Tokyo Day 4: Margo under the train

-A Walk in Yutenji and a sneak peek at Gakugeidaigaku.

Today I made my way from neighborhood into the two neighboring areas, Yutenji and Gakugeidaigaku, mostly Yutenji. It's a sweet neighborhood where people were really friendly, one woman made a huge effort to speak to me to find out why it was so interesting to me to photograph Yutenji. Luckily, I have a million apps on my phone to get me through a baby conversation. I was able to tell her "I'm an artist and I live in nakameguro for one month", not that smoothly though, nor with that much sentence structure. Yutenji has a two main shopping streets, one runs parallel to the train.





This is the street I found Margo, a tiny adorable restaurant, run by one woman. Again, I was lucky that her English was amazing and she was able to run the lunch set menu down to me. I settled on the pancakes, that came with two teeny-tiny saugages, a tomato quarter, a slice of daikon radish, three potato slices, a smear of what seemed to be mustard seeds in a vinegar, and a teeny carafe of syrup. The pancakes were just plain pancakes with a slab of butter, but the sausage and tomato were heavenly. The tomato might be the most delicious tomato I've ever had, it actually tasted like fruit which is what we have been told tomatoes are. The set came with english tea served in a beautiful glass cup with a stone bowl filled with finely ground brown sugar with a small wooden spoon to serve. The most amazing thing about Margo aside from the decor and food, is that the owner is the wait staff and cook all by herself, and she's lovely to boot.






I spent the rest of the afternoon in Yutenji just walking the streets and hanging out at busy spots like the train station getting shots of people. I sat in front of a supermarket for about half an hour, people kept looking at me funny, but I shot them anyway.





When I was done in Yutenji I meandered along the streets near the tracks so I wouldn't lose my way while I headed into Gakugeidaigaku (yes, it's a mouthful). I realized I must be in Gakugeidaigaku because I was nearing the next train station along the Tokyu Toyoko line. I stopped in this really cute store called modern pets has nothing to do with real pets, they basically remade Dream Pets which is are stuffed animals from the 60's, they also carry all sorts of Astroboy stuff. I picked up to tiny creatures super cute.






These two tinies came home with me, so kawaii!

I made an attempt to go to a gallery opening this eve but I was unsuccessful. After taking three different trains and getting on two wrong trains, and navigating some dark alleys the place was closed! The gallery is in Ryogoku(pronounced Yogoku) which where the Edo Museum is so I got to see the building it's pretty impressive looks like a giant spaceship. All that traveling took 2.5 hrs! I got back to my hood and went to a delicious izakaya, Kushiwakamaru, that basically makes yakitori of all sorts and serves mega size beers. I had a quart of beer, I kid you not. As an appetizer they brought out a bowl full of pureed daikon radish with teeny fish sprinkle on top, I tried it, it tasted as bad as it sounds. For dinner, I ordered entirely too much, because I was basing it on the size of yakitori we get in NYC, but it's all mega size at this place. I ordered two screws of beef with peppers, two chicken with scallion, one scallop with salsa, two asparagus with bacon. Let's just say, I would like to stick a finger down my throat because I ate so much. This place is super gaijin friendly the whole menu is translated into English and you will see plenty of gaijin faces. It's really busy and you have to put your name on a list because people come form all over to eat here, it's suppose to be the best yakitori place in town.









Getting there:
Margo Cafe in Yutenji- Take the Toyku Toyoko line to the Yutenji station.

When you get out of the station make a left at the KFC at the corner, walk down the Terra Shopping Center to the end right before you hit the train overpass. Margo is right across from the train overpass and it's the last little store at the end of the shopping strip. About a 5 mins walk from station.

Kushiwakamaru in Nakameguro- Take the Toyku Toyoko line or the Hibiya line to the Nakameguro station. As soon as you get out of the station cross to the opposite side of the street, make a left. Then make a right at the next corner, and one more left at the next corner. The building says YAKITORI in the front. Put your name down on the list and number in your party and take a seat.