EKIMISE Asakusa — Local services in Tokyo

This review is focused only on the basement level of EKIMISE building.

The basement office several genres of a grocery store. There is a small produce and grocery store, a few specialty shops for baking and liquor etc., a small drugstore and a large area of prepared foods. It is these prepared foods that I would like to highlight.

One of the most difficult things to do in Japan is to eat authentic home cooking because restaurants are usually the only place visitors can eat. The dozens of prepared food stands in this basement our a simple way for visitors to purchase and eat some Japanese home cooking. Not all the offerings are Japanese, and not all are home cooking but there are many fascinating stands.

As I recommend to visitors, there is no Japanese food that in and of itself should be avoided, such as extremely spicy food or expired perishable food etc. There’s never anything wrong with the taste of Japanese food or the quality. My advice to visitors is that there are only two things that they must overcome to enjoy the cuisines of Japan. One, the description of the food. Often the translation or just the perception of the word for the food is hard to get over (fermented soy bean sounds bad but it is only tofu). When eating Japanese food, I recommend you eat the food and then ask what it was. Second there are textures in Japanese food that visitors are not accustomed to. There is nothing wrong with the flavor of the texture, you just need to decide to accept the texture. The world has learned to eat sushi which means that they got used to a texture that is unique to raw fish.

Take your time looking at all the food stands. All the stands only offer takeout. Focus is a meal that you would buy à la carte and then eat it in your room or on one of the park benches along the Sumida river. remember Chinese food is an intro part of Japanese diet. Chinese food in Japan is Japanese food and is very different than Chinese food in China or any other country. Some people say the way that Japanese prepare Chinese food is the best Chinese food...

Only few clerks here can speak good English; however, they do provide Chinese language service. This a nice place for Chinese speaking people because it's shopper friendly environment. You can buy any items for tax-free here.. In this mall, I mean the sixth floor, there are a wide variety of electronic product for sale. They offer nice prices for their product. It's worthwhile to buy one and it could be much cheaper than your domestic product. The quality is quite good, too. However, you are required to show your passport in order to enjoy this benefit. The warranty is usually one year and it is only valid in Japan not outside counties. Therefore, one must be very careful after he or she decides which item to purchase. Otherwise, I don't think you are willing to take a long flight trip to refund your items here. In other words, one must double check his or her purchasing items before paying.. Both cash and credit cards are acceptable in transaction. So, enjoying your shopping if you are equipped with a lot...

The train station serving Tobu-Nikko (and the Shrines and Temples there), and some other stations, is located on the first floor near the entrance. The information office for this train is excellent! The staff I encountered communicated in English very well. They sold various discounted packages, one that served me very well and I thought was the same price as just the round-trip train ticket for my day trip. Entrance fees to the Shrines were not included (fees for me ranged from...