Day 118: A Tofu Degustation

Vivian had been talking about taking us to this tofu restaurant ever since we arrived in Tokyo. With her husband Masa being away for work for most of the time we were there, we finally made it for lunch on our last full day. 

Umeno Hana in Kichijoji is alllllll about tofu. And while that might not sound exciting to some, the things they do with tofu is actually incredible and really, really good. 

The place is on the restaurant floor of Tokyu department store in Kichijoji. You wouldn't pick it from the front, but the interior looks like you've stepped back in time to a restaurant in Kyoto (or so I imagine).

There are only private rooms here, which I quite like.

Don't get lost on the way back from the bathroom. You don't want to end up crashing someone else's meal.

While I would love to tell you what we ate. I can't. I don't know exactly what each dish was. All I know is that they made me think differently about the humble tofu.

The Hondas and the Bozzetto-Fukunishis*. 

*Not actually our last name.

More tasty tofu-y things.

And some more. That implement in the back squeezes lemon so you don't get your hands lemony.

I love Japanese ceramics.

The view from lunch. We were there for a few hours so the sun was beginning to set.

I like how in some Japanese restaurants they have a gift section.

Thank you Masa, Vivian and Anri for taking us out to lunch! I hated saying good bye to Vivian because we hung out so much while I was in Tokyo and who knows when I will get to see her again. 

After the wonderful lunch, we met up with So and Tiia for a farewell dinner. We said we wanted a whole lot of seafood in an izakaya style and that's exactly what we got. Unlike our usual dinners with these two, we had to keep things tame because we were checking out the next day and still had to pack. Sigh.

We just let So order everything and it was all fresh and amazing.

I love Japanese style seafood salad.

Seafood dates.

So much crab. And it wasn't expensive at all! I am going to miss this when I go back to Australia.

Sake and crab. A winning combination.

Ooft.

Some sushi for good measure.

Finishing off the meal with some tamagoyaki (a rolled omelette which is a little sweet and savoury).

And mochi to really finish off dinner.

This restaurant was one of the best places I've eaten at this trip and I have no idea what it was called (sorry). Mystery seafood izakaya, we will be back!

To commemorate our time we got purikura (sticker photos) done.

And if you watch Terrace House, you will know this is Rikopin. She was one of the random Japanese girls on our sticker photo machine!

More is more when it comes to purikura.

I wish I knew about this game earlier! It's like Dance, Dance Revolution but for your hands. It's one of the few arcade games that I'm actually good at. Look... 1st!

I wanted a glory shot of me winning first place but we were too slow so... Next Track!

We sadly left So and Tiia and made our way home to our half packed suitcases. Wow, our adventure is nearly over.