Heard so much about Izuei Honten’s unagi (eel) that I went to Ueno for an early lunch; had some trouble finding the place because I made a wrong turn after coming out of Ueno Park so I had to ask for directions from a mawari-san (patrolling police officer) who did knew what I wanted even before I could finish my question! Went to the more modern Shinobazutei branch which is just 70 metres or so away from the more traditionally styled original homebase Honten and had a view of the lotus lake. Ordered the service lunch set (limited to just 20 a day apparently) for JPY 1,890 consisting of a single unagi on a bed of seasoned rice, with a cold salmon and bonito flakes and vegetables starter, pickles and hot clear soup. The colour and consistency of the unagi was more like anago (which is wild rather than farmed) and together with the subtle seasoning which did *not* massacre the eel with a double sweet and salty combo, this was very enjoyable unagi. The service lunch portion might be too small for most people though and larger portions at this restaurant start at around JPY 6,800 and can cross JPY 10,000. On the way back to Ueno Tokyo Metro station, I passed the koban (police box) at the corner of Ueno Park and saw the policeman who gave me the directions standing at attention there – thanked him with a quick bow which he acknowledged with a curt head tip of his own.
After my visit to the Washinomiya Shrine of Lucky Star fame, I stopped by Ootori Chaya – the tea house just outside the shrine gates – and had the daily cake and coffee set (JPY 500) amidst the clutter of L*S memorabilia scattered all around and then visited the radio show broadcast room on the second storey.
Back at Akihabara, dinner was at one of the outposts of the Negishi chain of beef tongue restaurants. Ordered the yotandoro set (JPY 1,480) which comes with three “white meat” part of the beef tongue sliced into six thick-cut pieces, rice, pickles, clear beef tongue broth with lots of freshly sliced eponymous leek (negishi) slices and a bowl of dororo, a sticky fermented bean porridge which is like a milder and less viscous form of natto. The billboards for this restaurant always feature the cheapest sets which range between JPY 800 to 1,200 but almost no one orders those as the portions are really small and the cuts are really the cheapest. Lots of people come here to fill up their bellies to the max because refills of rice are FOC and you can even ask for “oomori” (extra large) refills to go with the salty grilled tongue slices. I didn’t have any though as I tend to prefer to take my carbo in liquid form. 
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