Explore Central TOKYO – Tsukiji Market Food Tour and Ramen Alley

Explore Central TOKYO – Tsukiji Market Food Tour and Ramen Alley

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Welcome back to Adventures of a Traveling Dawn and our continued series here in Japan. And today we are visiting the downtown district of Tokyo, the Chuo City Ward. And of course, we’re starting here at Market. We’ll eventually get to Tokyo Station, that area around Imperial Palace. But first off, let’s check out this market. [Music] All right. So, we are in Skiju Market and this is a place that goes back to the Edeto period. However, it wasn’t a market back then. Uh they actually have a little timeline that you can kind of as you’re walking towards the market, check it out. But it used to be an area where the samurai residences used to be and I believe during the Maji period they kind of restored and they wanted to turn this area into a market for foreigners um for their kind of like their first uh introduction into Japan. And that’s kind of been what it is uh since then because this is very much a tourist place. It’s really what I would call a tourist trap. You look around and I’ve been here a few days in Japan. And I definitely have not paid the amount of money that I would pay for many of these things, particularly like sushi, sashimi. So, if you’re looking for those kinds of foods, y try it while you’re here. You know, it’s part of the experience. But just know that you are paying premium rates. There are some things though, like the tamago I just got, which is basically a Japanese omelette. Oh, nice and fluffy. A little sweet, which is interesting to have a kind of sweet egg, but really good. And that was only like about 200 yen, so um much more affordable. But yeah, some of like the sashimi and sushi prices I’ve seen, I’m sure they’re really good. Particularly the tuna around here, it’s what they’re known for. But uh it’s like 3,000 yen for a um a set of sushimi that is like half the size maybe that I would see for that price. Um and just kind of generic sushi shop here in Tokyo. So still it is part of the experience. Now I’m going to finish my egg. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] So another cheapish eat that I found um here at market is this little croquette shop. It’s called a manga. It’s like a manga croette. So looks actually really kind of good. I know it’s stuffed. I’m not exactly sure what’s in there. Um, but it is topped with spicy um fish eggs. So, let’s go and give it a try. Oh. Oh, that’s good. The the spicy fish egg whether it’s puree or a sauce, it’s really good on top. But I think it’s like a mixture of pork and I think some other seafood in there. I’m not too sure. I’m just making a mess on myself though. Those are actually really tasty. Very messy, but very tasty. [Music] So, third dish on the menu is a fried scallop skewer. This was about 700 yen, so like somewhere around $5, I think. Something like that. Not too bad. It’s I like the breading of it. It’s a little chewy, but flavor-wise. It’s actually very chewy. Maybe maybe if it was like straight out the thing, but I don’t know. Oh, like I said, the uh the breading on there was was really really nice. The flavor of this guy is actually pretty good. It’s just I think it’s been sitting out a little bit too long. So, it’s a little chewy, but still if you can get a fresh one, try to get the fresh one. So, a couple of things of note when you are here in Sukiji Market or really one of one note is for anywhere in Tokyo. Um, this I’ve been carrying around for the last 10 minutes trying to find a place to put it because I went around in circling. Actually, there is a um inside kind of like food court, food market um that’s uh connected, I think, to the outer market. It’s still uh however, I’ve noticed in there certain items uh that you find out here, like sushimi, most of it is more like actual ruffish that you take with you to go um and cook, you know, at your Airbnb, your house, wherever. But some of the stuff that they did sell was a little bit cheaper than out on the outer market, and there weren’t as many people. Now, they don’t allow photos or film. I saw people still doing it. I’m not going to do that. I’m going to respect that, but still definitely check out the inside part of the market as well. Also, like I said, finding a place for this is a little hard sometimes, particularly around here. And I will say one thing I’ve also really loved notewise about Japan, the fruit here is phenomenal. It’s I would say a little pricier than in general than getting uh fruit. Well, nowadays, I don’t know, with um everything that we got going on in