“Day 2 (Part 1): Early riser, first breakfast stop hype! (11/11/19)”

12:30am, 2:00am, 3:00am, and 5:30am – these are the times that jetlag decided to wake me up. Jetlag 1. Kevin 0. After waking up the fourth time, I just couldn’t go back to sleep – time to get the day started… with some tap water! Originally, I was going to take the elevator downstairs and use the awesome vending machines that have water, green tea, coffee (both with and without milk), and some apple + lemon drinks that I was not familiar with); however, I did a quick google search to see whether the tap water in Japan is safe to drink. Lo and behold – it is safe to drink!

I went downstairs to the common room, filled up my travel mug with tap water, and drank a bit to check and see if it’s drinkable – I gotta say, I approve! Japanese tap water is DECENT. It doesn’t taste funky or whatever because back in the states, the tap water is not safe to drink unless you use some sort of water filter pitcher (like one from BRITA), or have someone incorporate a water filtration system with your kitchen sink to get clean, filtered water. Growing up, that was always the case, but not in Japan though!

I gotta say that the common room here is pretty legit – I love the wooden decor and it feels like you’re living in a woodshop that doubles as a house with a plethora of manga, tour guide books, and random framed posters of miscellaneous stuff (which pretty much is the motif of the place along with the trinkets, toys, and stuffed animal things spread all throughout the place).

As it is shown conspicuously, there’s a bit of rain this Tuesday morning – luckily, Min placed a good number of umbrellas just right outside the AirBnb entrance. I wasn’t 100% sure if we’re allowed to borrow one of them; I texted him to ask if it’s cool that I can borrow one for the day, and he was totally cool with it – phew, otherwise, I was going to stop by a combini (Japanese term for convenience store, which oh man…I will get into later on!) to pick one up. The umbrellas that Min had were these transparent ones, which apparently are super common to have in Japan.

oh btw, these are the vending machines that I was referring to earlier – soul cool. I definitely took advantage of using these throughout my trip (especially with the water + the occasional green tea!) Whether it’s because there are drinks inside each of these that I haven’t tried yet, or just the fact that they’re in Japan and they have that “x-factor”, I was always drawn to stopping by each one that I come across for a little bit and seeing what each would have.

Don’t mind the current location dot – my google maps app was acting pretty weird when I took this screenshot; but yeah! I walked about 5-6 minutes from my Shinjuku AirBnb and took the Oedo Line (one of the local subway lines operating in Tokyo). Originally, I thought that I could use my JR Pass for this one; but I forgot that there are local subway lines like Oedo (not just in Tokyo, but all over Japan) that operate outside of the JR system.

Totally fine though, I ended up buying a one-way ticket from Higashi-Shinjuku Station to Kuramae Station for 220円 (or ¥220) so that I could end up in the first area that I wanted to hit up for the day – Asakusa! (one of the districts in Taitō, Tokyo).

You probably are wondering from that last screenshot, “yo kev, what is Benitsuru?” Ohhhhh man…y’all ain’t ready. Y’ALL AIN’T READY FOR BENITSURU. CHYEAH… LET. ME. TELL. YOU…later!

~ Side Note #1: The Left is the actual subway train ticket, and the right is the receipt for that subway train ticket – man…the way they print out both the tickets and receipts feels nice in the hand. The paper material and the typefont / lettering that they use is something else. (I know…I’m geeking out on these little things unnecessarily, but I can’t help it sometimes haha). I’d like to know what that specific paper material is, and I’m pretty sure they use this kind of paper material back in the states for stuff.~

~ Side Note #2: Dang it! I forgot to purchase a SUICA card at this moment in time, which is a prepaid smart travel card that allows you to use a lot of the public transport [buses, metro, monorail, and trains] and in Japan. Shoutout to Eshani, a coworker friend of mine who has been to Japan before, for letting me know about these things (even though I forgot to get a SUICA card this time). I wouldn’t make that same mistake later (I would be getting a different card than SUICA card though to use in Tokyo…but it’s just as good!). ~

By the time I stepped outside of Kuramae Station, the rain had stopped: it was still decently early in the morning where there weren’t that many people outside just yet.

You’re also probably wondering, “yo kev, why did you wake up so damn early? Don’t you know that a good number of places don’t usually open until 9 or 10am?” You’re right, but there’s one place that I NEEDED to get there as early as I can just to get a same-day reservation (just so that I can eat there today without having to consider the possibility of not having able to eat there at all.) – you’ll see in a bit!

