Back to Japan for the first time in four years!

What I had first as part of my first meal in Japan in four years :)
 

Straw-smoked katsuo (bonito), served up with two different

sauces and assorted items to top it with :b

 

In between my previous blog post and this one, I've been away from Hong Kong as well as took some time off from being online.  I'm still catching up on what's been happening in Hong Kong while I've been away and since my return.  So instead of adding my say to that, here's going ahead and blogging instead about some of what I did while away from the number one place I love and visiting the number one country I most enjoy visiting.  For, yes, four years to the month after my previous visit to the Land of the Rising Sun, I made another trip to Japan! 

 

With so much having happened (in the world at large as well as to Hong Kong) in that time, I did have some pre-trip anxiety as well as excitement.  And because I worried that things there would have changed a lot over there (as well as here), I decided to start the trip of with the familiar: a couple of days in Tokyo, a city I've visited multiple times (the first time back in 1982 and most recently in May 2019).

 

Upon landing in Japan though, the anxiety melted away.  It helped that I passed through immigration controls both in Hong Kong as well as Tokyo smoothly, and the customs too.  The train ride into the city went smoothly too; ditto check in to my hotel.  It help me to relax too that I had booked in at the hotel that I've stayed the most times in when in Tokyo and that the surroundings were largely familiar -- with many shops and eateries that I knew still being around (though it's also true enough that there were boarded up fronts and empty lots where a few familiar establishments used to be -- including *sob* a favourite sushi place)!

 

If that sushi place had still been around, it would have been where I would have my first meal in Japan in four years.  Instead, I ended up opting for an izakaya in the area: one which I had never been to previously but, still, was familiar enough in terms of my knowing what to expect there -- including an otoshi (compulsory appetizer) to accompany my first glass of refreshing nama biru (draft beer) to start off and my being able to enjoy the Japanese equivalent of tapas-style dining.    

 

There was sashimi moriawase (assorted raw fish) on the menu but I opted for the straw-smoked katsuo, a photograph of which had been posted outside the establishment and enticed me to give this particular izakaya a try.  When the dish arrived at my table and I tasted the first generous chunk of the fish, I knew that I had made the right choice -- and, well, let's just say that it was a portend of what turned out to be yet another enjoyable, food feast-filled time in Japan!

 

Put another way: Japan, I missed you so -- and worried, among other things, that you might have changed (for the worse) and, also, that with each passing day, week, month and year of not visiting, I was over-hyping you up more and more.  But you delivered once again: not only in terms of delicious food and drinks, and interesting sights and experiences -- but, also, with the amazing omotenashi, courteous, gentle and friendly ways that many of your people have. Oh, and than there's things Funassyi... but that I'll talk about more in later posts (though I will state for now that OF COURSE I could not resist visiting Funassyi's hometown of Funabashi once more this time around)! :)