Tokyo Day 3 - Yanaka

After the last couple of days being, what felt like, the middle of it all, we headed to a quieter part of Tokyo called Yanaka.  Yanaka is just less than 5 miles north of where our rental apartment is.  It is know for its concentration o temples and shrines due to the fact that they were moved from the center of town to the outskirts in the late 1800's.

But, before we head for a temple walkabout, we decided to check out a sushi restaurant that I learned about and took note of after watching a YouTube video months ago while planning this trip.  We were in search for Nemuro Hanamaru Ginza, a conveyer-belt sushi restaurant with pretty good reviews.

We took a train and followed Google Maps and wound up in a food court of a mall with a tiny counter sushi booth with the same name, but obviously not the place I saw on YouTube nor the place pictured in Google Maps.

I tried and tired to figure it out, but I just couldn't and I was getting hungrier and hungrier.  I finally decided to just give up finding it and changed the destination to another conveyer-belt sushi restaurant I also learned about on YouTube, Sushiro that just happens to be in this neighborhood as well and only a 7 minute walk.  

We followed Google Maps and circle the same block multiple times around a giant electronics store where the map says Sushiro should be.  I was finally like...could it be inside the electronics store?  We entered the store and i showed my phone to a worker and they took us to an elevator and told us to go up to floor 6.

Who would have thought that a sushi restaurant would be inside this large electronics store?  But, as we got off the elevator and looked down the hallway...there is was.

I guess I was pretty hungry since there are no photos of us eating...only the aftermath.  It was pretty good and we were very happy after it was all over.  We ate 17 plates of sushi plus 2 drinks and 1 dessert and the total price was ¥4,630 => $33.19 USD....not bad.

Bellies full and now time for the walking tour of Yanaka, a 25 minute train ride directly north of where were were. We arrived in Yanaka around 1:00 PM and walked thought the Yanaka Cemetery that was huge.

At the end of the cemetery we entered the gate of Tennoji Temple.  The temple dates to the late 1800's, but this bronze sitting buddha dates to 1690 and is one of the temples greatest treasures.

Today Tim decided to start carrying a camera around, so you all get to see more shots of me that he took.

We eft the temple and walked though the rest of the cemetery and into the town where we saw the remains of a temple wall that dates back to the Edo period (1603 - 1867).  It is the only one in the area that survived fires, earthquakes, and wars.

We continued the walk and soon arrived at Yanaka Ginza, a pedestrian-only street that remains as it always did, a shopping area.

It was nice to walk down this street and enter businesses without the Tokyo crowds.

We followed the walking tour and it told us to look for a 130 year old wooden building.  While looking, I saw a store selling rice crackers and just had do buy one of each (plain, soy, and sugar coated) to take home to enjoy later.  After purchasing 3 crackers, the old woman in the store kept bowing to us and thanking us for patronizing them.  We continued walking looking for the old wooden building when I realized the the cracker stall was the building we were supposed to be looking for.  I should have know.

We then wound up at Daienji Temple, known for its monument stone dedicated to Osen, a beautiful girl who used to work in a tea house near here.  When the famous Japanese artist, Suzuki Harunobu, saw Osen, he singled her out as a model for many of his portraits.

We left the temple and was on our way to another temple that was to be to highlight of the walk, when Tim needed to use the restroom.  Coincidentally there was a craft beer bar on the corner, so we headed in for relief and a pint.

After about an hour, we made it to Nezu Shrine, built in 1706.

One thing Nazu Shrine is known for is the thousands of manicured azelea bushes that bloom in April...I can image it. 

It is also known for the bright colors of the temple.  Here is Tim throwing a coin into the offering box.

The grounds of Nazu are really nice.

This marks the end of walking tour, but there just so happens to be a brewery in town, so we headed that way.  On the route we passed by another temple that we took the time to check out.  I think this is Daigyo-ji Temple...at least according to the geolocation tag my iPhone used to label these photos.

We finally made it to Yanaka Beer Hall, a brewery located inside a beautiful, traditional Japanese building.

After Yanaka Beer Hall we were supposed to go to another nearby brewery, but it is closed on Wednesdays, so we headed back to the train station and took a train back to our neighborhood.

We have only had a few snacks and a couple of beers since our huge sushi lunch, so we were a bit hungry.  After the night before's Izakaya (Japanese Pub) find in our neighborhood, we decided to try to find another one.  We saw a group of men smoking in the street and they asked what we were looking for.  We told them we were looking for food and beer and they pointed down some stairs.  Why not.

We wound up at Okatteya, an Izakya that had no English menu or speaker for that matter.  We had to use Google Translate to read the menu on the tablet to order.

Before ordering anything, we were served a some sushi.  I at first thought that they were being kind and giving this to us for free, but then I noticed when other people sat down they were also getting the sushi.  It winds up that places like these do not want people to just order drinks, so they make you get, and pay for, an appetizer whether you want one or not.  Luckily we were hungry and it would take me a while to figure out the ordering thing, so it was great for us.

First order of business is ordering drinks.  I saw something called "Hoppy" on the menu and assumed it was beer, so I ordered that for me, and I ordered a large Whisky Highball for Tim.  Tim's Highball was a known, but I was served a gras with ice and some liquid in it and a bottle of Hoppy.  I was told (gestured) to pour the Hoppy into the glass of ice and liquid.

After some research I determined the glass had a shot of Shōchū, a distilled alcohol usually about 50 proof, and Hoppy is a non-alcoholic barley-based drink. It was actually really good.

For food I managed to order Baby Clams, Squid & Asparagus in Butter, and Mentaiko Udon.  Mentaiko Udon is udon noodles tossed with a creamy sauce flavored with spicy salted cod roe...it was delicious.  I also ordered chicken for TIm that I must have been eating when it wad delivered, because I didn't get a photo of it.

All this food and our drinks (of which we ordered a second round) came to ¥5,203 => $37 USD...wow...we need to come back here before leaving Tokyo.

By the way...this is "here".  Welcome to ​Okatteya.

It was just a 7 minute walk back to the apartment where we arrived just after 9 PM.  As you can imagine, not much blogging got done the and I am falling more and more behind. I am actually typing this on the morning of 10 June, three days later.  I should be able to catch up in the next few day.

Tomorrow (blog time, not blogging time 😄) we visit Asakusa and Ueno, so we expect a lot of walking.  Until then...