We got ourselves up a little earlier this morning to grab our morning coffee, but rather than being lazy and go somewhere in our neighborhood, we returned to one of our favorite cafés in Tokyo. Reissue has been doing 3-D latte art for quite a while, and we paid them a visit back in December 2018. Foursheets decided that she wanted to go back for more. Six years after our first visit, the place has garned more internet fame, and we saw more customers even on a weekday morning.
![]()
![]()
I gave them a picture of our CC Dogcow and asked for 2-D art. I thought Sadaharu did a pretty good job, and so did many friends who saw it.![]()
Foursheets, meanwhile, wanted a 3-D version of the maneki-neko (招き猫) she saw at Gotokuji (豪徳寺) yesterday.
![]()
We strolled around Takeshita-dori (竹下通り) for a little while, taking in the latest trends in what youngster eat and wear. Even though we were easily twice the age of many people who hang out here, we still need to know what's hot and what's not.
My first choice for lunch was just a little far away, so I decided to hit Takenoshita Soba (竹ノ下蕎麦) just on a side street here, in the basement of a nondescript building. We didn't have a reservation but luckily they were not very busy and could accommodate us.
They purchase handmade soba noodles from different sources, and on any given day they will announce the source of each type of noodle. I decided to order a few appetizers, a side dish, and their weekly special noodle.
![]()
Assorted vegetable tempura (野菜天ぷらの盛合せ) - we've got lily bulb, maitake (舞茸), red capsicum, ginkgo nut, lotus root, sweet potato, turnip, mushroom...
![]()
Buff sea urchin sea urchin (バフンウニのうにざる) - OK, so obviously there's a Google Translate FAIL here... The freshly handmade juwari (打ちたて十割) from Maruoka (丸岡) in Fukui Prefecture (福井県) came topped with Japanese green sea urchin (馬糞雲丹).
![]()
![]()
The soba was cut into short sections so that it would be easier to toss and mix with the men-tsuyu (麺つゆ), which I was asked to pour in a circular fashion around the outside of the noodles. The result was OK. Yes, it was nice to taste the flavors of the 100% buckwheat noodles, but I'm not sure I'd order this with the sea urchin again.
The boss apologized for having skipped the two starters I ordered earlier, and offered to serve them to me ASAP. In retrospect, maybe I need not have ordered them...
![]()
Fresh shungiku with sesame seeds (生春菊の胡麻和え) - the flavors of the sauce were fairly strong, both sweet and salty with black sesame. The portion, however, was kinda tiny.
![]()
Grilled shimonita leeks (焼き下仁田ネギ) - the inside of the leeks were sweet and sticky after grilling.
![]()
After shopping around for some cute stuff and cosmetics, we returned to Gotokuji (豪徳寺) to buy some maneki-neko (招き猫) figurines from the temple before the office closes at 3 p.m. Well, the office was still open when we got here, but they had sold out of almost all the cats except for the second-smallest size. That was disappointing... but we got what we could.
I took time to walk through the grounds another time to capture the cat figurines on display, together with the pretty koyo (紅葉) around. Foursheets wanted to shop for some produce to bring back home, so off we went to the depachika (デパ地下) at Shinjuku Takashimaya Times Square (新宿タカシマヤ タイムズスクエア). Her requirements were simple and we got out of there fairly quickly, then headed back to our hotel to drop the goodies off before dinner.