Shop, Stroll, Meow And Izakaya
Tokyo — we are ready to experience all you have to offer...again! There is so much to see and do, but let's give it a go. But first, we popped into a random restaurant right down the road from our AirBnb in Meguro for some...well, we're not sure — it looked appetizing, had a picture of dumplings on the poster outside, so we popped in. No turning back now. We pointed at the picture of the goyza (100 yen special!) and then to the dish the man next to us at the bar was eating — looked noodle-y and spicy, so why not. And they DELIVERED tenfold! Nom nom nom...
NOW it was time to really begin our day with some yummy in our tummy. And why not more food?! We had heard about Tokyu Food Show, a massive food court/grocery store/specialty food market in Shibuya from a few friends, so we had to check it out. Incredible. Massive indeed. And filled with some of the most appetizing things you've ever seen. And they had it all. We sampled a bit of home — an apple cider doughnut! — and got out with our waistline still in tact.
One stop to Shibuya Crossing wasn't enough...so we crossed it...again!
Next stop on our day's journey was Tokyo Station. We have been reading about the amount of stores and sections that comprise this complex, all in addition to the thousands of trains that pass through it daily. There's even a whole area called "Character Street" — which is all shops and with store fronts dedicated to favorite Japanese cartoons and characters. We tackled this "street" with our coffee/bubble tea in hand. Can I get a "what what" for Tamagotchi?!?! Remember that?! The virtual pet that we all killed many times?? Amazing.
We are both big fans of Muji, the trendy, streamlined Japanese store which has had some world wide success (New York Times building location!), but is 1000% Japanese in its roots. And their flagship store was super impressive. We'll move in now thank you very much.
Okay, enough shopping for now. Time to check out the Imperial Gardens and the beautiful buildings and grounds that comprise of this enormous haven located smack dab in the heart of Tokyo city. Some very unique flora and incredible Japanese architecture.
After we spent an hour or so wandering the grounds, we thought it best to check another extremely Japanese bucket list item off of our list — the animal cafe. We've now heard of hedgehog cafes and even owl cafes, but with Tim's deep love of felines, we HAD to make it a good ol' traditional cat cafe. Cafe JaLaLa to be exact located in nearby Electric City. Not sure we knew what was in store, but we found out soon enough. One small room. Six people (let in by appointment). Eighteen cats. Eighteen cats who had been petted and cuddled all day and were in the final stretch as they closed in one hour. By the end, some of them warmed up to us — sort of. But oh what an experience. Was fun to watch some of the Japanese couples on dates at said cat cafe. And to watch Tim use his cat whisperer techniques on these kitties was quite a sight.
Cat overload awaits!
We decided to explore Electric City a bit from JaLaLa back to the train to meet Theresa for dinner. Crazy part of Tokyo with alllllll of the electronic shops you could ever want at your fingertips. And the streets were, rightfully so, electric!
Final stop for the day was dinner with Theresa at another great recommendation from our Tokyo Precincts guidebook (Aussie authors, same peeps as Hong Kong Precincts) — this time for traditional izakaya dining in Ebisu. THE neighborhood for this sort of dining in Tokyo. Basically tapas style dining — small plate realness. The restaurant is called Sakanaya Ebisu-an and we made our way to an oh-so-Japanese booth in the back section of the space.
Delicious food. Amazing company.
And we are all mad as it's 11pm we agreed to meet at the Tsukiji Fish Market at 4:30am....AAAHHHHHH...GOOD NIGHT!