A bit anticlimactic (I know), but this is Benitsuru! (at about 7:10ish am haha…). Given the fact that this place opens at 10am, Paolo (that’s right y’all, from Paolo FromTokyo) recommended this spot (as part of his Tokyo Street Food Asakusa Top 10 Hidden Backstreet Tour | Fluffiest Japanese Pancakes Ever! youtube vid. He also recommended to get a same-day reservation for this place too, and you’ll see later on that it’s mighty worth). After watching this vid (before I made my second trip out here to Japan), I was sold! This video helped me get a bunch of ideas on what to do for a good half of the day, including (as you’ve already have seen it – eating the “Fluffiest Japanese Pancakes Ever!“) none other than B-B-B-B-B-B-BENITSURU. OH HELL YEAH. (If you already watched that vid, don’t spoil it for others just yet!)

Anyway, point being – I thought I was too early, and I didn’t know when Benitsuru started taking reservations until I checked on TripAdvisor about this place that they start taking reservations at 8:30am. Sighhhhhh… oh well all good – I do want to explore Asakusa a bit anyway, and oh! I do want some coffee.

~ The player’s strategy #1 ~> Get a nice cup of coffee nearby while keeping an eye out on the time and checking back maybe a couple times between now and 8:30am so that I can still be one of the first (hopefully the first still) in line to make a same-day reservation to eat there. ~

I used google maps to check out some nearby places to have coffee, and I ended up finding this one Japanese coffee cafe chain called Doutor – the thing is, this shop wasn’t open until 7:30am…but all good. It was 7:23am, you know what time it is. time to walk back for a bit to check back at Benitsuru!

When I walked back, there were two people that were just waiting right outside of the establishment – I just stood next to them, and one of them decided to walk out of the line a bit after I got there (looked like he was going to take care of an errand or something).

Now here’s the thing – I initially didn’t say anything to the other person still waiting outside because (1) I thought they were veterans, the OGs, the locals that knew that y’all need to wait here as early as possible just to get a chance to eat here on the same day, and (2) they looked Asian, so I made a calculated assumption that they were Japanese and spoke little to no English (yeah I know, probably not a smart, right assumption to make, but I only made that assumption because I was shy as hell initially, and didn’t really know what to say except trying to ask them “Hello, is this place Benitsuru, and are you both waiting here to make a same-day reservation?” in my limited, basic Japanese BECAUSE I thought they were veterans, OGs, and/or the locals here who knew about this place like they’ve been here for years).

Shortly after a couple minutes of not saying anything, the lady turned to me and asked me something along the lines of (in an aussie accent) “Hey! Are you waiting in line to get the pancakes too?” and I was like “Hell yeah! Wait, is this Benitsuru – the place known for their fluffy pancakes?!” She responded, “YESSSSS! my partner and I are waiting in line just for those!”

Phew, (1) she spoke English. (2) when her partner came back with some pre-breakfast snacks, we formally introduced each other – Paolo and Celine! They’re visitors too and they’re from Australia (both of them had aussie accents – hell yeah!). I instantly felt relieved that we could have at least a decent, friendly conversation about each other through small talk. They’re pretty cool, and they were super nice enough to hold my spot in line because I wanted to get a cup of coffee (as part of my original plan from earlier).

I walked a short 2 minutes from Benitsuru to Doutor (and they just opened by the time I got there at around 7:30am). I ordered their large sized iced coffee for ¥320. They gave me both “gum syrup” (sugar syrup!) and a “coffee fresh” creamer singles to use for the iced coffee. As an important note – I’ve heard quite a bit about the iced coffee culture here in Japan (primarily from Buzzfeed’s hit series “Worth It” [Andrew, Steven, Rie, Adam, and the rest of the production crew] with their $1 Coffee Vs. $914 Coffee youtube vid – I’m a huge fan of your show, and shoutout to y’all!)

Short backstory before I continue: I used to love drinking coffee straight up (just black, without any sugar or milk/cream); however, since I moved up here to Portland last year, I’ve started first using unsweetened almond milk as a creamer (since I’ve starting hearing that drinking coffee black stains your teeth), and why not? Still pretty decent, but what made this beyond decent was the eureka moment of using oat milk. Oh my god – oat milk is fantastic. I love using it in coffee because it gives this subtle, nutty flavor to the coffee. CHYEAH.

Conclusion: the player’s choice – coffee with oat milk. soul good – take that to the bank!

