I don't remember how I found out about jpneazy, a Japanese restaurant reservation website, but it's where I booked a reservation to Inakaya Roppoingi West. The concierge service was very friendly and patient. The only thing was reservation requires a non-refundable deposit when booking. The experience overall was painless.
Inakaya means farm house or farm cottage in Japanese. It serves traditional Japanese cuisine, such as grilled seafood and vegetables, kakuni, sashimi, chirashi, grilled gingko, and so on. Dish names are written all over the walls or you can order whatever you want from the ingredients laid out in the baskets on the counter in front of you. They also have an actual menu book in English with some pictures. In the baskets are fresh vegetables and seafood, like fish and shellfish. Whenever someone orders, server calls the entire order out loud and the rest of the staff and chefs repeat by call out loud in response. The chefs never write anything down and servers don't slide them order slips. They just memorize everything (?). It's very theatric and entertaining to watch.
There are 2 chefs kneeling behind the food counter. Their work station is in front of them, a long narrow grill to cook with, all the seasonings they need, plates, and a long paddle to deliver cooked food to customers. It was as cool as I expected but what I did not see coming was dessert. One of the servers moved a traditional wooden mortar and mallet behind us and put a small pot of glutinous rice (mochi rice) inside. He asked my sister to make mochi for dessert. Surprised but she walked up to him anyways. The server demonstrated with his senpai first. They each grabbed a mallet, took turn mash and pound the rice in perfect beats, till the rice started to form a dough like texture. It's a very labor-intense job. Then it was my sister's turn and our dad joined her. Everyone at the restaurant was chanting and cheering for them because thanks to them, we had some really delicious mochi for dessert!
According to my dad and sister's report, there are fresh apples in the restroom as natural air freshener.
Inakaya has been cooking up traditional Japanese cuisines for many celebrities, politicians, and presidents from all over. Overall, it was a pricy meal but 200% entertaining. Food was fresh and delicious but not worth the price I paid. I understand why celebrities and politicians dine there because the privacy it offers and how customizable the dishes are. Would I go again? Maybe for a date.
After dinner, we walked to Tokyo Midtown to see Starlight Garden (see video at the end of the post). I found out about the light show on Japanese news when we were in Kawakuchiko. Immediately looked it up and announced to my siblings that it would be on the itinerary when we were back to Tokyo in 2 days. It was a 4-minute walk to Tokyo Midtown but we did not know where exactly the light show was. We kind of wondered around for a bit, eventually we found it. It was at the Grass Square across the street. Starlight Garden is a yearly event that only happens from late November to X'mas day. It has been around for several years. 2019 was the 10th anniversary of the show and featured 190,000 LED lights, 100 glowing balloons, a 8-meter tall space tower in the middle, and 2 soap-bubble machines that blew out bubbles from time to time. It was mesmerizing to say the least.
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