March 28, 2006 - Shopping @ Ginza , Ten Ichi, Oden, and a beautfiul evening @ Chidorigafuchi
Can you believe it? Another day of shopping! We started the day around 10:00 a.m. at a Shimbashi cafe for breakfast. Afterward, we took a short stroll into Ginza in search for Hakuhinkan, the biggest toy store in Tokyo. We had a blast there! More Totoro merchandises!!! The cutest one we saw was a stuffed toy version of the King Totoro sleeping - and get this, its tummy moves up & down and it snores! It was the cutest thing. I must have it! I wish I could buy all the different Totoro merchandises there! We also picked up a few of the solar-powered moving toys. The latest are flowers. I have most of the models they have there. :P In additional to the iDog, we also saw the iFish, which moves to music from the ipod. We also saw the latest version of the Sony Aibo ...the latest Aibo model IMHO looks more like a kid's toy than a kewl robot dog. You'll see the progression of the different generations of Aibo on the flash video at Sony's official Aibo site. As you can tell, we had a great time there and will be returning as the new PSP Naruto game is coming out on this Thursday. We'll be going back tomorrow to reserve a copy to be picked up on Thursday.
After a detour to Hakuhinkan, we walked to the Ten Ichi on B1 floor of the Sony Building in Ginza. Ten Ichi was as delicious as we remembered it. The simplest dipping - lemon juice plus a pinch of sauce was most yummy! The most delicious item that we had there was scallop - hotate. After lunch, we walked around the Sony building, admiring the latest products. We also stopped at one of the confectionery store for a fresh strawberry mochi. I've only had bean paste mochi before, but never strawberry. It was soooo oishi!
Then, more shopping....first at a stationary store with traditional Japanese goods, then at Uni Qlo. Julian went to town at Uni Qlo. The clothes really fit him well, and they were inexpensive! We must've came out of the store carrying 10-15 lbs of goods, whilst spending only around US$350.
We were beat by the time we returned to the hotel around 6:30 p.m. We took a quick nap before meeting up with Patrick for an oden dinner. We went to an oden bar in Ginza. The place was packed and the menu filled with different veggies, fish cakes, etc. The food was good; and a nice break from the other types of more gourmet food.
After dinner, Patrick took us to Kudanshita to visit Chidorigafuchi & Yasukuni-jinja for hanami. Today is the 1st day of Beyond in Japan. Beyond is the festival where the living pays respect to ones in the Beyond and takes place 3 days prior and 3 days after Beyond. As such, we've been seeing a few women around in traditional Japanese kimono on subways & on the streets. Coincidentally, today is also the 1st day to admire cherry blossoms. Starting tonight through 4/3, they had lights on, shining up onto the cherry blossoms at Chidorigafuchi. Chidorigafuchi is a beautiful area with cherry blossoms planted along the two shores of the river. Seeing cherry blossoms at night is certainly another type of feeling. Patrick told us that while the Chinese people like to admire the new year's flower as the flower is opening, the Japanese like to admire the cherry blossom as it starts to fall... has more of a melancholy type of feel. Across from Chidorigafuchi is Yasuna-jingja, a place to honor those Japanese soldiers (men, women, and even children) who died in the various wars. Cherry blossoms were planted to comfort the souls honored at Yasuna-jingja. There, probably because of hanami, there was some sort of a festival going on with stalls after stalls of different types of Japanese food. It is said that there're a bit of controversy about this place - see the following excerpt from http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2321.html -
After a detour to Hakuhinkan, we walked to the Ten Ichi on B1 floor of the Sony Building in Ginza. Ten Ichi was as delicious as we remembered it. The simplest dipping - lemon juice plus a pinch of sauce was most yummy! The most delicious item that we had there was scallop - hotate. After lunch, we walked around the Sony building, admiring the latest products. We also stopped at one of the confectionery store for a fresh strawberry mochi. I've only had bean paste mochi before, but never strawberry. It was soooo oishi!
Then, more shopping....first at a stationary store with traditional Japanese goods, then at Uni Qlo. Julian went to town at Uni Qlo. The clothes really fit him well, and they were inexpensive! We must've came out of the store carrying 10-15 lbs of goods, whilst spending only around US$350.
We were beat by the time we returned to the hotel around 6:30 p.m. We took a quick nap before meeting up with Patrick for an oden dinner. We went to an oden bar in Ginza. The place was packed and the menu filled with different veggies, fish cakes, etc. The food was good; and a nice break from the other types of more gourmet food.
After dinner, Patrick took us to Kudanshita to visit Chidorigafuchi & Yasukuni-jinja for hanami. Today is the 1st day of Beyond in Japan. Beyond is the festival where the living pays respect to ones in the Beyond and takes place 3 days prior and 3 days after Beyond. As such, we've been seeing a few women around in traditional Japanese kimono on subways & on the streets. Coincidentally, today is also the 1st day to admire cherry blossoms. Starting tonight through 4/3, they had lights on, shining up onto the cherry blossoms at Chidorigafuchi. Chidorigafuchi is a beautiful area with cherry blossoms planted along the two shores of the river. Seeing cherry blossoms at night is certainly another type of feeling. Patrick told us that while the Chinese people like to admire the new year's flower as the flower is opening, the Japanese like to admire the cherry blossom as it starts to fall... has more of a melancholy type of feel. Across from Chidorigafuchi is Yasuna-jingja, a place to honor those Japanese soldiers (men, women, and even children) who died in the various wars. Cherry blossoms were planted to comfort the souls honored at Yasuna-jingja. There, probably because of hanami, there was some sort of a festival going on with stalls after stalls of different types of Japanese food. It is said that there're a bit of controversy about this place - see the following excerpt from http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2321.html -
A big political contravercy surrounds the Yasukuni Shrine because since 1978, fourteen class A war criminals are among the 2.5 million people enshrined at Yasukuni. Furthermore, the visits by several Japanese prime ministers to the shrine since 1975 have been causing concerns regarding a violation of the principle of separation of church and state.
For some people, especially in the Asian countries which suffered most under past Japanese imperialism, the shrine has become a symbol for Japanese militarism and ultra-nationalism, and many are taking the prime ministers' visits as a sign hat Japan's political leaders are not looking critically enough at their country's history.
We had a great day today. Feels like we've been shopping since we arrived in Tokyo. I'm determined to not do too much shopping tomorrow. :P
Comments