the US when it comes to inflation, but even still, most of the time, I find fruit a little bit more uh cheaper back home, but still, I don’t know. There’s just more care given into this. The flavor of those grapes. Absolutely fantastic. [Music] So, while you’re in Sukiji Market, if you’re kind of like looking for some place to just kind of like take a step back, relax, get away from the crowds, come a little bit further down from the main on the still on the main strip. Um, but head down to I think it’s Kun Kunuk uh coffee house. It’s kind of cool. Like the vibe in here is awesome. They’ve got all these plants. It’s really nicely set up. Um, just the aesthetics is phenomenal. And we’re going to go and try their coffee real quick. That was really hot. I don’t know why we think that one’s going to be hot, but Ooh, flavor-wise though, that is very nice. And it’s, you know, I believe it’s still technically part of Market cuz there are still stalls and shops down this side, but once you get away from those first two, three blocks, it kind of quiets down. So, yeah, it’s honestly come down to this side and, you know, there’s still a couple of places to eat. Uh, and then, of course, you can get some really great coffee here and just kind of sit and relax. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] So, one more gem to check out while you’re here in the market area is the Namayok Inari Shrine, which is right behind me. Absolutely fantastic shrine. Beautiful. It’s got two iconic big lion heads which I believe that they take out every June for a festival and they parade them through the streets here in kind of cool. It’s got a nice history to it. I think it goes back to like the Edeto period in the 1600s when it was built. But absolutely phenomenal little shrine just kind of at the back end of market um away from all the hustle and bustle. So really kind of cool. Definitely got to check that out when you’re here. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Now, before you leave the market area, there is one more spot you definitely want to check out, particularly when it comes to religion and culture, and that is behind me. And that is the Hungwanji Temple. And this is a Buddhist temple. I think it is a specific sect called actually I’m going to rig that look that up. Jodo sinshu hungji ja or hwan jiha d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d denomination. Uh so it’s a very specific uh denomination of Buddhism. I believe it was started in like the late 1100s by a man named Shinra. I get that right? Yeah. Shinron. Shin, a monk named Shinran. They actually have a really cool statue of him a little bit further away um on the grounds. But the temple is phenomenal. It’s an unique temple as well uh because uh it it used to look more kind of traditional Japanese uh style but of course it’s gone through fires and earthquakes and in 1923 there was a specific architect that actually decided to change it up and basically made this almost like conglomeration of Japanese temple Indian and then even some western themes to when it comes to the architecture. So, it is very unique when it comes to the temple structure uh compared to many of the others in Japan that I’ve already seen so far and I’ve seen in other videos uh for people. So, it’s unique, beautiful inside, really cool. Definitely go and check it out. I was in there during one of the services. You can’t really take photos or videos during the service. Um, but just being in there and you hearing kind of like the long chant and then the the ringing of the bell and it’s just uh or the gong just really really kind of cool and powerful. So, but definitely check it out. Just first off, it’s a very very unique style temple. [Music] Now, usually after I’ve done a food tour, of course, you want to kind of walk it off. And in Tokyo, that’s the easiest thing to do. But do you want to walk within the city or do you want to walk in a little bit of nature? There’s a few different options for you when particularly if you’re in the market area. Now, first off, uh near this closest one to market would be the Hammedio Gardens. However, you watch my last video which I highly recommend. Go and check it out. That was kind of like my first impressions first day in Tokyo. I already covered that. So, go check that out. Check that video out. However, right up the way uh is Hibia Park. And this is where we’re at. It’s a large sprawling park. Absolutely gorgeous. Honestly, I want to come back here in November and we have one and a half days at the end of this trip when we get back from Vietnam that just h I am super super excited about because the amount of beautiful trees