First Meal, Iron Chef, and Dr. Ono

Our first meal in Tokyo was perhaps one of our best ones. We went to ishikawa in shinjuku for a kaiseki (pre set) meal. This is one of our favorite ways to eat haute in Tokyo because the chefs really do know best, so why not let them serve you what they consider worthy?! 

This meal was 8 or so courses, each being somewhat small but packed with flavor. This appetizer was maybe my favorite, but it was cheapened layer in the trip when another chef served an inferior version of the same dish. This one is crab with crab innards and some sort of sweet gelatin with fish eggs? Delicious.

The best part of the restaurant (besides the food) was the interior. It was so tasteful and extremely Japanese. A single teapot decorated the wall behind Jordan. We had a private room with a paper and wood sliding door. If Jordan looks sleepy here its because we landed at 4 and had this reservation at 830, so we were a little zombie-esque. We did however figure out that the noon flights to Asia are certainly the way to go. You land in te afternoon and can basically go to bed after dinner. It's perfect.

The other side of the room was dressed only with our bottle of sake. Sake that actually renewed my faith in the drink. It also probably increased the meal cost by 50%, but was well worth it. 

Here is some salmon roe in a cup. Because why not? 

We loved this course but by the end of the meal we were bursting so we couldn't finish it. At the end of the meal they offered to "make us a breakfast bowl" with it. Uh, is there a question?? Yes I want my leftovers for breakfast. Jordan of course devoured it when we awoke. 

So we told them it was our honeymoon and they were surprisingly elated. We weren't sure how Japanese would cope with us being a couple but it really was all positive. To celebrate our occasion they surprised us with a special dessert on a plate that said congratulations on your wedding. I guess they couldn't Google translate honeymoon but this was just as sweet!

It's also worth mentioning that one of the chefs came our and joined our waitress in clapping for us and yelling congratulations. It was darling. 

Probably the most surprising part of our tokyo adventure was our befriending of Dr. Yoshihiro Ono. On our plane ride over he witnessed me voraciously planning our trip using jordan's day by day itinerary sheets and our lonely planet tokyo guide. After a few hours of this he leaned over and asked if it was my first time to Tokyo, if there was even a question. I asked him for food and sights recommendations and the rest is history. He offered to take us to lunch at an iron chef's restaurant, who he plays golf with. Because that's normal. 

Let me explain a little about Dr. Ono, our periodontist friend. First he strikes me as probably 70+. He is certainly a little weak in the body/agility department but in true Japanese form he is in no way feeble. Sure, the flight attendants helped him get his bag down every time (I'm pretty sure he's a regular on that flight) but he certainly did not ask for the help. He plays golf regularly with celebrities. He's still active in his profession, traveling around the world to lecture and attend conferences. He also has no problem  sitting in first class while his wife is, well we don't know, but definitely somewhere else. When we deplaned at Narita, he rapidly sprinted toward immigration. He has a limp and a bad back, but was still faster than both of us, dragging his two suitcases behind him. He only stopped on his way to the NEX to make sure we had directions to our hotel, knew where the bus ticket counter was (how would he have known that even if this was the more logical mode of transport, I would be taking the train?), and was certain we knew what was going on. Then just like batman, he was gone. This is the man we are dealing with. 

Anyway, we couldn't take no for an answer and joined him for lunch at the Japanese iron chef's restaurant. We have a private room and were doted on hand and foot. The first course was this. All delicious. The little yellow block was "grilled cheese." That one confused me for a while because it was literally a block of grilled cheese. 

The main was fascinating - marinated sliced thin beef on a bed of the most delicious rice you could dream of. Idk if this was Japanese but it was certainly tasty. 

Following dessert, and after some commotion and a lot of Japanese, the iron chef himself emerged from the back! Apparently this was a rarity and we were very fortunate! It was lovely to meet him in person. He was the japanese iron chef on the original Japanese version of the show - without a doubt the superior version of the show. 

Fast forward to the next night when Dr ono insisted on taking us to a sushi dinner. After some consultation with his iron chef friends he picked a sushi restaurant. We donned our best and hit the subway. 

This was perhaps the best sushi we had ever had. Prepared by this guy. He was gooooood.

Some highlights: Uni. Sea urchin. Delicious and tasted like ocean. Squid, salmon, and of course tuna were everywhere. All melted in our mouths. Uni:

Here is Dr. Ono. We owe him many thanks for the special meals he facilitated for us and for his pity and generosity toward these two lost travelers. After learning that he has many condos in Japan, I'm sure we will see him again on a future trip to the land of the rising sun and the eastern capital. 

Add Dr ono to the growing list of reasons this is one of my favorite countries.