Anyway, I was very curious (and going against my usual of how I like my coffee); I put in both the sugar syrup and coffee creamer singles into the coffee, and originally, I thought that it would be quite sweet, but nope! It was just the right amount of sweetness that I liked. It instantly took me back to the times when I was a lot younger when my mom would take me to Curry House in Southern California on occasion to have both Japanese Curry, and… their signature Tropical Iced Tea (which was this DECENT tea that was accompanied by this sugar syrup that they gave in a small glass open syrup server type thing [ahaha that’s how I describe it…I don’t know the exact term for this, but y’all know what I mean] on the side that you can put in). I gotta tell ya, that was my soda – that was my drink. That was the OG, the go-to, the myth, the legend, the captain of drinks (y’all know what I’m sayin’?) – I loved it. I’ve had this kind of similar awesome sweet tea drink before at cantonese cafes in the form of Lemon Iced Teas, but it was still fascinating to me to see that sugar syrup can blend in so well in an iced, cold drink (contrary to using sugar packets that you could use to put that sugar into your iced tea, but the sugar wouldn’t blend into the tea that easily).

~ Side Note #3: Before I forget, something that I instantly noticed when I ordered iced coffee at Doutor (which will become the norm during my travel here in Japan when purchasing or ordering food/goods etc) – the cashier/employee will average four bows per transaction + interaction with the customer – in the same fashion, I average the same number of bows too with them!

• The first bow together occurs when I give them the money for what I’m purchasing (or ordering in this case, a large iced coffee)
• The second bow together occurs when they give me back my change and what I ordered
• The third bow together occurs when I receive my receipt from what I purchased
• The fourth bow together occurs when I’m about to leave the shop, waving good-bye at the same time.

Crazy right? But this is how they do things here in Japan, and it’s honestly refreshing and super humbling to me. I wasn’t used to it at first, but after a few times of this happening, it became second nature to me. ~

I took my iced coffee to-go, went back in line with Paolo + Celine at Benitsuru (thank you both for saving my spot! much appreciated. NUMBER THREE FOR THE DAY. CHYEAH. STILL EARLY RISER WIN), and I met a few others in line who are from Philadelphia (HELL YEAH AMERICANS. THE STATES. CHYEAH) who found out about this fluffy pancakes place too! Dang it…I totally forgot their names though, but they were real nice people to talk to for a bit.

From when I got back around 7:40am ish to when Benitsuru started taking reservations at 8:30am (on the dot.) We were all talking as a group discussing what each other is planning on doing in Japan, and when it came for me to share, I just pulled out my notebook and showed the following pages right off the bat:

All of them (including both Paolo and Celine) were in amazement and super surprised that I had something like this with me – the fact that I would handwrite down a bunch of things that I’m planning on doing in Tokyo instead of typing up a list (to be fair, I just wrote down a bunch of stuff that I want to do and I was planning on doing some of them and leaving the rest of the time up to the “see food diet” + winging it) was what they thought was impressive. I guess I was a bit surprised that they would think that honestly because to me, this is a normal thing for me to do – I’m old school when it comes to planning trips as a first pass – I like to write stuff down (instead of just typing it out on the computer) and use it as a reference that I can pull out of my backpack anytime I needed to. Paolo liked it so much that he took a couple pictures of these.

~ Side Note #4: In terms of writing down things to eat and do in my notebook, I did the same treatment for the next few cities that I traveled to that I’ll talk about in my travel journal later. I’ll show later when I start talking about those cities later on. ~

I talked to both Paolo and Celine a lot more – we shared quite a bit about each other’s lives and what we planned to do in Japan, which is always nice because that’s a great way to converse and pass the time while we’re waiting for same-day reservation bookings to eat THEM FLUFFY PANCAKES THOUGH.

We even talked about sports (especially Paolo with basketball when he mentioned the Blazers (and Damian Lillard!) and asked how they’re doing in the NBA this season so far).

Both Celine and Paolo recommended me a few places to hit up when I get a chance, including this awesome coffee cafe spot that they’re planning on hitting up (see screenshot above) called Koffee Mameya. (sadly… I didn’t get a chance to go, but if y’all get a chance to do so in Tokyo, let me know how it is 😀)

8:30am came. Celine + Paolo got their same-day reservation set up, and I got mine set-up as well! I was slated to sit down inside Benitsuru at 10:05am, and it was required to put down a ¥1000 deposit (which Paolo from Paolo fromTokyo warned me about already in the aforementioned Top 10 Street Food Asakusa youtube vid, so all good!)

This worked out, because for the time being, I’m free to explore more of Asakusa (including the Sensō-ji temple) until 10:05am when I had to be back by to eat these pancakes that I’ve been hearing so much about! HYPE!

For now, here are a couple photos as a small preview of the next travel journal entry.

My body is ready. LETS GET IT. but first, more exploring!

Cheers / wave