The view of Ginza from the restaurant we had our dinner in, including the famous "Marui" building.
Ginza's name is derived from the silver coin mints that filled the area in it's earlier years and now-a-days it's a ritzy, classy neighborhood with glittering high-rises and gussied up pedestrians dipping into high-end restaurants or shops. It's not unusual to see women in fancy kimono or exorbitantly priced stilettos strutting the streets of Ginza. Even with it's high-class image, there are still plenty of reasonably priced activities and shops to take in!
There's even pineapples!
$3 for a tiny pineapple!
アジサイ！！Ajisai!
I guess they're hydrangeas in English, but I learned their name in Japanese first...
A "satellite" shop, specializing in regional cuisine and artesian goods.
Some kind of Energy drink soda I found.
OM NOM NOM Nooooodles!
After walking around for hours, we decided to grab some food around sunset. Yuka had asked me about a specific dish, morioka reimen, and when I expressed surprise and shock at the idea of tossing watermelon into a spicy broth, our fate was determined.
Yuka found this restaurant advertised on the ground level by a set of elevators waiting and ready to escort you up yonder.
And here we are; Morioka Reimen. The broth is a lightly spiced beef base with a bit of pickled tang from the kimchi. The watermelon acts as a sweet counterpoint, soaking in the briny broth and providing a surprisingly refreshing addition. The noodles themselves were freshly made with a good chewy bite and slippery texture.
We also had a chijimi pancake, or Korean scallion pancake. They're SO good! If you've never sampled a savory pancake, don't be scared. :)
After dinner we walked back towards the station and stopped into this bakery on the way. I absolutely love the bakeries in Japan and Korea, their unique innovations of bread making are often exceptionally tasty! Some breads have big black soybeans in them, offering a satisfying nutty crunch to the pillowy breads, others have creamy egg yolks left whole and baked ontop of buttery buns, etc...
In the station, Yuka and I took advantage of the multitude of vending machines around and picked up some drinks. Look how cute and tiny her juice is! I always appreciated the option to get a single serving of juice on the go rather than committing to 20 ounces or more.
Moody…looks like a scene from an anime about to go down… X3
Yuka tweeted this photo explaining that it was my first time ever trying watermelon in noodles.
And thus concluded another wonderful day of adventuring!
Have you ever tried Morioka Reimen?
Would you eat spicy watermelon?
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