We started our next day in Tokyo with a visit to the Tsukiji Fish Market. We opted out of witnessing the crack of dawn tuna auction and instead stood on line to wait for Kagura sushi to open its doors for breakfast. Since Jules has not ventured into the world of raw fish yet, we were grateful that cucumber rolls were on offer. Meanwhile, Philip and I indulged in decadent pieces of raw fatty tuna, salmon, conger eel, Japanese tiger prawn, sea urchin, ark shell clam and raw Japanese beef. The sushi chefs were friendly and helpful, making our first sushi meal in Japan a happy one.
Having lived in Taiwan for the past eight months, the Tsukiji Fish Market didn’t seem quite as exotic to us as anticipated. We certainly did appreciate the dizzying variety of seafood available, though. We also treated ourselves to some of Japan’s obsessively perfect fruit — a bag of strawberries, in our case. We then headed to the old area of Asakusa for its traditional shops, a view of Tokyo Skytree, the tallest tower in the world, and Tokyo’s oldest temple, Senso-ji, founded in 645 AD. At Kurodaya, a paper goods shop established in 1856, I felt paralyzed by the amount of choices offered with its stunning collection of handmade Japanese paper (washi) and eventually walked out with an original woodblock print from the 1930s.
A stroll through the streets of this older part of Tokyo brought us to Akashi tempura restaurant, a local favorite for that lightly battered, fried food specialty of Japan. Seating only eight customers at a time the chef meticulously prepared his special batter to create perfect crispy bites of shrimp, shishito pepper, Japanese yam…. Thank goodness this restaurant only had a few items on its menu, since we couldn’t read any of it, haha. Luckily, we were graced with the warmest of chefs who even offered to take a photo of us afterwards.
I’m aware when we travel that Jules is dragged along to a lot of ‘adult’ points of interest: museums, temples, tempura restaurants…. So, I always make sure to add one or two things into our daily itinerary that are more kid-friendly. As we stepped out of the tempura restaurant, we spotted a ninja running by! I couldn’t believe our luck, since I had secretly reserved a father and son session at the Ninja Samurai Dojo after lunch. Jules was sooo excited after his ninja spotting and kept telling us how much he would love to be a ninja. Well, he was about to get his chance.
We stepped into the dojo, and instead of the ‘kitschy’ atmosphere I was expecting this place felt pretty serious. When I saw the rows of real metal weapons — shuriken (ninja stars), swords and some claw-like thing you attach to your hand — I thought, uh oh, what did I sign Philip and Jules up for? After gearing up, the instructor led Philip and Jules in some meditative breathing and taught them how to throw ninja stars, use blow darts and impale foam and wood with a pair of chopsticks! We couldn’t believe how much fun this was, and Jules continued to practice his ninja moves the rest of the trip.
After a full day, we splurged on one of Japan’s beautiful old-school taxis – an elegant ride complete with a spotless interior, gloved driver and doors which open and close automatically – to take us to dinner at Ue CONA, a stand-up only, one Japanese person-wide pizza joint in Shibuya serving the cheapest meal we had in Japan the entire trip with decent $5 pizzas! We felt it was only fair to grant Jules his pizza wish, since we had subjected him to sushi for breakfast. Oh, the rough life of a foodie’s only child.
