![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/IMG_1724-scaled.jpeg\" "\\"IMG_1724.jpeg\\"")
<\/p>\nThis is one of two full days Mariko has in Tokyo so we\u2019re meeting her friends. Well, I\u2019ve known them for a while so they\u2019re not just acquaintances either. We started out the day at my favorite Hoshino coffee where I can get a fluffy pancake breakfast! There\u2019s a second fluffy pancake under that egg and you can see sausages, a tiny salad, and a tiny yogurt as well. I call it Grumpy\u2019s because one year there was a woman working there who did not seem to want to be there at all. She was very grumpy about her job and I even saw some young African-American men from NYC trying to make friends with her just to be friendly but she wasn\u2019t having it. My sister\u2019s friend\u2019s daughter was there one of the days Grumpy was working and she deemed her to be terrifying. Hahaha.<\/p>\n
I saw her once after work walking down the street with a guy and she was actually smiling!<\/p>\n
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On our travels through some of the areas away from the main stations, I saw an internet celebrity! (Actually, he\u2019s also a Sunday Times bestseller.) He has a gruff personality online but he was incredibly nice in person.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/IMG_1725-scaled.jpeg\" "\\"IMG_1725.jpeg\\"")
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Anyway, wandered through the backstreets, went to a temple, etc. Made our way to Meguro where we were meeting a friend at the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Museum to see the Marimekko exhibit. But before that we went to a fish restaurant for their daily special, the aji fry with a scallop cream korokke. I quite enjoyed it. The miso soup was on the bland side but I liked the rest.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/IMG_1727-scaled.jpeg\" "\\"IMG_1727.jpeg\\"")
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I didn\u2019t take any pictures at the exhibit but I figure most of the people looking at this blog (you know who you are) know way more about Marinekko than I do. The museum was once the residence of Prince Asaka Yasuhiko and was as impressive as the display.<\/p>\n
Afterwards we went back to Meguro station where we saw a tart shop. I had the seasonal fruit tart.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/IMG_1728.jpeg\" "\\"IMG_1728.jpeg\\"")
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Mariko had the lemon tart and it wasn\u2019t as good. Not lemony enough. A bit of the sourness would\u2019ve been nice with how sweet it was.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/IMG_1729-scaled.jpeg\" "\\"IMG_1729.jpeg\\"")
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After being so full of tart, we didn\u2019t want to eat too much for dinner. We went to a restaurant in Keio but their dinner didn\u2019t include the sandwiches they had at lunch so we just had a lemon squash each and went wandering. We wandered quite some time before we ended up at Royal Host, a chain family restaurant that has been around for years. It was one of the only family restaurants near me when I lived in Japan almost forty years ago! The fries were crispier than they looked and the club house sandwich, while a little dry, was quite tasty.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/IMG_1730-scaled.jpeg\" "\\"IMG_1730.jpeg\\"")
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That\u2019s it for the day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is one of two full days Mariko has in Tokyo so we\u2019re meeting her friends. Well, I\u2019ve known them for a while so they\u2019re not just acquaintances either. We started out the day at my favorite Hoshino coffee where I can get a fluffy pancake breakfast! There\u2019s a second fluffy pancake under that egg and you can see sausages, a tiny salad, and a tiny yogurt as well. I call it Grumpy\u2019s because one year there was a woman working there who did not seem to want to be there at all. She was very grumpy about her job and I even saw some young African-American men from NYC … Continue reading Japan Fall 2026: Day 14 (Tokyo)<\/span>