I had already spent a day and a half in Tokyo but had yet to visit any of my researched spots. I've got a lot of ground to cover so let's get started.
On my first morning back in Tokyo I was up pretty early at around 7 AM. I found Rupert Bottenberg, an artist and writer from Montreal, downstairs and we decided to head back to the same place Rupert had gone the previous day.
I have no idea what the restaurant's name was. It's just one of hundreds of tiny eateries that dot the streets of Ikebukuro. Many of these restaurants serve Ramen but this one's specialty appears to be Donburi (bowls of rice with assorted toppings).
Like all of these restaurants, a ticket machine can be found at the entrance. You place your entire order by punching the buttons for the dish and toppings you want. Sometimes there are pictures but often it's just in Japanese. You then give the tickets to the hostess and she brings you your meal.
Rupert and I both ordered the Tonkatsu Donburi, a fried pork cutlet cut up on rice and covered with a fried egg. The egg acts as a binding agent and helps make a nice gooey mixture. There's already a good soya flavor so I don't need to add anything.If I want, there are jars with 2 kinds of pickles (unlimited Oshinko, Sugoi!!!!).
From the first bite I'm totally blown away by how delicious this is. Why would you ever want to have anything else for breakfast? (Although I suppose the desire to live another few months is a good enough reason not to have this every day).
After breakfast we go our separate ways. I walk a few minutes to Sunshine City where I head up to the 60th floor observation deck. From here you get a decent view of Tokyo but the sun is already pretty bright at 10 AM so the light is too strong to get a lot of good camera shots. Still it's a good way to get the lay of the land.
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