Tokyo!!!!

Arrived in Tokyo and it's been awesome so far.  Weather is rainy and cold and my flat shoes are soaking wet, clearly not the best choice for Japan's winter!  Too bad I packed for a two-week holiday in Australia's weather, rather than for Japan's weather.  I'm all set with t-shirts and light jumpers, not really ideal for the wind/rain here.  Haha.  Lisa also mis-packed; she packed for London's snow weather so she is more rugged up than most of the locals here!

Still amazed by the Japanese way of doing everything! Everyone is so polite and welcoming.  Well, except for a yakitori restaurant in Shinjuku we tried to eat at tonight - we told the owners we didn't understand Japanese and they wouldn't serve us, even after we asked them to choose for us (the menu was in Japanese text only).  But that was okay, we went to another Japanese-only yakitori place where we said we didn't know Japanese and the head chef proclaimed his English was "very good". Haha.  He asked if we were from HK, and laughed with the entire bar in Japanese when we told him we were Australian!  Didn't believe us at all!

You girls are Australian?  No way...

Like the first yakitori place we tried to get into, the menu was in Japanese text only.

Um. Ok, we'll have two beers and please choose some skewers for us...

We ended up getting a chicken and pork "mix" of yakitori and couldn't really tell what most of them were but suspected some were heart and liver.  Maybe it was for the best that we didn't know!

Chicken and pork mix!

Went to Kappabashi-dori (the kitchenware area) this afternoon and walked up and down the street. Kitchenware shopping with Lisa is intense, man.  I swear it felt like we were there for hours but probably it was only 1 or 2.  Bought a cute teapot set and some sake sets for a lot cheaper than back home.  Bargain.  



Have not been taking many photos at all this trip, I am really here for the food and it's great to be back - it feels like coming home, in a way. I just hope the weather holds up for us.  I am sad face already because I know there is not enough time to eat all the things I want to eat.  We have resolved to eat two dinners per day, to try and cross as many things off the list as possible! But even then there are things that I want to eat more than once (like ramen, soba), so it is still an impossible situation.  Life is really tough...!