December 3, 2025 Tokyo - Breakfast - Leftover Sushi and French toast with egg. Brunch - Oyster and tuna at Tokyo Fish Market Dinner - Pork Cutlet with rice in curry sauce Honolulu - Lunch -Duck and Comte sandwiches, Dinner - Nico’s

December 3, 2025 Tokyo - Breakfast - Leftover Sushi and French toast with egg. Brunch - Oyster and tuna at Tokyo Fish Market  Dinner - Pork Cutlet with rice in curry sauce

Honolulu - Lunch -Duck and Comte sandwiches, Dinner - Nico’s 

We spent December 3 in Tokyo. Then took an 8:10 p.m. flight to Honolulu that arrived at 8:30 a.m. on December 3.  So we gained a day when we crossed the Date Line, thus traveling two December 3rd’s.

I started the day in Tokyo at our apartment eating leftover sushi.

Then we packed and secured our luggage in the lobby and taxied to the Old Fish market that is now dominated by seafood restaurants. We first went upstairs to the Yonomoto Coffee shop favored by Yoko Ono and John Lennon when he was alive.

We ate breakfast. Suzette ate toast, a hard boiled egg, and coffee, I ate 

French Toast, an egg, and Earl Grey tea, and Willy ate a ham and egg toast with coffee. 

We then said goodbye to Willy and walked through the fish market. We were not very hungry but ate a large raw oyster and shared a tuna sampler.

We then returned to the hotel and took our luggage and taxied to Terminal 1 at Narita Airport.

Suzette had reserved a wheelchair for me so we were able to obtain Assistive services to check our luggage and obtain our boarding pass. We then went through security and water at our gate four hours for our 8:45 flight.

the lady at assistive services gave us bulkhead seats, so we had a little extra leg room and we slept four or five hours after we were served dinner of fried breaded pork cutlet on rice in curry sauce with a cured salmon salad and a regular salad.

When we arrived at 8:15 I was wheeled through Immigration to baggage claim where we took our luggage and walked to Budget fast track to pick up our big Chevrolet Malibu and drove to the North Shore. We stopped at Foodland and bought a tatami mat, a big bottle of water, and a baguette and made duck and comte sandwiches at Pipeline beach watching the surfers.

We then went to a the small historic village of Haleiwa and stopped to look at shells and then drove back to our hotel at Waikiki Beach.

We rested until 6:00 and then went to the bar for our complimentary drink. The bartender was extremely helpful recommending restaurants. We made a reservation at a highly rated Turkish restaurant for Friday night and then drove to his recommended Nico’s Pier 38 for a fish dinner.

Nico’s is on Pier 38 overlooking a portion of the Marina.

It had four choices of fresh fish.  Suzette ordered an Aji tuna steak on rice with crisp sautéed string beans with a sweetened, miso teriyaki cream sauce. It was a wonderful sauce that we will replicate at home.

My choice was a breaded and sautéed pomfrey steak on a bed of linguine and spinach in a black truffle cream sauce with rinsed capers served with two slices of grilled garlic toast.

It was an even better sauce than Suzette’s with little specks of truffle visible in the sauce.

We each drank a glass of German Riesling and could barely finish our meal.

We saw the blue moon as we walked back to our car for a perfect ending to a lovely evening.

Bon Appetit

December 2, 2025 Breakfast - Denny’s. Lunch - Belon Dinner - Take out

 December 2, 2025 Breakfast - Denny’s.  Lunch - Belon  Dinner - Take out 

We may have had the best meal of the trip today. We also took our guided trip to a supermarket in the basement of a department store.

We left the apartment at 7:30 and walked one block to a Denny’s were we ordered two egg over easy, a slice ham, a sausage, two pancakes, and a tea for 715 yen.