particularly like maples that are here. This has got to look amazing during the autumn. But they’ve got a few different fountains. One is under reconstruction right now. That’s the Grand Fountain. But the crane fountain is really cool and it’s a there’s a lot of trees here. So, it is a great shaded spot particularly right now when it is still kind of like the tail end of summer in September where it’s still, you know, it’s not super hot today, but in the sun it can get a little warm. So, if you need to kind of beat the heat, get in the shade, have a little snack with you or something like that, sit on bench, just enjoy the uh the surrounding nature around you. It’s just absolutely fantastic. [Music] So, across from Habia Park is going to be the Tokyo Imperial Palace and that is right behind me. Now, I do believe that you can do tours. I think they do them twice a day. Uh, I believe they are free. However, you do have to do uh advanced reservations. Of course, they do have the uh I think it’s Kokyo uh go um the Kokyo Goen National Garden, which is basically just one massive park that is open to the public year round at any time. Um but if you do want to visit the Imperial Palace, you do have to get the advanced reservations. However, you can come here at the end of the garden and get some great shots of the palace itself. So, definitely worth to come get that picture for the Instagram. And now I’ve been to two different parks. been walking around in the sun. I need to take a break. Let’s go get something to eat. [Music] Well, I had planned to go to this place that uh the legend himself, Mr. Rialto, I think took uh forget which video. I think it might have been the around the Tokyo station video with Chris Bronto Kaka San Paco for some ice cream. But there is a line all the way down there. I mean, good god, I must be really good. But I’m guessing I’d get here really early or be prepared to wait. I ain’t got that kind of time. But wow. Okay, let’s go to the next spot. [Music] Okay, I finally got my gelato. What a journey that was to get from uh Kaka Sankaka and I went into the wrong building twice. Finally found Oh, it’s in the Maroni building. So, and that’s in itself a This building is awesome. It’s a great shopping center mall. Um, but they I think they also have offices in between like the top floors where you have like an observation deck and the bottom floor is where you have cafes, restaurants, shops. There are two places called gelato in here. Uh, one is on the third floor. It’s called Gelato Peak. If you’re looking for actual gelato Gelato, don’t go there cuz that’s a clothing store. I was very disappointed. So, but I found Gelato Bravo which is down in basement 1. So, basement one floor. And as you can see, delicious looking gelato. This was about 800 yen. So, we’re gonna go and try. You get two flavors with that. So, you have, of course, the first one on top is orange kari. So, let’s try this. Oo. Whoa. Oh my god. You actually That is really really tart. It’s good, but it is like tart tart. Wow. My god. Like you can actually taste the kari in there. Um the orange does stand out a little bit, but the kari is the big kicker on that. That is crazy. And then the other one is yogurt and blueberry. So we’re going to give a little try of that. Oh, that’s good. I’d say this is the yogurt uh blueberry. My favorite of the two. This is still really really good. But that’s kind of that just kicks you that first bite. is just absolutely wild. I wonder how much compar they actually put in this. You can actually taste that compar. Good lord. [Music] Okay, so we finally made it to the beating heart of downtown Tokyo. And that is, of course, Tokyo Station right behind me. A beautiful, absolutely fantastic building architecture- wise. Looks amazing. It’s got this huge square around it. I think this is Maronucci Square. If I’m getting these wrong, by the way, in my pronunciations, please let me know down in the comments. But we’re going to go inside and check it out. Weirdly enough, this is a Tokyo station, but it is, I believe, only the fifth busiest station in Tokyo in it of itself. So, kind of fascinates me, which I believe Shinjuku, I think, is number one. But anyway, let’s go check it out inside. [Music] So, this is the fifth largest station, and I am lost. I am trying to find this particular ramen shop that’s the Tokyo Ramen Street that’s supposed to be in here. I’m not sure how to get to it. Let’s see if this works going this way. But I don’t even know if it’s on this side or if it’s somewhere else. So, let’s try. All right. That’s 150 literally just to walk through the station. mainly just cuz I’m trying to find