Tokyo Day 2 - Shibuyu By Night and Sushi

Tokyo Day 2 - Shibuyu By Night and Sushi

• May 26, 2015

It's about 6pm, and we're refreshed after a sit down and a quick shower. We're staying at the Sunroute Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku and pretty happy about the location. It was great to recharge ourselves after all the walking we'd done. 

3 min walk over to Shinjuku JR station, and we hop onto the train to Shibuyu for dinner and some browsing. Out comes our SUICA card, already charged from the airport. It makes public transport travelling a whole load easier. 

Shinjuku station is super busy and Shibuyu even more so. We are packed like sardines on the train! 

The lights and buzz of Shibuya got me so excited! 

This dude didn't have much of an audience, but that didn't put him off. 

Lots of quirky shops like these as we wander through the crowds. With rumbling bellies, there's no time for shopping.

We found plenty of dinner choices on this street, so we give it a go.

I spy a standing sushi bar but G isn't so sure. So just to make sure it wasn't a crummy sushi joint, we turn on the our rented pocket wi-fi and give it a quick Google. Looks like it's a thumbs up so in we go! 

The pocket wi-fi is one of the best things you could ever do for a holiday in a foreign country. Japan has it's own mobile network and we were not going to be able to just buy a sim card with data and get on the net. This gadget saves lives, a lot of tears and most definitely frustration. Don't know how to get somewhere, Google map! Don't know how to say that in Japanese, Google translate! Don't know if this place is worth eating at, Google it!

So back to the standing sushi bar. As the name suggests, there are no seats. When you're done eating your fill, just pay up and walk out. 

It looks pretty good to me!

A lot of the sushi were ¥150 for 2. That's less than £1 for 2 pieces!!! We are going to stuff our faces. 

Standard sushi fix'ins. Tea is self serve from the hot water tap to the right. Awesome.

Yellowtail and salmon. They were incredibly fresh and the fish oils melted on our tongue. Delicious! 

Bincho Maguro and salmon slightly seared then topped with mayo. The seared salmon works so well with the mayo and smokiness from the blow torch! 

Fatty tuna o-toro. Works out at less than £2 a piece, in London, we'd be lucky to pay £6 a piece! 

We are so happy by this stage we could cry. One of the best things about travelling has to be finding amazing food. The sushi here was just phenomenal. 

Seared squid, horse mackerel (perfectly marinaded in vinegar), seared prawn topped with mayo. I can't get enough of the seared sushi.  

Scallop sushi.

Whelk sushi. This had a fantastic bouncy and plump texture, with a lovely sweet fragrance. 

Octopus seared and topped with a thick teriyaki sauce. Died and went to sushi heaven at this point.

White fish soup looked interesting so we give it a go. The fish is meaty and falling off the bones. The soup is light with a great depth of flavour and not at all fishy. This is the difference between fresh fish and not so fresh fish. We loved it. 

A final hand roll with fatty tuna. When an o-toro hand roll costs ¥200 (£1.30) you don't say no do you?!

We are so incredibly happy from dinner we're grinning from ear to ear. If we go back to Tokyo, we are absolutely coming back to the standing sushi bar!

Uogashi Nihon Ichi Standing Sushi Bar

2-9-1 Dogenzaka 

Shibuya

Tokyo

We know from following B-Kyu's itinerary that there is a retro games arcade in Shibuya and G is dying to check it out. Being the great games geek that he is, this was a must visit. Shibuya Kaikan Monaco arcade can be found at 23-10 Udagawacho, Shibuya-ku. 

Old school Mario! This arcade is retro and beyond.

I was sure I was going to be bored for the time to took for G to finish geeking out, but then I stumbled across the one and only DDR!! This was big in my days and college hangout memories came flooding back. For old time's sake, I'm on it!

Dodgy underground arcade didn't deter G...

After all that gaming and geeking out, we need a late night munchy. We are stuffed from sushi, but how could we resist a piping hot rice burger filled with equally tongue-burning-hot prawn and veg filling? The prawns were coated in a sauce much like gravy so it wouldn't be dry against the rice. It was god damn good. Half a burger each and half the fries meant half the calories...! 

The famous Shibuyu crossing.

It's a wrap for day 2. We need an early night as we are going to hit Tsukiji fish market tomorrow. We're not getting up for the 4am tuna auctions, but we're aiming for a decent 8-9am start.