Shibuya, Hands and Loft

I had a spare 90 mins before I needed to take the Airport Limousine bus to Narita for my flight, and never one to miss an opportunity to wander around, I buzzed over to Shibuya for a quick tour.

Why Shibuya? Because it's the site of the huge, often photographed intersection teeming with masses of people (the Tokyo equivalent of Times Square if you will), and because 2 of my favorite stores are located there - Tokyu Hands and Seibu Loft. I emerged from the Metro station to a cacophony of Japanese rap, huge flashing billboards everywhere and the biggest Harry Potter movie poster I have ever seen. Other than the usual set of people waiting to meet their friends at the Hachiko statue, it was all relatively calm because it was still early in the day.

I took a quick photo of the ideally located 2 story Starbucks, with upstairs seating with a fabulous view of the whole intersection. But no time to stop, I was on a mission.

I walked over to Tokyu Hands, arriving just as the store was opening. It was quite the experience to walk into the store and walk through a gauntlet of store employees, all of whom are bowing and wishing you a good morning.

Tokyu Hands is billed as a "Creative Life Store" - it has hobby and craft items, home improvement stuff and just a whole lot of other random but very fun things. I spent an inordinate time on the various floors devoted to stationery alone - presentation is such an important part of the culture here, and stationery (as well as housewares) is a perfect representation.

I didn't really have time to do justice to Loft (although the displays looked a lot more appealing there than at Hands) before I had to head back to catch my airport bus. When it left the hotel, 8 hotel employees stood in a line and waved us away :)

All in all, a very short, but satisfying sojourn in Tokyo.

Final note - for the first time in 15+ years, they searched my bag at Customs coming back into the US. I attribute it to the grumpy DHS immigration agent who actually asked me what my SSN was. A definite first!

Present-giving Etiquette

I met a long-time Japanese colleague for breakfast today at my favorite breakfast spot in the New Otani, the Garden Lounge. It overlooks the hotel's 400 year old Japanese garden and is a beautiful spot to start your day.

I had worked closely with this colleague about 12 years ago and we've stayed in touch through the years - he's just recently returned to Oracle after almost 10 years away. After a nice chat to catch up, he proceeds to gift me with 4 presents - one for me, and one each for my daughters and husband. Yes, not just for me but for my entire family. I opened mine right away and it was a lovely pink fan.

I, of course, had nothing for him. In my defense, this was a very short trip and I didn't think I'd have the time to see him. However, in our 12 year acquaintance, I believe the present count stands at around 25+ for him and 1 for me (I can't quite remember, but I'm giving myself the benefit of the doubt that I've given him at least one thing over the years!)

When will I learn to pack a few extra gifts for any trip to Japan?!

Unagi and Sicilian SeaSalt Gelato

Well I'm in Tokyo right now, for a brief 48 hours. My flight landed earlier today and after a looong 110 min airport bus ride, I finally reached the New Otani Hotel. The hotel is as lovely as I remembered, and much to my surprise, there was a mobile phone waiting for me when I checked in (since Japan does not use the GSM network). I have very considerate colleagues! Of course, all the instructions for the phone were in Japanese and I'm embarrassed to admit that it took me a good 5 mins before I could figure out how to turn the phone on!

It was fast approaching the dinner hour, so I decided to head out to a large department store. The concierge suggested that going to Shinjuku would be the fastest bet. He gave me a very brief set of instructions - either because I projected an air of familiarity and confidence with the Tokyo subway system (unintentional, of course!) or because any nervous person would have asked him 10 more questions. Either way, I was armed with a Metro map and headed out to take the Marunouchi line to Shinjuku-sanchome (a 160 yen ride). I do like taking public transport in foreign cities so enjoyed myself immensely, even the part where I had to jam myself onto a packed train as the doors practically closed on me.

I picked Isetan as my Depāto of choice and entered on the basement level. I forgot to bring my camera on this trip so I couldn't take photos of all the wonderful food in the basement food halls - that's my favorite activity in Japan, wandering through the basement food halls of the big department stores. There was a huge cakes and pastries section - where all the names of the Japanese bakeries were French, yet they far outdid the French in terms of presentation and appeal. The cooked food section was also huge. I restrained myself to buying candy and pretty packages of rice crackers.

I headed upstairs and picked up some Hello Kitty items for the kids, plus an array of Japanese Harry Potter memorabilia. Let's hope it's not all freely available in the US, since I would have lugged everything back for nothing!

I finally realized I was hungry and headed up to the 7th floor - known as "Eats Paradise". I picked the unagi restaurant and had a lovely unagi setto, with some unadon, maguro sashimi and a few other exquisite little side dishes. It was a great meal and I sat by myself at the bar. I noticed that there were quite a few unagi price points - I picked the middle set of course!

After eating everything on my tray, I headed back down to the basement and stopped at Mario Gelateria - the Japanese take on gelato. I had the Mediterranean Orange (essentially a blood orange flavor) and the Sicilian Seasalt (a creamy white gelato that was slightly salty and had little bits of almonds). I actually liked the Sicilian Seasalt better than the blood orange flavor! There was also a Blue Seasalt gelato in a lovely pale blue shade, but I just wasn't feeling that adventurous.

Finally my body started communicating to me that 24 sleepless hours was just a bit much, so I headed back to the hotel to do a little email before calling it a night.