Dougy Mak's Blog

A day in Ginza. The place was nice since it was a lot newer. The buildings were nicer and streets were cleaner. Shinjuku was old. Well technically Ginza is older, but Ginza is more modern and updated. Ginza had a lot more foreign people and younger people. It’s a tourist city with big brands like Chanel, Burberry, Tiffany & Co, Guchi and various American stores such as Forever 21, Abercrombie & Fitch. American products are really popular here. There was a line to enter Abercrombie & Fitch. In America, it is just whatever and is not a big deal. We walked around Chuuodori. At Chuuodori, they blocked off the streets so people could just openly walk on and through the streets. They also placed patio umbrellas and tables in the middle of the streets for use (they do this every weekend). The streets were also pretty wide. I enjoyed walking around Ginza in this type of atmosphere. We went to the Apple store. There was a lot people there at the Apple store playing with the new iPads (iPads are sold out here). People here love American products, seriously. We had kushi katsu for lunch which is basically various deep fried food. The food tasted great. We sat at a sushi bar.  At the sushi bar, there would be a little counter above where I eat where they would place a plate in front of each person. The chefs would deep fry the food and immediately serve the food as they finished deep frying each item.  They would serve you by placing it on the plate on the counter. Kushi katsu was delicious. I had deep fried salmon with shiso (shiso is a type of japanese herb), mushrooms with some kind of cheese, brocolli with cheese and pork wrapped around it, chinese mushrooms with pork wrapped around, shrimp, scallop, tofu, and much more. I felt like kushi katsu really brought out the natural tastes and flavors in the food. I specifically remember them deep frying an onion. The onion was a size of a super bouncy ball (bite size). I love onions, and this was one of the best deep fried onion I had ever had. The taste of the deep fried batter with the high quality sweet juicy onion together was extraordinary.

There are a lot of stationary shops here. Stationary stores are always interesting. It’s like a bigger Daiso with more stationary products. I remember buying a 0.30mm Pilot pen from Japan Town for ~$4.50 and these same pens cost around ~$2 here. There are some really interesting things to see at stationary stores though. They have like animal shaped paper clips, very big rubber bands, band aid memo pads; They have many things. We went to a nice dessert place as well. They had many sophisticated mouth watering desserts. The designs were quite expensive too. A macaroon parfait cost 1525 yen (~$15). I had a hedgehog for dessert. I love eating exotic animals! It looked really cool! At its inner core, there was raspberry sorbet. Next was a layer of vanilla ice cream and then covered with a layer of chocolate while using the chocolate to create the hedgehog’s spikes (I will upload a picture later). I think food here is less expensive for its quality. It does not really bother me that the portions here are smaller because the quality compensates for it. I would (and have) order more if I am hungry, but most of the time I just finish my girl friend’s dish, so it works out pretty well.