Tokyo Drifting

For the rest of our stay in Japan, we were at the Super Hotel! It was very no-frills, and the check-in is on the second floor – so when we walked in the door and were greeted by buttons and an elevator, for a shining moment we thought it was going to be a robot hotel! But then a woman came to check us in, womp. It was still an interesting experience – we got to choose the type of pillow we prefer and we all received a set of pajamas (a giant, button-up night shirt – same for male and female). The women (no men!) get to pick out five things from a case of beauty products per night (so Sarah and I got ten!). I mostly got some face masks, since I already had shampoo, soap, etc. It was a funny, random thing.

 We walked around the Asakusa, an older neighborhood where we were staying. There was a giant shrine right behind our hotel, with the biggest paper lantern I’ve perhaps ever seen. It was still a holiday weekend, so there were a ton of people there. In fact, there were so many people paying their respects and worshiping that there was a visible, thick cloud of incense smoke. There was also a strange fortune telling station, where you shook a metal box and a small metal stick came out of a slot. There was a paper key that correlated with the stick that told your fortune, I guess? I didn’t get too close, but you could hear the metal sticks shaking throughout the whole shrine.

We also had some tsukemen ramen at Rokurinsha, Tokyo Ramen Street, Tokyo Station. Please see the “Noodles” episode of Mind of a Chef (available on Netflix or here). There’s just a whole section of a train station devoted to small ramen places, and this one had the biggest line. We were pulled out of line, sent to a machine to order and pay, and then sent back in line to wait for a seat. This type of ramen consists of the noodles seperate from the broth, and you dip it in and eat it yourself. I’m still not sure why that is a thing as opposed to a completed dish, but it was prettttty tastyyyyy.

We had special udon noodles across town for lunch one day, where the guy was making them in the front window. Very good, and we finally got some tempura that wasn’t soggy because it was already in broth (apparently the preferred way to eat tempura everywhere else we went).

Our last day, we walked around the Harajuku neighborhood again, as we heard Sunday afternoon is the prime time for spotting the dressed up crews. We didn’t see any, but we did see their clothing shops with elaborate costumes, and other shops with wacky items and products – I was v. tempted by a pair of rainbow platform sneakers. It was true Tokyo wackiness everywhere, so it was a good way to spend our last few hours.