Asia Tour Day 1 - If it's good enough for Bill...

First full day in Tokyo! Woohoo! After passing out for 11 hours (me, 9 for Sarah), we got up and started our day right with some Seattle's Best Coffee (yes, it was all for Sarah since she's hails from Seattle). Then we went to Nadai Katsukura, this restaurant that specialized in Tonkatsu--yes, they only serve deep-fried pork chops. After trying to figure out the difference between regular and 'special' pork (the latter costs more--duh), and sirloin versus fillet (the later also costs more, but sirloin has more fat), we were handed a mortar and pestle with some seasame seeds to ground the base for our tonkatsu sauce. Needless to say, it was super yummy (and fun!), and it was a great start to our day.

Then we were off on our first Tokyo subway adventure to Asakusa where the Sensoji (largest Buddhist temple in Tokyo) is located. Just like the first time I was at Sensoji, many many years ago, it was rainy in a calm, zen-like way. We went to get our fortunes from the fortune sticks, but both Sarah and I got the worst fortunes possible. (The little slip of paper was like: "Your wish will not come true. Sick patient will not recover. Lost item will not be found. Marriage and career are both bad...and on and on.) Of course, we didn't believe it and did it again a second time, when we got the exact same fortunes. We chalk it up to not actually being Buddhist, and so we tied our fortunes to the rack (no tree here) and waited for the wind to blow them all away.

On our way back from Asakusa (where we randomly bumped into Sunny in the subway station), we headed to the original Mitsuokoshi store where we explored the crazy food court floor, including Club Harie--this insane spongecake maker that had a 10-minute line for its baked-on-a-giant-toilet-paper-roll shaped spongecakes (aka "baumkuchen"). After some more browsing and eating, we went back to the hotel to prepare for our outing to Ginza and tempura dinner.

Ginza was...well, Ginza. Rampant consumerism reigns supreme here. Everything from the 6-story Mikimoto flagship to the multiple Louis Vuitton stores within a 3-block radius reminds you just how fashion- and brand-conscious the Japanese really are. (The average markup at Louis Vuitton is about 30% more than US prices.) After window shopping for a couple of hours (Sarah: "Prada makes some fabulous loafers!"), we almost got lost but made it to Ten-ichi, a famous tempura restaurant in Tokyo. They have 10 locations, but the one we went to in Ginza is the original and once frequented by Bill Clinton *and* Nelson Mandela. (We chose tempura because we were sternly warned by our concierge that no one eats sushi on Sundays because the fish market is closed...that made way too much sense. Who eats day-old fish?) Needless to say, the tempura was ridiculously yummy (we even got a bonus piece of shrimp + scallop cake), and our perfect meal was topped off by deliciously sweet mango halves that definitely made our day.

Blogger's misbehaving so I'll have to upload the pictures another time, but it was definitely a fabulous day.

P.S. It's 10pm and I'm going to sleep now. We're waking up at 5am to go to the Tsukiji Fish Market. Wish us luck.