Day 24 (Feb 20th) Okonomiyaki + Tokyo Dome City + Dinner at Roppongi

Location: Harajuku, Bunkyoku, Roppongi
Weather: Cool, 7 deg
Author: Chrissie

Konnichiwa!! Minna genki?! This is a backtracked post to Day 24! I realise we keep jumping around in our posts which may be a bit confusing. I promise we will try to be more diligent once we have caught up on all our backlogged posts!

Anyways, today we planned to meet up with a friend of mine from Perth who was in Tokyo for a few days. Although we actually met up in Shibuya first, we ended up going to Harajuku for lunch. Harajuku is an area in Tokyo which is well known for its colourful and unique street fashion. This is also the place where you will find cosplayers and goth lolitas hanging out on a sunday.

Entrance to Takeshita Street, the most famous street in Harajuku. Not as packed today, but extremely crowded on weekends.

We suggested going to eat Okonomiyaki at a restaurant called Sakuratei which was offering an All-You-Can-Eat lunch deal for 1050 yen. A bargain! The restaurant is actually located next to a colourful art & design gallery and studio and they must have connections with it because of their interior decorations as you will see later on.

The restaurant had a really comfortable, casual vibe and seemed to be a place mostly frequented by young students. It was also really busy! We decided to take the opportunity to snap some pictures while we were waiting for a table.

Entrance to Sakuratei Restaurant - very deceptively traditional Japanese as indoors was very different!

Sok, Michael and Colin posing outside the entrance - yeah, do the Japanese peace sign Michael!

Inside, the restaurant was very colourful

Other customers digging into their food in the outdoor section of the restaurant

...and 'Cheezu'

What is okonomiyaki? It's basically a type of pancake consisting of the essentials of batter and cabbage and then any other fillings you might desire. We decided to try every filling that was available on the menu since it was all-you-can-eat and we were feeling adventurous and ravenous by then!!

Our first round choices!!

In the first round, we each chose a different filling to share. In each bowl were beef, pork, mushroom, natto and sakura shrimp. I was most eager to try the natto one since I'd heard a lot about it. It's basically fermented soybeans but it looks and smells horrible, so it can be a little off-putting to the ordinary tourist. Similar to the Australian vegemite for some, or the smelly tofu!!

It's pretty easy to cook as well. Just mix the batter mixture well and pour onto the hotplate. Wait until one side is cooked, then FLIP (can be tricky) to cook the other side. Just before the other side of the pancake is done, you can brush on the special okonomiyaki sauce and sprinkle some aomori (seeweed) and bonito flakes. We also had the option of adding mayonaise, but that was extra.

Pouring the batter onto the hotplate.

Let it cook for a bit...

The finished product!

Here's a full version...

How was the taste?! Yummy!! Although because we put the same topping (sauce and flakes) for all the okonomiyaki, they tasted a little similar. How was the natto? errrm, different! (Let's just say I wouldn't recommend putting it in your okonomiyaki if you ever try it). I think I am going to have to be brave and eat it like the Japanese do - with plain rice. Will update on that if I ever get the courage to buy natto!

Round 2 - the fillings in the 4 bowls are corn, kimchi, babystar (crunchy, deep fried noodle thingies?) and curry!

We did not know what to expect when we ordered babystar. Amy thought they would be baby starfish, haha, but it definitely wasn't what came out that's for sure! My favourite was kimchi, but then anyone who knows me knows I LOVE korean food. No surprise there! ^_^ After stuffing ourselves full, we headed out.

The east side of the art/design gallery next door to the restaurant. The west side is even cooler but I didn't get a chance to take a picture. Next time!

More of the art gallery outside

We decided to visit Tokyo Dome since none of us had been there before. This is the view that greeted us as we left the train station and walked towards the Dome!

Tokyo Dome on the right, and TALL rollercoaster on the left!!

I LOVE rollercoasters (actually, any thrill/adrenaline-pumping rides), so you can guess where I was looking. Unfortunately most of the people I know tend to dislike riding rollercoasters (aka Amy and Michael), but fortunately I found my rollercoaster riding soul buddy that day in Sok! We were really like 2 kids in a candy shop, we were so excited and of course we just had to ride it.

The rollercoaster was actually part of a larger amusement park next to Tokyo Dome called Laqua which I think is a water park?!

Part of the rollercoaster goes through a hole in the side of the building!

Sok and I grinning like cheshire cats

The 2 of us all good to go!

The name of the ride was the Thunder Dolphin, I suppose to fit in with the theme of the water park. It cost us 1000 yen to ride, but I was willing to sacrifice food to ride it.

Amy managed to take a photo of us coming down the tallest slope of the coaster. Can you spot Sok and me? hint: look for the white jacket

Us going through the hole of the building

Yatta! we did it! Us after the ride.

Details of the Thunder Dolphin ride

I have to say thanks to Michael and Amy for waiting patiently for Sok and I to finish the ride and putting up with the two of us acting way too enthusiastic. The ride was okay though, it looks more scary than it actually was. I am still looking for the ultimate rollercoaster ride. Anyways, we headed to Tokyo Dome afterwards, which is a large concert venue that can sit about 55,000 people. I think there was a performance on that day, so we couldn't go in unless we had a ticket.

Sok and Michael in front of Tokyo Dome

Amy and me

Sok and I couldn't resist going on one more ride! We really vowed to sacrifice dinner that night.

This one was fun but didn't last very long!


Dinner at Roppongi Midtown

Sok and Michael were travelling with a group of friends around Japan and one of them happened to be celebrating his birthday that night. We ended up at a classy food court in Midtown in Roppongi. The Midtown shopping centre contained a lot of luxurious shops. One of them, a strawberry shop, was selling a punnet of strawberries for $100 Australian dollars!! But they were the biggest, juiciest, sweetest smelling strawberries I had ever seen and smelled. You could literally smell the sweetness from outside the shop!

We didn't take many pictures at Roppongi unfortunately, but below are a couple of meals that was ordered for dinner that night. I know I said I'd sacrifice dinner, but I couldn't exactly not eat when it was someone's birthday right?!

Sok ordered a Sashimi rice set. I had a taste - very yummy!

...and Michael ordered a Chicken Katsu set which looked really nice!

Anyway, that was it for our day. Until our next post, mata ne!