Tuesday, January 17, 2024

• Today is Ginza day! Took the train, joined a giant crowd forming at the train station to wait to get into a shopping arcade – partially to see what the fuss was all about, partially to use their bathroom, and partially to use their elevators rather than taking the stairs.

• Turned out to be a big food court full of pretty amazing looking stuff – will have to come back on future trips to stock up for a picnic on a nice sunny day.

• Stopped at a nearby cafe for the morning’s coffee.
• Went on to MBW’s favourite stationary store, G.Itoya. I bought a new Lamy Safari fountain pen in a Japanese-exclusive purple and yellow colourway.

• Explored the first 5 floors, then took the lift up to the 12th floor to get a cold drink at their café, then back downstairs for floors 7+.
• Nothing on floors 7-8 were super interesting to me, so I ducked back to the second floor where they had a postcard writing desk – I did write a couple of postcards, but mostly enjoyed sitting down for a while!
• After G.Itoya, felt like something a little different, so we hit up a Ginza Lion restaurant (in Ginza) for lunch. It was…. a lot better than we expected, if I’m honest. Good was good, drinks were good, decor was really different. I went with one of their specialties – the beef stew, and MBW had corroquettes and a garlic bread.

• Continued on to Hakuhinkan Toy Park, one of the toy stores we like to visit every trip (along with Yamashiroya in Ueno). We mostly hunted birthday gifts for the boys of some friends of ours, ultimately finding boxing robots and a stunt RC car that fit the bill.

• Running out of steam, we headed back to our hotel, stopping at Fields Mexican for some dinner. Owner was super friendly but wanted to talk Spanish to us, which neither of us speak.

• After dinner, MBW stayed in the room to organise her G.Itoya purchases and do some journaling, while I went on a solo jaunt through Shibuya.

• Highlights were all in Parco, starting with Torch Torch, a little store that stocks merchandise from the FromSoftware series (Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and now Elden Ring). I love these games, they are my all time favourites, so finding some exclusive merch was high on my priority list.

• Next on my hitlist was the Capcom Store; Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Devil May Cry and Street Fighter are all special series to me (although not quite Soulsbourne level).

• And finally, some miscellaneous shots from other stops on my walk.