Tokyo Eats - Shinjuku area

Throughout our time in Tokyo, the majority of our visits to Shinjuku was to eat sukiyaki tabehodai (all you can eat hotpot) at Nabezo with a host of friends and visiting family. The remaining of the time was me exploring the Shinjuku Isetan and a few other shopping destinations, me meeting up for lunch and coffee with my old friend K., and our afternoon tea club hanging out at the Peak Lounge or the New York Bar of the Park Hyatt Shinjuku ^.^ So suffice to say we did a great injustice to the enormous and super dense Shinjuku and didn't explore it as much as we could and should have.

Afternoon Tea at The Lounge, Aman Tokyo, Part II

Back in July, our Tokyo afternoon tea club was taken breathless with the space and the atmosphere at The Lounge on the 33rd floor of the Aman Hotel Tokyo. So despite the chocolate overload in the afternoon tea service, we voted to come back for a second time in mid September for a last hoorah, just one more tea session before we all part ways and return home after a year in the capital of Japan. We figured it's been two months and their menu has probably changed, so it won't be the same death by chocolate as with the July session.

Afternoon Tea at The Lounge, Aman Tokyo

Happy New Year!

Meanwhile, I'm still catching up with photos. For July, our afternoon tea club tried the tea service at The Lounge on the 33rd floor of the Aman Hotel Tokyo, in Otemachi, north of Tokyo Station and west of Nihonbashi.

I have to say, the building may seem unremarkable from the outside, but inside it was rather breathtaking in terms of design and decor. Our group of six were mesmerized the moment we stepped inside The Lounge and I have a boat load of photos to prove it ^.^ The whole place is vast and airy and well-lit. In super dense Tokyo, there's nothing more luxurious than space itself. Just look at that ceiling!

Afternoon Tea at the Oriental Lounge, Mandarin Oriental Tokyo Part IV

We had our last session of afternoon tea at the Oriental Lounge of Mandarin Oriental Tokyo in June. Four sittings and each was as spectacular as the last. No disappointments, no repeats, always something different and unique, and delicious. Gosh I love the tea service here, I really do. The next time we go back to Tokyo, this is where I'll be camping out ^.^

Afternoon Tea at the Oriental Lounge, Mandarin Oriental Tokyo Part III

A week after our day trip to Nagoya, my in-laws came for a quick one week visit, partly because mum-in-law wanted to visit her old college roommate, Mrs. H with whom we've been acquainted since our days in Yokohama. Hubby has always credited his mum for his interest in East Asian literature. Thanks to Mrs. H who has kept contact with mum-in-law through all these years, hubby was exposed to "Asian things" from an early age.

Anyway, to fight off the jet lag, we brought mum and aunt-in-law to the Mandarin Oriental for a tea session, and they both loved it so much they wanted to go again. We picked a different place for our second visit though, because it's kind of embarrassing to return to the same hotel for tea twice in the same week LOL ^.^" Will post that soon too.

Afternoon Tea at the Peak Lounge, Park Hyatt Tokyo Part II

For March's tea session, our tea club felt like revisiting an old place, so we went back to the Peak Lounge at Park Hyatt Tokyo. This time we were seated by the window in a different corner of the room. Let's just say we fully enjoyed view we got ^.^

Afternoon Tea at the Lobby Lounge & Bar, Ritz-Carlton Tokyo

Our December afternoon tea session was at the Lobby Lounge & Bar, on the 45th floor of the Ritz-Carlton Tokyo inside the Midtown Tower, Roppongi (well, Akasaka actually...).

This one was another maze of a hotel entrance. We walked around for quite a while before going through two narrow hallways just to the elevators. Perhaps this was designed to keep us riffraffs out? Ha.

The hotel lobby was on the 45th floor with very high ceiling, which I really enjoyed. The huge Christmas tree made the atmosphere festive, and the killer view didn't hurt either.

Afternoon Tea at the Oriental Lounge, Mandarin Oriental Tokyo Part II

I didn't intend to turn this blog into an afternoon tea blog, but alas... Hubby's birthday was two months ago (yes, I'm now 2 months behind on posts, urgh), and to my surprise he wanted to go back to have afternoon tea at the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo. I was more than happy to oblige, and I know hubby's colleagues have been going back with their visiting friends and family also, which goes to show how much we all love the place!

Since it was just the 2 of us and not our usual big group of 6-8, we got a window table with great view! Too bad it was a cloudy day, but it was still a really relaxing afternoon just snacking and chatting with my birthday guy.

Afternoon Tea at the Oriental Lounge, Mandarin Oriental Tokyo (Picture heavy!)

The afternoon tea session at the Peak Lounge, Park Hyatt Tokyo, ensured that we'll keep doing this tea thing for a long time. In October, our Afternoon Tea Club (me, hubby, his colleagues, whomever visiting or wants to join...) got together again, this time at the Oriental Lounge on the 38th floor of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Tokyo, in Nihonbashi near Tokyo Station. In fact, if you go I would recommend that you get a window seat and enjoy the sky view and the view of Tokyo Station with your tea ^.^

Here's the hotel lobby with entrances to the various restaurants and lounges. Photos were taken in the late afternoon as well as after sunset.

Looking at the Oriental Lounge, with the umbrella lamp shades at top right.


This is where the stairs lead to, and looking over the glass handrail, you'll see another bar/lounge on the floor beneath.

Afternoon Tea at the Peak Lounge, Park Hyatt Tokyo

A few weekends ago at the start of Silver Week, hubby and I had afternoon tea with his colleague and her husband at The Peak Lounge on the 41st floor of Park Hyatt Tokyo. If you think the name sounds familiar, it's because this hotel was featured prominently in Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation. The tea was such a fantastic experience that we decided that night there would be an Afternoon Tea Club for his office, as in we all will go out to tea one weekend a month (this coming weekend will be at the Mandarin Oriental!). 

We didn't know what we were in for, other than the fact that we would be on the 41st floor. And then the elevator door opens and we were transported to another world, complete with a mini bamboo grove! 

Hibiya Bar Ikebukuro

When hubby and I were invited to dinner with his professor and a fellow PhD colleague up in Ikebukuro, little did we know we were going to get treated to the best yakiniku meal we've ever had! And it wasn't just the food but also the company that made meal fantastic - the whole time, we were chatting about anime, manga, and Korean dramas xD

Caught hubby unsuspecting on the train ride ^.^

After dinner, hubby's colleague A-san further invited us out for a few drinks at his favorite Hibiya Bar. The bar is in a building right in front of Ikebukuro Station, but is hidden in the second basement. Apparently not too many people know about the place, and I was told on weekdays the place is frequented by only a couple of patrons. A-san took us here because according to him, the bartender, K-san, is a cocktail master and he makes excellent drinks. And plus Ikebukuro is his college town, so to speak, so he knows all the nooks and crannies of it and wanted to introduce to us the best of its corners.