A suiting finale meal - Ginza Harutaka

With only a short 2-day stayover in Tokyo after swinging by a few other places in central Honshu the days before, we were careful in picking the restaurants we would like to try and make arrangement well in advance to avoid any dissappointment. We didn't necessarily go for the ones with the most stars or the highest ratings, but wanted to look for new places that were consistantly good and recommended by some of our foodie friends. (you can read some of the other meals we had in Tokyo here and here)

Quest for Tempura - Kondo

Tempura is my second favorite type of Japanese food, just behind sushi. If you think tempura's nothing more than just some shrimps or fish or vegetables dipped in batter and deep-fried in oil, try come to Tokyo and go to one of the many good tempura restaurants. I randomly walked into the legendary Tenichi Honten at Ginza by myself 10 years ago and had the best tempura of my life, and that forever changed my view on this adopted Japanese cuisine ever since.

Lunch at Sushi Kanesaka

Our itinerary started at Tokyo and then off we went to the Honshu heartland of Gunma, Nagano and Niigata prefectures, and as final stop, we stayed a few additional days in Tokyo, both for cherry blossom sightings, and more importantly, for more food.

A Symphony of Garden Flavors - Yukawatan at Karuizawa

Every now and then you found yourself the luckiest person on earth when you came across a meal that made you cry. Our dinner at Yukawatan in Japan's Karuizawa was one of them.