I half-expected, when my brother, sister and I set off on our Japanese voyage, that we would be eating sushi all the time. While this proved not to be the case in landlocked cities, when we finally made it to Tokyo, that’s exactly what we did.
Even the sushi chains in Tokyo were amazing, like the one we found ourselves in our first night in town. Itamae is famous for its tuna, boasting a sushi platter option made up entirely of different toro and maguro options.
While my siblings both dug into the tuna-only platter, I opted for a slightly more varied board with tuna but also sweet shrimp, omelette, and uni.
The next day, following our cherry blossom wander, my brother and I stumbled into Shinjuku-Sakaezushi, which seemed to be quite popular among the locals.
We each dug into the same brightly-colored platter and dubbed it a winner.
On the last day before I caught some odd flu that incapacitated me for our last two days in Tokyo, we took a wander through the Tsukiji Market. Once known for its spectacular bluefin tuna wholesale auctions, the market now is far tamer, though still worth a visit.
After we perused the stalls, we stopped at Sushi Zanmai, a sushi train restaurant, for a bite.
After a short wait, we grabbed a seat at the counter and began picking up plates.
There was lots of tuna – unsurprising, given the market’s history.
I was a huge fan of this raw sweet shrimp topped with Japanese mayo and ikura.
This pale fatty tuna, accompanied by tamago, was also stellar.
As with other sushi train restaurants, pricing is done by the color of the plate you grab. While usually, restaurants count up your plates when you finish, here, each plate was equipped with a sensor. The waitress merely came over and pointed a small scanner at our pile, and our check was ready!
Itamae – 3 Chome−8-17 Akasaka
Shinjuku-Sakaezushi – 3 Chome-6-2 Shinjuku
Sushi Zanmai – 4 Chome-11-9 Tsukiji