Tasty Tokyo Tour--January 12

We are back after a week's vacation in Cambodia. Monday here is "coming of age day" when there are ceremonies for all the people turning 20 years old. It is also one of those Japanese holidays that my kids do not have off from school so present an opportunity for cycling. I bailed on a more ambitious ride when the missus suggested an urban tour. Given I am always encouraging them to cycle, the basic rule is to say yes if the rest of the family wants to go on a ride.

We ended up rambling through Yoyogi, Shinjuku, Yotsuya and down along the imperial palace moat. The morning was sunny and clear like so many winter days lately. We decided to continue on through Ginza and Tsukiji down to Tsukishima. We wandered along the canals and toyed with looking for the microbrewery down there but as the clouds came in it got bitterly cold, so instead we doubled back to Tsukiji. Dining in Tokyo is really a delight; the general standard is so incredibly high. We ducked into a place where you get three mini-don as a set: say salmon roe, grilled eel and mackerel. We also picked up some crab and salmon roe so the kids can enjoy some seafood this evening.

We cruised back next to the Parliament building (including the hordes of police protecting the LDP headquarters from something, disgruntled voters I suppose?) and along Aoyama dori to Jingumae. The finals of the national high school soccer tournament were on at National Stadium so we passed by the crowds and dropped by the Narushima Friends shop. http://www.nalsimafrend.jp/cgi-bin/cms/index.cgi　Have to put in a plug for them as it is a really friendly shop with reasonable prices. We actually passed one of the mechanics cycling the other direction in Shinjuku at 10:30 or so. He had repaired my bike prior to the Izumo century last fall. When we showed up at the shop three hours later he was like "didn't we pass each other over in Shinjuku this morning?" Kind of funny in a city of 30 million people.

Sneaking back past Harajuku station to come home there was some young, flashy model being photographed in the middle of the street and blocking traffic. You never know what you will come across.