her own fish which she air dries and packages.  Akemi picked up some barracuda, sweetish and eel for Sharky.

Picked up a package of salted black pepper I got the last time I was here.

Today’s lunch: food truck tacos.

There’s never a garbage can around when you need one.

Akemi picks up a giant sweet strawberry

If I lived in Japan, my daily fruit intake would probably triple

And, of course, Akemi picked up some tea

Also, there’s something about visiting Japan that always makes me want to eat oranges

These oranges were unbelievable.  The brother, left, drove 8 hours to be here for the market while his sister, right, lends a hand.

Don’t ask

We checked out the Omotesando location of Gentle Monster, the South Korean sunglass shop getting all the buzz

The interior decor was as weird as their sunglasses

The Tekken shades

What do you think?

We took a stroll through the side streets of Omotesando

We stopped by Cafe Kitsune for the usual: single shot soy cappuccino for her and mocha for me.  This place was originally established by a Japanese ex-pat in Paris before opening this Tokyo location.

I take in the uniquely Japanese experience of waiting 45 for donuts

Success!  This place, I Am Donut?, is the greatest donut.  I always get a couple of pistachio creams and some random donut while Akemi always goes for the original, simple powdered sugar.  Unfortunately we were so excited that we inhaled them in less than three minutes – and forgot to take pics.  But we’ll be back!

Two blocks down is Nanaya Aoyama, home to some great matcha gelato

Choose from 7 levels of intensity.  Number 7 also uses a pricier, higher end matcha.

I went with Number 7 of course.

No food colorings or special filter used here.  This is the gelato’s natural color.  Bittersweet and not overly intense.

Akemi is usually pretty shy in public…UNTIL she comes across one of these cutout things for your head.  Then she’s is ALL IN.

An early evening stroll through Shimbashi and dinner at Himawari.  Akemi was in the mood for tongue.

My mikan (orange) sour looks like a lava lamp

Out of concern that I was not eating enough veggies, Akemi ordered a bunch as side plates (not picture).  Pictured: the stewed tongue was fall-apart tender.

The grilled tongue had a little more bite, and was delicious with yuzu kosho

This is how Akemi gets me to eat lettuce.  By ensuring its rolled in pork belly

Shimbashi at night

Coming back for the garlic karage

Some Louis Vuitton collab

Since we’re taking the late morning shinkansen to Osaka tomorrow, we decided to do some laundry tonight.  On our last trip, Akemi sent me back to pick up our clothes and I couldn’t figure out how to open the damn machine.  She came downstairs and was like: “You just push this button.  It says write here.”  Right.  The instructions are so easy to follow…

We usually spend a couple of days in Osaka but, on this trip, we’ll be spending double that because, when Akemi made our trip, she was under the impression that she may have to take a few days to deal with a Japanese citizenship issue…that her sister ended up solving in less than a day.  So, looking forward to really making the most of Osaka!