For our anniversary, we decided to go to the Ghibli Museum. We took the trains over, stopping for breakfast at Detour (which turned out to be pretty meh), and had a nice walk along the stream leading to Inokashira park, where the museum is. There was a pretty good breeze because it had been raining a tiny bit earlier in the morning, so it didn’t feel as hot as it was.
Mitaka loves the museum so much they put up signs with Totoro at the bus stops
The view from the line
We only had to wait a short time before they started getting people moved up to the admissions office despite being about 2 minutes early. After they did an initial check of our ticket receipt we queued up for another couple minutes and then this guy came out on the roof and rang a bell to signal the museum was opening:
The wall surrounding the museum have occasional decorative bricks
Garden pond
Another pond and a monument to one of the movies
A drain for a little water pump that kids can use
There are no photos allowed inside the museum, partially to keep up the mystery, and partially to keep people from standing there taking photos instead of enjoying the exhibits.
The inside of the museum is three floors total with a tiny theater on the bottom floor. The showing we got was of Caterpillar Boro. The special exhibit right now was all about food in animation. There is also large catbus that children are allowed to play on. No adults allowed. :(
After a magical few hours, we had to say goodbye to the museum. We walked up through the park in the other direction up to Kichijoji, a town that is often voted as the most desireable place to live in Tokyo, to explore a little and get some food.
The Minced Kobe Beef Katsu from Satou is famous for being extremely good. It was almost like a beef filled hush puppy, so they became very overwhelming. The pigeon in the photo knows people drop crumbs and would NOT get out from around our feet.
We found a decently rated ramen bar that ended up being a ticket ramen with the semi-private bar stalls serving Tonkotsu ramen.
First you choose a bunch of different options, like richness, firmness of your noodle, how much garlic, how spicy, and a few other things...
Then they have a whole menu of things you can order a la carte once your recieve your bowl.
The soft-boiled egg is peel yourself.
After lunch we headed back to the hotel to cool down and get ready for dinner out in Ginza.
As we were approaching the restaurant trying to figure out which part of the building it was in, the Chef popped out and addressed us by name and lead us down into the restaurant. It was pretty early in the evening so we were the only customers there at that point. We’re pretty sure he was the head chef, and was the person cooking almost the entire meal for us.
The name of the restaurant was Gomei, which is the name of a famous haiku poet, who is an ancestor of the woman who founded the restaurant.
I don’t remember what this sign said, but it was about winning an award based on the quality of their beef, I think
They had a stand and a napkin for Meghan’s purse to keep it off the floor and covered from food splatter
Here’s the certificate for the cow that gave us our beef - including 4 generations of lineage and the nose print.
The menu for the evening. The “source” is a typo that they don’t realize is a typo for “sauce”
The raw spread
They serve Akita rice, which is famous in Japan for it’s quality. They also evidently cook it in water from Akita as well. This was a theme of the evening - nearly everything was from Akita.
The chef made sure to point out to us the origin of all of the serving pieces they used, from the glasses to the plates to the bowls. They all sounded very expensive.
Akita uni (much sweeter than other uni we’ve had) on an egg custard
Grilling the next course while super gently cooking the beef.
Fresh water eel on a large piece of fois gros from Hungary (because evidently France has been having some quality issues) with a few pieces of asparagus
These are special cellophane bags from Europe that are made from the same materials as some sort of special glass. They boiled the soup in the bag right on the griddle.
Black truffle shaved right in at the end. SOUPER tasty
Great veggies and a beef and pork sausage. This was one of my favorite soups I’ve ever had, but it might have been the atmosphere (and the couple drinks I’d had already by this point).
Zucchini, a white fish, a giant shrimp, and a bell pepper with a white cream sauce with white and black pepper.
Palette cleansing lemon sorbet served in a really pretty carved glass cup. The chef was
Wasabi grated freshly for us.
A ginger based paste and Akita aged soy sauce for dipping
Finally the main course! This was very tender, expertly cooked beef. It was really good, but I can’t really compare it much with Kobe beef... Supposedly it’s much better.
Serving us our rice course
Miso soup and Sukiyaki Akita Beef
A soft cooked egg
We added half the egg to the rice after tasting the plain rice first, and then he added some sauce to the rice as well.
Tasty Japanese pickles. Whatever the brown one was, it tasted kind of smoky (in a good way)
Sukiyaki beef and some sort of root veggie
Miso soup in a pretty lacquer bowl
A free addition - Akita soba in a cold broth. The noodles were delicate and the broth was nice and refreshing since it was a little hot in the restaurant.
Pancakes for...
Dorayaki - this is a made up dessert that is featured in Doraemon, a kids cartoon here in Japan. It’s pancakes around some red bean paste.
Black tea in a fancy tea cup
Meghan got matcha with hers
And a mint sorbet with fruit to finish the meal.
All in all a wonderful meal, that wasn’t quite worth what we paid for it, but was a great experience that we’re glad we had anyway.
