For our final night in Tokyo, I ditched a planned dinner at a 'famous' restaurant, and opted for a casual night out in Aoyama. I wasn't quite feeling it to dine out like this. I had already ditched an earlier table at a three-starred Michelin restaurant the other night. I enjoy fine-dining, but mostly, I don't need my food to be done this fancy.
I can do fancy on another trip to Tokyo. This trip, I want to taste flavors that can come out of a home kitchen, and be reacquainted with everything that I've missed.
The man was indulgent and didn't mind me ditching our reservations. (Thank goodness I didn't need to pay the cancellation fees because the restaurant waived it.) He did wonder about fresh fruit cocktail bars or one of those rooftop lounges. I'm like, let's go to a basement bar please. Cocktail bars are just wasted on me. I don't care about cocktails (walao the sugar). Just give me whisky.
I wanted to go to Aoyama, an old haunt, just to see how much it has changed. Had a lovely stroll by the huge Aoyama Cemetery that's open to the public. I like this quiet cemetery loads; I only avoid it in spring since it has cherry blossoms lining the paths, and people crowd it for viewing parties and picnics. The cemetery has been around since 1874. Think of how many ghosts haunt the area. Hehheh. Did you know that Hachiko the Akita's actual grave is here? The loyal dog is buried right next to his loving owner Professor Hidesaburo Ueno.
Once the sun set, we headed to the bar for drinks first. We were still stuffed from dinner, so food would come later. Took a slow stroll and meandered through the streets. Grinned when I saw the almost-iconic Sunnyhills shop at the corner; it's designed by Kengo Kuma and the building was completed in December 2013.
There're random clothing shops and such, many carrying labels in the designs I love. But they were closed when I walked by. I didn't bother factoring time to shop; I didn't give retail shops a chance. I preferred to spend all that time at the cemetery, watching the shadows lengthen as the sun set.
We hung out at Bar Lasile / バー ラズィール that just celebrated its 18th anniversary last week. I've been coming here for years, and it felt sooo comfortable to just be having two glasses of whisky this trip. The bar makes its little snacks for patrons, and while it has some sort of weird finger food, I wouldn't suggest you order those. Just get the drinks here. It's not a fancy bar. It's just a regular cocktail bar, and it offers a decent selection of whisky. Importantly, it doesn't over-price its drinks.
Then we hopped across to a little izakaya for dinner. Went to 料理倶楽部. We didn't make a reservation and it was packed out. But they accommodated us. Wheeeee. That was awesome. It was exactly what I hoped to do for dinner on this final night in the city.
I wanted comfort food and familiar flavors. Had to have our last few highballs here too. The man wanted the beef tendon stew / 牛筋煮込み, a few grilled skewers of chicken momo and tsukune. I decided to have two sticks of grilled chicken hearts and a nikujaga /肉じゃが. Took me all of my strength to resist ordering rice to go with this meal.
Made the last connecting trains back to the hotel just past midnight. Heheheh. We didn't stay out too late on this trip and kept the alcohol intake moderate. Tonight was probably the most that we drank. Ooof. Well, we're not driving, so that makes it much easier to have drinks with our meals or randomly spread out through the day. Heh.
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