Day 8 – Shopping in Shibuya and Ginza

Koko wanted to get cufflinks for this one shirt that has French cuffs, so off to Shibuya we went. Shibuya and Ginza are enormous shopping districts, but the former (as we found out) seems to have more casual clothes. The latter is similar to NYC’s Fifth Avenue (upscale, more expensive, etc), so we figured they'd sell things like cufflinks.

Right out of the subway,
looking at the masses in Shibuya

Love that it's a giant bubble tea
cup--with a straw!

It is a "lifestyle store" indeed--it's so Japanese
with the cartoons!

All kinds of bento boxes

More interesting to look at when
you're going up/down the stairs

This was between two other levels

Lumine Est (dept store) is integrated with the train
station, so you can start shopping as soon as
you arrive in Shinjuku

Starbucks' seasonal offering:
Sakura (cherry blossom-flavored) lattes

This explains why Japanese men have
nicer skin than I do

Kimonos, next to the lingerie section, for sale at $200+

Kimonos are mostly worn for ceremonial purposes these days, but the really traditional women wear it every day. No easy task, if preparing it is anything like what's depicted in "Memoirs of a Geisha" (the book; I didn't see the movie).

Flintstones architecture in Ginza

85°C may be a bakery in Taiwan, but in Tokyo,
4°C is a bridal boutique

"Shop here for the sexy androgynous look"


Lots of lights in Ginza

Looking at these signs makes me wonder...does this only work because Japanese writing can easily be read vertically? Could horizontal signage have the same effect?

The entire facade of the building was a TV screen.
The Chanel logo just happened to float up when
I took this pic

These donut "logs" were about 2.5-3' wide

Cross-sections of the donut log.
Price tag: $33.75

Available in sakura flavor, of course

After about 4-5 hours, he finally found a pair of cufflinks that he liked. No picture, because it's still in the bag, with a sticker taped over the closure.

Stepping away from the shopping in search of food
in Shinbashi

We tried to go to the izakaya that Koko had been to with his colleagues because it was good and cheap, but we couldn't find it. Izakayas are like bar and grill joints in the States, but food is served in tapas portions (maybe a little bigger) for sharing.

At left: Cafe Tobacco, which Japan Times
describes as "an oasis for smokers"

Japan is supposedly becoming more and more smoke-free (like the no-smoking policy at restaurants during lunchtime). It would have been nicer for us non-smokers to be able to have dinner without choking on bad air, though. Where's my oasis??

A larger-than-life size sculpture above a bar

We walked into this small, hole-in-the-wall izakaya which I know now (from looking at the business card) is called Matoi Goma.

The restaurant had about 2.5 more of these tables

An app you can eat: yam noodles with fish roe with a
side of cold barley tea for me, a draft biru for him

The sampler yakitori: tebasaki (chicken wing tips);
chicken with lots of cartilage (not my fave); chicken gizzard;
chicken skin; and momo (chicken thigh)

Later, I showed this pic to our server to tell him which of the five skewers we wanted more of. I think now Koko appreciates my obsession with taking food pictures before eating. =D

In reading the menu, I tried using Google’s translator app to translate “tsukune," but it kept telling me that it meant “tsukune” in English. (I had to look up an online menu of another izakaya--in New York, no less--to find that it means "chicken meatballs.")

Tofu, egg, onion, seaweed, and pork belly

Potato croquette--with peas, carrots and corn--
like samosas, only w/o curry and with panko crumbs

Age-dashi tofu (deep fried, with bonito flakes
and raw onions)

Good food. Service was slow, which would have been fine if we were just hanging out and weren’t so hungry. Pricey, though. For nine tiny skewers, an onion/tofu dish of about 1.5 rice bowls’ portion, two potato croquettes, three cubes of age-dashi tofu, and drinks (3 beers for Koko and one tea for me), our bill came out to 4800 yen (~$57), and this is supposed to be one of the cheaper options when dining out in Japan.

I wish there were Yelp for Japan. There's bento.com and sunnypages.jp, but there aren't that many reviews, and most of the restaurants listed/reviewed are still pretty expensive.