this place and I don’t know where it is. All right, I’ll get back to you guys in a sec. [Music] All right, so I found where I was going wrong. Uh, so the Tokyo Ramen Street and a lot of some of the cafe, stores, and shops are all down on basement floor one. So, you’re going to go to want to go to B1 floor. And this is Tokyo Ramen Street. And it’s basically a little alley uh here, just basically on the the bottom one floor. And it’s got about I think like eight or nine different ramen shops. and they all focus on different types of either broth or different types of meats and ramens that they are specific about. It’s really kind of cool. There’s even like here a map of it where it kind of goes into all of the different places and what they specialize. So, it’s easy to do. And then you go up to the machine that’s in like just right outside or just inside each one of them. You get your ticket, you figure out what you want, and then you basically get in line, um, and they’ll seat you, and then they’ll give you your ramen and whatever else that you’re getting. So, it was really good. I forget the name of the place that I went to. I think it was, let me look this up. It was number three. So, it was a dipping ramen roaring shop. I don’t even think I got that right. But, they’re known for dipping ramen. you know, a much thicker broth, richer broth, and thicker noodles, and it was absolutely fantastic. The pork was amazing. The egg was amazing. There was even um I got the one with all the toppings, and that had um that had a uh I think it was a shrimp uh shrimp dumpling in there, which was just oh, so good. I’m actually full. This is I think the first time I’m like truly full in Japan because everything’s been kind of like light. So, but anyway, yeah, definitely you’re looking for a ramen kind of quick experience without going to like one of those, you know, really kind of like sit down nice ones, this is a great spot. And you get so many different types of choices from sardine broth to pork broth to seafood broth. You name it, you got it here on Tokyo Ramen Street at Tokyo Station. [Music] So on the same floor of Tokyo Ramen Street, they also do have what is called the character street. And if you are looking to get Japanese characters, anime poke, actually first floor we’ll go see in a second is the Pokemon store, but like One Piece, Shonen Jump, all the different time and a bunch of different uh Japanese mascot and characters I have not learned yet. I don’t even know who they all are. But it is a fascinating street down there where it’s just it’s heaving. There’s lots of people people getting basically souvenirs to take home. It is a lot of fun. So definitely check out Character Street particularly if you’re looking to take anything home. Uh you know for yourself or for your kids or nieces, nephews, anything like that. It’s a lot of fun down there. [Music] So, like I mentioned when I was talking about the character street, you come up to the first floor and the Pokemon store is right behind me. Now, this is the Tokyo Station Pokemon Store. We’re actually about to go to the other one that is in the Nihashi building. That’s one of the bigger ones that you can go to. This is a smaller one. However, they do have a very specific uh Pikachu. It’s a conductor Pikachu that I believe you only get here. And I think there are specific Pikachu and maybe other Pokémon that you can only get at very specific stores. So, you kind of have to go to a majority of them throughout the country to really get everything that you want if you want like a full collection. So, definitely make it worth your while to come up here and check it out, particularly if you just want that conductor Pikachu. [Music] Okay. Yeah, this is a much bigger operation than the Tokyo station one. And I’d say it’s about as big, if not maybe a little bit bigger than Shabuya. No, Shabuya I went to last night was a little bit bigger. It’s actually smaller than I thought it would be. But even still, like all of these different plushies, you got your unknowns. You got a lot of them. I don’t even know because I kind of stopped. I’ve played Sword and Shield, but I haven’t play outside of that. I didn’t I think I stopped playing the games after Gen 4 when they had um Heart Gold and Soul Silver come out as the remakes for Soul Gold and Silver and um Crystal. So, but even still like all these little a melt tank. Of course, you got plenty of your Pikachu and you got a lot of the starters and stuff like that. So, you know, if you’re into this stuff, you’re like you’re looking for plushies and stuff like that or collectibles. They got Nightlights. They got everything under