Ramen

As you might have seen, I was awake a good deal of the night snacking on wasabi flavoured kitkats. And as is usual, I fell into a deep sleep around 6am and woke up with my body all creased. I didn’t waste those hours though – worked out it might be good to go to Bills for breakfast. So when we woke up again, we set off for Bills – I have a couple of Bill Grainger’s recipe books so was keen to check the place out. I had a great beetroot juice, tasty granola and cappuccino with almond milk while Bert went for a “sunrise” juice – strawberry banana apple juice, a cheese and sage toastie with pork and fennel sausages, and a flat white. Should have checked the exchange rate in the middle of the night – when Bills’ bill came, I did blink. Maybe my calculator was wrong but I think I paid £48 … was tasty though!

We walked past Kenzo Tange’s 1964 Olympic gymnastics stadium which didn’t look ancient despite being built over 50 years ago. 

We met up with UBert and headed to Meiji-jingū – a Shintō shrine which was in the process of being renovated but it was my first ever shrine and I enjoyed the purification ritual, watching other tourists posing for photos, reading the messages of hope and the souvenir shop…

We then set up to wander the streets of Harijuku, UBert being an excellent guide (for the money 😂). We walked down Takeashite road/street – easily remembered and had a lovely lunch in a place below the street – was Thai ish – with a salad bowl and then rice with fish flakes and a poached egg. 

Bert was keen to get the McD visit done – so we slowly walked on to find the nearest one. It is so humid, every part of my body appears to have sweat glands – have you ever felt the backs of your knees sweating? It’s really weird. We took refuge every now and then in a lovely cool shop. Bert needed more shorts so we found the most expensive place and bought a pair. 

As jet lag kicked in, we parted company from our expert guide and came back to the hotel for a “short” nap. Three hours later, we woke up. It took a lot to get up and out again – I went for a walk around on my own – had to go back to Tokyo hands to look at all the crazy stuff again. Nearly bought quite a few things, including this baseball cap which made me laugh…

… but resisted the temptation and came back via a local supermarket where I bought some bulldog sauce and some savoury snacks for our long journey tomorrrow. 

We headed out to a ramen place which I had read about at 3am which was recommended by Ivan Orkin – a chef’s table chef which we had watched just before coming to Japan. The taxi driver was great and dropped us off exactly outside the place but using google maps, we walked a few hundred metres in each direction looking for it. Seeing a chef in the street, I accosted him and showed him my iPhone and he pointed directly behind us to a very small doorway. That’s the way it is! Little treasures are hidden in places where you least expect them.

It was the best bowl of ramen I have ever eaten, admittedly there haven’t been that many, and it was cheaper than breakfast. This is definitely a place to revisit – Suzuran. Lovely Yuko has given Bert a note to show the chefs highlighting his shellfish allergy – it came in very handy! We even had some sake which, to my novice mind, tastes a bit like sherry! 

We walked back to the hotel and watched the weather forecast for Hokkaido – it’s going to be very pleasant! 

See you in Hokkaido!