Kind of a weird day today. I had a stomachache towards the end of the night. Because of that my whole breakfast was a cup of coffee and the free bottle of Dormy Inn water. I kinda laid low most of the morning until I heard from my neighbor. I stashed my bags at the hotel and then met my neighbor at his hotel. He’s not going the cheap route I’m going.

It got up to 72º in Tokyo! The sun feels hotter here so in the direct sunlight it felt really hot. He wanted to go to the Imperial Gardens so we walked there but for some reason they’re closed on Fridays this month. I swear I looked at the schedule yesterday and I thought it would be open.

So instead I took them to the zoo that’s Senso-ji Temple. They actually loved it. From there we headed to Kappabashi to buy a fancy kitchen knife (as you do) but made stops at the melon pan store and Uniqlo. This is what’s left of my matcha soft ice cream melon pan after I ate most of it (since this is my lunch for the day and I was getting hungry).

I got back to the hotel in plenty of time and I decided to stand in the long line at the station to see if I could get on an earlier train. I just barely made it! I got a train that was hour earlier but after all the paperwork and the painfully long escalator, I only had a couple minutes on the platform before my Shinkansen arrived. I wanted to sit and listen to podcasts and watch the Japanese countryside but instead I passed out for quite some time.

I got to Toyama around 6pm, checked into the hotel, then got in line for sushi. Remember the half-eaten melon pan picture? Be prepared for more of that. All I ate all day was that melon pan and I didn’t have time to buy snacks on the way to the train.

This is the only clear picture. The wait to get in was over an hour in the rain! I talked to some ladies in the line, and I talked to some kids who turned out were from Singapore. I sat next to them at the counter. The store keeps track of your tab by using colored plates so my soup is a green plate.

You can’t see all the shrimp heads in my soup. One of the Singapore kids told me it tastes just like soup in Singapore, savory and sweet. He was so surprised he even wanted me to try his.

Here’s the Toyama special sushi. As you can see, there’s some space where four of the pieces should be but I had inhaled them already.

Here’s a picture of a picture of the sushi set on the iPad you use for ordering.

My pictures don’t get much better. Here’s one I remembered to take a picture of.

And the 3-piece salmon set.

Here’s what’s left of the five piece tuna set.

Some Toyama white shrimp tempura.

Uni! I’ve found it hard to find uni in a lot of sushi places. I’m sure they won’t serve it unless it’s fresh.

I also ended with tamago and had eel, aburi, amaebi, and I’m still forgetting something I’m sure.

I told one of the kids from Malaysia that when I was young I ate 13 plates and I couldn’t do that any more. But here’s fourteen plates. They scan the plates with a wand and then give you this interesting e-Ink thing that’s the bill you take to the register.

That’s my most expensive dinner so far, but it was only ¥10,747 which AMEX says is $67.83. Less than three hamburgers (OK, so I usually get clam chowder and fries with the burger but I’m using $25 as a baseline.)

And that’s it for now.