first few bites in japan

Less than 24 hours so far in Tokyo and pondering why the rest of the world can't eat as well as they do. Food here is so fresh and delicious. My first bite in Japan was a tuna-mayo rice ball and a little bottle of Yakult.

Sweet, plump white rice and yummy tuna mayo wrapped in nori. Was it my imagination or does nori taste better here too?

First sushi dinner was at Sushizanmai. For 3,000 yen ($30), you get the Magurozanmai Special, a sick plate with ultrafresh O-toro, toro, tuna, broiled toro, negitoro and tuna roll. The O-toro (high grade fatty tuna) was deliciously fatty and rich without being overwhelmingly so. It's incredibly fresh and melt-in-your-mouth tender. One bite of O-toro and makes you realize you haven't really had tuna before. Even the supposedly "regular" tuna on this plate was amazingly fresh and delicious. That's the stuff they might call toro in New York and sell you for an arm and your firstborn.

Mika had several orders of the engawa or flounder's fin. It's a bit more substantial in texture, almost with a slight crunch. Extremely delicious.

I just HAD to have uni. Oh the sea urchin goodness ... Not everyone is into uni (even Mika refuses to touch it) but once you acquire the taste for it, it is one of the gastronomic world's most amazing pleasures. It's velvety and buttery, and the flavor of sea urchin is just to die for. To me, it is as amazing as a piece of seared foie gras. This had to be the freshest piece of uni I've had so far. And Mika says it will only get better as the week progresses so I am excited for more!

That piece of salmon sushi down there had me saying that if you were a Japanese fisherman back in the old days and tried this piece of incredible raw salmon, it would make sense for you to decide you know what, I'm just gonna eat my fish raw from now on. I mean, why would you want to have this velvety piece of salmon any other way? It rocks my world, I tell ya ...

Another order of O-toro and some sake for the road ...

For today we've only gotten as far as breakfast. While we waited, we perused The Japan Times and lo and behold ...

Yes dear friends, this beauty is a Japanese TV personality who just won the Miss International Queen 2009 transsexual beauty pageant in Thailand. Oh Asian queens, you always make me feel inadequate. Gorgeous isn't she?

And then breakfast came, which was totally worth the wait. Check that out:

I love this place. Off for more adventures! Konnichiwa b*tches!