Day 83: Exploring Koenji

Dec 3

Dec 3 Day 83: Exploring Koenji

Koenji is known for their second hand shops, cool small bars and restaurants, which is good because I was in need of a new (or not so new) jumper and some lunch. It's not an area I'm all that familiar with either and because I felt as though I let the team down a bit in my last post I felt I needed to get back on board the content train.

First up, lunch. Obviously Japan is known for its sushi, but I love that there are so many local sushi spots around the place that are delicious and pretty inexpensive (especially at lunch). We found Kouzushi on the old faithful Tabelog which was only a couple of minutes from the station and had a pretty good lunch deal.

We got there just before they took last orders for lunch. Whew.

At Kouzushi they have a couple of lunch options with the most popular being the nigiri lunch set for ¥1000 which includes a selection of today's nigiri, tea and miso soup.

Feeling happy about our lunching decision. It doesn't look like a whole bunch of food but don't be fooled, you can actually get quite full from this. Well, I did anyway.

Simple and good. And for ¥1000, I was happy. I wish Sydney had spots like this.

Just near the station there is a covered shopping street which is perfect for rainy days when you *may have* forgotten your umbrella. There are a tonne of different shops on this street ranging from shoe stores to vintage shops to pet stores.

As a sucker for homewares (Adam knows this all too well), I had to check out this mug store. My obaachan had this set of mugs with prints of fruit on them, I claimed them as my own because I thought they were cute but then I found them in this store… — As a sucker for homewares (Adam knows this all too well), I had to check out this mug store. My obaachan had this set of mugs with prints of fruit on them, I claimed them as my own because I thought they were cute but then I found them in this store valued at over $100 each! Daaaamn.

While I am not a fan of tequila, I am a fan of avocado so I was interested in their dedicated avocado menu.

Sooooo many second hand stores. If you search hard enough you can find some pretty good things including a whole bunch of vintage Burberry trench coats from back when Burberry was called Burberry's.

After Koenji Adam retired back to our apartment but I decided to head into Shinjuku and spend the maximum time allowed in Bic Camera's massage chairs because as ugly as they are, they are the best and I want one in my future house.

Adam came to meet me after a few hours and we went to a whisky bar he had on his list. Zoetrope features in a bunch of must-visit whisky bars in Tokyo lists and I think because of this there were only foreigners at the bar. It also helps that the owner speaks English too.