After our epic Sumo experience we hopped on the metro and headed to Shinjuku for our nighttime foodie tour. We arrived a little early, so Ryan showed us some of the hot spots. Did you know that the Shinjuku Station is the busiest railway station in the world?! Over 3.5 million people go through that station every day!
[Can you spot someone familiar?]
[Tower Records?!]
After walking around a bit we headed to the meet up spot for our tour. There we met our guide and a friendly couple from Minnesota who were in town for Star Wars Celebration! We were supposed to have two other people in our group, but they never showed up. But we made sure to toast Gordon and his partner at each stop. Who knows what kind of beautiful friendship we could have had!
We started the tour by walking down Omoide Yokocho Street. This street was filled with tiny restaurants that fit about 6-10 people at a time. The whole street was filled with delicious smells and a lot of people looking for a place to eat dinner.
After leaving Omoide Yokocho Street we made our way into the heart of Shinjuku where we saw the famous 3D cat billboard.
We then went to our first (of three) stops: Kibori
We were served 8 pieces of seasonal Omakase nigiri sushi and our choice of a drink. Our tour guide told us how to properly dip the sushi in soy sauce (top down) and then we dove in! Everything was so fresh and delicious! I felt like we didn't even need soy sauce! We chatted a lot with our new friends from Minnesota and bonded over our love of travel and Star Wars.
After sushi we headed out to the old Red Light District, which is now full of tiny restaurants.
[Hanazono Shrine]
Our guide then took us to the Kabukichō, which is a very famous area filled with clubs, love hotels, shops, restaurants, and our old friend from earlier: Godzilla!
[Luke, Ryan, and I in front of the Kabukichō gate]
[Godzilla watching us!]
We were then taken to our second stop: Wagyu
We were taken to our table where we would grill our wagyu on a traditional shichirin stove.
After grilling the wagyu you can eat it or place it on a slab of salt and let it absorb the salt for a little extra flavor.
[Such a fun group!]
Every bit of wagyu was delicious and I was a little bummed out when we were done.
We then headed to our final stop: Dessert at Dagashi Retro Snack Bar
This restaurant was full of traditional Japanese "penny snacks." We were given a basket and told to full up on anything that looks good!
It was fun to try different kinds of snacks and desserts. Some were really good and some were not.
After dessert we said goodbye to our new friends (don't worry we will see them again at SWC and Disney) and headed to Shibuya to see the famous Scramble at night.
Between eating fresh crab for breakfast, watching the Sumo wrestlers, and eating wagyu beef - this was definitely a great day!
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