My dad told me that lineups are a rite of passage in Japan. Many famous restaurants tend to be on the smaller side, meaning you often have to queue long to go in. You know a restaurant is good if a lot of Japanese people, especially the locals, are lining up to enter. With that said, we woke up early again to venture to Jinbocho in Chiyoda city (within Tokyo).
Ebimaru Ramen is known for making lobster broth ramen. I'm not the biggest fan of seafood, but it was something on our list to try. We arrived about 10 minutes before opening, but there was already a lineup. Unfortunately, we weren't the first batch to enter the restaurant when it did open. Fortunately, there were a lot of trees along the side of the road which provided much-needed shade from the sun. We ordered while we were waiting in line, so our food was almost served to us immediately. I got the lobster broth ramen while she got ramen with an entire lobster. My ramen did come with a glass of sparkling wine and risotto. Starting with the ramen, the broth was quite creamy. A unique piece was a slice of bread with cream that was floating in the soup. The head chef suggested that I try the ramen with the broth before spreading the cream into the already creamy broth. The ramen didn't taste dramatically different from the cream, but it was decent nonetheless. The risotto that came out afterward had bits of lobster, but no broth. I was told to use the broth from the ramen, which in my opinion, tasted better than the ramen.
After we were finished, we left and walked around Jinbocho. The streets were quiet, even as we passed by a university. Our next destination was Hijiri Bashi Bridge. For those of you who watched Shinkai's Suzume, this particular bridge was where Suzume jumped to save the Souta. If you time it correctly, you can see three trains passing on three different tracks. We weren't able to see three trains at once, but we did manage to see many trains using the three tracks. After getting our fill, we walked towards Akihabara. We spent some time at an arcade before walking around the main street (Chuo Dori if I'm not mistaken). We were looking for a rabbit café, but unfortunately, you needed to reserve. Deterred, but feeling hot, we stopped by a McDonald's to rest before heading back to Asakusa.
Within Asakusa, we stopped at a viral matcha Mont Blanc dessert stall. It was pricy, but tasted pretty good. There were various layers filled with different sweets. To top it off, there was gold leaf, hence probably why it was so expensive. After eating, we walked towards the department store we visited on our first night. I never knew, but there was an onsen/spa on the top floor. Before today, I've been to onsens twice: The first time in 2015 Osaka (a friend's friend was a local so he showed us the location) and our ryokan stay in 2017 Kurokawa Onsen Town. Both times, I went with male friends. This time, however, I went on my own since the onsen wasn't co-ed. For first-timers, a trip to the onsen can be a bit confusing. You have to scrub yourself down well in the shower section before normally stepping into the onsen itself. I did my utmost best to clean all parts before stepping into the baths. The problem though, is onsens are hot springs. I've never been able to stay within an onsen for a long period of time when it's hot outside. Nevertheless, I tried the various tubs they had available, with each being slightly different. I couldn't read the signs, so they all felt the same to me. They had one onsen that was outside and faced Skytree.
After about half an hour, I got out to meet up with my girlfriend. To my horror, she messaged me half an hour ago (just as I changed) that she wasn't able to enter the onsen quite yet, meaning she was waiting for half an hour outside. I had something she needed for the bath, so I went back to the locker room to grab her item so that she could take her time with the onsen. When she finished, we went to a room where other people were sprawled on the ground on soft cushions. We found two next to each other and lay there for a while. It was nice to take a break from traveling to different locations. After some time, we got up and tried some of the crane games they had there. There were massage chairs located in each change room, so we took time to get massages from the chairs. I haven't had a massage from a chair since going to Fit4Less; these chairs blew the ones in Calgary by a mile!
We ended up taking another bath, near sunset. I went back to the outdoor onsen to see Skytree as it got darker and darker. All in all, we spent nearly four hours relaxing at the spa. Once we left, we went to the nearby konbini to grab a small dinner for the day.
After today, I realized that I'm starting to appreciate vacations where I just lounge around. Maybe I'm getting older, but I never used to appreciate just relaxing all break. (Cancun 2014 comes to mind.)
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