Tokyo - Hedgehog Cafe, Sushi Nakamura for some of the best sushi ever

Trip Diary Day 25 - 23 April 2019

Tokyo

Check out Episode 19 of our Epic Family Road Trip Across Japan.

Glitch Coffee & Roasters

We’ve come to our penultimate day Japan. We had no big plans for things to do in Tokyo on this visit. We’ve been to Tokyo before, but we did have plans to meet up with some friends for lunch, visit a hedgehog cafe and have a final sushi meal in Tokyo.

First things first, I had to move the car from the free spot provided by the concierge at the hotel at about 10, and then move it to the spot we’d booked the night before - across the road from the hotel. After breakfast we caught the train to Jimbocho and Glitch Coffee & Roasters for some excellent croissants, Danish, chocolate bagels, as well as very good coffees.

Lunch Catch-up with Friends

The best way to get around Tokyo is by train so obviously after coffee we caught the train to Higashi-Ginza and a little jewellery store, Atelier. Atelier belongs to our friend’s Ippei and Janine’s family. After a wonderful welcome from Janine Ippei arrived and hugged us all. They took us to a lunch at a local izakaya. A little basement restaurant with hole in the floor seating. We had set meals for the adults plus bits and pieces for the kids. 7900 yen in total for all of us. Wonderful value. You can get great meals in Tokyo for a very reasonable price. We had great a conversation with Janine and Ippei. They are really lovely. I wish I could remember the name of the restaurant, but it doesn’t matter anyway. It closed its doors during Covid, like many restaurants unfortunately. We said our farewells to Ippei and Janine. It was amazing to catch up with them.

Sukiyabashi and Turret Coffee

We walked to Sukiyabashi crossing for photos. Sukiyabashi Crossing is almost as famous as Shibuya Crossing but nowhere near as busy or iconic as Shibuya. But we’ve been coming here for years, and it is a top spot to get your classic Tokyo pedestrian crossing photos. We had excellent strong coffee at the Turret Coffee pop up store in the Ginza Sony Park building. I think the previous building had been demolished the current one built since the last time we were here. Downstairs from the coffee shop were Sony concept stores including Conveni. A clothing store made to look like a typical convenience store. The kids met Sparky and Chocolate the Aibo robot dogs. Apparently Aibos were discontinued a short time after we visited. They could retail for as much as $3000. Yikes.

Harry Hedgehog Cafe, Takeshita Street & Totti Candy

We walked down to Higashi station to catch the train to Harajuku to surprise the kids with a visit to Harry Hedgehog cafe. Harry’s is, as it says on the sign, a hedgehog cafe. You get to pet hedgehogs in a cafe. It’s about 1400 yen per person to enter this ethically dubious cafe and pet and hold the hedgehogs. 1630JPY to feed the hedgehogs worms. So this visit cost us about 6000 yen for the four of us. There were a couple of vending machines for “free” drinks. Drinks are included in the price. At each table was half a drum with kibble in it and 4 hedgehogs. We were had to wash our hands and then put on gloves before could handle the hedgehogs though. Then we had 30 minutes of hedgehog time. It was kind of fun even it is ethically dodgy. I think we’d draw the line at owls or other exotic creatures. It must be very stressful for the animals.

Harry’s have hedgehogs for sale as well. You could take one home for between 30000 yen and 100000 yen. That’s around 300 bucks to over 1000 bucks each. Jesus.

After spending quality time with our new hedgehog friends we wandered down Takashita street to the Totti candy store for cotton candy. We didn’t get the huge head sized ones just a couple of milk shake container sized cotton candies. Otherwise Takeshita Street is full of fashion stores, so for us not that interesting. But if you’re keen to see the latest Tokyo fashions or recycled fashion head to Harajuku and Takeshita Street. I like saying Takeshita. I don’t know why.

