Ichifuku is a small, neighbourhood ramen shop that my host recommended to me, and he said I HAD to try it, so try it I did. It’s like, the most unassuming, easy to miss shop ever. Like some random ramen shop, but it is overflowing with deliciousness.
The one thing anyone has to order from here (if it’s your first time) is the irorimen, or fireplace (?) noodle. The broth has hints of sake, which adds depth to it. There are strands of shark collagen on top, which adds texture to the dish. AND THEY HAVE MAGIC CROUTONS. Croutons that are not soggy even when you are almost done with the dish. Like, what?! STILL CRISPY. STILL CRUNCHY. Must have been a wizard.
The next destination was Chasen, which is a traditional Japanese desserts shop. I found it off one of the tourist pamphlets that I picked up, and this is another hidden treasure. They have a small (and I really mean small) seating area for dine-in customers, but it seems most of their sales are from their tea leaves. I was the only dine-in customer they had.
I’m not sure what I ordered, actually. Some green tea dessert set thing hahaha. But it was delicious, so it doesn’t matter. There was green tea, green tea soft serve, and idk what it’s called, but like mochi balls in green tea paste with red bean in it. And there was this sugared preserved plum strips thing at the side, which I wasn’t sure how it was meant to be eaten, but I had it with the paste and it was really good. Ugh, I still dream of this.
I headed to the Japanese Sword Museum afterwards, which just exhibited a range of katanas and other Japanese swords. No pictures were allowed, and I imagine this would be quite a boring place for most people, but I like Japanese swords, so it was pretty cool. It’s not cheap though. It was 700Y for quite a small exhibition room, and that was it. You’d have to pay for other exhibitions if you wanted to go.
I did another attempt at trying parfait at Takano Fruit Parlour, and SUCCESS. Finally!! And seriously, totally worth the wait. I got the musk melon parfait, which is the only one anyone needs to get. I don’t understand why anything else would be ordered.
The parfait comes with a layer of ice cream at the bottom, topped with a scoop of melon sorbet, and then pieces of fresh melon on top. It looks pretty unimpressive, kinda mild and not very colourful or attractive, but don’t be fooled by its looks!! The melon is the sweetest thing ever, coupled with the creamy ice cream that is made from like unicorn’s milk or something. It’s so delicious. It’s totally not like normal ice cream. It’s also not gelato. Like, it’s just crazy different. My only gripe was that I wished the melons were served cold, which I think would have added to the overall enjoyment of the dessert, but even with that gripe, this is easily the best thing I had in Japan while I was there. It’s comparatively quite a bit more expensive compared to Nishimura, but the quality here is top-notch. No competition.
By this time i was really quite full cos it was just a day of mostly eating, but I knew I had to try Mutekiya cos 1) they don’t have it in Singapore and 2) I would totally regret it if I didn’t go. I weighed my options a bit cos there were two potential regrets. The first was that I would regret I never ate it in Japan, which was simple enough, but the second potential regret was that I would be too full to enjoy it and even risk throwing up due to overeating. I decided that the former would be the much bigger regret, so I decided to go anyway.
To counter the second regret, I decided I would explore Ikebukuro area after eating to walk some of the fullness off and digest a bit so I wouldn’t die at night. And the previous time I went to the Pokemon centre I didn’t get to explore that much also. And I’m very glad I went for ramen. Mutekiya is easily one of the best ramen shops in Tokyo, evidenced by the short queue that was already there when I went at like slightly after 4pm. By the time I left, which was about 440pm, there was a muchhhh longer queue, and I was glad I had decided to go early. I mean, it’s not even near dinner time. Where do all these people come from?
I had the smallest, most basic dish, and all the prowess of this ramen shop came through that dish. Simple, classic, but so well-executed. The broth is a little bit on the oily and thick side, but goes super well with the noodles. And the seaweed even greets you! How rare is this. Hahah. But a very delicious bowl of ramen overall. No regrets that day.
After that, as I had promised myself, I explored the Ikebukuro area, and went to the Pokemon centre again to hunt for gifts. And the number of pikachus there is no joke; I cannot get over it. This centre is much bigger than the Sendai one (thankfully) but there was just the same irritating music that kept going on repeat. Tsk.
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