Ups & Downs

18 May 2015

Today was a day of ups and downs.

Sukiyaki Yoshihashi is a Michelin star restaurant with a very good lunch deal. Their dinner courses can go up to 20,000Y, but lunch is just about 10-15% of that price. I love, love, LOVE sukiyaki. It is one of my favourite dishes. And I love it all the more when it is executed super well. One can only imagine my excitement at being able to eat MICHELIN-STANDARD SUKIYAKI. Like, what?! What kind of privilege is that?! And I’m glad to say, it met every single expectation. 

There is the normal size one, for about 2,150 and a large one for about 3,250. So of course I went for the large one, because, why not? And when else am I going to get the chance to eat this? So, so good. They didn’t allow pictures, but I managed to sneak some before the lady came and told us no pictures hahah. So sukiyaki was an up.

After a very satisfying lunch, I went for the Naruto exhibition, which was one of the things I knew I couldn’t miss while I was here. They also didn’t allow pictures, understandably so, but I felt it was such a pity. I’m definitely not like the biggest fan of Naruto, though I do follow the anime. But there is something about seeing the draft work and inspiration behind such a massive franchise that has gone global and is widely recognised and celebrated. It was pretty cool to trace the path of how Naruto was conceived and developed, and where it will go from here. The craziest part of the exhibition was the merchandise sales section tho. Like everyone was grabbing everything off the shelves. I guess cos that’s the only part of the exhibition you can bring home with you. Oh, but they did give a free comic revealing Kakashi’s face. But yeah, I was glad I went for the exhibition. I expected to see more fanatic fans, but everyone was pretty subdued and respectful. Mm, Japanese. Naruto exhibition was an up, too.

Walked around the city after that, and decided to go to Takano Fruit Parlour for some dessert, BUT IT WAS CLOSED. Like, it was closed on this ONE DAY, and I just HAD to decide to go on this ONE DAY. So this was a down. I was feeling a little bummed about it, cos I read so much about it and I was really excited to try it. Imagine my disappointment when I saw the following.

But no matter, because just across the road I spotted one Croissant Taiyaki, which also had rave reviews, so I decided to give it a shot. And they were having a special new flavour!! Hokkaido melon cream filling. BUT THE LADY BEFORE ME BOUGHT THE LAST ONE. )))))’: and the counter girl was SO apologetic I felt so bad. So I had to get a normal custard one. So this was a down. 

But the custard one was really good, no complaints there. And I totally understand the hype about it. The filling is delicious, yes, but that crust. That taiyaki crust is not normal. It’s really croissant. It’s warm, buttery, and studded with bits of large grained sugar that complement the savoury buttery taste of the croissant crust. DELISH. But no melon cream filling. I guess my life is relegated to classic flavours. 

So the day was still early, and I decided to go to the Pokemon centre because why not, and it was one of the things on my list that I had yet to do. It’s pretty impressive, filled with pikachus (and rightly so cos pikachu is the only pokemon that matters cuz he’s the cutest) but there was this really irritating music that kept going on repeat. It was the newest opening song for the anime if I’m not wrong. BUT IT WAS SO ANNOYING. How do the staff there bear with it.

En route back I decided to pick up some Pablo rare cheesecake. We walked past another shop somewhere in town when I was with Vanesa and Hayley, and it looked really good but I couldn’t buy it then cuz I was going to Sendai the next day, but I really wanted to try it, so I decided I would eat that for dinner. It was really good, but def not for people who aren’t into creamy and mushy food. But, delicious.