Ever since Japan 2017, I made it a habit to wake up early. Many attractions aren't open till later in the morning, but if there's a particular place that I know will be filled with tourists, I make it before the crowds. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get up on time to beat the rush at Godaime Hanayama Udon Ginza. We arrived around 20 minutes after the restaurant opened, and there was a long queue waiting to get in. Not wanting to possibly wait over an hour in the heat, we stopped by the Muji Ginza Flagship store to grab food. For those of you that never heard of Muji, it's a retailer that sells a variety of products with an emphasis on minimalism. It's probably not the most accurate analogy, but Muji is like a Japanese Ikea (though perhaps not as much furniture as Ikea).
The meal consisted of chicken and potatoes in a sweet sauce with various vegetables. After eating, we explored the different floors before heading to another department store. We picked up some supplies at Loft, another Japanese retailer selling household goods before venturing a floor up to J!NS. J!NS (pronounced as Jins if I'm not mistaken) is a chain that sells glasses for very affordable prices and on the same day as well. I got a new pair of glasses that were just over $100 CAD. They even checked my prescription on the spot to ensure that the glasses would work for me. After around 30 minutes, my glasses were ready to be picked up! I had an old pair of glasses for the past three years, so it was a welcoming change, even though my frames are extremely similar to the old ones. I noticed that images didn't seem as sharp compared to my old pair, which were more in line with glasses I used to get at Costco, but they weren't at least 7-10x more expensive.
Our next stop was to make a reservation at A Happy Pancake - known for their fluffy pancakes. Since there was about an hour's wait, we went to a nearby Starbucks to wait. When it was nearly our time, we went back to the cafe/restaurant. The venue was small but bright. The pancakes we ordered were quite delicious, with an extremely soft center. It was on the pricier side in comparison to many other meals I had thus far, but worth trying at least once. After the snack, we ventured to some boutique stores around Ginza. With nothing of interest, we headed back to Asakusa and rested for a while in the hotel before heading out for dinner.
We were heading back to grab some Ichiran once again, but the lines were extremely long in comparison to our first night. Foiled by long lines again, we decided to walk around the shopping arcade for a place to eat dinner. We stumbled on Yakiniku Like, a yakiniku restaurant similar to Ichiran where you can eat solo. We ordered and waited for our food to be prepared. Since we were eating together, we were able to sit at a table with a small table grill. Once your food was ready, they would display your number so you could pick it up at the counter. As I was about to set my tray down on the table, I somehow fumbled/tripped. Fortunately, my meat dishes didn't fall, but my rice bowl flipped 180 degrees and landed on my seat. Not wanting to waste all the rice, I took the bowl and flipped the rice inside so the dirty section was on the very bottom. In hindsight though, I could have just scrapped off the top layer. Either way, the meat was quite tasty and I ended up ordering more!
I was quite full from the meal, but as they always say, there's room for dessert! We stopped by the konbini and I was able to pick up a chocolate mint ice cream that I discovered on my last trip to Japan. If I was limited to eating only one ice cream flavor for the rest of my life, it would definitely be this Glico Chocolate Mint flavored ice cream.
It's hard to believe that it's already day 7 in Japan, but at the same time, it was starting to feel like I've been in Japan for a few weeks.
A concept electrical car at the Nissan store in Ginza. I'm not sure if it's a dealership since they only had this car and a GTR R35 on display.
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