Eric had scoped out a pancake place in Harajuku for breakfast, but unfortunately Rainbow Pancake was closed (first Wednesday of the month – seriously?) so we ended up at Deus ex Machina for pizza toast with (spicy) ginger ale for Eric and banana peanut butter toast with a flat white for me. Not bad for $20, but it wasn’t fluffy pancakes.
We wandered up Takeshita Street to admire the storefronts and look for some gift items but prices were a bit high and this area is pretty touristy.
Crossed the street and entered an expansive park on the way to the Meiji Shrine where we saw (I think) a wedding processional. The shrine itself was fairly plain but it was quite nice to hear birds in the middle of the city.
barrels of sake!
We returned to the Observation Tower (now that it was open) and had to wait in line for about 15 minutes to go up the elevator. Views from the top were expansive but Tokyo from the air isn’t really that pretty. The sunshine was very intense so it was also hard to see very far with the glare coming off all the buildings. I imagine this would be a nicer view at night?
The night before Eric had found discount tickets to the Robot Restaurant for their 3pm show. You are supposed to check in and get your tickets by 2:30 so they can sell you drinks and snacks before making everyone wind down several staircases into the basement show room. While we were likely the only adults not drinking, we had an amazing time. It’s over the top noisy, bright, and obnoxious, and there is nothing quite like it.
We rushed back to the room so I could change for my fancy omakase dinner. Eric walked me down to the area before going off in search for his own meal. He stopped in to the Tokyo station rugby fan zone but there were no seats and the screen was hard to see so he went for dinner at Sapporo Dominica.
Eric’s note: Sapporo Dominica is a small 2nd floor restaurant with just a handful of stools and three tables specializing in soup curry, and wow, was it good! They do have English menus, though their Japanese menu is reasonably easy to understand. Basically you order one of several broth bases (I ordered the original soup), then the main ingredient (chicken, pork, or vegetable – I went with chicken), then the spice level (2 was a nice medium for me), your turmeric rice size (medium), then any extras (crispy cheese in my case). The result was one of the best soups I’ve ever had, rich and flavorful with chicken and root vegetables combining nicely with the broth, and quite filling too.
After my dinner was complete we met back up and returned to our room to relax after a long day.