We didn't stay too long in Ginza before setting off to Ikebukuro (池袋). We found Haagen-Dazs in Ikebukuro station. I stopped to see if there were any special Japanese flavours. As I had expected, they did Green Tea ice cream. How could I possibly give it a miss?
Look at that. What a gorgeous colour. Like other Haagen-Dazs ice cream, very smooth and with a strong green tea flavour which I like. I hate those stuffs that claim to be green tea flavoured but do not taste like green tea at all except being green in colour.
Simon got this. I don't remember what it was. I think it's mango ice cream in cream.
Sitting on top of Ikebukuro station to the west is Tobu Department store (东武). In the basement is Tokyo's largest food hall with 2 floors and hundreds of stalls. My favourite section of course is the exquisite Japanese confectioneries.
On the lower floor are meat and delicatessen.
Wagyu beef again. They enjoy a lifestyle of massages and beer to get those marbles. We would try it on Tepanyaki tomorrow. Can't wait.
Bizzarrely, we didn't buy anything from the food hall. We were overwhelmed by the choices.
Matsumoto. Japanese version of Boots. They were all over Japan.
Hello Kitty shop.
Manga shops everywhere.
Saw KFC for the first time. I tried very hard to keep Simon from going in.
We came into Amlux, a Toyota showroom with 4 floors. Not as big as Mega Web in Odaiba but the biggest in City centre.
This was a Hybrid Synergy Drive game to test how green/economic your driving is and I FAILED.
Here comes Simon's favouriate section--the Fomula 1 section. The engine used in Formula 1, not sure which season though but it's a V8.
Bridgestone tyres slicks and wets were on display, as well as brake discs.
A picture of the floor panel (under tray) of a Forumla 1 car.
On my itineary, we planned to get to the Namja Town in Sunshine City to visit the Icecream city. Yet we were tired and hungry by this time and decided to give a miss. We realized that we hadn't try sushi on the conveyor belt yet. Therefore, we asked the lady at the information at Sunshine city for a recommendation and direction to the closet one. This was the one she recommended.
I noticed in the past few days that in Japan, Sushi on the conveyor belt was so cheap that you wouldn't believe it. In most of these restaurants, there was one single price for each plate from salmon to uni or Toro. It was for example 120 yen for each plate in this one.
Uni (sea urchine) sushi that melt in your mouth instantly, almost as fresh as those in the fish market.
Unagi ( eel) sushi. So generous that the eels cover the sushi rice completely.
Ikura ( salmon roe) sushi.
Ikura ( salmon roe) sushi.
Simon fell in love with sushi in Japan.
So full we were now and decided to wander around Ikebukuro before popping back to the hotel. This was the Bic Camera building, a giant electronic store. I like the design of the building with the numbers on the huge "mobile phone" showing the floor directory.
Hee. That's actually not a manga shop, it's a pachinko parlor. :) There are a lot of manga themed pachinko machines.
ReplyDeleteLove all the pictures!