Glamourous Ginza and pretty pastries

I spent the last weekend with Rob in Tokyo, to see him and to celebrate his birthday. I took a couple of hours off work on Friday and took the afternoon flight to Tokyo. First stop was Rob's office in Makuhari (Chiba), and I met his collegues. It was around 6:30pm when I arrived, so we looked for dinner around Makuhari and settled for some paella at a nice restaurant called Budoutei (review to come soon). I can see why Rob was leaving work so late everyday last week - he was the first to leave the office at 6:30pm! On a Friday night too! By the time we arrived at Rob's place in Ichikawa, it was already around 8:30pm. I love his location - so many restaurants to choose from, lots of gaijin ingredients to get at the shops, and everything's so benri (convenient)! The nearest movie theatre to Rob's place is only 20minutes walk away (as opposed to the 2-hour drive from the Noto to the nearest cinema in Kanazawa :P). These things reminds me why I'm a city gal. I mean, I love the peace, beauty and laidback culture of the countryside, but I'm a restless person and I need to keep myself busy.

On Saturday morning, we headed out to glitzy Ginza, where we had a beautiful 10-course degustation lunch at Restaurant Yonemura, in celebration of Rob's birthday (click for review). I consider this meal to be the best western-style meal I've had in Japan. One of the most expensive too, but it was worth it. The restaurant is located on the fourth floor of one of the nicest department stores I've ever set foot inside.

The entrance to Restaurant Yonemura; the fifth floor of the same department store even had a crystal chandelier!:


For those that don't know, Ginza is the most exclusive and expensive shopping area in Japan. And indeed, that is the truth - the department stores are probably the most swankiest and glitziest I've ever seen, and there are huge stores of exclusive brands like Dior and Chanel. We saw an 8-storey Gucci building! In fact, it is called the Gucci Ginza Tower. I took a photo of it, but it looks quite ordinary compared to the photo on their website. Now, I don't care much for brand names (much less for clothing brands), but an 8-storey Gucci tower?! Perhaps only in Ginza..

On this Saturday, the streets of Ginza were packed with well-dressed shoppers and not-so-well-dressed gaijin tourists. Some parts of the streets were closed off for pedestrian-only access, and here we see gaijins street performers busking. We dropped by the Sony Building and browsed through the latest Sony technology - we were amazed by the display of walkmans, laptops, TVs, cameras and many other electronic goods on four floors of this building. If you're ever in Ginza (for a dining experience like we were, perhaps?), I'd recommend dropping by the Sony Building.

One of the main intersection in Ginza; a puppeteer busker:


We also stopped by the Ginza branch of a well-known patisserie, Sadaharu Aoki. I've heard that the Japanese patissiers have excelled at perfecting the art of French pastries better than the French themselves. I can't really verify that statement myself since I have yet to go to France and try the French pastries there, but the ones in this shop looked gorgeous. I'm not that big on pastries myself, but Rob loves the buttery treats. I'd heard a lot about the Sadaharu's eclairs, so we settled upon a chocolate eclair. Beautifully presented, it was almost a shame to eat it. This is definitely a luxurious treat, as one eclair fetches 550yen (~AU$5.50).