Food Tours · Tour

Five Drinks, a Ramen Bowl, and a Cup to Take Home

Ueno rather than Shibuya or Shinjuku, and the difference shows in the rooms: these are taverns where the staff speak no English, the menu is on the wall in handwriting, and the other customers are people who came straight from work. Three hours, ten guests at most, meeting outside the Starbucks beside the Hiroko-ji exit at Ueno station. Your guide starts with the neighbourhood, Ueno Park and the zoo, then takes you to the first tavern for four dishes and an explanation of each. The route goes through Ameya Yokocho, the market street that grew out of the post-war black market under the railway tracks and still sells everything from dried fish to trainers, and on into Okachimachi. Across the taverns you eat sashimi, grilled fish and whatever the guide considers each place's best dish, and drink five glasses of things that are hard to order without help: not just sake and beer but the more obscure Japanese spirits that never leave the country. The last stop is a ramen shop near the panda square at Okachimachi, where you learn how to order from the ticket machine and how to eat it, since both have conventions. All the food and drink are included: five dishes with the ramen, five drinks, and a small porcelain sake cup you use on the tour and keep. Guided in English. At the end your guide tells you which station to head for depending on where you are staying.