23/12/18 Sun: Potato brought me to this café opposite Ian's old apartment in Omori, and we had warm yuzu tea and the chocolate and green tea cro. *No biasness but the green tea one wins hands-down!* Took the subway to Ryogoku area, in hope to see Sumo in this "Sumo town", but sadly we did not see any. However, there was a male voice actor's concert in the Ryogoku Kokugikan in the area.
So yes, there is actually a Sumo Experience Tour every Tuesday, but it's a pity we did not know beforehand. Dining was pretty expensive inside this Sumo Stadium area though.
We left the place and went to search for Chanko Kirishima and Chanko Tomoegata for lunch and found the latter to be opened. *Also saw a sign somewhere saying Ryogoku is only 1m above sea lvl~*
Chanko is a staple food for Sumo wrestlers since the Meiji Period, when Yokozuna Hitachiyama (Yokozuna is the highest rank of Sumo) adopted Nabe-ryori meals (hot-pot cuisine) at his sumo stable, many others follow suit and they soon created their own original recipe for Chanko-nabe. Chanko Tomoegata is a Komusubi-ranked (4th highest rank) sumo wrestler in the 1930s (166cm, 90kg). He founded this restaurant with his second son Kenji in 1976 after he retired.
We ordered the seafood nabe for two (7105￥). Apparently, the soup is made with fresh domestic chicken bones every morning. Their specialty is the sardine fish ball (Tsumire, which means winning a Sumo match). Honestly, it was nothing wow, not the portion either. There were squid, salmon, seabrim and sardine fish balls I suppose. Kind of "tried-it-done-that" experience. *I would have gone to watch a live Sumo match if I could.*
We took the train over to the Yokohama Cup Noodle Museum in the afternoon. Sadly, their DIY cup noodles were sold out for the day. Still, we went in and watched an interesting video on the life of the Jap ramen founder Momofuku Ando.
It was indeed an inspirational life story of his. The great man first invented chicken ramen, the world's first instant ramen in 1958. In 1971, he invented Cup Noodles, the world's first instant ramen served in a cup after a visit to America. And in 2005, at the old age of 90 years old, Momofuku went on to invent Space Ram, which are noodles to be eaten in space! His ever-learning and constant innovative spirit is definitely a role model for us all. *Even though we all say instant noodles are unhealthy, we still eat them now and then isn't it? It has convenience our lives that much.*
We visited Yokohama Chinatown at night. Potato queued for one stall of小笼包... 4 for 580￥... expensive yet not nice aish. Anyway, there are countless restaurants in the area, and also a number of fortune-telling shops too. Tried a prawn bun too, and the sauce tasted like chilli crab's haha.
Saw a关帝庙as well.
For dinner, Ian recommended gyoza and innards at a Japanese restaurant just next to his apartment building. Coincidentally, there seemed to be some "speed dating" meet-up in progress at the next table lol~
The innards hot pot was really shiok. Horse meat sashimi was so-so as the meat was a bit tough eh. The fried gyoza and innard sticks were all yummy~ Odeng was fine.
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