Dom Dom Hamburger Plus (ドムドムハンバーガーPLUS), Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

Dom Dom Hamburger is Japan's first home-grown hamburger chain. Established in 1970, the chain predates the introduction of McDonald’s to Japan and Mos Burger, another famous Japanese chain. [1] As Japan’s oldest hamburger chain, Dom Dom Burger opened a central Tokyo location in Ginza, one of Tokyo’s swankiest neighbourhoods. The Ginza burger restaurant has a ‘Plus’ tag added to its name to differentiate it from the brand’s regular stores. [2]

Dom Dom Hamburger Plus offers premium burgers made with 100 percent Japanese black wagyu beef. The burgers come with various seasonings and add-ons from wasabi and soy sauce, to bacon, egg, cheddar, gorgonzola, mushroom and avocado. There is wine too, which you can order by the glass or bottle. [2]

The high quality of Dom Dom Hamburger Plus' burgers was not the only reason I visited the Ginza location on 12 Jan and 05 Feb 2023. In addition to beef, there are also pork, chicken, and fish burgers, and other items on the menu. Each Dom Dom Hamburger also offers menu items unique to that location (or to a few locations). The reason I visited the Ginza location was to have the fried soft shell crab burger.

Please continue reading the rest of the article to see more photographs and read about my experience eating Dom Dom Hamburger Plus' fried soft shell crab and wagyu beef burgers.

Tuna Auction, Tsukiji Market (築地市場, Tsukiji Shijō), Tokyo, Japan

Tuna Auction, Tsukiji Market (築地市場, Tsukiji Shijō), 2005

Tokyo's Tsukiji Market (築地市場, Tsukiji Shijō) was well known for the tuna auction at its Inner Market before being closed and moved to Toyosu Market (豊洲市場, Toyosu Shijō) in 2018. Tsukiji Market actually consisted of two markets: the inner and outer. The Outer Market, still in operation, has many restaurants and retail shops selling fresh fish, produce, and all sorts of wares. The Inner Market, now closed, was the wholesale area for seafood, (including the famous tuna auction), produce, restaurants, and shops.

I first visited the Tsukiji tuna auction on 17 Feb 2005 when visitors had unfettered access to the Inner Market's outdoor-exposed tuna auction and seafood wholesale areas, could mingle with the the tuna buyers before, during, and after the auction on the auction floor, and then watch the tuna specialty vendors prepare the tuna for restaurants and other wholesale buyers. Unfortunately problems with tourists interfering with the auction, touching the fish, and generally disrupting business at Tsukiji Inner Market led to tuna auction and wholesale area visitor restrictions. This meant that tourists were banned from the tuna auction floor and made to apply for a limited number of time slots to stand in a restricted area to witness the auction. While still being allowed to watch the tuna auction in the restricted area, visitors could not enter nor walk the tuna auction floor. Today at the modern, totally enclosed, and temperature controlled Toyosu Market buildings, tourists are totally prohibited from the tuna auction and wholesale floors, so the experience and photographs in this article cannot be reproduced today. You now have to witness the Toyosu tuna auction from an enclosed second story gallery overlooking the auction floor and wholesale vendors after applying for a limited number of morning viewing windows online.

Please continue reading the rest of the article to see more photographs and to find out more about this never to be repeated experience on the Tsukiji tuna auction floor and Inner Market.

Meiji Shrine (明治神宮, Meiji Jingū), Tokyo, Japan

This will be my last article for 2021. Thanks to all who have taken the time to read the travel articles and I appreciate the comments that I have received. This article on the Meiji Shrine is longer than most  of the articles I have written since I have regularly visited and photographed the shrine since I first traveled to Tokyo over 17 years ago. I hope that the pandemic abates so that international travel becomes possible and practical again, but until then I will keep digging into my travel photographs for new articles in 2022. I wish you the best for the holiday season and will see you next year. Stay healthy and happy!

The Meiji Shrine (明治神宮, Meiji Jingū) is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his consort, Empress Shoken. Emperor Meiji presided over the Meiji era, and instigated the Meiji Restoration, a series of rapid changes that witnessed Japan's transformation from an isolationist, feudal state to an industrialized world power [4]. The Japanese government officially started the construction of Meiji Jingū to commemorate their deified spirits after he (1912) and his wife (1914) passed away. The construction took about five years to complete the entire shrine before it was formally dedicated in 1920. Most of the shrine complex was destroyed during the air raids of the Second World War, but thanks to a number of donations from around Japan, the current buildings were restored in 1958 [5].

Located just beside the busy Japan Rail (JR) Harajuku Station, Meiji Shrine and the adjacent Yoyogi Park make up a large forested area within the densely built-up city of Tokyo, Japan. Meiji Jingū is one of Japan's most popular shrines. In the first days of the New Year, the shrine regularly welcomes more than three million visitors for the year's first prayers (初詣, hatsumōde), more than any other shrine or temple in the country. During the rest of the year, traditional Shinto weddings can often be seen taking place there [2], as well as other rituals, processions, and festivals.

