Gail goes to Ginza

Ginza seen from the Shinagawa train station

I am more and more convinced that I landed in exactly the right location in Japan. At first, I was a little bummed at the prospect of living in suburbia after spending so many years carefully polishing my center city snob persona, but I am in the sweet spot here in Chiba. I've seen lots of the other local suburbs (I work in a few of them) and they consist of large busy roads, chain restaurants (Red Lobster*) and parking lots. My neighborhood, Katsutadai (pronounced cot-sta-die), looks more like a town you would build around a model train. I took a bunch of pictures and promise to give you the tour soon in an upcoming post.

As you saw recently, I can ride my bike for ten minutes and be along the river in the middle of farm land. Equally awesome, I can be smack in the middle of Tokyo in 40 minutes direct on my choice of two train lines. Lately, Sunday has been my Tokyo exploring day. Two Sundays ago, I took the train to Asakusa, a very popular tourist area, and met up with Keiko, yet another visiting friend from my Japanese conversation club in Philly. So far I have met up with four people that I used to see every Sunday night at the Cosi on 12th and Walnut. I love it when worlds collide, it's so much fun.

Keiko lives in Philadelphia (very near Dock Street) but came home to visit friends and family for a few weeks in Tokyo. We met for lunch at a conveyor belt sushi place in Asakusa and after wandering the shops and buying some shoes (none big enough for me) we caught the subway over to Ginza. Ginza is the super posh shopping area where you find stores like Prada, Hermes, Armani...you get the idea. Those of you who know me at all are probably surprised that I would make any kind of effort to get to this section of town considering I would be less embarrassed to carry my wallet around in a Sponge Bob lunch box than a Louis Vutton bag, but they did have one brand name I crave: Apple. I needed to pick up an adapter for my ipod which necessitated the whole trip to Ginza. I was able to put my anti-snob snobbery on hold for the afternoon and appreciate the amazing window displays that make people need to own a $900 bag. I could see how this one at Prada could do the trick:

The tin man as a Prada pimp

We checked out a very strange art installation piece called "Leftovers" at a gallery on the top floor of the Hermes store. It consisted of half eaten plastic food on banana leaves spread out all over the floor. I never could get into installation art. The explanation of the concept was a 16 page long booklet, and frankly, I just didn't care that much. I much preffered the art of Japanese streetscape. I love the multi-storied signage, unique facade designs and wacky displays built to get the attention of media bombarded pedestrian on their way to the subway.

360 view in front of the Sony Building in Ginza

Keiko introduced me to a Sake shop with a tasting bar after we were through with window shopping. We ordered a sampling of four different kinds of Sake each and worked our way left to right through the small glasses. The Sake store was filled with beautiful glassware and matching carafes and I marveled at how just a short time ago, things like matching glassware mattered to me. What a strange girl I was.

Sake as art

A couple of happy tasters

We walked a while into the Shinagawa district and met up with Keiko's friend Kayo. Kayo had come straight from a wedding and was all dressed up, so we had to do her outfit justice and go somewhere nice for a drink. They took me to the most beautiful bar I have ever seen, simply called 'The Bar.' We had drinks while watching a lightning storm from our 52nd story table over looking Ginza. This will definitely be a stop on the insane party train that will be my 30th birthday with Zoe and Ashley in December.

*Who's brilliant idea was it to import a shitty seafood chain like Red Lobster here? Japan is the world's capital of awesome fresh seafood. No one wants a fried, crab flavored filler stuffed flounder with a side of ranch dressing here, I promise. Not to mention the two words that make up the name of the establishment start with an R and an L. That's Japanese kryptonite. The 'Led Robster' that I saw the other day had closed down and was cultivating a nice weed garden around the fake lobster traps and plastic nautical anchors. Good riddance.