Messages: 151 Location: Chicago
Registered: October 2008
Tokyo Trip Pictures
Wed, 13 December 2017 23:40
Got really busy after my trip to Tokyo, but had a meeting with a guy today who was wearing an A. Lange Decimal Repeater (gorgeous watch - didn't even know it existed until I googled it) which reminded me I hadn't been on here for a while, let alone post a few pictures from my trip. First off, Tokyo is amazing. Without a doubt one of the top cities I've ever been to.
Land of the Rising Sun.
A duo of fantastic Japanese whiskeys from way before anyone recognized Japan as a legitimate whiskey producer.
Beef Tartar with splashes of both the Yamazaki and Hibiki (which I preferred). Easily a top-10 meal in my life.
More from same lunch. Turned out to be 8 or 12 courses including sharkfin soup (!!)
Simple dessert and some AP.
Tokyo is only expensive if you want it to be. I had a great meal at Harajuku Ginza-ro for about $9 including a small bottle of sake.
Woke up early (2am) and ran (5 kilometers) to see the Tuna auction at the Tsukiji market on my first day there because I couldn't sleep. Turns out they opened a sushi outlet in Newark that's awful. Had an omakase sushi breakfast at 6am after the tour with a couple of fellow tourists.
Great car scene. Strangely, if a Jeep showed up at my hotel, it would usually be parked between two much nicer cars. America!
Hotel breakfast was so good it hurt. Literally, I think I ate myself to a coma.
Partially due to this. It's croissant dough made into a belgian waffle with vanilla whipped cream. The hotel breakfast was segregated between Japanese and Western cuisines, so I made a good effort to eat noodles in the morning...
Morning sun.
Bullet Trains in waiting. Did not get to ride one, but look forward to a trip back when I can.
More early morning run pictures. By the time I left, I was waking up at 4am, so actually getting some sleep. My last run was to the Imperial Palace, but for some reason I can't find any of those photos.
And the token AP BOUTIQUE photo:
Was a great trip overall. I cannot recommend a trip to Tokyo any higher.
Messages: 657 Location: East Coast USA
Registered: March 2004
Did you try those exceptional whiskeys?
Thu, 14 December 2017 15:42
I discovered Japanese whiskeys a couple years ago and immediately became a huge fan. You have my favorite two brands there: for special occasions at home I have the Yamazaki 18 years old and the Hibiki 21 years old. I'd love to try the two you had there! Thanks for the photo essay, Tokyo is definitely on my short list of places I would like to visit next. Nice Offshore, by the way.
Messages: 1022 Location: Lafayette, LA
Registered: December 2003
Re: Tokyo Trip Pictures
Thu, 14 December 2017 16:49
I Love Love Tokyo. Had an awesome low budget 10-day trip there in 2003 when right out of grad school. Did the city, climbed Fuji, went to some fights, Kamakura. Unforgettable!
Messages: 151 Location: Chicago
Registered: October 2008
Re: Enjoy more of the Jap whisky but try to skip the shark fin...
Sat, 16 December 2017 11:28
Definitely, was not the a la carte sort of place so I would just get plates. When I was younger I wrote to Bill Clinton (president at the time) after watching a documentary on Japanese fishers for Shark Fin and found it really disturbing. Sort of glad the beef lobby was good at quashing similarly horrible videos about our own cattle factories when I was at that impressionable age. It's really good to be a cow in Japan, but really bad to be a shark!
Land of the Rising Sun.
