One experience I really wanted in Tokyo was to go to a high end sushi restaurant. Here’s one thing I should have booked in advance, but it all worked out for the best. I was able to book lunch at Matsue sushi in Ebisu, and the boy and I went off. Eric and the girl, who don’t really eat fish at all, made their own plans to go play video games. We sat down and ordered the Omekase, in which the chef serves you whatever he wants. Watching him work was masterful. He would take a piece of fish which had been prepped and expertly deboned by his assistants, and then using only a large knife would slice through it at such a precise angle that it cut away perfectly from the skin. Starting with a cooked marinated tuna and salad appetizer, we moved onto the main courses. We had tuna, rockfish, octopus, scallop, squid, yellowtail, halibut, sardine, uni sashimi and suhi, then tamago (egg) and miso soup course, then finished with a tuna roll. Everything was incredible, with the exception of the octopus and squid which I just don’t care for. Cephalopods…shudder. Two hours later we emerged, bellies full. Well, mine was full. The boy asked for food about an hour later. I wasn’t hungry until the next day. I’ve had other sushi since then here in Japan, and the flavor and texture just don’t compare. Sigh, I’ve been totally spoiled.

We met up with the non sushi eaters and headed to the Mori Art Museum, but not before doing a little denim shopping. Japan is known for high quality denim, and, well, I could use a new pair of jeans. We found the Kapital stores in Ebisu, which are like little wonderlands of denim and clothing, stocked in a mishmash way so you feel as if you’ve entered a cave of fashion wonders in a land of wabi-sabi. The wall of jeans was in an old wood cabinet, and above us were hanging scarves, to the left a row of funky jackets. I may have bought a pair of high waisted jeans because it made me feel like a 70s fashion model when I tried them on. Eric also looked, but unfortunately everything came to his ankles. I tried to convince him that he’d look hip in capris, but he didn’t bite.
The Mori is a modern art museum that is supposed to have a cool collection. We headed to Roppongi Hills and made our way there. We walked in and I was initially disappointed – it looked tiny and as if it didn’t have many exhibits. I soon was amazed by what I saw. The entire exhibit was looking at how the view of the cosmos was represented in art. From early mandalas depicting the four gods and earth at the middle, to the modern space program and a symphony based on that, the exhibit was stunning. I loved how they used art as a lens for science, so often are the two seen as wholly separate disciplines that have little to do with one another. There were original first editions of The Origin of Species, books written by Copernicus and Da Vinci! You couldn’t take pictures in most of the museum, unfortunately. The last piece was an installation where you went into a dark room and light swirled around and about you, turning in a way that you felt as if you were spinning through the universe in a wormhole.

 

-s