I first traveled to Japan on business in 2004 and visited the Meiji Shrine for the first time in the morning on my last day in Tokyo. Since it was a short train ride from the hotel, the group I was traveling with made a brief visit to the shrine before flying back in the afternoon to the USA. On my many subsequent trips to Tokyo, while I have visited the shrine at other times, I have always maintained the ritual of visiting in the morning on my last day in Tokyo before flying home to this day. So the photographs in the article are from a span of visits to the shrine over 15 years. My last visit was 2019, just before Japan closed to tourists because of COVID-19.

Please continue reading the rest of the article to learn more about the Meiji Shrine and see the photographs from my many visits over the years.

Dote No Iseya (土手の伊勢屋 (どてのいせや)) Restaurant, Tokyo, Japan

Dote No Iseya (土手の伊勢屋 (どてのいせや)) is a restaurant  specializing in tempura over rice bowls, Tempura Donburi (天ぷら丼ぶり) - better known as Tendon (天丼), using conger eel (穴子, anago) since 1889. There are many tendon restaurants in Tokyo that are easier to visit and offer tendon at more affordable prices than this restaurant. This 130+ year restaurant is located in the northeast of Tokyo far from any tourist attractions and is accessible by only one subway line. The restaurant only has 28 seats, does not take reservations, is only open 3.5 hours a day, five days a week for lunch from 11:00 to 14:30, and there is always a long queue to enter, especially on the weekends. Eating at this restaurant requires a conscious effort to make the journey and then patience in the queue to enter, yet is always full, and is patronized by both locals and tourists alike. Why would someone make a special trip to an inconveniently located restaurant with limited hours and a long queue to eat a dish that costs more than other similar easily reached restaurants?

The simple answer is that the food is very good, but in my opinion people come here for the entire experience of dining on well prepared fresh food in a unique environment. The restaurant is listed as one of the best places to eat tendon in Tokyo by Time Out Tokyo [1] and was also featured in a video segment on Japan's public TV station NHK (the video is no longer available online). The size of the tendon served at this restaurant is large, even by American standards, and the quality and freshness of the ingredients, especially the conger eel, form the restaurant's signature tendon dishes. Finally, the restaurant is housed in one of the few surviving original wooden buildings in Tokyo dating from 1927.

Continue reading the rest of the article to find out more about my visit to Dote No Iseya on 10 Nov 2019 and to see more photographs.

Tower Knives Osaka (タワーナイブズ大阪 新世界の包丁専門店), Osaka, Japan

This article was updated on 02 Aug 2021 to include the 10 minute video interview with the owner of Tower Knives Osaka rather than the expired link to the original full length video from NHK.

As some of you might know, I also have a recipe blog (https://ducksoupeasy.blogspot.com/) that preceded this travel blog. While it has been a while since I posted a new recipe, I continue to cook. I had always used a Chinese cleaver whenever I prepared meals, but now use Japanese knives. Since I often travel to Japan and whenever I am near Osaka, I always stop by this Japanese knife store located in an area known as Shinsekai (新世界, lit. "New World"), located in the southern part of the city.

Please continue reading the rest of the article to see a video about the store and its founder, and to see more photographs.

Nezu Museum (根津美術館), Tokyo, Japan

This article was updated on 19 Sep 2021 to clarify taking the train or subway to get to the museum.

The Nezu Museum (根津美術館, Nezu Bijutsukan) is an art museum in the Minato district of Tokyo, Japan. The museum houses the private collection of pre-modern Japanese and East Asian art of Nezu Kaichirō (1860–1940), the former President of Tōbu Railway, and is built on Nezu's former residence and garden. Closed due to large-scale renovation and renewal in 2006, the museum re-opened in fall 2009 with a completely new museum building designed by the noted Japanese architect Kuma Kengo [1]. Kuma Kengo was also the architect for the modern redesign of the Akagi Shrine, which I reviewed in this earlier article: 

• https://ducksoupeasytravel.blogspot.com/2019/05/not-your-typical-japanese-shrine-akagi.html.

One of the defining architectural features of the Nezu Museum is the street entrance. The photograph of the entrance at the beginning of this article is the museum's most identifiable feature and is a tribute to Kuma Kengo's skill as an architect. As the museum is a very popular with both tourists and locals, it is really hard to get a photo without someone walking through it!

While it is worth a visit to view the art exhibits at the Nezu Museum when you're in Tokyo, for me the real reason to visit the museum is to see the garden. The site not only contains the museum, but also four tea houses and statuary within the garden. I last visited the museum on 29 Nov 2017, when the Fall colors were the most prominent and the garden most picturesque. Read the rest of the article to find out more information, and see more photographs of the museum and gardens.

