Welcome to Ginza: the Beverly Hills of Japan.
Ginza is a glamorous place full of the world's most expensive and fabulous stores...but in my opinion, the best part of going to Ginza is what you get to experience for free.
Every weekend, the streets are closed off to cars (in the afternoon only I believe) and people are able to just walk all over the main streets of Ginza. They literally call this event "Hokousha Tengoku" or "Pedestrian Heaven" and I am obsessed with it! People watching galore.
My friend Yuki and I were walking through the streets when I spotted this man in deep meditation...ringing a bell and walking very slowly through the street. It could have been his striking appearance, or slow pace in the midst of chaos, or the ringing of the bell, but I couldn't stop looking at him. He looked like moving artwork...and I knew I had to get a shot of it. This might be one of my favorite photos of Japan this far, and I just wish I had my camera instead of my phone!
Ginza should win an award (Omotesando too) for the world's most amazing store fronts. I feel like they care more about the exterior of the stores than what is actually sold inside haha.
Yuki and I were waiting to eat at Quil Fait Bon, which is a really popular fruit tart cafe...and the wait time was literally 2 HOURS! WHAT?? Luckily we could put our name down and then return later in the day, so with the time we had we walked a few blocks over to the ever popular: Tsukiji fish market. First stop, this man cutting a giant tuna with a SWORD. WHAT THE.
Happy oyster man serving all the tourists.
Thing (singular) to eat in Tsukiji when you do not eat seafood : TAMAGO!!! (Egg) For 100 yen you can get a slice of egg heaven. Yuki got herself a 400 yen oyster that she said was amazing!
One thing about Japanese people, they love waiting in line. Or rather, they don't mind waiting in line. We turned the corner and saw this long line of people waiting for some type of fried corn...turns out it was a variety of fried kamaboko (fish cake) on sticks. The corn one looked so good, and even though it was held together by kamaboko I was okay with it. The edemame one on the other hand - very fishy!
2 hours later...we went back to the cafe and got seated. I have a decided to do a informative blog post later on cafes' in Tokyo because they are extremely popular and vary in price and taste.
Anyway, for Quil Fait Bon my personal opinion is:
pros - beautiful fruit tarts, really good cafe au lait
cons- no one should wait 2 hour for a fruit tart, tiny portions, banana tart was OK *but I prefer Marie Calendars banana cream pie lol.
Tokyo International forum.
Dover Street Market Ginza...probably the coolest store I have ever been in. Immediately upon stepping into the building I felt not cool enough to be there haha. Its pretty much a museum for the hippest clothes in the world. One day... I will save up money and treat myself to buying something from there *I can probably only afford a keychain lets be real*
Aoyama Flower Market! This was the next day...when I found myself back in Tokyo (this time Gainmae/Omotesando area) again with Steph and our coworker/friend Chihiro. We ate shake shack (see below) and then had fancy tea at Aoyama Flower Market which is a flower store with an adorable cafe in the back. Very hip, felt very LA.
NOTE TO SELF: SUNDAY 4pm THE LINE FOR SHAKE SHACK IS ONLY 20 MINUTES...HALLELUJAH! I got the smoke burger this time. really good.
Chihiro is so fun. I love hanging out with this girl. She is the school nurse at Ichikashi but sadly she is transferring to a different school at the start of the new term in April (in Japan, teachers and nurses switch schools all of the time!). The good news is she lives in Kashiwa so we will definitely still keep in touch!
Tokyo, I love you.