November 17, 2014 – A Simple Geeky Life

Monday 3rd November

It was Culture Day in Japan and Miss Pinky and I were still trying to adapt to Japan time. I was awake from around 5 am. Miss Pinky decided to reorganise her overpacked suitcase and I just sat there watching her… Plus had an instant coffee which tasted too sweet.

I couldn’t get back to sleep, so by the time a normal person wakes up which is about 9 or 10 (Miss Pinky was still sleeping and woke up in the afternoon!) I was practically rearing to go! I couldn’t wait for Miss Pinky to wake up and the cleaners were cleaning away so I decided to go solo to the convenience store Lawson which is next door to the hotel to buy breakfast which consisted of a hot dog and egg bun, pink mochi bread, Boss coffee – dark espresso (it tastes horrible!!) and pickled cucumber Pringles (I thought it was just plain cucumber which would have been more interesting). Only in Japan, as one would say!

Breakfast from Lawson

Egg and Sausage bun

Sweet mochi ring

Pringles Xtra ディルピクルススーパーサワー = “Dill Pickle, Super Sour”

By the time I finished and updated Instagram I went back up and Miss Pinky did not move one inch from that point… Reception called as well to see if we wanted our room cleaned… I said no.

Finally Miss Pinky got up! She had bad jet lag (usually my jet lag kicks in after the trip). And we made our way to Ginza, which is the shopping district of Tokyo.

When we arrived at Ginza, Miss Pinky got a bit stressed looking for a bin, It seems Tokyo have fewer bins on the streets. I wonder why. Maybe they are teaching people to be clean and minimize our rubbish.

Hibiya Line

There are women only carriages on the metro at certain times of the day

Ginza Station

Hello Kitty!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So cute ^_^

Food / kawaii shop

We shopped in a big Loft department store and MUJI before heading to the high street. I bought the wrong size bras in London by accident and didn’t check before I go, and thankfully Miss Pinky spotted some bras in MUJI and they are bloody comfortable. Had to get the XL size as Japanese sizes are a bit too small… ¬_¬”” MUJI Europe – please bring in the bras into your stores. I will gladly buy them!

Loft Department store and MUJI in Ginza

Ginza is magnificent. Just imagine a cleaner version of Regent St and Oxford St combined with loads of other streets in between. It’s 4 stops away from Kayabachō station on the Hibiya line so you can’t miss it.

Nice exterior!

Ginza with no traffic – I think it was because it was Culture Day

In another big department store

Yummy!!

Egg desserts

Miss Pinky finally got hungry so we went to a Chinese restaurant run by Japanese people.

Blue Lily Chinese restaurant

Pretty!

Miss Pinky had the seafood noodles and dumplings. She mainly took out all the vegetables and didn’t even finish her food!

Seafood (without prawns) and veggie noodle soup… too many veggies

Dumplings

I ordered the beef fried noodles which was covered in soy sauce… Hmmm. I think someone needs to tell the chef that that is the not the correct way to cook this for these noodles. Just too salty I’m afraid.

Beef fried noodles

Total came to 5292 yen (~£33.28).

My geeky rating: 4/5. Service was good though and they have free WiFi!

Address: Japan, Yubinbango104-0061 Tokyo Ginza, Chuo-ku, 4-6-1 Sanwa building B2

Next it was time to do some proper shopping and I found some really good bargains. May I just point out I really hate clothes shopping when I don’t need anything… It’s boring. Sorry Miss Pinky.

Ginza at night

6 floors of Uniqlo!!

Missed out on the Beer Hall…

This toy store is the best!

I wonder who got a robot this Christmas?

Massive carrots in a supermarket

McDonalds!!

We somehow ended up in Shimbashi (Shinbashi) where we decided to go up 8 floors in a department store, buy non-alcoholic beer (which is disgusting by the way).

In Shimbashi

Smoking cabin where yo can leave your trash around

ゴミ、捨てるなよ = “garbage, do not throw away” … huh?!

And then suddenly we found a “British” pub. No British ran this place but Miss Pinky was insistent to try it out. It was on the second floor and Miss Pinky was looking at the basement! It’s not like an ordinary pub like in London where you can seat yourself, it’s like a restaurant where the staff seat you. There is a smoking and non-smoking area too… Anyway we relaxed for a couple of hours before moving on.

Hub – British Pub

Yep, I had a beer too

Address: HUB新橋店 Japan 〒105-0004 Tokyo, Minato, Shinbashi, 2 Chome−9−6

Advertising Facebook in the Metro

The only thing that stood out from the writing was ともだちtomadachi (friend)

That night we ordered from Nakau again but as a takeout… This place is brilliant! I liked the egg custard dessert and didn’t realise there were 3 pots altogether. I didn’t take note of the total cost, but it was a cheap dinner.