Not Your Typical Japanese Shrine: Akagi Jinja (赤城神社), Kagurazaka, Tokyo, Japan

If you go to Japan, you will inevitably visit temples and shrines. Temples are associated with Buddhism and shrines, called jinja (神社, じんじゃ) in Japanese, with the native Shinto religion. Customs and practices are different between the two, and these places of worship can be found in all parts of Japan from the largest cities to the smallest village. There are an estimated 80,000+ Shinto shrines in Japan [1] and the common picture that comes to mind is that of a traditional well preserved building that has graced the area for a long time. That picture is true for most shrines in Japan, but not for the Akagi Jinja (赤城神社). The Akagi Jinja has been in the Kagurazaka neighborhood in Tokyo since the 1500's [2], but the traditional buildings on the shrine grounds were replaced with a modern architectural interpretation in 2010 by noted Japanese architect Kuma Kengo. He also designed the condominiums adjacent to the shrine, which has a café open to the public on the first floor. Having condominiums with a café on shrine grounds is highly unusual in Japan. This modern interpretation of a Japanese shrine is unique and worth a visit when you're in Tokyo. The shrine is an easy two minute walk from Kagurazaka Station on the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line.

Gyukatsu Motomura Nishi-Shinjuku (牛かつ もと村 新宿店) Restaurant, Tokyo, Japan

I visited the Gyukatsu Motomura Nishi-Shinjuku (牛かつ もと村 新宿店) Restaurant in Tokyo, Japan on 2 Nov 2018. The specialty of the restaurant is beef tonkatsu, which is deep fried beef, rather than the usual pork tonkatsu found in Japan.

Please continue reading the rest of the article to find out more about my dinner at Gyukatsu Motomura Nishi-Shinjuku and to see more photographs.

Toyosu Market (豊洲市場, Toyosu Shijō): Tsukiji Market's (築地市場, Tsukiji Shijō) Replacement, Tokyo, Japan

The Markets

This article was updated on 16 Aug 2022 to include a link to an article about my visit to the Tsukiji tuna auction on 17 Feb 2005.

Tokyo's Tsukiji Market (築地市場, Tsukiji Shijō) is famous the world over. Primarily known for its early morning (5:30-6:30 AM) tuna auction, it is also Tokyo's supplier of seafood, as well as fruits and vegetables. Tsukiji Market actually consisted of two markets: the Inner and Outer. The Outer market has many restaurants and open stall retail shops selling fresh fish, produce, and all sorts of wares. The Inner market was the wholesale area for fish (and the famous tuna auction), produce, restaurants, and shops.

Tsukiji Inner Market is now closed, and the tuna auction and wholesale areas have all moved to modern, enclosed, temperature-controlled buildings at Toyosu Market (豊洲市場, Toyosu Shijō). Please continue reading the rest of the article to find out more about my visit to Toyosu Market, soon after it opened, on 04 Nov 2018.

Tonkatsu Dinner at Fujiki Ningyocho (富士喜 人形町 (富士㐂 (フジキ))) Restaurant, Tokyo, Japan

Update on Fujiki Ningyocho, Tokyo, Japan

So I was in Tokyo for a few days at the start of my current travels and went back to eat at Fujiki Ningyocho on 17 Oct, 2019. I wanted to eat the tomahawk tonkatsu that I described in my original post below again.

As with all things in life, the only constant is change. The ownership of the restaurant appears to have changed and while the restaurant still serves tonkatsu, there have been changes to the dish. The restaurant still serves the tomahawk tonkatsu, but it appears that the pork they use has changed from a premium to a more common breed. Do not get me wrong, the tonkatsu served was still good to eat, but it's not what it was before.

There are also English menus available for some of the seasonal dishes, whereas before, all the menus were in Japanese. The price has also dropped a few hundred yen and the weight of the tonkatsu has decreased too, which reinforces my belief that a more common pork breed is being used for the dish.

Also changed is the how the dish is served. No more knife and fork! The dish is presented already cut, like the regular version of tonkatsu served everywhere, obviating the need for a knife and fork needed to eat a whole boned pork rib steak. So you eat the dish with chopsticks.

The condiments have also changed. Whereas before the condiments were spicy, unique, and prepared on-site, the newer owners have opted to use more common (and likely not made on-site) accompaniments to the tonkatsu. Probably the most unfortunate change is the elimination of the yuzu-based condiment that you eat with the tonkatsu (see the original report below). Again, this was a store-made and unique addition to the normal version of the dish that you could not get anywhere else.

Would I still eat there again? If I had never had a tomahawk tonkatsu before, this is still the only place to get this dish and it is well prepared. I would certainly make a trip to this restaurant in that case. Having eaten both versions (the original and new), I would say that while the dish is still unique, it does not warrant another special trip. If I am in the neighborhood, I certainly would eat there again.