Ginza, Tokyo

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After buying our well loved parasols, stocking, socks, and a few more small items at GINZA, naturally our tummies were grumbling by then!

What to eat? Most specifically, where to eat? I read somewhere in my surfing from the net that there are lots of eateries in the basements of many department stores. As the drizzle coupled with winds, continue soaking us despite the raincoats and the parasols we decided to follow the long rows of little eateries lining the sides of Yurakucho station.

I remembered there are also cheap, yummy and healthy food available there. After what seemed like ages choosing where to eat, we finally settled on one that is almost at the far end of the station, to my husband's chagrin. he couldn't understand why I was taking a while in choosing! Actually it is our youngest that is always hampering our search for food as he has some special needs- he is fussy so to speak! (That's another story, don't blame me!)

Anyway, so we found this shop, at its front like many eateries either have pictures of the food or actual set menus covered in plastic with Japanese character but the price are easily read in English.

So we saw 500 yen for the pork rice bowl with miso soup and pickled vegies (the last two items are standard part of set menus). Then there's the fish and chicken.

As soon as we got in, we were led to the far end of the thin narrow eatery, which is really clean and dimly lit but well stocked with drinks and other condiments in each table. I saw several older office workers and immediately smelled the cigarette smoke. So I quickly told the waiter we wanted no smoking and went back near the front
of the shop and each of us sat on the stools facing the narrow long table like a bar setting. It was comfy enough for us and no obnoxious cigarette smoke to be inhaled, that's good enough for us!

There were also hangers behind us to hang one's jackets/raincoats, very organised. Another interesting feature is the presence of square baskets at the bottom of each stool for storing one's bag/stuff. I like this neat and orderly system of the Japanese!

In front of us are the jugs of water flavoured with lemon wedges and cubes of ice. There were nice crockery with soy sauce and other condiments like chilli flakes, etc.

After going out again with the waiter to show what we liked, we got our yummy food- all pork, chicken, and fish set menus which we shared with our youngest son who stuck to his fave miso soup and rice sprinkled with soy sauce! As for the three of us- we enjoyed our meal up to the jelly dessert!

The damage? WHAT a BARGAIN as the entire fab meal for 4 of us amounted to 2000 yen!

GINZA can be cheap especially where food is concerned!

One of my most favorite electronic brands is SONY.
Sony has a fantastic 5-levels showroom in GINZA area (GINZA Station) within SONY BUILDING at Sukiyabashi Crossing (near MATSUZAKAYA & MITSUKOSHI DEPARTMENTAL STORES).
If you're a Sony fan like I'm you'll do well to head for this showroom before buying anything. It has all the latest models (including products not yet released!): stereo systems, Mini-disc players (love this! A must for long flights), fantastic multimedia notebooks (To see latest model, click here), PDAs, MP3 players, TVs, digital cameras, viewcams, robots (now, it'll really be great if I get this for my birthday ;-)) etc... & you get to test them. Just make sure you've your credit cards with you & then head for the basement. Here, you can shop for all you want!

Photo Credit: Robotoys.
To place your order, please click here.

At a streetcorner in the Ginza area there is a small statue of the coicorin. This statue is supposed to bring good luck if you pet it. There are certain areas to pet. For instance the stumic if you want to loose weight, or the head to find a lost love.