Day 107: My Relatives Have Hollow Legs
It would be a real jerk move of me to spend so long in Japan and not see my aunt and uncle, so after a lot of back and forth we decided on a date for lunch. In Ginza of all places! Faaaaancy.
We met outside the Lion statue outside Mitsukoshi where about 50 other people were meeting their friend. Fortunately we stood out a bit being about 30 years younger than most and also not Japanese.
Not knowing where Yasu and Michiko were taking us, we followed them down the road to a Chinese restaurant located on a lower ground floor called Joe's Shanghai. Ooh boy this place was a bit fancy (not that the website would give any kind of hint of that). Kind of like a Chinese restaurant imagined by a rich Westerner.
Lunch though was actually pretty reasonable and we all ordered the lunch set which included xiao long bao, dumplings, a main and dessert.
I was a bit nervous we would run out of things to say with the language barrier and all but it all went really well. I used what little Japanese I had, they used their pieces of English and we all used Google Translate and copious amounts of hand gestures.
During lunch Michiko asked if I had tried Hawaiian pancakes. I hadn't but I said I wanted to thinking we would arrange another time to meet and eat pancakes but no... they meant after lunch. Lunch where I was already full. But hey, why not? There's always room for dessert or something like that.
They had shark fin dumplings which I'd never had before. I felt kind of bad eating it and just hoped they used the rest of the shark in another dish.
The fam and my clip on earrings that I'm using the test drive to see if I want actual real life earrings (I do).
It looks small in this photo but it actually felt really huge in here.
Diamantes make everything classy.
After lunch we went for a second meal at Eggs 'N Things. I'd been partially interested in going here for years but the lines in Harajuku were always absurdly and confusingly long. The Ginza one had no lines so we just rolled right on in.
Thankfully we shared pancakes but even then there so just so much. I honestly don't know how my aunt and uncle finished this.
Pancake heaven.
This building really messed with my eyes.
Sleepy polar bears.
Crazy future car at Nissan.
With a light show interior.
Dorking out with VR part I.
Dorking out with VR part II.
The glittery streets of Ginza.
We tried to go to a whisky bar in Ginza but unfortunately it was entirely booked out for the evening so we ended up at this other whisky bar which was fantastic.
Star Bar is a blink and you'll miss it bar hidden away in a basement in Ginza. They have a man who works there that speaks perfect English and made us feel so comfortable right away.
After two cocktails each (that's all we could afford) we headed back to Shibuya for some cheap drinks and dinner.
Gindaco is a highball/takoyaki bar in Shibuya and is basically a match made in heaven.
Cheesy takoyaki and classic takoyaki with my fruity variation of a highball.
After our pre-game takoyaki we headed to Yasubee for some of my favourite tsukemen.
Hello friend.
