16 February 2013, Saturday

This morning, I woke up relatively late at 9:15am. At 10am, I left my hostel and took a leisurely walk through Nakamise Shopping Street, just a short distance away from my hostel in Asakusa. I enjoyed looking at the colourful Japanese lanterns and other exquisite souvenir items on sale. They all looked very appealing and I had to keep my wallet firmly in my pocket to prevent myself from splurging on unnecessary purchases.

I did allow myself to buy a piece of Kusa mochi, also known as grass mochi (草饼). It is a chewy Japanese rice cake that is coloured green and flavoured with a herb called yomogi. The rice cake is filled with sweet red bean paste and it is very delectable. I tried it for the first time during my previous trip and I loved it very much.

I then walked to the Sumida River bank. Across the river were two very distinctive landmarks – the Tokyo Skytree and the Asahi Beer Headquarters. The Tokyo Skytree is 634m tall, making it the world’s tallest freestanding broadcasting tower. To be honest, it did not look that tall from my vantage point.

The height of 634m was specially chosen because the number “634” is read as “mu-sa-shi” in old Japanese. Historically speaking, the area where the Tokyo Skytree stands today belonged to Musashi Province in the past, so the height of the tower bears a connection to the history of the area.

The Asahi Beer Headquarters comprises of two buildings. On the left, the Asahi Beer Tower is 22 storeys tall and it has gold windows. It was designed to look like a glass of beer, where the silver/white panels at the top represent the foam. I can see the resemblance here.

On the other hand, the Asahi Beer Hall on the right requires a little more imagination. Designed by the renowned French architect Phillipe Starck, the peculiar golden “flame” on top of the black building was meant to symbolise the “burning heart of Asahi beer”. However, several critics have noted that the shape of the flame looks more like a “golden turd”. I must say I am quite inclined to agree with them!

Following that short excursion to the riverbank, I went to Asakusa station and took the subway train to Tsukijishiro station, arriving at 11:17am. From there, it was a short, five-minute walk to Tsukiji Fish Market. I was of course, too late for the live tuna auction that took place early in the morning, so my main agenda was to eat at one of the many sushi restaurants here.

At the time of writing this post on 19 October 2020, you should know by now that the inner market of Tsukiji Fish Market (where the tuna auction takes place) has closed down in late 2018. It has since been relocated to a new site called Toyosu Fish Market, about 3.5km away. However, the outer market of Tsukiji Fish Market, where all the shops and restaurants are, remains at its original location.

Now, going back to my quest for fresh sushi at Tsukiji, I saw that there were long queues in front of all the sushi restaurants at the outer market. Therefore, I picked the one with the shortest queue. Even then, I had to wait in the blistering cold for almost half an hour before I could get in.

The restaurant was really tiny and cramped, and there was hardly any space to walk. In fact, there was just one long bar table that could accommodate fewer than 10 patrons at a time. In front of the counter were slabs of sashimi, as fresh as it could be, seeing that they were brought here straight from the source just a few hours ago. Behind the counter were two sushi masters who were expertly slicing the fish and preparing the sushi.

There were a few set options and they were all pretty pricey. After much consideration, I decided on Set B, which came with 18 assorted pieces of sushi. It cost JPY 2,850 (S$38.76). The miso soup was the first item to be served. It was very tasty yet not salty. It felt really good to have some hot soup after freezing in the cold outside for so long.

The sushi was wonderful. The fish tasted really fresh. I loved that they were very generous with the portions, as the fish slices “overflowed” from the edge of the rice base. I tried to savour the food as much as I could, but I couldn’t stay for long because there was still a long queue of people outside waiting to get in. Overall, I would say it was money well spent and worth braving the cold for.

I finished my lunch at 12:45pm and proceeded back to Tsukijishiro station to take the subway to Shinjuku, arriving at 1:23pm. Shinjuku station is the world’s busiest railway station, handling more than two million passengers every day. It’s mind-boggling how many people pass through this station at any one time.

I spent the rest of the afternoon shopping at Shinjuku, visiting the numerous record stores there, including Disk Union and Book Off. In the late afternoon, I had a meal break at Freshness Burger, a burger chain from Japan that had a short-lived stint in Singapore from December 2010 to 2012.

At 6:39pm, I took the train from Shinjuku and alighted at Kichijoji, just 12 minutes away. I met up with my old friend MB again, and she brought me to a famous yakitori restaurant called Iseya. There was a slight queue when we arrived and we managed to get a table at 7:35pm.

After enduring the cold outside, we basked in the warmth of the restaurant, which was packed with diners on this Saturday night. MB ordered some warm sake (rice wine) and a host of small dishes to share.

Yakitori are grilled chicken skewers made from bite-sized pieces of meat from different parts of the chicken. Besides the skewered stuff, there were also other items on the menu, like chicken karaage (fried chicken) and tofu vegetable soup. The grilled squid and the chicken liver yakitori were particularly good!

After the hugely satisfying dinner, we walked around the compact but charming Kichijoji neighbourhood, chatting as we went along. After a while, we decided that it was time for dessert. We walked past a few shops until MB settled on one called Kitchen Coucou. It looked interesting so we gave it a try.

The café was located on the second floor and it was the most kawaii (Japanese term for “cute”) one I had encountered! Just like the secret vintage restaurant that we visited yesterday, Kitchen Coucou also had a theme. Scattered all around the café were little figurines of frogs. Many, many frogs of different shapes and sizes.

We each ordered a coffee and a pudding with ice-cream. While waiting for the food to be served, we entertained ourselves by pulling out some of the miniature illustrated storybooks that were on the bar counter to read. The books were tiny but they were real books!

When the coffee came, we saw that the milk was held in a tiny cat trinket. Its curved tail formed the handle and the milk poured out from its mouth. It was super cute! Our pudding desserts were also delightful as the ice-cream was topped by a biscuit bearing the grinning image of a cat and a frog respectively. Everything is just cute here.

As we enjoyed our coffee and dessert, I couldn’t help but notice the very nice Cuban music that was playing in the background. The music caught my attention because one of the songs on the album was Cumbanchero, a tune I had performed before as part of the percussion ensemble during my school days.

When we finished our meal and paid up, my curiosity finally got the better of me. I asked MB to ask the owner what was the title of the album that was playing. The owner pulled out the CD and showed it to us. It was by a Cuban pianist called Introducing… Rubén González. I snapped photos of the CD so that I could go search for it over the next few days. I did manage to find the album at one of the Disk Union stores in Shibuya a few days later. I was elated when I found it.

That was how I was introduced to Rubén González. It kick-started my love affair with Cuban music, as I gradually discovered other great artists like Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo, Omara Portuondo and also the critically-acclaimed Buena Vista Social Club album. Eventually, I also fell in love with Brazilian samba and bossa nova, and jazz too. It all started on this night at Kitchen Coucou, when the wonderful music of Rubén González filled the small café and left an indelible impression on me.

We left Kichijoji at 10:25pm, and it was 11:40pm when I reached my Sakura Hostel in Asakusa. It had been another eventful and rewarding day, no doubt made better with MB’s expert recommendation for Iseya and serendipitous choice of Kitchen Coucou. So once again, thank you MB for the great company and for helping me discover Rubén González!