the sun Pokemon here. You definitely want to come here and get your nerd on and your Pokemon on. Um, and collect as many as you can. Maybe buy another suitcase for yourself. I don’t have that kind of money or time honestly to kind of take that all with me. But even still, it is really kind of cool. So, a quick note about the Pokemon store and in particular the Pokemon cafe. Those are all in the east building of the Nihonashi kind of like shopping center. Uh the main building, of course, is where you’re going to have all of the almost kind of like high-end classy stores. The east building is where on the fifth floor is where you will have the Pokemon Center and the Pokemon Cafe. Now, we’re not going to the Pokémon Cafe on this particular trip. Why? Because you literally have to make reservations like 31 days in advance, and you have to get online the moment that they get on um like they open up and hope that you either get one or just refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh. I looked into it into trying to get into there just for the experience, but I was like, I’m not going to go through all of that trouble just to go to the Pokemon Cafe. Going to the store was cool enough. I’m I’m fine with that. But it is something that you want to look up and research as to getting your reservation for the Pokemon Cafe cuz it is one of the most popular things to do here in this part of Tokyo. [Music] So, the final spot here for this kind of central Tokyo video is coming back to the Maronucci building, but this is the Shin Marunuchi building. So, you have two. You have the Manoni building which is right over there and then the Shin Maranucci building which is where we are at and you come up to about the seventh floor. So I think floors like B1 all the way up through 7 uh are shops, restaurants, bars but the seventh floor is where you come to to kind of get a bird’s eye view of Tokyo station and particularly here at nighttime. And my god, right now the breeze is blowing through. It is cooled down. It feels so good. I’ve got myself a glass of red wine from a pin noir from California, interestingly enough. So come by to you guys. And man, what a day. [Music] All righty, travel. So, that’s going to be the end of this heart of Tokyo video. This is basically kind of the central part, the Chuo City, Skukiji Market, and of course, the area around Tokyo station. I had a blast. It was a long day. A lot of walking, let me tell you, and getting lost at the train stations. It was a lot. But I hope you guys enjoyed the video. Got myself a highball as a night cap to finish it off. So, so good. I had thought of, you know, it been turning into night, heading down and kind of extending this video into Ginsa, but I figured, you know what? I’m going to save Ginsza for the future because I’ve got so many ideas in my head the more I walk around Tokyo and I’m like I don’t want to rush certain places and certain things and I feel like I need to take some more time with Ginsa. But I figured you guys enjoyed this. This is kind of something to do in this central part of Tokyo around market and of course around Tokyo Station which is a big hub here in Tokyo. So definitely if you enjoy the video, give it a big old thumbs up and of course subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already. Hit that notification bell so you know when any of my new videos come out. And of course, if you guys haven’t already signed up, I do have a Patreon page and buy me a coffee account. I’m trying to get all of these videos out well early for you guys uh from my Patreon. So if you want to see these videos come out anywhere from a week to probably two or 3 weeks early, definitely definitely get on that. But any guy guys, appreciate you. Until we get meet again. Peace out. Have a great night. [Music]

Welcome to Central Tokyo! Follow me as I explore the area around Tokyo Station. Explore the hustle and bustle of Tsukiji Fish Market and gorge on delicious market food. Walk the beautiful nature trails through Hibiya Park.

Stop by a few lesser known Temples and Shrines. Get a glimpse of the Imperial Palace. Gaze upon the iconic Tokyo Station and explore it’s depths for a bowl of delicious Ramen at Ramen Alley!

Get some shopping done at the Pokémon DX Store and the Shin-Marunouchi Building. We will then cap it off with a drink on the high rise gardens overlooking Tokyo Station at night.
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Chapters:
0:00 – Intro
0:38 – Tsukiji Market
10:28 – Hibiya Park
13:26 – Tokyo Station and Central Tokyo
18:12 – Ramen Alley
20:30 – Character Alley and Pokémon Store
25:00 – Night time drinks above Tokyo Station