Breakfast at Hotel New Otani

During my first trip to Japan, I had really wanted to experience a traditional Japanese breakfast. Japanese food is one of my favorites; the variety of dishes always leaves me filled with blissful satisfaction, and the overall balance makes me feel borderline self-congratulatory for being so healthy. And what better way to start the day.

Naively, I imagined myself waking up early on multiple occasions, but the jam-packed days, late nights, and mostly early mornings meant that I was pretty exhausted, and a lot of ambitions went out the window. I did, however, manage to make it out for a proper morning meal once. My choice was Hotel New Otani - for the quality of the meal but also because they have an amazing garden that the restaurant overlooks. Although the mid-March foliage was not quite peak scenery, the views nevertheless were beautiful, and the food of course, delicious.

Grilled fish, simmered dishes, vegetable side dishes, tsukemono pickles, onsen egg, chawanmushi, rice, laver, miso soup

Date: March 2015