Shopping Nirvana

Tokyo, Japan We spent the day strolling in the Ginza district. It’s synonymous with luxury, and here one can see every global brand possible. Commodore Perry in 1851 would have been amazed to see what opening the Japanese market ultimately meant to the rest of the world.

The streets of Ginza feature a stunning array of shopping opportunities. Not just small stores, but entire huge buildings are dedicated to the best names in retail.

The Nissan center was particularly interesting, because of one of its newest models. When we saw how this car was being marketed, we realized the world had definitely passed us by.

Me, I was just happy to have an automatic transmission with my early cars. But then, I wasn’t influencing anyone.

And, back in our youth, strolling down Fifth Avenue in New York was similarly inspiring and exciting.

But something has changed and something is different. First of all, the sheer mass of the Ginza shopping area is so much greater than our best New York streets put together.

Secondly, these shops are busy! Despite the Japanese economy, there is a lot of buying going on. And then you look at the street crowds. The Japanese are not wearing tee shirts, shorts and flip-flops or sneakers. Men are in elegant suits. Women are beautifully dressed and groomed. Even the young people attempt to carry off some semblance of style, even if it’s the latest in jeans.

There’s the difference. There is a market here for fine clothing and accessories, and that market seems to have shrunk at home. I mean, Tokyo has a Barney’s New York — and New York doesn’t. Ours closed up!

The architecture in general is awesome. Yes, everything is relatively new, and most of it was built to impress, and it does.

New York is going to look a little disappointing when we return…

Don’s Food Corner

Today was another grazing day as we walked around Ginza, but with some interesting food encounters.

First was at a café within the massive Mitsukoshi department store. (These Tokyo department stores are taking our breath away, and making us even more nostalgic for the past glory days of New York City department stores. Macy’s just doesn’t cut it, you know.)

We jumped into this particular café because it was featuring pancakes. We’d been hearing about Japanese pancakes since we arrived. And we assumed this rather fancy café would be serving what everyone has been raving about. These weren’t the soft pillowy ones we’ve seen pictures of and they were a little too dense for our liking. I make fantastic pancakes — thick, light and fluffy. The secret is buttermilk. But the pancakes here didn’t come up to that standard. They did, however, did come with some fantastic fresh fruit.

The next food stop meant that I broke my own rule from yesterday. Namely, no more international food for the rest of the trip. Only Japanese. But we ran into the Ginza Lion Building, which is Japan’s oldest beerhall. It remains exactly the same since being built in 1934. How this building survived the bombing that effectively flattened Tokyo during WWII is a miracle. I couldn’t pass this by, so we popped in. The tiled interior and the heavy wooden furniture was great. It was like being in Munich.

I had the snack special, which was a big mug of beer, a little bowl of salted peas, two little slices of salami and two deep fried tiny, tiny fish. (Minnows?) Jo had a Coke and two excellent pretzels. The place was packed with older Japanese who apparently were focused on beer for lunch. The wait staff all wore Germanesque costumes, but none went so far as to have their hair bleached blond like the waitress at the “German” restaurant yesterday.

The last grazing stop was a café that featured a fruit sandwich. The filling was a thick mixture of a variety of whole and cut fruit folded into whipped cream and then sandwiched between slices of cake that looked like bread. It was fun. So were the lemon squash drinks we had with it. How often do you bite into a sandwich and encounter a whole grape that then explodes in your mouth? It came with a scoop of frozen blueberry yogurt — a refreshing experience.