Tokyo Gourmet Trip --Day 3 Part 2 (Ameyoko Market )

Friday 15 May 2009

After fish market, we headed back to the hotel and took a nap. Probably 2 hours later, we were ready to set off.

Now we needed to sort out some tickets. We first popped into the JR office to get 2 single tickets for Tuesday to come back from Odawara on Shinkansan ( Bullet train). That was 3600 yen per person, expensive isn't it? But it is a must try.

We then moved on to the Limousine bus stop outside Keio Department store to purchase 2 sets of one way Limousine bus ticket to the airport on next Thursday + 1 day metro pass. This is a good value for money package. With an extra 100 yen you get the 1 day metro pass with unlimited rides on all Tokyo metro lines which would have cost 710 yen. (The pass is just for Tokyo metro lines though and can't be used on Toei subway lines. Tokyo's subway network is operated by two companies, the Toei Subways with four lines, and Tokyo Metro with nine lines

Finally, we got to the Odakyu Sightseeing Service Center at Shinjuku Station West Exit to pay for 2 Hakone Pass ( round trip travel on Odakyu line to Hakone + 2 days unlimited boarding on all the transports at Hakone). I sent them an email one month in advance to request 2 seats at the observation deck on the Odakyu Romance Car for free. This is definitely recommended. The total cost are: 11,740 yen.

All the tickets had now been sorted out. We popped down to the food basement of Odakyu department store to do some "window shopping". OMG, everything looked so attractive that we didn't know what to get first. We were overwhelmed by the choices and forgot to actually buy anything. Can't believe it.

Japanese cakes and sweets in beautiful presentation. Perfect for souvenirs.

I had already had breakfast, otherwise I would have tried one of these. Why can't we have that many choices of bread and cakes in the UK???????

Now we headed to "Ameyoko Market アメ横". From Shinjuku, we took the JR Yamanote Line. I like the idea of showing such a screen on the train. The numbers above each station indicates the time required to get to that station. e.g. in 23 minutes, we would arrive in Ueno. The screen switched between Japanese and English.

When we came out of Ueno station, we saw this Micra with the WING. So cute.

Here we were at the Ameyoko Market. It's in Ueno and is a retail market with hundreds of shops.

Simon was starving, so we went into a Ramen shop first thing when we were there. This is Simon's set meal.

My Raman in Tonkotsu sauce(Pork bone sauce). Not too bad. Could be better. I like the spoon though. It's specially designed to sit at the edge of the bowl.






There are loads of snacks and sweets shops in this market and they all have reasonable prices. From this shop I bought a big pack of dried scallops( not the ones for soup but the ones as snacks). I didn't even try to bargain but this nice old man on the left volunteered to offer me a discount.

Although I was quite full, I couldn't help buying a pack of Takoyaki ( Octopus Balls) when I came across this stall as Takoyaki is my all time favourite.

Yummy!

Go to Day 3 Part 3