A day in the Ginza area

So today we went to look round the fancy shopping area, and sort of get our bearings. Amr had to have a shopping day, so good to get it done and have him satisfied...and he is the tour manager for our visit anyway!! So we left quite early, maybe 9 am, and Amr led us to the Blue Bottle shop and we indeed had a perfect coffee - excellent start. Then we braved Shinjuku station again...it is not a station as one would think of a station...it is an enormous complex in many layers, with shopping malls, entrances to many different subway lines and main train lines, and once in it is hard to get out again. Anyway, we wanted to buy our Suica cards (think that’s the word?) which work sort of like Opal cards, so you can get on and off trains and buses without buying tickets etc...did that at a machine without too much hassle...and miraculously found the correct subway line to Ginza, which entailed a change at Shibuya.

We alighted at Nihombashi following the book instructions, saw buildings etc of interest, and wended our way back towards Ginza proper. Early in the morning it was not nearly as crowded and chaotic as it was in the evening...shops don’t open till about 10.30. The chaos is quite fun and not in the slightest threatening...we passed Tokyo Station on our way, and this is of course another monstrous complex. Here we bought the Shinkansen tickets to go to Kyoto on May 10. We called into many food halls and gazed at the displays of beautifully presented food....I am sure in 1984 when last here, with Michael and Paul aged 12 and 15, none of us appreciated Japanese as we all do now, and mainly tried to find food we understood!! What a different era!

Finally we bought some packs of yummy stuff, but had the problem of where to actually eat it! People were lining up to get them, but presumably took them back to offices, or somewhere...in the Ginza there aren’t many visible parks (of course we saw one later in the afternoon),so we ended up sitting on a wall beside a building to eat! Now strengthened we went to UniQlo....even I was happy with this...the Ginza UNIQLO is the biggest in the world and has 12 floors!! I didn’t get to them all, but did end up buying a jacket, a cardigan and Amr got a supply of underpants!! We had fun and then moved on to Bic Camera, another enormous place - JB hifi ++ - I actually bought some cheap sunnies there, as thought I had forgotten mine - but have since found them hiding in a forgotten pocket in my new backpack!! My iPhone says we walked 8 kms which is fairly respectable, and I am now feet up and drawing breath.

Amr left and had another reconnoiter round here and now has returned and reminds me that we stopped for coffee/tea in Oslo Coffee, where we sat on beautiful Hans Wenger chairs and watched the passing parade. Also, we looked in a famous paper shop this morning where they have the most gorgeous paper, and for fans and origami...will show photo.Read more