Last night we went to a traditional Japanese restaurant called Toriyoshi, in Shinjuku.  Although we did not need to sit on the floor like in many local places, we were required to take off our shoes and place them in a personal shoe locker until we had finished eating (see the photo on the right).

We had a mixture of dishes to start including vegetables, tofu and some other bits, although main course was apparently the restaurant speciality – chicken skewers.  The difference between these chicken skewers and those which we may see in the west was that each one contained different parts of the chicken.  The body parts I can remember included cartilage, heart and thigh.  There was also a rather easier to eat minced chicken package (of which I ate quite a few).

I am proud to say that I did try the cartilage, which was unsurprisingly VERY hard to eat, I won’t be in a rush to try again, here is a video of Ryo taking it off the skewer…

I also had the chicken heart (which was a little chewy, but not too bad).  Here is the photo to prove it, which also showcases my newly improved chop stick skills (thanks to Chieko’s tuition )…

Here is a little intro about the restaurant from Chieko…

And as we drunk Saki, Wine and Beer, here is a little round table video clip of everyone enjoying their food…

My hotel is located in a fantastic area of Tokyo called Shinjuku.  The streets are so bright from the hundreds of neon signs, and they seem to be constantly hectic.  We went out for dinner with some interesting (and delicious) food, I will do a separate post with pics and vids when I get the chance, but in the mean time here are some videos of the streets outside the restaurant…