Day 7 - Exploring Shirokane and vicinity + On My Own in Azabu-juban

Usually Koko gets home from work around 6:30 or 7 PM, and we just have dinner at home, do the dishes, watch TV and go to bed. So today was the first day we had a chance to walk around our neighborhood.

We had lunch in this noodle shop. I had no idea what any of the signs said, and neither did Koko. We just poked our head in, saw that there were some customers eating (always a good sign--outside tourist traps, at least), and sat down.

View of the eatery from our seats
(seats maybe 8 people total)

English and Japanese menus

After struggling with the Japanese menu (written in a "handwriting" style, which is like cursive vs print in our Roman alphabet), the waitress brought over an English menu. It was slightly smaller than the Japanese one, which was disappointing, because the menu was tiny to begin with.

Condiment, utensil and drink

L to R: Bamboo container of shichimi togorashi, a spice mixture for noodle soups, with the stopper plugged

in the hole; cute polished stone as a chopstick rest; and a cup of barley tea

We both got the "hot noodles," which sounded great on a cold day.

"Hot noodles" with chopped scallions and wasabi
on the side and a cup of dipping sauce

The "hot noodles" turned out to be cold soba on top of a woven bamboo platter, to be dipped into the sauce and mixed with scallions and wasabi. I'm a scaredy-cat when it comes to wasabi, but it was such a small blob that it really wasn't that spicy, thank goodness.

We were both a little disappointed that the soba wasn't in a hot soup, like we'd expected. But this was an interesting experience. I was little afraid the sauce would seep through the plate and get all over the table, but it was actually ok. (I'm still not a fan of cold noodles, though--like antipasti--but Chinese sesame sauce is ok.)

House special tempura

This tempura is what made the noodles "hot." It was one big clump of fried shrimp, okra, Japanese pumpkin, and other goodies that I can't remember.

Sobayu (そば湯), literally ‘hot soba water’
(Credit: JustHungry for the info)

When this came, we had no idea what to do with it. The waitress explained that it's to be poured into the dipping sauce at the end of our meal and drunk. (Another website said that when soba--buckwheat noodles--are cooked, many nutrients are dissolved into the water, so drinking sobayu helps you regain nutrients that would otherwise be lost or gone to waste.)

Sobayu + dipping sauce = this mixture

This mixture wasn't as salty as I thought it would be. (But then, we used Koko's cup of dipping sauce, which had less in it than mine.)  The texture is a little floury and similar to Chinese rice milk, only savory instead of sweet.

After a day of walking around our neighborhood, we went home and I took a nap.

Then we got into an argument about the laundry, so I went out for a long walk by myself.

I decided to check out the part of Azabu-juban that we had only passed by the night before. Like our own neighborhood of Shirokane, it is supposedly inhabited by the wealthy and populated with expensive restaurants and stores. (In reality, not everything is chic and upscale.)

Here are my findings:

Frijoles...rhymes with "Chipotle"

Looks like an izakaya (Japanese bar and grill)

Look at all the dried squid and

opened uni shells

This Hawaiian fabric store also

offers hula classes

$10 for ramen...typical price here, if not cheaper
than the norm

Looks like a swanky place to hang out

if you gravitate toward models

One of two thrift stores I saw

Fancy place for dumplings

I wonder if they're related to the Hawaiian fabric
store people

A real rock garden

A less fancy dumpling place

Also serves ramen

 

"Asian Kebab"? Not yakitori but Turkish kebab

One of the cheapest restaurants in town

(besides that 350 yen dumpling place)

Tokyoites, like New Yorkers, also like to eat

"curry in a hurry"

Himalayan Curry's kitchen and walk-up order window

(they have a few seats inside too)

Some prix fixe items

If I’m not mistaken, Minato-ku is supposedly one of the most diverse neighborhoods (towns? I can't get the hang of the Japanese geographical subdivisions) in Tokyo. You can't tell by looking at the passersby and commuters on the trains, but the diversity of restaurants may be an indication. Either that, or all the foreigners are hiding when I go out. Not sure.