This morning I woke up starving!!! Probably because I had an early dinner last night. The agenda today was the Tsukiji Fish Market and the Toyosu Market since they’re just 2 miles from each other. Might as well knock out the second one while we’re out in the area. As a pleasant surprise, we also found ourselves at this little outdoor eating strip right outside of Toyosu Market that is a two-story dark brown building with a lot of food stands. 

The Tsukiji Fish Market is an old market and long standing with a lot of history. I heard that sometime after I went to Japan, they opened a new market called Toyosu Market and most of the business from the Tsukiji Market went over there. It is a modern building full of small eats. 

At the Tsukiji Fish Market, I saw some regular, old stands on the edge that Vince and I went to back then. It includes this strip of chirashj bowls. 

I started off eating a crab cream croquette. It was sooo good!! It was lightly crispy on the outside and super soft and creamy on the inside. It was so perfect. I loveeee croquettes!! 

Next, I had a small platter of tuna sashimi. From left to right, lean, more fatty and super fatty pieces. They were very fresh and tasty. My favorite is the most fatty pieces! 

Then, I had a bite of the eel skewer because my mom is obsessed with eel on this trip. It was soft, tender and sweet. 

Then, I had a platter of spider king crab legs!!! They re-heated it up for us and also torched it. It was also already cut in half for us so easier to open up the shell to display the meaty crab. It was tasty like the sea!! 

I also had a cold tamago skewer stick. It was refreshing, mildly sweet and juicy! 

We saw a newer matcha stand called  MATCHA STAND MARUNI with a long line. I saw that they were brewing each cup of matcha latte fresh with their bamboo whisks to order and using fresh milk. I tried a cup with a single shot of matcha. Wow, it was really tasty!!! Very sweet and strong matcha flavor. I love the milk. 

We went inside two actual fish market buildings at the back of Tsukiji and saw they were selling fresh fish and even sashimi for even cheaper than the stands out front!!!! 

I also nabbed some cute chopstick holders from a pottery shop that were small, pink cherry blossoms on a wooden branch. Super cute! 

After we were full, I gave my mom the option to either walk 2 miles to Toyosu Market or take the train. She opted the walking. She said we needed to hit our steps in first! I’m glad she likes walking! Haha 🙂 

I wasn’t thoroughly impressed with Toyosu Market because it was a big building with some floors dedicated to offices and one floor dedicated to small restaurant spaces of more sushi bars. I appreciated their bathrooms though. 

What I did like was the small, dark brown building outside of Toyosu Market. We had two things from there! 

Takoyaki topped with white cheddar and Mentaiko mayo. This was the best takoyaki we have had so far out of this trip! The balls were extra crispy and each ball had about 3 small octopus pieces inside. Sauces on top and cheese was a delight. That’s already a big winner for me! Inside was very creamy and soft. 

Then, I had a cup of matcha soft cream to wash down all the heavy foods. It tasted so good!!! Now I know their soft cream is not ice cream and not soft serve but called soft cream for in between and also made of Hokkaido milk. It’s special 🙂 Very strong yet sweet matcha flavor. 

As a break from all the train chaos, I thought it would be nice to enjoy a Sakurai Tea Experience in Tokyo. This required reservations. Of course, I didn’t account for my mom also being so tired, but we are on vacation!! There’s no such thing as rest for me! 

Japanese Sakurai Tea Experience:

GYOKURO. The tea leaf is called Goco tea. It had a strong umami flavor to it, which almost made me feel like I was drinking a savory soup. This tea came with Japanese sweet red beans and a chestnut as sweets to eat the tea with. We had two servings of the tea; second was much lighter than first round. 

BLENDED TEA. Next, they put carefully sliced purple grapes into the Goco tea leaves in the same pot and brewed that same batch. They made a blended iced tea with the grapes. The aroma was very sweet and inviting. The tea was very light. Light and slightly umami tea flavor. 

Afterwards, we were presented to eat the Goco tea leaves with the grapes. It was accompanied by Japanese vinegar ponzu. They gave us very slender chopsticks and we snacked on it while drinking our blended tea. It was a very interesting experience because I’ve never eaten tea leaves before. It was almost like eating a fishy salad. 

HOJICHA. For this round, we were presented with six types of hojicha leaves and got to pick one each of what tea we would want them to brew. I picked the most roasted hojicha leaf. They roasted the leaves in a separate wide and shallow pot, mixed it up and let us smell the aroma. It was super roasted and warm and comforting to inhale. 

We were given Japanese pickles to accompany. 

MATCHA. They brewed us a cup of matcha tea. It was whisked professionally. I’m not going to lie, I couldn’t finish the hojicha and matcha. It was too much caffeine and I was 

WAGASHI.

For dinner, we ate near home because I really wanted to try omurice in Japan.

The way it was pictured was promising. However, it didn’t break apart like I’ve seen in other videos. It seems that this fluffy omelette is super airy. I suspect they mix it with milk to make it be more airy. Texture wise, it’s not really my name because I felt like I was chewing on an empty omelette. I would prefer a scrambled egg. The tomato rice was tomato rice. Basically sweet and can’t really go wrong. This was probably the only disappointing dish I’ve had so far in Japan but oh well, I would never know until I try.