Lost in inebriation
A great big kanpai from Tokyo to our friends and family back home!
We were up late last night to check the Stranraer score, watch the Manchester derby and get bored to sleep by the Anthony Joshua fight, so it was another lie in this morning before a slap-up feast for lunch.
It was only a ten minute walk down the road to get to Nabezo, a well-regarded restaurant in our neighbourhood which we'd booked a few weeks ago.
Located on the 4th floor of an unassuming apartment building, the busy eatery specialises in the traditional Japanese dishes of sukiyaki and shabu-shabu. Both consist of very thinly-sliced meat, which you drag through a rich, sweet sauce, dip in raw egg and enjoy.
Nabezo offers an all you can eat lunch course including unlimited soft drinks for under £15, which once we'd got the hang of it was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.
Not only could we eat as much meat as we liked, there was an endless supply of fresh Japanese ingredients such as enoki mushrooms, baby corn and tofu, with udon noodles and rice to soak up any delicious broth left over.
Having eaten ourselves almost to death, we strolled at a leisurely pace back towards the hotel, meeting two new mascots on the way - Orante-kun and Shin-Nyaka, representing Asakusa's Orange Street and Nakamise Street respectively.
After a brief stop at the hotel to rest our stomachs and do some ironing, we glammed up a bit and ventured out to Shinjuku, where Tokyo's corporate workforce go to work and play.
One of the more well-known hotels in this area is the Park Hyatt Tokyo, known for its appearances in Sofia Coppola's 2003 film Lost In Translation.
If you catch the elevator to the 53rd floor of the building, you can sample a small taste of the luxury on offer during the hotel's Twilight Time happy hour. For 6000 yen (£45), you have three hours to choose any number of drinks from the generous menu, before helping yourself to an assortment of canapés.
The nibbles included a thimble of corn potage (sweetcorn soup), mini pumpkin pie, fresh Japanese beef with pickled root vegetables, grilled shrimp with wild leaves, roasted mixed nuts, seasoned popcorn and salted tortilla chips.
The smartly-dressed waiting staff occasionally popped their heads in to offer us a hot canapé from the kitchen. We managed to try slow cooked beef, grilled swordfish and sea bream, roast chicken and roast pork.
Of course it wouldn't be happy hour without a few drinks. We did pretty well to work our way around the available poisons, starting off civilised with a glass of Australian sparkling brut, moving on a nice Japanese Tomi No Oka merlot, sampling a tasty ume plum wine called Shirokaga Umesyu, and finishing with very very nice and tasty Togetsuru whisky liqueur.
Somewhere in this increasingly blurry evening, we also tested out their cocktail skills with a couple of grasshoppers, the occasional whisky sour, and a few matadors and margaritas. I'm glad I made notes at the time!
On top of all this fine liquor, Lucinda had chosen some stylish high heels to wear with her floor-length gown, which compounded our inability to walk in a straight line. We got some funny looks on the way back to the hotel as we stumbled along the street together like a pair of reprobates.
Having eventually made it safely to the hotel, we changed into something more comfortable and popped out to see if the ramen place round the corner was still open (it wasn't), or if we'd have to settle for nibbles from 7 Eleven (we did).
Thankfully we slept okay and the hangover's not too bad, so we've learned absolutely nothing and will probably get steaming again before we leave!
酔って
George
We were up late last night to check the Stranraer score, watch the Manchester derby and get bored to sleep by the Anthony Joshua fight, so it was another lie in this morning before a slap-up feast for lunch.
It was only a ten minute walk down the road to get to Nabezo, a well-regarded restaurant in our neighbourhood which we'd booked a few weeks ago.
Located on the 4th floor of an unassuming apartment building, the busy eatery specialises in the traditional Japanese dishes of sukiyaki and shabu-shabu. Both consist of very thinly-sliced meat, which you drag through a rich, sweet sauce, dip in raw egg and enjoy.
Nabezo offers an all you can eat lunch course including unlimited soft drinks for under £15, which once we'd got the hang of it was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.
Not only could we eat as much meat as we liked, there was an endless supply of fresh Japanese ingredients such as enoki mushrooms, baby corn and tofu, with udon noodles and rice to soak up any delicious broth left over.
Having eaten ourselves almost to death, we strolled at a leisurely pace back towards the hotel, meeting two new mascots on the way - Orante-kun and Shin-Nyaka, representing Asakusa's Orange Street and Nakamise Street respectively.
After a brief stop at the hotel to rest our stomachs and do some ironing, we glammed up a bit and ventured out to Shinjuku, where Tokyo's corporate workforce go to work and play.
One of the more well-known hotels in this area is the Park Hyatt Tokyo, known for its appearances in Sofia Coppola's 2003 film Lost In Translation.
If you catch the elevator to the 53rd floor of the building, you can sample a small taste of the luxury on offer during the hotel's Twilight Time happy hour. For 6000 yen (£45), you have three hours to choose any number of drinks from the generous menu, before helping yourself to an assortment of canapés.
The nibbles included a thimble of corn potage (sweetcorn soup), mini pumpkin pie, fresh Japanese beef with pickled root vegetables, grilled shrimp with wild leaves, roasted mixed nuts, seasoned popcorn and salted tortilla chips.
The smartly-dressed waiting staff occasionally popped their heads in to offer us a hot canapé from the kitchen. We managed to try slow cooked beef, grilled swordfish and sea bream, roast chicken and roast pork.
Of course it wouldn't be happy hour without a few drinks. We did pretty well to work our way around the available poisons, starting off civilised with a glass of Australian sparkling brut, moving on a nice Japanese Tomi No Oka merlot, sampling a tasty ume plum wine called Shirokaga Umesyu, and finishing with very very nice and tasty Togetsuru whisky liqueur.
Somewhere in this increasingly blurry evening, we also tested out their cocktail skills with a couple of grasshoppers, the occasional whisky sour, and a few matadors and margaritas. I'm glad I made notes at the time!
On top of all this fine liquor, Lucinda had chosen some stylish high heels to wear with her floor-length gown, which compounded our inability to walk in a straight line. We got some funny looks on the way back to the hotel as we stumbled along the street together like a pair of reprobates.
Having eventually made it safely to the hotel, we changed into something more comfortable and popped out to see if the ramen place round the corner was still open (it wasn't), or if we'd have to settle for nibbles from 7 Eleven (we did).
Thankfully we slept okay and the hangover's not too bad, so we've learned absolutely nothing and will probably get steaming again before we leave!
酔って
George
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