I was hoping to hele to Fukuoka to see my cousins but it wasn’t the right time since COVID is still a concern so we spent some time in Tokyo. After Kanazawa, we headed to Tokyo and checked in to the Royal Park Shiodome where I have stayed twice before. It is so convenient since there is an underground connection to the hotel from Shimbashi station which is close to many good places to eat and is close to Ginza for shopping. Fortunately, we were able to check in early at the hotel so we dropped our bags off and went to Yurakucho for shopping at the prefectural “antenna” shops where we picked up ramen, ume, and ika sauce. After shopping in the hot and humid weather, we ate some cold noodles before bringing our things back to the hotel to cool off for a bit in the air conditioning. We walked to Ginza for a stop at Donki to get some snacks to bring home. That evening, we headed to dinner at Maihama, an izakaya in Shimbashi where we met up with my Kalanianaole School pal Kurt. We ate sashimi, crab, yamaimo, agedashi tofu!

The next morning, we sent some bags to our final stop in Ikaho so we wouldn’t have to lug it on the train. After taking care of that errand, we headed to Tsukiji outer market where we found abalone steamed in shoyu, ankimo, wasabi, nori, and a knife, and finally took a break and ate some sushi at the counter at Sushi Zanmai.

After cooling off at the hotel for a bit, we decided to get cocktails in the bar at the 24th-floor lobby at the hotel. It was a lovely and relaxing time before heading to dinner at an unagi restaurant at Mitsukoshi Ginza. This Nagoya-style unagi-don was so delicious! The large size was too much for me to finish. I’ll be back here again! Living Hilo Style in Tokyo.