TacoCat’s Travels #167 (Japan 8.0 - Kawasaki): Savouring Steaks before Saying Sayonara 😢

June 2022 · 7 min read · Ota

Hey Hive!

If you missed the last couple of posts, I started recounting my trip to Kawasaki when I went to visit Sean in Japan at the end of May 2019! He was doing an internship with Fujitsu in Tokyo then for about a month or so but we missed each other so much he booked me a flight to go and visit him!

Last week, we explored more of the Kawasaki neighbourhood and tried some new food and snacks! And we found our new favourite katsu place - Matsunoya! It's a really affordable and for the quality and quantity it was really good!

My trip was soon coming to an end however, so we made sure to eat all my favourite foods together before I had to fly back to Singapore. I was craving steak one day so we decided to try this steakhouse that was apparently popular with many working professionals in Tokyo (or salaryman).

The restaurant is called Ikinari Steak and I've written about this place before many years back if you want more details you can check it out here! But we found out about this chain during our last trip to Hiroshima and realised they had branches here in Tokyo too so we made sure to check them out!

Ikinari Steak is known for their express service so that busy working professionals can still get to enjoy a nice steak meal on their short lunch breaks or for dinner before heading home. Typically, steak dinners are known to be a sit-down-and-enjoy type affair so this was a new concept that worked really well especially in Japan where the working hours are so long.

So it was really fitting that the outlet we went to was a standing restaurant too!

I'm not a fan of standing restaurants since I like to sit and enjoy my meals and I'm also on the shorter side so the tables tend to be quite high for me. But for the delicious steak, I endured it.

The place was kinda packed at rush hour but we still found some spots at a counter opposite two older gentlemen. It was a pretty compact restaurant with bar counters in the middle and along the side walls, with the kitchen at the back.

But we ordered our steaks and they came out about 10 minutes later nice and hot! All the discomfort of standing on my feet vanished when I had the steak in front of me! It smelled soo good with the delicious fried garlic chips on top, sides of onions and corn and a nice dollop of garlic butter on top.

It was perfectly seared medium well just how I like it so it was still juicy and tender but cooked enough that it wasn't red or bloody anymore. I sliced my steak up into nice even pieces so I could savour every bite.

While Sean sliced his up like a madman XD

Either way it was a truly delicious meal and I'm glad that we could enjoy it together before I had to leave! We don't eat a lot of steak because it's red meat and quite expensive, but this was truly one of the best steaks I've ever eaten for sure!

We spend a few more days together but since it was weekdays most of the day I would be at home doing work, or working on art making breakfasts like these with my favourite brown sugar butter bun, bacon and over easy egg while Sean is at the office.

I liked having the place to myself at times but I always look forward to when Sean would come back from work so we could spend some time together.

Even though we were in a foreign country I didn't want to burden him with showing me around or going to explore some place after he had a long day of work so we would just relax and explore the neighbourhood, sometimes just stay at home if he was too tired. We were satisfied with just going to the grocery store together.

I'm glad we're not high maintenance people that we need to go out to a fancy restaurant every time we want to have a meal. Even simple store bought meals were good enough for us as long as we were together! 💕

On my last night, we went back to our favourite ramen place - Kitakata Bannai Ramen! This was our first meal together on this trip and so was fitting to be our last meal together too. I ordered my favourite set - the chashu ramen with charcoal chashu rice while Sean tried the fried rice this time!

The fried rice was kinda normal, and with the ramen that was alright it was okay. But my favourite will always be the charcoal rice. The ramen itself is pretty good; the best thing about it is how much chashu you can get and they're pretty thick cuts too.

6 June 2019. Thursday.

On my last day, Sean sent me off at Haneda airport. He had booked me a night flight back so I wouldn't have to go to the airport by myself while he was at work.

It was so surreal having him send me off since we were so used to flying together but we tried to make the most of it. There was even a very beautiful flower display at the airport at the time!

There was a spring flower event going on at the time and they had all these fresh and beautiful flowers on display! There was just a subtle floral aroma throughout the departure hall which was calming in a way.

We passed the time taking lots of pictures and also to distract ourselves from the sadness of me leaving.

I don't think we've been to this upper part of Haneda Airport since our first ever trip here back in 2016 so it was a little nostalgic.

Haneda had an information board with all the different flower species on display and invited travelers to tag them on instagram if they took pictures!

I'm not really a big fan of flowers but I like visiting gardens and parks so I thought the displays were really lovely! It felt like the airport itself was sending me off and wishing me a safe flight home too.

Soon enough, it was time for my flight so we bid farewell at the gate and I went through customs and immigration while Sean went back to an empty apartment. I think we could feel each other's mutual sadness but at least it was only for another 2 weeks or so before Sean would return to Singapore!

At 4am, I was served breakfast on the plane and I got a nice fluffy creamy omelette with sausages, hashbrowns and spinach! I wasn't a fan of the salad but the fruits, yogurt and bun were alright. This was probably one of the best airplane breakfasts I had to be honest!

The flight was pretty empty so I could relax at least and I arrived in Singapore early the next day around 6am.

Overall, it was a very nice trip and while I kinda regretted not exploring more the main thing was just to spend some time with Sean after so long of not seeing each other so it was nice to finally do that. And we did explore a few new places together at least like the mini Fushimi Inari Shrine and the cyber dystopia arcade!

Our next trip is actually our final trip to Japan before officially starting work and it actually has been our last trip to Japan ever since, because of covid. We're hoping they open up soon so we can go again since it's been so long, and they really should soon or their economy is going to suffer big time. So hopefully we'll be free to travel to our favourite country again!

Tune in next week for our final Japan trip, this time to a whole other region!

Thanks so much for reading!