Tuesday in Tokyo

Posted on 2013/03/08 12:49:11 (March 2013).

[Tuesday 5th March 2013]
Woke up very early again this morning - probably before 5 - I don't think I got a proper night's sleep until Thursday. On the plus side that meant another opportunity to see the sunrise over Tokyo from our hotel room.

I waved off the girls in the morning when I went off to the office, as they were heading on to Hiroshima ahead of me. We managed to get a really nice picture of the three of us in the lobby of the Ritz Carlton just before we said our goodbyes.

In the evening I met up with Tanaka-san. I felt like trying this year's "vege ramen" at Kagetsu, the ramen chain that has a vegetarian ramen dish on the menu every spring. It wasn't due to officially "launch" until tomorrow, but a few branches had started early, and I managed to find the branch in Aoyama - not too far from Roppongi - was one of them. So we met there, and Tanaka-san had the vege ramen too. He seemed quite impressed - but then he always has been quite an open minded sort of chap.

From there I was really keen to introduce Tanaka-san to the vending machine bar I'd discovered on my last trip, so we got the metro to Shimbashi, and walked from there to Yurakucho. I'm not sure Tanaka-san - or anyone I've mentioned it to for that matter - really gets the appeal. Maybe what I like about it is the fact that although the concept is futuristic, it's actually fairly grotty. That gives it a sort of Bladerunner feel I suppose.

From there we went on a bit of a crawl of various random hole-in-the-wall bars, although none as remarkable as the vending machine bar, until we eventually ended at the impressive Ginza Lion. It's a circa 1934 recreation of a German beer hall, with, as far as I understood, the original interior still intact. It's very rare to find old bars like this in Tokyo, and despite being a bit on the expensive side, and the snacks being decidedly naff, it was right up my street,

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