Day 4: Shinjuku 新宿 – Hanamaru Udon and Samukawa Toriyoshi

Hanamaru Udon (はなまるうどん 贊岐烏冬)

On our 4th day, we stayed in the Shinjuku area.  The plan of the day was mostly shopping and eating. In the morning, we went to a local Hanamaru Udon (はなまるうどん 贊岐烏冬) restaurant for breakfast.  This is a very economic chain-operated udon restaurant located all over Japan.  The average price for a small bowl of soup udon with a semi-cooked boiled egg is around 300 Yen and the largest size is only around 500 Yen.  You can choose to have a hot or cold udon. We went to the one closest to our hotel located near Shinjuku Station Southern Entrance on Koshu-Kaido (甲州街道).  The restaurant is operated like a cafeteria.  When entering the food counters section, you pick up a tray and a plate to select your choice of tempura items which are around 100 yen each.  There are also Inari-zushi (fried bean-curd stuffed with rice) and other side dishes.  Then, you order and pick up the udon from the staff and pay at the register.  On another counter near the seating area, you can then add additional toppings like sesame seeds, grated ginger and chunky bits of tempura batter on top of your udon.  These toppings are all free of charge and add a good taste to your udon.  When finished eating, you should return your tray to a collection area.  To judge on the taste alone, it is decent, but considering its price, it becomes a pretty good choice for an economic meal.  The udon itself tasted very much like the very chewy type of frozen udon I purchase in our local supermarkets and lots of our local Japanese restaurants use it for their udon dishes. 

Udon (small), Inari-zushi and various tempura items

After breakfast, we walked toward the west entrance of Shinjuku station. On our way, we saw the Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower, a 50-story educational facility with special architectural design.  It is home  to three educational institutions: Tokyo Mode Gakuen (fashion vocational school), HAL Tokyo (special technology and design college), and Shuto Ikō (medical college). 

Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower

Most department stores open around 10:00 a.m. and some open at 11:00 a.m.  We went to the Odakyu (小田急百貨店) department store right at 10:00 a.m.  Since we were the very first customers of the day, all the staffs in each counter greeted and bowed to us as we walked by.  It was quite an interesting culture to be experienced in Japan.  After visiting Odakyu, we went to the Uniqlo Mega store located next to it and of course we dropped a chunk of money there again.  Later, we walked to the Shinjuku Prince Hotel where there is a shopping complex with Muji (無印良品), Uniqlo and a 100 Yen store called Cando.  Unbelievably, we spent again in this Uniqlo store.  How come there are multiple Uniqlo stores within 10 minute walking distances?!! Not to mention, there was another one near my hotel as well.  Later, we walked along Yasukkuni Dori (靖国通り), where you can see the entrance to the Kabukicho (歌舞伎町) district. From there, we went to Shinjuku Dori (新宿通り) where lots of the department stores, such as 0101 Curren, Mitsukoshi (三越), Isetan (伊勢丹), Muji (無印良品) are located.  We love shopping at Muji, Japan's famously understated no-name brand retail stores which sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods. Another reason we loved it there is because it was one of the few places that seemed to have enough air-conditioning, and a great variety of curtains. (Can you believe it? We went there to get curtains, YES CURTAINS. Please don’t judge us.) There are also many drug stores like Matsumotokiyoshi (松本清), OS Drug and Sun Drug along the way.  You probably need at least 1 day to just get through this little street if you planned to have some heavy shopping around.    Since we skipped lunch, we decided to go for a early dinner around 4:30 p.m. at the Samukawa Toriyoshi (鳥良) which is also located along this street.

Samukawa Toriyoshi's chicken wings (手羽先唐揚)

The Sliky Tofu

Samukawa Toriyoshi (鳥良) is a chain of restaurants specializing in food from the Nagoya  (名古屋) area. Most of the dishes served are based on chicken, tofu or miso.  This is a type of restaurant where many local Japanese go for gatherings.  The most famous dish from this restaurant is their chicken wings (手羽先唐揚).  These are premium selected chicken wings dipped in aged sauce then fried to perfection. You can choose from mild, medium hot and very hot seasoning. The wings are so good that you probably will need 2 orders (5 wings in each order) for each person.  There is a good variety of food based on tofu as well.  We ordered one of their other specialties, a Tofu dish which is a rounded shaped piece of white tofu about 8 to 10 inches in diameter dipped in some soy milk. This tofu is so silky and when mixed with the provided sauces and green onions, it tastes very refreshing.  Another recommended dish is Dotekayi (どて焼き) which is a bowl of braised goodies with miso and sweet rice wine. The miso sauce is very flavorful and matches very well with the braised tender beef tendon, egg and white reddish.  The only slight disappointment was the various chicken kebabs and the additional sesame tofu we ordered, they were not bad but was not as tasty as the rest of the food.

Dotekayi

Chicken Kebabs (Chicken's Soft Bones & Chicken Thigh)

Chicken Skin Kebabs

Sesame Tofu

With regret, I missed so many planned visit points in Shinjuku again due to the hot temperature.  I skipped one of my target restaurants わかさや (若狭家) at lunch time due to the lost of appetite and I by-passed the basement floor of Isetan (伊勢丹) where all the food counters are located.  May be this is a good excuse to have another trip back here soon.

Reference Links:

Hanamaur Undo (はなまるうどん 贊岐烏冬)
Samukawa Toriyoshi (鳥良)
Odakyu Shinjuku (小田急百貨 - 新宿店)
Uniqlo
Muji (無印良品)
Isetan Shinjuku (伊勢丹 - 新宿店)