Japan Best

Because there’s a minimum order of one dish per diner, apart from the Original Kaisen Hitsumabushi (¥2380 • S$29.80), we got one other cheaper option on the menu, this Kaisen-don! Topped on the bowl of sushi rice was a colourful array of seafood - tuna, white fish, scallop, salmon, octopus, crab, shrimp and pops of salmon roe. Loved the natural sweetness in the fresh cuts!

📍築地虎杖魚河岸千両 Tsukiji Itadori Uogashi Senryo 
1F Hiizumi Bldg, 10-14, 4chome, Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
🚇 Ginza Station
🕚 7am to 11pm Daily, till 9pm on Sunday

Daily Chico has a whole range of soft serve flavours and many ways of purchase - single flavour, double flavours, 4 in a cone, etc. But the most popular of them all is still their extra large cone with all 8 flavours topped on each other!! There’s chocolate, calpis, strawberry, coffee, matcha, vanilla, grape and soda. It tasted better than we expected, rather smooth and creamy yet not overly sweet, but it’s a one time try for me. Some flavours tasted better than the others and somehow we found scooping them all up and eating together to be nicer than having them individually.

📍デイリーチコ Daily Chico
Nakano Broadway B1F
Nakano 5-52-15, Tokyo-to, Nakano-ku
🚇 Nakano Station
🕙 10am to 8pm Daily

Spotted this small snack shop on the walk to Kamakura’s Great Buddha. We couldn’t leave without getting one after taking in whiffs of that savoury fragrance! Go for the freshly made ones if you’re having them on the spot and you’ll be able to watch the staff hot press the roasted octopus right in front of you. Each serving is 2 thin sheets of piping hot crispy cracker, savoury with a tinge of sweetness. It was gone way too soon. Regrets not getting the packaged ones home!

📍丸焼きたこせんべい 鎌倉 Maruyaki Tako Senbei
1 Chome-16-17 Hase Kamakura-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture
🚇 Kamakura Station
🕚 11am to 5pm Daily

Can't remember the number of soft serves and ice creams we had in a week of Japan, but this is the one I can only wish I have easier access to! Held in a thin langue de chat cone with the best cookie like texture, the soft serve was extremely smooth and creamy, being especially strong in its fragrant milk flavour. If you're familiar with the famous 白色恋人 biscuits (Shiroi Koibito), this tasted exactly like that but in a different form!! Where to find them? There are loads of them across Tokyo and major tourist attractions like Asakusa (slightly pricier in those though), just look out for their posters!

📍CREMIA SILKREAM
Across Tokyo

Cutest organic baked doughnuts! And they turned out slightly better than expected - not greasy and surprisingly not too cloyingly sweet, but the texture was too dry. (From 210¥ for the animal versions)

Couldn't help overexcitedly gushing over its cuteness in the shop. Pity the choux was a little too dry and hard, but otherwise, the cream was delish. Especially the seasonal peach which had bits in it! (Pretty pricey at 400¥ onwards for takeaways though) #burpple