if you look for something very traditional to do you need to visit a hot spring. its perfect to arrive in the afternoon spend a night and leave next morning. you go back to busy tokyo as a new person. place we went was called tsubaki and was by the sea one and half hour drive from tokyo by car. there’s also bullet train option. food there was nothing for “western sushi” lovers. this is a proper japanese stuff where you have no clue what you eating because the lady serving your food speaks english with the strongest japanese accent so her explanation leaves a lot of room for your imagination.

so what you think this could be? thats how the dinner starts. cherry blossom branch always present.

this was sashimi for my 3 years old son means that this is the least advanced dish of the whole dinner.

all i can say this was a delicious soup

little tv watching before bed (tatami)

and here is the first course of breakfast which ended up having almost as many courses as dinner that night before

last dip in the onsen and home we go

http://www.tubaki.net/en/

this is not much of a food post but it’s been a while since i left japan and i miss everything about it. how do they manage to make everything look pleasant and stylish?  

tokyo in all its beauty

messages on wooden planks in the meiji shrine 

i love how the most delicious sushi is shaped totally uneven

very organised roads

more ladies

even no smoking sign looks nice

and loads of sake

a steak place that has its own farm where the cows no joke drink beer and get massages. the meat is super tender then. restaurant has no menu to chose from. its a set menu that usually contains caviar, smoked salmon, shrimp salad, steak with potato and vegetables and for dessert either melon or mango. forgot to take a picture of the caviar as i was too excited.

here this is what i called smoked salmon. with a pickle, lemon and japanese herb that taste wise sort of reminds basil.

next starter is a shrimp salad. even my veggie hater husband ate the entire thing including the lettuce.

followed by the best steak i ever ate and also the biggest amount of steak i ever ate in the same time. you start from the left and the leanest. by the time you get to the last part you are so full thinking you only have one bite of it. which never happens because that is clearly the best piece of all so you end up eating the whole thing. in case you feel like you haven’t consumed enough fat they put a cube of butter in your baked potato.

the dessert fruit is perfectly ripe

.. sweetest melon i ever had

after such a dinner little something to help the digestion is a must..

.. as well as photo with the chef

finished up with bottle of bubbly at the top of the world. roppongi hills members club has amazing view of  tokyo

and here is the link to the restaurant that made me put on 2kg at a dinner. no regrets. http://www.aragawa.jp/english.html

this is the place. love the minimalistic look of japanese restaurants. kuwano is one of many quiet and tiny sushi places hidden in weird building therefore pretty hard to find without help of local friends. is has a michelin star. http://gm.gnavi.co.jp/shop/0120140164/

and this is the size of the place. seats 8 and there are 2 people working there – chef and his wife who serves drinks and cleans up. very typical for this type of restaurant.

is this piece of tuna big enough? the chef goes to the fish market 5am every morning and gets whatever he thinks is best. we ate a huge variety of fish and seafood but fatty tuna is fatty tuna. the one here tasted so buttery that i had to have an extra piece at the end.

this guy was showing off some knive skills. cutting/squeezing lemon here to get few drops on the fish.

my favourite dish was what they called “japanese foie gras”. it was so good i didn’t even wanna know what it really is. well it was testicle of a snapper.

and more tuna pictures. i loved this box with meat on white cloth. my favourite otoro (the fattiest tuna belly) on the left, chutoro (medium fatty) on the right and the least fatty toro in the middle.

and now we are really full and off we go to enjoy some tokyo nightlife.

this was the last bar we went to. had some champagne, calvados, absinth and who knows what else. all i remember how sweet these so called “fruit tomatoes” were.

this is my very first sushi in japan.

first night we didn’t feel like going anywhere further than few floors down so we ate in the hotel restaurant roku roku http://www.tokyo.grand.hyatt.com/en/hotel/dining/RokuRoku.html

the next morning the mountain fuji decided to appear on the horizon which is apparently very rare so this was my welcome to tokyo view.