It’s Official!!

It’s taken a long time and several failed attempts by myself, friends of friends, booking agents, locals in Tokyo and our hotel concierge but I’ve finally received confirmation that we are booked for dinner at Sukiyabashi Jiro Ginza in Tokyo.

For those of you who are not familiar with this restaurant I’ll give you the lo-down.

Sukiyabashi Jiro and specificallythe Ginza location (there are two. One run by Jiro Ono’s son) is often considered to be the holy of holies when it comes to traditional sushi. The 89 year old Itamae (sushi chef) and owner Jiro Ono is recognised by the Japanese government as a national treasure and is considered to be the greatest sushi chef alive today. Even the snooty Michelin folks have awarded this little 10 seat store with 3 stars. I’ve wanted to dine here for years and being given the chance to visit Tokyo made trying to do so an imperative.

Not that deciding to TRY and book was in any way even close to a guarantee that we’d be able to do so, after all this is ranked as the second most difficult dinner reservation in the world to get. I’ve worked for more than 2 months at this and am still in awe at the effort required.

Anyway… we’ll be eating the best sushi of our lives and having it prepared by the living legend that is Jiro Ono in just over a week. I’ll let you all know our thoughts on this once in a lifetime experience when I post from Tokyo.

What can I say?…… SCORE!!!!!

The Traveling Foodie — An Update –

The date of departure for our Round The World trip is fast approaching (20 days) and for anyone who’s read the previous post on the subject I have an update.

The vast majority of the items listed for us to do are still in place, the changes are that we are no longer going to be heading to Tokushima. Getting to the island has proven to be logistically more difficult then we’d expected and with our time constraints we’ve cut it out. The result is that we won’t be experiencing the ramen there and will have to sample that style elsewhere.

We will now be having the pleasure of dining in the second tallest building and tallest tower in the world, the Tokyo SkyTree. While getting tickets to this attraction was via a Japanese only lottery system since it’s opening last month until after we have left I’ve managed to (via a great deal of difficulty) acquire two tickets. We will likely be among a very few foreigners who will be in the tower until the day it’s fully open to the public.

I’ve also decided that we’ll be dining at Sapporo Kanihonke while in Nagoya. While this is not a traditional Japanese restaurant I love crab and there is no place that has a menu approximating a Mecca for lovers of crab like this.

When in Korea we will now be heading to Gyeongju and indulging in some of the best traditional Korean dishes that can be found. We’ll sample Ssambap with its 30+ side dishes and Gyeongju’s famous Hwangnamppang bread to name a few.

The non-foodie parts of the trip will be even more exciting. Some of them are:

• Fly on an A380 on the upper deck
• Wander Ginza and Akihabara (where I intend to geek out on tech)
• Take a river cruise in Tokyo
• Check out the new mall,aquarium and other sites at SkyTree Town
• Ride the Shinkansen Bullet Train around the country
• Attend the Nagoya Grand Sumo tournament
• Visit Nara park
• Ferry  to Miyajima
• See the memorials in Hiroshima
• Ride accross to Korea on a hydrofoil
• Visit the tombs in Gyeongju
• Ride the KTX
• Tour the DMZ at Panmunjeom
• Explore old Delhi
• Visit the Red Fort and Taj Mahal
• Sleep in a palace
• Explore Petra
• Float on the Dead Sea
• Experience the craziness of the 2012 Olympics(Thankfully Brief)
• Explore the Irish countryside by car

I look forward to posting on our foodie fun while travelling and will do my best to keep you up to date with our experiences(technology allowing).