Sushi Time!

Wow, okay...it has cretainly been a busy 24 hours here in Tokyo.  

Steven and I are now on the 新幹線(Shinkansen), or bullet train, headed to an 温泉 (onsen) hot spring in 熱海 (Atami) which is about an hour away from Tokyo.

Two nights ago, on Friday, after our tea tasting, we went to a very cool sushi place that Steven had found in Ginza.  The place was called かくとう (Kakutou), which was the name of the sushi chef, and was highly acclaimed on Tabelog, a website that rates food establishments, not unlike Yelp.

Our meal started with two or three courses of zensai, or appetizers, to whet the palette prior to the おまかせ (omakase) sushi tasting, where everything is left to the chef.

Just some little bowls of vegetables and fish, lightly marinated or cooked.  After that, we were onto the sushi.  

Piece by piece, Kakutou-san laid out some fanastically fresh fish.  All of it was simply prepared, and expertly cut, sometimes topped with a bit of salt, garnish or yuzu, and sometimes just the fish.  Though I am tempted to include all of the photos (which Kakutou-san was okay with me taking), I will just display a few of the all-stars, including this beautiful toro (fatty tuna), shima aji (horse mackerel) and uni (sea urchin).  

After having some 寿司茶 (sushi-cha) green tea special for sushi restaurants, Steven I headed out, our stomachs full and souls content.  This had been a great sushi experience!

It had been a long day and we were beat, but not too tired to stop by Propaganda in the Roppongi district for a quick drink.  This was actually the first bar I had ever visited in Tokyo, and not much had changed since way back then.

Wow, this was a quick Shinkansen ride....we are in Atami already!  I will write more later, but it's time to get off the train.