Tokyo Day 3: étéco bread + Tsujihan Ark Hills + Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden + Jomon. Tokyo. Japan. 3.26.2025.

First start of day 3 in Tokyo I made my way to étéco bread where clearly Kiki's Delivery Service operates from. It's a tiny a little out of the way bakery in Tokyo. I loved it. You will have to get it to go and find a place to eat it afterwards, which was a chore due to Japanese etiquette. I got a savory vegetable tartine and a strawberry tart. Both were delicious, once I was able to devour both after hopping back over to Shibuya Crossing in front of the Hachiko statue with people staring covetously. The tart was perfectly flakey like a proper French pastry. Yes. Please. 















Then I started slowly making my way over to Ark Hills. First, I sat down at Doutor, my favorite every daychain in Japan for a matcha latte as it was right next to the train station. If you have been following me for a while, you may remember that Tsujihan was one of the best meals from my entire Japan trip in 2023. If you are on social media, you may have come across posts that let you know the lines are much shorter if no line at all in their other locations. I decided to go to Tsujihan Ark Hills this time around as I was excited to have this kaisendon that I have been dreaming about again sans line. Once again, I got their tokuyjo. The kaisendon itself was as great as I remembered to my delight due to in a short line here for lunch, unlike their original Nihonbashi location. However, the ochazuke portion was where this meal fell flat. It was the ochazuke portion of the meal from 2023 that made this one of the best meals of my lifetime. Sadly, the broth was not the same and I was extremely sad. Needless to say, I will have to return to the Nihonbashi location on a future trip for an ochazuke redemption.







To get over my ochazuke sadness, I went to admire the cherry blossoms at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. Cherry blossoms started blooming in Tokyo upon my arrival. Only a few trees were in full bloom at that point in the garden and most people gathered around them. Which made for amazing people watching. Then I got a massage in Shinjuku before heading back to my hotel to rest for a bit before dinner. 

I decided to walked all the way to dinner in Shibuya through Harajuku to burn off all the calories before my small dinner. Also, Shibuya and Harajuku makes for amazing people watching due to the crowds after school and work in addition to all the tourists.



Jomon is Hakata-style yakitori and they have multiple locations in Tokyo. All I have to say is good luck finding the door to the one in Shibuya. Even I struggled and I had to wait for my friends to arrive to enter with them. I loved the vibe and the food here. The ebi with bacon was incredible and I would highly recommend you getting that. I also got most of the vegetables ones since I was not hungry.







After dinner, when we got in a cab to go back to our hotels in Shimbashi, I noticed that Club Asia was right by Jomon as James Curd was headlining there the Friday after I leave Tokyo. I was so excited that I texted him. Believe it or not, James and I been trying to coordinate our Tokyo dates for a year so I get to see him and his family. Sadly, the promoter had different dates available in the end. Oh well. We definitely tried.

Tokyo Day 2: Shan + Asakusa Kagetsudō + Sensō-ji + Asakusa Gyukatsu + いーはとーぼ. Tokyo. Japan. 3.25.2025.

On Day 2 in Tokyo I woke up and made my way over to Asakusa. I have never been to Asakusa, so I decided to head over and finally check it out for myself.

I started off at Shan, who is famous for their cafe lattes. Sadly, due to it having gone "viral" (my least favorite word), they no longer serve it. It's a kissaten so I got my regular kissaten order of ham and egg sandwich with iced coffee. It's very old school, and since we no longer had any influencers coming due to the lack of caffe lattes, I preferred it that way, although I was sad to not have gotten to try their cafe latte. They also allow smoking, so be warned.



Since I have also never tried melon pan in Japan, I decided to head over to Asakusa Kagetsudō soon after they open at 10 to avoid the crazy lines later. It was warm and I got it with matcha ice cream as recommended to me. I did not get the fuss about melon pan after eating this. It made me crave a really good pineapple bun from Hong Kong instead. Perhaps I am just not a melon pan kind of girl.



Then I braved my way over to Sensō-ji. It was so crowded at Asakusa that I wanted to leave as soon as humanly possible. It was filling in with bus loads of tourists from every direction. Honestly I did not enjoy it. So much so that I texted James Curd who is arriving a week later and headed into Asakusa with his family to warn him.









I wanted to try Gyukatsu Motomura, but there was the Asakusa Gyukatsu right there so I had lunch there instead. I did enjoy the meal, which was the only redeeming thing about my trek to Asakusa.