Sushi Nakamura

Ippei had booked a sushi restaurant for us, Sushi Nakamura, so we caught a train to Roppongi for Sushi Nakamura. Nakamura was a bit surprised to see us. The chef had no idea who Ippei was, no idea who we were, and no booking. Then it hit us like a plate of sushi. We figured we might just be at the wrong place. Who knew there could be two Sushi Nakamuras. Apparently the one we wated was the Tsujiki Sushi Nakamura. It was right on 6pm at this point. Our booking was for 6. So we ran for a taxi. No catching trains this time. We tried to call the restaurant from the taxi but couldn’t make myself understood. They thought I was trying to make a reservation. Then at about 6.30 got an email from Ippei saying the restaurant had called and wondered where we were. I replied we were on our way in a taxi and please tell them we are so very sorry. You really don’t want to be rude and arrive late at a classy sushi restaurant. Finally we arrived at about 6.45, only 45 minutes late. The taxi was 2500 yen as there had been so much traffic. People always complain about Tokyo taxi prices but we’ve found it to be not unreasonably priced. Probably cheaper than Melbourne.

Nakumura and his hostess were very happy to see us and made us feel very welcome even though we were very late. Nakamura was a delight and was great with the kids. Sometimes high end restaurants in Japan are very reluctant to allow kids to visit. There were only two other customers - a man and a woman.

Michelle and I both had the omakase set. Omakase means “I’ll leave it up to you”. Essentially there is no menu and the chef decides what seasonal specialties to server. They’ll often ask if you have allergies or if there is something you don’t like. Don’t be like the person I saw in Sukiyabashi Jiro who said she didn’t like seafood. American, need I say more? Nakamura made individual sushi for the kids. Pretty much whatever they liked. Tuna for Georgia and then wagyu. Brandy had prawn and wagyu then ginger sushi. Nakamura made a few different types of sushi for Brandy - all ginger - once he realised that Brandy really really liked pickled ginger. He thought Brandy was kawaii (cute). So did the hostess and waitress. The hostess touched Brandy’s hair saying “kawaii”.

The sashimi, sushi and other dishes were amazing. Some things familiar others not, or familiar with a new modern twist. We had great matcha tea and a small chocolate ball things for dessert to finish. During the meal I had a small beer and Michelle and I had sake. It all came to about 44500 yen in total. 10000 cash and the rest on my Cashcard. The money had finally come through. I had been starting to panic. We’d run out of cash and the Travel Card had bottomed out. I had tried to load it but forgot it was the Easter Monday holiday in Oz the day before which explained why it took so long to clear. The joys of going over budget and running out of cash in the last few days of your holiday. Oh well, the food had been magnificent and well worth the expense. It was the most expensive meal on this trip but nowhere near what we’ve spent on sushi in Tokyo before.

Getting back to the hotel for our last night in Tokyo

We caught the train home with one line change. Our ICOCA card finally ran out of credit after the first train, so we bought tickets for the second leg. Wrong machine. Wrong ticket. Wouldn’t work. The man at the gate of the Toei line said you can get your money back from the other line across the way then you can buy a new ticket here. So we did. The other ticket office refunded our tickets. That wouldn’t happen in Australia. Can you imagine going to a ticket office with tickets and asking for a refund? Then the first guy helped us buy the new tickets. The IC cards were so handy. Will make sure we have them again next time. The adult cards have a 10 year expiration on them. Georgia’s child one a little sooner. We stopped at Lawson for milk. Back in our room we started packing and throwing out food we won’t use. Finished this at about 12.30am. Check out is at 11 am in the morning and our flight home at 8 pm. We will have to find something to do between 11 and around 2 when we drive to the airport to return the car. I reckon it will involve eating and drinking coffee. That’s how we started this trip in Japan, and I suspect, that is how we will finish.

See you in the next one.

Epic Family Road Trip Japan on Youtube

Check out Episode 19 of our Epic Family Road Trip Across Japan.

Many of the pictures on this page are by Michelle. Essentially the good ones. Michelle retains full copyright and they can not be reproduced without permission. For licensing and using the photos contact Michelle at Michelle Newnan Photography