Day 4 2d day in Tokyo

Today, instead of going on an optional tour to Kamakura (we've been there, done that), our friend Susan Greening, who lives in the outskirts of Tokyo, met the 4 of us (me, Marge, my sister Ann & her husband Joe) in the am to give us our own private tour.  We started out by heading to the Seibu department store and raiding their prepared food department.  We picked out some of their edible art for our picnic lunch.  We would have bought way more than we could possibly eat because it all looked so tempting, if not for the prices.  For instance, 4 Vietnamese style rolls, with prawns, with smoked salmon/sour cream, with vegetables were 2850 yen, or $26.  We got several varieties of cooked fish, a salad that included Kabocha squash & sour cream, a noodle salad.  Susan got some beer in glass bottles.   Then we headed to an area famous for a river walk lined with cherry trees.  Large cherry trees line both sides of the stream - cherry branches heavy with blossoms droop down over the stream, and in many places, there are so many white blossoms in the water that it looks like a light dusting of snow.  We walked several miles before finding a spot for our picnic under the cherry trees.  Susan had brought several blue tarps, which are the traditional ground covering for a picnic.  

Here are some of the edible art at Seibu:

Cherry trees full of blossoms drooping over the stream:

Marge, Susan & Ann toasting my cup:

Our spread of goodies:

After lunch we toured the Edo-Tokyo museum featuring the history of Tokyo during the Edo period.  Lots of reconstructed houses & scenes of that period.

For dinner, on Susan's recommendation, we took a short subway ride to eat at a sushi boat restaurant that is very popular with locals and is very reasonably priced.  The sushi chefs are encircled by sushi plates & diners.

This was our first sushi meal of this trip, and it hit the spot.  Our favorite dish was one that we saw the chef prepare for another diner.  It started with salmon sushi, then he put some dressing on it, torched it, put another dressing on it then torched it again.  The result was salmon that was partly cooked on the top but buttery raw on the bottom.

The chef is torching the salmon dish for Ann & Joe.

Two happy & full diners:

We had 11 dishes of wonderful sushi, were full & happy, then were pleasantly surprised that the bill was only 2000 yen, or about $18.