Then I went on a long walk through Yoyogi Park to meet up with my friend Ozaki-san. I saw this happy man walking 15+ dogs. 



Then I saw this dog completely sideways carried by his/her owner which was comical. 













Ozaki-san and I went to いーはとーぼ, a cafe in Shimokitazawa he's been frequenting since his college days for almost 50 years. We sat in his regular corner and he told me nothing much has changed there since his college days. Ozaki-san told me about the new books he is editing and that it takes him about 3 years to edit a book. I told him my awesome new weird Japanese sentence and he laughed his head off. And of course, we traded our notes on our favorite Japanese restaurants. He was impressed with my last dinner reservation in Kyoto, which is a high compliment coming from him. 







Before I headed back to my hotel, I had to go to a pharmacy to get a few things. And of course:

Tokyo Day 1: Shimbashi + Uogashi Standing Sushi Bar + Azuki to Kouri + Shiro-hige's Cream Puff Factory + Gōtokuji Temple + Namida. 3.23.2025-3.24.2025. Tokyo. Japan. 3.23.2025-3.24.2025.

Welcome to my much awaited 4th Japan adventure! I did not take any holiday last year, so I have been anticipating this trip for 2 years now. I have been planning it close to a year as flights and hotels (especially the good rooms) tend to book that well in advance if you want top choices due to high season for cherry blossoms. Japan tends to be my most popular posts always. So I hope this one will inspire and inform you for your own Japan adventure.

Pro tips from the last 2023 trip are still relevant and that is extremely useful for reference if you need it.

Additional tips from this time around:

• More places have online reservation options now. Be sure to check that before your trip as that may be the only way you can go.
• There are well known credit card processing issues when you are booking tickets and reservations. You may need to dig deeper to see if your card is the issue and go about using a different one. Some are random in what process though from time to time, which can prove frustrating. Some will only be successful with foreign debit cards. Pay attention to see if the charge actually goes through all the way to secure your reservation, because sometimes it doesn't. Fun problem.
• Beautifully shot images/videos and amazing storytelling for an episode of (insert whatever here) does not equal delicious. I would know because I do casting and produce these stories for many people professionally. They are typically only great for storytelling and for "trends." I don't do "trends" in general and like finding both the extraordinary and unexpected magic, especially for myself. Get tips and inspiration from those that share similar sensibilities to yourself rather than influencers.
• Anywhere "viral" or "trendy" in crowded areas will likely require a long queue. I don't like standing in line too much, so plan and choose wisely. 
• I like to plan each day according to neighborhood or near by if I can help it as Tokyo is enormous.

For almost live musings (as I always later gram) you can follow me on Instagram and see my Stories during the trip. There is a Japan 2025 highlight on there as well. Those have videos unlike my blog.

Day 1 of Tokyo is actually combined of my first evening there with actual full Day 1 since it makes more sense than breaking these out into 2 days. Here we go.

I stayed in Shimbashi in Tokyo this time rather than my usual of Shibuya and surrounding areas. Mostly because I found this business hotel chain that has an onsen that allows people with tattoos to soak in it that seemed decent for a good price. The extra bonus was that I had enough credit card points to redeem for all my Tokyo nights there. You will be walking close to 20,000 steps each day in exploration (sometimes more). You will want to soak your body in a tub to help your body recover. I ended up staying at Candeo Hotels Tokyo Shimbashi (sorry for the lack of my own images, but seeing that it's Japan and it's a small room, their pictures will always be better than mine). Upon arrival, I did ask front desk for patches to cover up my tattoos so I can partake in the onsen. To my delight, they said I didn't need them. This has NEVER happened before except for the more private ryokans that allowed me the same privilege. Even if they didn't, they do provide guests with tattoo covers. During my research, their Roppongi location allowed guests with tattoos in the onset without covering (almways check to see if rules changed first before booking anything). Opt for the bigger room if you can, as Japanese rooms are teeny tiny in general if you are used to having more space.

Now that I have stayed in Shimbashi, I would HIGHLY recommend it for these reasons:

• It is a business district and not in the craziness that is Shibuya or Shinjuku, which means I did not need to navigate regularly through those 2 train stations that get millions of riders per day and get lost for hours in those stations in that madness. Shinjuku Station will always be my arch nemesis.
• It is near 3 different train stations for ease of getting around that is still center of most things in addition to ample bus lines.
• Mellow on the weekends. On weekdays you will see salarymen/salarywomen going to and from work and them having group work meals afterwards. Quite lively during the week with ample options in addition of seeing them nice and roasted the later it gets. 
• There was an abundance of massage options due to all the office workers and the intense work culture. Which is great for all your achy muscles from your long travel and many steps for exploring.

