Gryphon Travel

July 10th 2025. We were in the heart of the tourist district of Tokyo, Asakusa. i learned a lot at this food tour. Our guide was fantastic and chatted with us about Japan, the US, and Canada. He is a sushi chef with 11 years of experience and considering moving to Vancouver BC in the next year.

Our food tour started with sushi. We were too excited to remember to take a photo. We started our meal with powdered green tea Sencha mixed with cold water (it was hot in Tokyo today) which we all found rather refreshing. Our guide instructed us on traditional ways of eating the sushi. Just a small amount of soy sauce in the side dish and you only dip the top part with the meat, not the bottom rice. Oh, he also said traditionally sushi is eaten with your fingers, which was news to me.

We tried matcha , which David and Daya both had in ice cream form and Aris and I drank as cold drinks. He warned us our drinks would be bitter, he seemed worried, I think he might not drink a lot of black coffee.

Melonpan is a traditional Japanese sweet bun. We had to take ours to go, but I tried it later in the evening. It’s the first bread introduced in Japan around 1930. It’s not melon flavored, it resembles a melon in texture. It’s a lighter sweet bread that I very much liked.

We tried a sweet potato pastry drizzled in Japanese honey that was too sweet for our tastes. Japanese honey has a floral flavor infused from the nectar of the local flowers.

Soba is a thick buckwheat noodle served with dipping sauce. It can be served hot or cold, and we were happy to be enjoying the cold version on this hot day. Before the soba they brought us shrimp, shishito pepper, and eggplant tempura. They also gave us all a shot of very good Saki. At the end of the meal they provide hot pasta water which you poor into your dipping sauce bowl and now you have a rich broth. A rich wasabi broth in David’s case