I haven't been to Kinkakuji in a couple years, but there is a place to have matcha green tea and a traditional Japanese sweet along the path that goes through the gardens.

http://tabelog.com/kyoto/A2605/A26050...

Silverjay makes an excellent point that people visiting Japan might find beneficial -- Tokyo is not like San Francisco when it comes to eating.

Apparently San Francisco comes out on top in the US for number of restaurants per 10,000 households, at over 39. See:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jed-kol...

Digging around in Japanese, figures from around 5 years ago show that in Tokyo, there are around 116 restaurants per household. In the central areas of the city, the amount just boggles the mind.

I can walk for 5 or 6 minutes from my office, and reach well over 150 restaurants! Including at least two Michelin starred places, a shop specializing in sausage, an old, tiny family run yakitori shop that seats around 7 or 8 people at most, with a stand-up only outdoor bar next door with only two "barrels" for tables, and on and on. Part of the enjoyment in dining in Tokyo is the atmosphere of the place, the care taken (or not) in arranging the food so that it's as appealing to the eyes as to the palate, and the personal interaction with the chef / staff due to the intimate (OK, sometimes tiny or cramped) layout.

I realize that you're on your honeymoon, and price is no object, and I hope that you completely enjoy yourselves! But for your next trip, remember that part of the fun of Tokyo, even Japan in general, is finding a place you didn't expect, in a strange location, that turns out to better than anything written up in travel guides, blogs, newspapers, whatever. One of the best meals of my life was at a seafood izakaya somewhere on Izu many years ago after playing golf. We happened to notice it in a taxi early in the morning, and stopped by around 5pm on the way back to the station. Sometimes those experiences turn out to be a bust, but when it works, it's something that you'll truly remember for years and years.

Cheers

That's the well-known crab sign (restaurant) near Nanba Station in the center of Osaka. Here's a link to google maps with street view:
http://goo.gl/maps/07X3Y

The Torishige posted is technically in Shibuya Ward due to their address, although they are located almost next to Shinjuku station.

The Shizuoka Prefecture "antenna shop" located in the Tokyo Koutsu Kaikan building (Yurakucho) started selling them in December of last year. Here is their announcement, in Japanese:

http://hellonavi.jp/blog/index.php?ID=395

Look for the interestingly named "Shizuoka Mt.Fuji Green-tea Plaza" in the basement.

google map: http://goo.gl/maps/XswKF

You may have heard correctly. "Imo-mochi", made with "sato-imo" potatoes and regular rice, is made in a number of different part of Japan, including Gifu, but usually doesn't resemble the mochi in your photos.

E Eto may be right too, regular mochi made with "mukago", though I've only ever seen them mixed in with rice, not in a mochi rice cake.

It may help to try a google image search for "mukago" and "imomochi".

Of course the best way to find out what you ate is to make a return visit next year around the same time!

Mochi itself is not sweet unless you mix in sugar etc. when making it.

Your first photo shows "Mame mochi", which is made with whole soy beans mixed into the mochi, often black soy beans.

Your second photo appears to show a couple different varieties of mame mochi sold together in one pack.

The mochi on the right hand side of your second photo are "Egoma mochi", and likely have some shiso leaves mixed in.

I don't have any personal knowledge, but a Japanese colleague mentioned the following two shops in Kyoto:

1) Maeda Coffee, http://www.maedacoffee.com

and

2) Inoda Coffee, http://tabitano.main.jp/7inoda.html (better than their site at www.inoda-coffee.co.jp

Their summertime "Cole Coffee" (cold coffee?) is made with ice from the South Pole(!) They have a shop in the Daimaru department store at Tokyo station, on the 8th floor.

Alternatively, you could make your pumpkin pie using the Japanese kabocha pumpkin. This recipe is amazing:

http://rasamalaysia.com/pumpkin-pie-r...

Apparently the model for the Tampopo ramen shop was 佐久信 (Sakushin) in Ogikubo, Tokyo, which no longer exists. Filming was done at 春木屋 (Harukiya) in Karuizawa, which also apparently no longer exists. Both ramen shops served "Ogikubo Ramen", and Harukiya still has shops in Ogikubo and Kichijouji in Tokyo.

All in Japanese:
Harukiya website: http://www.haruki-ya.co.jp/
Tanpopo trivia: http://blog.livedoor.jp/mostly_benten/archives/1612625.html
Ogikubo ramen: http://ramenjiyuku.web.fc2.com/gotouti.kanto.tokyo.ogikubo.html
Japanese Wikipedia Tampopo web page:
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B...

If you're going to be in Kyoto, you can get a factory tour and tastings at Suntory's Yamazaki Distillery, located only 14 minutes away from Kyoto Station on the JR Tokaido line. Japanese website:
http://www.suntory.co.jp/factory/yama...

There are a variety of different types of tours, and they may fill up ahead of time.

I've had it before in nimono (stewed) dishes, like Robb S. mentions, as well as at a French restaurant named キャノン (Canon?) years ago out in Ushiku, Ibaragi Prefecture, about 50 minutes or so from Ueno in Tokyo, that appears to be temporarily closed right now, so it can be found. It was somewhat similar to the photo on the link below (just some random person's blog), though with a clearer, vegetable and tomato broth at the bottom of the dish.
http://mew.blogzine.jp/mew/2009/09/post_92cb.html

Look here to see how dried skate may be cut:
http://www.sakanadamart.net/shop/item...

This is the wrong season for fresh hot peppers, but they are available in Japan. Online, check out the following link for starters. All of the fresh peppers are out of stock at the moment, however. Info in Japanese.

http://www.hyb.jp/cp-bin/cart/class/0/

I've seen fresh habaneros in my local supermarket in late summer, and all kinds of unusual hot peppers in a local farmers market, also during the summer. They're mostly grown in Japan by contract with a restaurant or food manufacturer (loads of habanero potato chips and other snacks of late). You can sometimes get lucky at "Michi no Eki" locations, at which individual farmers cart in their wares each morning. But again, during the summer.

If you like the regular thin hot peppers used in Chinese cooking, usually sold dried at the store, just let me know and I could send you a couple hundred from my garden in September!

Um, actually it is. In Shibuya Ward, though of course very close to Shinjuku station.

Strange as it may seem, everything on the south side of the main street between the South and New South exits to the station is in Shibuya Ward (e.g. Kinokunia bookstore, Takashimaya department store, Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku hotel....)