We then taxied to the OK department store Ginza where we met Yukari our guide to all things edible. We went down and toured the two floors of food and beverages. OK is a discount food store. We bought soup seasonings with dehydrated tofu and spinach, and lots of other items like a timer, a knife, a miso mixer, Comte cheese, ham slices, a duck smoked breast, and cookies. 

After an hour of shopping the two floors of food I began to weaken and we went to the cafe on the 7th floor where we had cups of tea for me and coffee for Yukari and Suzette. The featured item was a Mont Blanc, a tower of Bern paste in a parfait glass with ice cream and threads of chestnut paste and several whole chestnuts in syrup. We ordered it and shared it, but I soon asked to be left so Suzette could continue the tour and they went to buy more cosmetic brushes for Suzette’s staff.

When Suzette returned around noon we discussed lunch and she suggested an oyster bar in the Loft department store around the corner so we walked the 500 steps and took the elevator to the 7th floor where we found the small restaurant named Belon that specialized in fresh Japanese oysters. We were seated beside the extensively well stocked walk in wine refrigerator that was loaded with some of the best wines in the world, which was promising. We were given lunch menus. There were only two choices: salad, pasta, and dessert without three oysters or lunch with three oysters.  We each chose lunch with three oysters.

Suzette ordered a limoncello kir Royal (white sparkling wine with a splash of limoncello) that has become her instant favorite cocktail. I ordered a glass of dry white wine and received a lovely dry but flavorful Japanese white wine. One of the great discoveries of the trip was that Japan has a highly developed wine industry that produces both excellent red and white wines. 

The first course was a small plate with three or four slices of a white fish sashimi with a drizzle of pickled tomato as the dressing, innovative and delicious.

Then we were served a salad of greens and threads of pickled carrots and daikon in a light dressing that was very refreshing.

The Third course was a bowl of al dente angel hair pasta in an oyster olive oil and garlic sauce. There were four small oysters cooked into the rich oyster sauce in my bowl but only two in Suzette’s bowl, which upset her a bit especially since she did not eat much pasta.

Then another glass of the white wine for Suzette served with trays of ice on which three very different looking oysters were resting each with a plastic encased card identifying its name in English and Japanese and map of Japan with the bay where it was grown marked with a red dot. Rather like a seashell label containing name, gathering information, and habitat where collected.

We were also served a tray with three small depressions, one with a soy sauce, one with a vinegar sauce and one with salt.

Our waiter instructed us to eat the smaller to the largest from left to right.

When we asked about the sauces he recommended a few drops of fresh lemon juice from the small lemon wedges instead, which we did.

The first oyster was delicious and rather briny. The second one that had a deep v shaped shell was mellow and firm and the third one was a long flatter oyster from the northern island of Hokkaido, was sweet and texturally soft with a wonderful flavor and the biggest oyster we have seen in a while.

After we finished the three oysters, Suzette told the waiter she wanted to try three more different oysters. I said I would take another of the v shaped shell middle oyster that seemed a perfect oyster to me with its unusual shaped shell and firm texture and clean mild taste.

Suzette’s second three oysters were just as interesting as the first.

The first was her favorite creamier in texture and sweeter. The second one was very briny, her least favorite. The third one was another Hokkaido monster that was creamy with a texture like many oysters we eat in the U.S.

I ordered one more of the Hokkaido monsters and found it to be a little muddy in flavor, which may have even oyster specific because Suzette’s was not muddy tasting.

Washing it down with sips of white wine relieved much of the muddy flavor.

Finally it was time for dessert and a beverage. I took dark tea with steamed milk. Suzette took coffee with steamed milk. We were served a small plate with a wedge of pound cake with a red currant coulis and small dab of pouring custard garnisheed with a green mint leaf.

The only other customers were two well dressed middle aged women. I had the impression that there must be 1000’s of fancy restaurants in Tokyo where women who lunch meet to enjoy the local delicacies.

After lunch we went to the 5th floor stationary department where Suzette bought ball point pens and I bought Thank You note cards.

