On the morning of day 4, set off to see the blooming plum blossoms. While they are less popular than the cherry blossoms, they are still a beautiful sight to behold. Cherry blossoms tend to fully bloom in April, so I just barely missed them. The most noteworthy parks to see plum blossoms in Tokyo are Koishikawa Korakuen and Hangei Park. We chose Koishikawa and it was a stunning scene – the flowers mixed with people picnicking and painting in the park.
(PS, here’s where you can find day 1, day 2, and day 3 if you missed out)
At this point, we hadn’t done any shopping! Surprise surprise. Must fix immediately. We headed to Ginza, the upscale shopping district. Mitsukoshi is Ginza’s landmark department store. It has a massive food court with all types of foods – breads, desserts, salads, traditional Japanese fare and more. The two of us decided to separate and reconvene once we made our purchases. The tricky part was that everything was in Japanese, meaning I was making egg roll and gyoza purchases with zero clue as to what was inside.
Living up to our millennial reputations, we found a unique coffee shop in Ginza located on the second floor of the Nissan Crossing center. This coffee shop will put your face on a latte! A great opportunity to be conceited. The barista will take your picture using an iPad. And then, no joke, puts your face in foam on a latte.
We ventured to a neighborhood tapas bar for drinks. No judgment – we really needed red wine, and most Japanese restaurants do not serve well priced red wine. Hence, this is where we ended up.
We ate dinner at Uobei aka conveyor belt sushi. This is a wild concept that I would love to bring back to the states (mark my words here and now). You are seated at a station with an iPad that features that sushi menu. You will make your sushi selections and process your order. Within minutes, your sushi order arrives via conveyor belt right in front of you. It is the most entertaining and fascinating place to eat. Plus, the sushi is incredibly cheap. It’s a MUST when you are in Tokyo. There are a few conveyor belt sushi locations in Tokyo – Uobei is in Shibuya, which gave us the opportunity to explore bustling Shibuya at night time.
More to come!