Our First Visitor! — Foleys In Japan

About a week ago now, we had our first visitor since the move to Japan; Uncle Nick (or Nick for short)! The kids were super excited to have visitors. They knew that a visit from Uncle Nick meant that we would have to take him to all of our new favorite restaurants.

Nick had a work trip to India and scheduled his layovers in Tokyo in order to come visit. He was actually in town for a single night on his way to India and then returned for a few days afterwards. On his way to India, I met him in Tokyo and took him to a local sushi place that a Japanese friend had recommended. It was a very high-pressure situation as Nick and his two co-workers were relying on me to get them food. Luckily, I was able to use enough Japanese to get us fed and keep our thirsts quenched.

A week later, Nick returned after his business trip to India. He landed in Tokyo at 8am and was obviously tired from a long flight. To help get over some of that, I decided we would hit up a popular ramen place in Yokohama; Ichirian. I had been there once before and wanted to make up for some mistakes I made the first time; not ordering everything I wanted and also eating way too much. I was only successfull in one of these things. Both of us stuffed our faces with delicious tonkotsu ramen and our stomachs weren't too happy later.

After letting Nick sleep in, we awoke on Saturday to beautiful Yokohama weather. The first restaurant outing was to The Happy Pancake to introduce Nick to the wonder of Japanese soufle pancakes. I don't believe anybody left disappointed.

For dinner, we had reservations on the 70th floor of Landmark Plaza, with a babysitter lined up to handle Miles and Calvin. While the view was pretty spectacular, the food was only mediocre and a bit expensive. Still, with good company and good drinks, it was a fun time.

The next morning, Nick and I headed off on a crazy adventure. Setting our alarms for 4:30 AM (yes, that is correct), we caught the 5:12AM train to Tokyo in order to secure tickets for a Michelin Star ramen joint, Tsuta. This will get it's own post but to sum it up; we were succesfull in getting tickets and it was delicious. Full details coming soon.

On our train home from Michelin ramen, Elsa informed me that the kids were super excited to take Nick to their favorite restaurant, Hamazushi. After some quick powernaps to recharge our up-since-430am-batteries, we hit the playground to play a little soccer (and burn of a few calories) before going out to induldge again.

Hamazushi is the same place that we posted about a while back. It has become our go-to restaurant with the kids. The food is great, it's ridiculously cheap, and it's so much fun. With a third adult in tow, we set a new record for plates and sushi consumed. Miles really hit his sushi stride this time, consuming way more than previously, and trying all kinds of fish he hadn't on prior trips. He's become all about sushi.

Up until this point, Nick's entire trip had been food-oriented. That was definitely by design, but Elsa also couldn't let Nick come to Japan without at least some sightseeing. So, on Monday, we set out for the town of Kamakura to check out the giant Buddha statue (Daibutsu).

On Nick's final day, he decided that two ramen experiences wasn't quite enough so we set out for yet another ramen joint. This time we went to Ippudo, which we've determined is a little bit more delicious than Ichiran. A big bonus is that you can get gyoza with your ramen which is awesome. The kids were at school, and Elsa took a rare day off to come join in the fun.

After lunch, we only had a precious few hours before Nick's flight back to Seattle. Nearby our lunch spot though was the annual Yokohama Oktoberfest. So, we went on in and grabbed a few beers. All the major players were there, from Lowenbrau to Hofbrau. We only stayed for a single drink, but I could definitely see myself returning next year.