We rhen returned to OK department store and I waited while Suzette shopped for take out for dinner.and bottle of white wine.

We then taxied back to the apartment at 3:00 and rested until 6:00 when Willy returned from his trekking across Tokyo.

We ate dinner at 8:00, a box of unagi on rice for Suzette, a bento box of sushi for me and a box of chicken sate on sticks and a box of fried chicken for Willy that we all shared.

Lunch today was the most interesting meal of the trip anf for us perhaps the best, excellent Japanese oysters and white wine. We decided that if we ever return the focus of the trip will be oysters and wine.

We watched some football and soccer and went to bed at 9:30.

Bon Appetit

November 30, and December 1, 2025 Tour to Mount Fuji and Lake Kawaguchi Lunch - Grilled Trout and Mackerel and Potato and clam and shrimp fish cakes Dinner - Pat de Wine Beaujolais Nouveau and Alfredo Sausage Pizza

November 30, and December 1, 2025 Tour to Mount Fuji and Lake Kawaguchi  Lunch - Grilled Trout and Mackerel and Potato and clam and shrimp fish cakes Dinner - Pat de Wine Beaujolais Nouveau and Alfredo Sausage Pizza

Yesterday I stayed at the hotel room to rest while Willy and Suzette went to the weekly flea market. I ate an assortment of food but mainly the leftover chicken ramen from our dinner two nights ago.

For dinner Willy went to the train station near us and bought a variety of dishes, including two boxes of sushi, some pickled cabbage, ground beef in a cream sauce on rice, and bean thread noodles with beef.

The bean thread noodles were leftover and I ate them for breakfast on December 1 along with two chocolate croissants. At 7:30 we taxied to the rendezvous point for the day long tour to Mount Fuji with about six others in a van.

Fuji is an active volcano that last erupted in 1707-1708 over 100 km. out of town. Our first stop was at Lake Kawaguchi near its base that made a breathtaking view of Fuji. I nibbled 1/2 of a croissant stuffed with ham and cheese.

At a second stop I drank an orange juice while the group walked to a shrine. This was where Conrad bought a the best Fuji apple I have ever eaten 

Then we drove to an area with several restaurants by a pond. Our guide recommended the grilled lake fish after buying a bottle of white wine and Willy and I buying fried fish cakes on skewers, Willy’s with potato and mine with clams and shrimp, Suzette went to buy fish. The fish were delicious, freshly caught seven or eight inch long trout whose skin was salted and seasoned

and then grilled on a charcoal grill. 

We each ate a trout and Suzette and I shared a mackerel fillet.

The restaurant area was also at the base of Mount Fuji so more pictures.

After lunch the driver drove the van up to Stage Five at an elevation of 2025 meters about half way up to the summit at 3667 meters. Fuji is the tallest mountain in Japan. It lies within the over 40,000 acre Unesco designated site.o

It was snowy and cold with a fierce wind blowing when we got out of the van at 2025 meters on the side of Fuji. We went inside the gift shop where there was a heater going full blast and surrounded by benches.  Willy ordered him and me cups of hot chocolate. We then walked outside and I talked to the German couple, who noted how interesting cycling to North Cape in the summer had been because the sun never set.

We got on the bus and drove. Down to an observation platform with an amazing view of a neighboring mountain range and then back to Tokyo.

When we arrived we noticed there was a wine bar across the street so we went there and discovered this week was the international Beaujolais Nouveau release.

So we ordered three glasses of Beaujolais Nouveau and a pizza.

The Beaujolais was delicious, not too light or unpleasant tasting. In fact it was wonderful. We were given a plate of thinly sliced ham drizzled with olive oil and we asked for slices of toasted baguette to make little tapas and ate pizza and ham on baguette with sips of the Beaujolais to celebrate this year’s early release of Beaujolais.

We then taxied to the hotel and I rested and then blogged this entry with a cup of Earl Grey tea and an eclair.    

Bon Appetit