Naka Meguro - Feels Like Disney

After our first "Hanami" (cherry blossom viewing party) experience in Ueno Park, we pretty much decided to become professional Hanamist.  I created a list of the best places to view the cherry blossoms in Tokyo and roughly sketched out our plan of attack for the week.  

One of the highlights noted in several of the guides I referenced was Yozakura, or night viewing of the sakura.  The Meguro River was one of the places touted as having good Yozakura.  It's also happens to be one of my running routes.  

So in the morning, on my run, I scouted the location.  Uh, yeah, this will work I thought as my steps seemed to lighten, and my stride glide, under the cascading cherry blossoms.  This is beautiful and the trees weren't even at 100% bloom yet.

Wow!

Running is a lot easier in pink heaven.

I mean under the cherry blossoms.

That night Russell and I ventured out to Naka-Meguro not knowing what to expect.  It was ridiculously beautiful.  Japanese lanterns lit each side of the cherry tree lined river.  The billowy blossoms were up-lit, the pink petals shimmering against the water below.  The pictures I took did not do the landscape justice.  I guess some things are best seen through the heart.

Luminescent lanterns strewn amongst the sakura

Up lit sakura casting its spell.

It was a carnival atmosphere.  Shops and restaurants along the river had set up temporary bars and food stands.  Even private residences and hair salons were pouring drinks and peddling homemade food along the path.  Everyone was in a great mood, smiling and laughing.  Couples walked hand in hand.  Perhaps the fact most of the crowd, including us, was sipping some sort of frothy, sakura themed beverage, may have helped.  I, myself, sipped on sakura sparkling wine, while Russell, get this, drank from a bottle of Pink Zima.  Yes, Zima. Yes, pink.  If our friends could see us now, I quipped blithely.

Enterprising young men selling beer and homemade stew riverside.

The candles were an especially nice touch.

Taco stand, yes taco.

Russell and I were giddy with pleasure.  We literally felt like skipping.  At any moment, I expected a Disney musical to break out.  Hell, I felt like singing.  It was so magical.  

Russell, giddy, about to belt out the "Happy Working Song"

View of the river from one of the many bridges.

I wish my camera could really capture this the way we experienced it.

The river below

All the giddyness, or maybe the Zima, made us hungry so we went back towards the train station and looked for a sushi restaurant.  We found a gem.  Unfortunately we can't read Japanese, so even though we took a card, I have no idea what it says.  I literally wrote notes on the location so we can find it again because this is the kind of place you crave afterwards.

The place was tiny and old.  At first I thought maybe this wasn't such a good idea.  There was an ancient TV mounted in the corner playing the Lion King in Japanese and a sushi bar that only sat about ten people.  The whole joint seemed to have a brownish patina cast upon it from years of smoke.  But polaroids adorned the cluttered walls and the folks in them were smiling and happy.  Plus there were shelves of half drunk sake bottles adorned with the names of their patrons who would be back to drink the rest.  I took that as a good sign.  I'm so glad we stayed.

There were only two customers in the restaurant, salary men.  It turns out one spoke English, pretty well actually.  He translated when the owner told Russell in fast, rambunctious Japanese, this was a non-traditional sushi restaurant, which meant you don't put soy sauce on your sushi.  Russell stopped the soy mid-stream with a startled look on his face.  OK.

What followed were ten courses of the most inventive, succulent, deliciousness ever.  I'm craving this place already.  

Oldie but a goody!

Note the soccer calendar, plastic hangars and leis.

Appetiser plate:  soy beans, homemade tofu (yummy) and smoked fish.

Shrimp and halibut seared in hot olive oil.

OMG Amazing!

This was my favorite dish.  Salmon with a fried quail egg on top and special sauce.  

It tasted like the most exquisite eggs benedict ever!

White fish with a black sesame sauce.  

So creamy.

Uh yeah, that's cheese being melted over avocado

 on sushi rice with hot garlic sauce.

Need I say more?

Fish steamed in paper and sea salt with lemon.

Melted in my mouth like butter.

Dessert: Hagen daz vanilla ice cream and blow-torched mango 

on top of sushi with a creamy, sweet cheese sauce.

Is tomorrow too soon to come back?

Sushi Sorry

So, Friday we decided to have sushi.  After perusing the many choices in the Tokyo Michelin guide, kind of like Zaggats but French and far more particular, we decided upon a place called "Shin" near our apartment.  We tried to call to make a reservation but like so many other times, when they don't speak any English, we wind up confused and not really sure we secured a table or ordered a pizza.  Generally, we find when we attempt to go someplace authentic that doesn't cater to tourists and gaijin, once they realize we don't speak Japanese, they try to get us off the phone as quickly as possible or just say no.  At the conclusion of the ten minute conversation we either had a reservation at 8:30 or we were supposed to call back at 8:30. Translation - we'll decide then if we want to allow you into our restaurant.  We decided to just go there and take our chances.  I love humiliation.

After walking around the block the restaurant was allegedly located in, we finally found the entrance on a side street.  Thankfully the Michelin guide shows a picture of the entrance of each of the restaurants featured, which in Tokyo is sometimes the only way to find a place because they don't really believe in addresses here.  The restaurant was located on the third floor in an old building in a fashionable neighborhood.

We had to duck, well Russell did, to get into the restaurant.  The place was warmly lit but tiny.  There was a sushi counter which sat less than ten people and two tiny tables.  It was very quiet.  I felt like we had just walked into a stranger's living room unexpectedly.  Ooops, Sorry wrong apartment.  I felt like apologizing and backing out.  And based upon the way everyone else looked at us, appalled, I think they felt we should too.  

The wait staff looked confused.  Russell tried to secure us a seat at the counter, which had three seats open.  The wait staff looked even more confused.  I could almost hear them thinking,  "excuse me what?  You want to eat here?  I think not."  Now I understood why the guy on the phone asked us to call back later.  He probably thought we'll maybe if business is slow... we wouldn't want to offend any of our regular customers.

Clearly we were not welcome.  Russell was persistent.  The wait staff were consternated.  Finally a customer from the sushi bar, who apparently spoke English, came over and translated for us.  That was nice of him.  Apparently they were "filled up".   Ah, that explains the three empty seats at the bar.

We apologized and backed out.

Since we had already been around this block we'd discovered a quaint little French place on the back street called "Les Vinum" so we decided to go there.  It didn't have a Michelin star but the menu looked promising.  They were all "filled up" too but they allowed us to sit outside on the patio.  The patio consisted of tables in front of the restaurant on the street.  

I was a little concerned we wouldn't get good service sitting outside, especially since we were the only ones.  But I was momentarily confused, it must have been the previous humiliation, this was Tokyo so the service was excellent, as well as the food.  We both had the pre fixe menu which was a great value.  The highlights were sea bass carpaccio and house made pate.  The carpaccio was served with slivers of sweet yellow grapefruit and a basil/mint dressing.  I'm going to try to make this at home.  The pate was rich and savory and complemented by perfect crusty french bread.  They had a good wine menu as well.  So after a glass of champagne we had a bottle of Sancerre to wash the outstanding meal and our residual humiliation down.

Look here's a picture of it and my darling purse.