After I checked into my hotel and checked in with my sacredly starred Google Maps, I decided to have a quick dinner at Uogashi Standing Sushi Bar. Uogashi is a great standing sushi bar chain for affordable sushi. There was one near me and I was delighted. I got the special, which was essentially a simple 12 piece omakase and added the seared toro for a whopping $24 for high quality sushi.



After my first night of sleep then we are officially off to my transformative Japan adventure. The first reservation I had was the coveted Azuki to Kouri, one of the most difficult reservations in all of Tokyo. Miho Horio was the pastry chef at Florilège prior to opening famed Aziko to Kouri that only serves gourmand shave ice to perfection. There are also toasts and soups you can order along with teas to go with the shave ice. Getting this reservation was like winning the lottery. My friend and I got the Azuki and meringue + strawberry and meringue + potato (small) + burnt lemon toast. The Azuki and meringue was the winner and we tried the potato out of curiosity, and it turned out neither of us like starch in our desserts. To have this as my first reservation was setting the bar incredibly high. However, this trip delivered beyond my wildest dreams.









Then we headed over to Shimokitzawa as we have dinner plans that way and that was my friend's old neighborhood when she lived in Tokyo. Since she had a blown ACL from a skiing accident the Monday before, I walked around by myself. I made a pilgrimage to Shiro-hige's Cream Puff Factory to get us Totoro cream puffs. Miyazaki's sister-in-law runs this so she actually has his permission to create these Totoros. The line to get cream puffs to go was short, but the line for dine in at the cafe upstairs was rather long.







Then I went on a walk over to Gōtokuji Temple since it's nearby and I have never been.









It turns out that Totoro is a Nameki-Neko lover too.





Tama-san that lives there and the official temple mascot came right up to me for a petting. I had no idea who he was but I'd like to think that I got blessed by the Cat God himself.



For dinner we headed over to Namida as my friend highly recommended it and it's one of the top restaurants in Setagaya. It was also my friend from Belgium's last night in Japan so her and her boyfriend met up with us for a lively and hilarious dinner. Namida has 8 seats at the counter and does 1 seating each night they are open. This goes for quite a bit of Japanese restaurants and the reason why some are impossible to get into: simple math. Chef Tajima was hilarious and spoke English and we had a grand old time cracking jokes while having a great Japanese meal over the 3 hour dinner. It's difficult to find as it's in a super hidden alley within a tiny alley. The bill: $70 per head. He will be moving his restaurant later this year so be on the look out for that new location. I also learned the most obscure old man Japanese phrase from my Belgium friend during this dinner which I later modified in the most Amy way possible and put to great use when I was in Kyoto. Even the chef was asking us why do we know that Japanese phrase. Which we then modified at the rest of the dinner and laughed our heads off. My favorites were the sashimi and the shiitaki mushroom. This is not everything from the dinner shown below. No menu as he cooks with fresh seasonal ingredients that is available.













 

Dubai chocolate. 12.2.2024 + 2.11.2025.

Since I did another run of Dubai chocolate via Aladdin in February, let's move this larger break down here for ease instead.

I got my hands on a bar at MK Streetwear in Chinatown. I love chocolate. I love pistachios. I love kataifi. Naturally, it was love at first bite. Then I went down a rabbit hole and ordered a variety from Aladdin to try. Out of the 4 I got, the Gifteay is my favorite, with the Bolçi being my back up more affordable go to. I also got the bar at Haraz Coffee House, but sadly that one was far too sweet. If you also love chocolate and pistachio, now you know.



In February of this year I did another batch of more Dubai chocolates from Aladdin and this is the outcome. The Gifteay still reigns supreme. The reason being that it's got the perfect ratio of the pistachio and the kadayif is perfectly crunchy with every bite in addition to it not being too sweet for my palate. If you prefer all smooth texture without the crunch of kadayif, then  the SAR bar (top left) or something similar is the way to go. Sadly they are not selling that one right now for me to link directly for you. The Vezir bar (top right) was great and a smaller bar. The Bolçi is your every day Dubai chocolate bar slighter sweeter that I rebought. It would appear that they have different types available pending when you buy it. Enjoy!