The first meal we had in Tokyo was sushi at a conveyor belt restaurant in the heart of Shinjuku. When you see endless supplies of cheap sushi (100 yen a plate) coming to your table with mechanical efficiency you instantly assume this is not the highest quality of fish you can access, but this is simply not the case. Upon our first roll my wife and I instantly experienced the best sushi we ever had in our lives and it was efficient, fast, and cheap. No matter where we went the quality of the food was top notch.

Even each of the train stations had shops full of specialty bento boxes filled whatever food your heart could ever want. The simple yet delicious meals hidden in these surprisingly ornate boxes were by far the best food on the go I have had in my life. This makes grab and go foods in any other country I have been to pale in comparison.

We heard from friends that Kyoto and Osaka had some of the best street food in the world so we took a day trip via the Shinkansen to each from Tokyo and were blown away by the street food scene. Kyoto had streets lined with dozens of stalls that sold everything you could imagine. Some of my favorites were grilled fatback bacon on a stick, squid, crab leg meat, and marinated tofu drenched in a secret sauce.

Osaka was no slouch in the street food scene either, there we found amazing squid based balls that were unimaginably satisfying with its salty and fatty freshness. We added a sweet sauce to them as well making the palate experience truly one of a kind.

Finally, the best food meal my wife and I had in our life was at the The Tsukiji Market right off the docks in Tokyo. Here the tiny streets fill extremely early in the morning with locals looking for great deals on fish and ocean fresh fare. This is the site of the world famous tuna auctions that happen every morning at 4am, but we were there purely for the fresh sushi. My wife and I crammed into a micro-sized stall of restaurant with a single serving bar where fish that was caught just two hours prior was laid out fresh in front of you. Most of these stalls only offer only one choice for a meal; a full course of sushi determined by the Itamae (sushi chef). We got two full orders and were simply blown away by the quality and freshness of the food in front of us. I have never had anything like it; every bite was so full of flavor, protein, and fatty goodness as every morsel of fish literally melted on my tongue.

This is what we came to Japan for.

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Everywhere we went we were shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of others, my wife’s brilliant red air sticking out like a beacon in a sea of black and grey professional wear that surrounded us. No matter how close everyone was and how quickly they were walking to their destination no one bumped into each other or even hit anyone else with the edges of their large umbrellas that were protecting them from the constant fall of rain.  Everyone in this city moved with mechanical precision and entire crowds weaved through each other as if they were one united organism. No one ever pushed, cut off, or even jostled their neighbor; movement in this city was a delicate ballet of beautiful movement.

At night they city illuminated in bright yet natural colors that were not overwhelming but in no way went unnoticed. Our favorite night out was this first night when we explored the tight winding alleys of Shinjuku’s Golden Gai district within Tokyo. This amazingly compact district has buildings dating back to the 1930’s, pre World War II and some of the only of their type in all of Tokyo. Each block is filled to the brim with tiny, and I mean TINY bars that are each no more than 8 feet wide and 15 feet deep, fitting at most 4 or 5 patrons on a single tight bar top. It was in these bars that I felt the most self conscious due to being taller and much wider than pretty much anyone we met in the entire trip, yet everyone was accommodating and excited to welcome outsiders into their favorite night time haunt.

There were many more bars than I could count in this 4 or 5 block area and most had a distinct theme with loyal regulars quickly filling up the limited seats early in the night. My wife and I were lucky to find a couple of these great miniature bars full of boisterous locals that shared anything about Tokyo and Japan that you could ever want to know as we exchanged stories of travels and our homes over beer, sake, whiskey, and plum wine; this was truly a night I will never forget as it is now etched into my very ethos for the rest of time.

This is all for now but be sure to check back in coming weeks when I will share my experiences in Akihabara, the anime, figurine, and media district as well as our amazing journey via Shinkansen bullet train to the unmatched beauty and culture of Kyoto and Osaka. I will also do an article focusing the best whisky and food I have ever had in my life.

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