Wow. What a day I had yesterday. Let me share with you guys what exactly went on, but first, a bit of background. I love food, and trying new foods was one of the reasons I came on this dialogue, because I knew I’d be able to experience new flavors and cuisines that I didn’t have access to back in Boston. My morning started off bright and early, as I got up at 7:30am to have a hearty breakfast before heading off to classes. I loaded my plate with these runny scrambled eggs with texture that definitely isn’t for the faint-hearted. I also had some strips of “bacon” (or at least that’s what Japan would call this, unfortunately, as an American I’m a bit disappointed) and a large bowl of yogurt with honey and a granola topping to stay healthy. To help digest the pure protein that I was eating (notice not a single vegetable or fruit, this will be recurring), I had some coffee, water, and orange juice to balance out the breakfast!

Breakfast

As you can see, I took quite a few bites before remembering to document my meal. Once my stomach was done yelling at me, I jolted over to classes with Professor Ito to learn about restaurant reviews and how to be more descriptive in writing when your subject is food. It was a really interesting class, and my main takeaway was that you can avoid words such as “is” and “are” and instead replace them with a personification of the subject ( restaurant is old –> restaurant planted itself many years ago). After class zoomed by, it was 11:30 and time for my second meal of the day (I was starving by this point). I’ve noticed that in Japan, meals are smaller than I’m used to and less satiating. I believe this is due to the lack of heavy carbs I have back home and less oil/butter in the cooking, but I’m not entirely sure. Once we arrived at the cafeteria at Ochanomizu University, I let my nose decide where I should place my order. I drifted over to a salty, inviting smell that ended up being a fried chicken dish with sauce and cabbage.

Chicken Katsu, Rice & Miso

As good as the dish looked, I could tell it was a little lonely on my tray, so I accompanied it with rice, dumplings, and miso soup. I checked out at the register and added soy sauce to the dumplings, as well as a mystery sauce and red powder to the rice. I’m not sure why, but it just looked good, and I think my eyes and taste are lovers because this was genuinely one of the best rice bowls I’ve ever had. The combination of the tangy, sweet sauce with the spice and crunch from the mystery powder left me gawking. How could such a plain dish like rice become elevated with just two simple additives? On top of this, the chicken was delicious, and the miso and dumplings were the cherry on top of a perfect lunch before our long journey ahead.

Train tracks

We then took a few trains over to Chiba, where we had a tour of how soysauce is made, starting from the wheat, soybeans, salt, and water, all the way to packaged and shipped bottles. It was a really eye-opening experience, and seeing how carefully everything is made had me feeling better about the large amount of soy sauce I consume back home. At the end of the tour, we all tried soy sauce ice cream! I had no idea what to expect, but I was met with a flavor that I would describe as very similar to salted caramel if you’ve ever tried that.

Soy Sauce Ice Cream??

I liked it much more than I thought I would, and I surprised myself by finishing this salty treat in just a few minutes. After I bought a small trinket and we departed the Kikkoman factory, we arrived at a train station where they had a milk bar. This is a very confusing concept for me, as I know what milk is and I know what a bar is and I would never use those two terms in the same sentence. However, Tokyo seems to know something I don’t as this hidden treasure had a line waiting before we even arrived.

Milk Bar

I tried the banana milk and it was solid, but not everything I dreamed of. I would describe it as very similar to Yakult, the probiotic milk beverage. We then walked around this area for a couple of hours, stopping in at stores to play old-fashioned video games (Street Fighter 2) and buy figurines from popular shows. I even saw an R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R, an incredibly rare car in the States due to import laws, as they were never produced in the USA, so I was giddy when I heard the turbo flutter behind me.

R34 Nissan Skyline

After I finally found my way back home, I was hungry again (surprise to nobody). Exploring Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures requires a lot of walking, and I can feel the calories and fat stores slowly burning up with every pace. For reference, I’ve been hitting 10k steps a day with an average of 13,000 in the last 21 days!

Cardio Demon

Thankfully, some of my friends on this trip had planned an excursion to Rigoletto, an upscale Italian restaurant in Shibuya, and the entrance was a little odd. The maps turned us out of the train station, then right back in, and the “entrance” to this upscale place was somehow below ground floor in a train station! Once we finally found the doors, they led to elevators that brought us all to this beautiful floor I can only describe as a bougie food hall.

Shibuya Cast Building

After a bit of wandering, we found the entrance to Rigoletto and were welcomed by a brisk breeze as soon as the door was opened. Wine bottles stacked 10 meters high surrounded us, and it appeared as though we had accidentally walked into the wine cellar! Thankfully, a hostess saved us from extreme embarrassment and guided us to our table, and we were reassured that this beautiful cellar was just the entrance to this mysterious place!

Wine Cellar/Entrance

Our group sat down and explored the menu, and I eventually settled on roasted chicken and a separate dish of arabiatta, a spicy pasta.

Dinner

My friends who had the pizza mentioned that it was deceivingly good, the small portion made it difficult to justify the price. I felt like I had hit a jackpot with my order; both dishes came out to only $21 USD, and I was finally full from eating for the first time in Japan! As a group, we gave this restaurant an 8.4 overall out of 10, which is a very respectable score, and I would absolutely recommend this place to anyone with a craving for Italian food.

Everyone’s happy!

As you can see, we had a grand time and would definitely return to this area and try the other restaurants in the close vicinity. To end, I’d like to show you my empty plates that I think describe my day of eating quite well. It was a wonderful day for my stomach today, and I didn’t leave anything on my plate for a single meal (I finished the pasta after the picture), which should tell you, as the reader, just how high-quality the food is here in Tokyo, Japan. Arigato!

Clean plates