Tokyo Part 1 - Left To My Own Devices

Tonkatsu joint

Discombobulated. I thought I would be on my first visit to Tokyo, and indeed Japan, but I wasn't. I think that had a lot to do with staying in Ginza, an upmarket shopping district dominated by luxury brands like Chanel and Prada. But I wasn't in Tokyo for shopping; I was there for the food, well technically speaking I was there on a business trip.

Ginza is full of places to eat, and in addition to all kinds of Japanese food, I was surprised to see so many Chinese, Korean, and European/Western restaurants. Some of the western food made me laugh, especially the 'pan-Mediterranean' joints that sold both paella and pasta. I guess this is the mirror image of the pan-Asian joints that are so common in the west.

Noodles! Yeh!

But for my first meal in Tokyo, there was only one thing I was looking for. So whilst my colleague had a Sunday afternoon nap, I went in search of noodles. I wasn't getting much joy on Ginza's main drag – too posh for its own good – so I dived down the side streets. It wasn't too long before I found a tiny noodle joint with about eight seats. Just the job!

The magical noodle machine

My first bowl of noodles in Tokyo

As I can't read Japanese, I chose by picture, and ordered using the machine in the corner. This system gives a whole new kind of meaning to the term, hole-in-the-wall! I went for what turned out to be soba noodles in a soy-based broth topped with shrimp tempura cake and spring onion. It wasn't anything special but it really hit the spot after the long flight from London, and it only cost around the equivalent of £3.

When my colleague awoke, he was hungry and he suggested we go for dinner at a robatayaki. So off we went to hit the streets of Ginza, and after a bit of wandering around, we found somewhere that fitted the bill. We were seated at the counter where beef, chicken, seafood and assorted vegetables all jostled for attention. It was a real education watching the chefs cook on an open charcoal grill, and of all the dishes, the beef skewers were our favourite.

Beef skewer

Japanese-style curry

As much as I enjoyed the robatayaki, you have to be in the mood for it. Other times, you just want something quick and easy, something like a curry. In common with many cultures, the Japanese have their take on curry. So after a long day at work, I was more than happy to find a little tonkatsu joint near the hotel.

Everything on the menu was a variation of tonkatsu (deep-fried breaded pork), and I went straight for the tonkatsu karē, breaded pork loin with curry, rice and salad. The best part of this dish was the excellent curry sauce that had been pimped up with bits of pork belly.

I thought I'd done well left to my own devices but really it was nothing compared to the treats that my Japanese colleagues had in store for me. In the next post, I'm going to focus on where they took me out for lunch.

PS: I'm sorry I can't tell you more about the places where I ate, but none of them had any signage in English or for that matter, Romanised Japanese. Nor according to their business cards did they have a website that I can refer you to. In subsequent posts on Tokyo, I will, wherever possible, link to websites although you may need to use Google-translate for those that don't have an English page.