Shibuya
Hi everyone! Lucinda here writing an update on day two for you all :)
Last night I ended up getting a 13 and a half hour sleep, compared to George who had about half that. We had planned to get up at about 9am as we had a lunch reservation at 12noon in a different district.
A bell went off at our room door that woke us up at 11am - turns out it was the housekeeper looking to clean the room. We had 10 minutes to shower and get clothes on, before making a mad rush to the train station to go to Shibuya for the day.
We sat on the train for half an hour until we needed to get off. I find it very strange how on public transport nobody talks to one another or on the phone. People are either sleeping or reading books. It's actually very zen!
Our lunch reservation was in a one Michelin star restaurant called Lature - it was absolutely incredible!
We were shown to our seats, and next to the table they placed a box for you to put any of your belongings into. The restaurant had a French theme to it and the drinks menu was only in Japanese or French, so George and I both enjoyed reminiscing on what French we could remember.
We each ordered a glass of a lovely full-bodied red wine but the waitress said the chef would like us to have the rest of the bottle instead with his compliments. She was from Japan but spoke very good English having spent some time in Bournemouth and explained that we would be served an amuse bouche, two starters, a main course and dessert.
We started off with a deer blood macaroon, which tasted like black pudding. I was a bit put off when she said what it was but it was outstanding and the perfect combination of sweet and savoury.
Our amuse bouche was a soup shot with boar bacon and crisps, a delicious way to start the meal.
The first starter was a guinea fowl and foie gras terrine (sorry Mum!) served with dried fruit and pickles. Neither of us are usually huge fans of terrine but this was really tasty and we loved the accompaniments.
This was followed by mackerel with fig and eggplant (aubergine). The mackerel was marinated in curry oil and the flavours all worked really well together.
The main course was the highlight for us both - young deer loin with redcurrant jus and root vegetables. In the words of my sister Fran this was a "taste sensation"!
Just when we thought it couldn't get any better, the waitress brought us out a plate with a candle saying "happy honeymoon" and a musical snow globe with a bride and groom in it. This was really unexpected and we were both thrilled with the nice touch from the restaurant.
The dessert was a tarte tatin served in "oops, I dropped the dessert" style on a "broken" plate, with home made ice cream. Again this was absolutely delicious.
To round our meal off we had some lovely Shibuya coffee with cream and miniature chocolate cakes, and the chef came out to thank us for dining at the restaurant and also walked us to the door when leaving!
Next up was a trip to the Shibuya station, home to the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world.
Just next to it is the statue of Hachi, a famous Japanese dog whose story is a little bit like Greyfriars Bobby. The dog followed his owner to the train station when he went to work, and waited patiently there all day before walking back home with him.
When his owner died, he continued to go to the train station every day and sat loyally at the same spot to wait for his master's return. There is a very lovely film based on this story which we watched a few weeks before the trip.
We then experienced the Shibuya Crossing. One thing I love about Japan is that when coming to a crossing, nobody crosses the road unless there is a green light for pedestrians. This even applies if there are no cars coming, so naturally it gets a bit mental at this crossing when the light turns green.
As George pointed out, it's half tourists talking selfies and videos, and half commuters and business people in a rush to get somewhere. We went to the Starbucks which overlooks the crossing to enjoy some Christmas coffees and take in the madness.
Next, we spent a lot of time in a shop called Don Quijote. It has everything under one roof and six floors in total. When we went into the shop it was still light, and once we were finished it was dark! It's like an all in one shop. George got himself a Japan football top and we picked up lots of interesting sweets and juice.
We couldn't decide what to do for dinner tonight after such a fantastic lunch, so agreed to do a food tour of the area around our hotel.
We started off by buying a can of hot sweetcorn soup from one of the vending machines on the street, which was very tasty. We then went on to McDonalds and tried the Teriyaki Pork Burger which was really good, better than any of the food I have had in the UK chains.
I thought it would be nice to revisit the Skytree as last night I wasn't feeling too good when we were there. We had a look around the different food outlets and bought some food from the supermarkets to enjoy back in our hotel room.
The feast included grape Fanta, a pork cutlet sandwich, tamagoyaki (sweet egg omelette), cakes, some interesting tubular crisps which tasted of the corn soup we had earlier, and my favourite things in Japan so far - corn dogs. These are hotdogs wrapped in a lovely hot doughnut topped with ketchup and mustard - sounds disgusting but it's soooooooooo good!
We've got a two Michelin star lunch tomorrow at a Spanish place called Zurriola, and plan to have another fairly quiet day exploring the city.
Lucinda
Last night I ended up getting a 13 and a half hour sleep, compared to George who had about half that. We had planned to get up at about 9am as we had a lunch reservation at 12noon in a different district.
A bell went off at our room door that woke us up at 11am - turns out it was the housekeeper looking to clean the room. We had 10 minutes to shower and get clothes on, before making a mad rush to the train station to go to Shibuya for the day.
We sat on the train for half an hour until we needed to get off. I find it very strange how on public transport nobody talks to one another or on the phone. People are either sleeping or reading books. It's actually very zen!
Our lunch reservation was in a one Michelin star restaurant called Lature - it was absolutely incredible!
We were shown to our seats, and next to the table they placed a box for you to put any of your belongings into. The restaurant had a French theme to it and the drinks menu was only in Japanese or French, so George and I both enjoyed reminiscing on what French we could remember.
We each ordered a glass of a lovely full-bodied red wine but the waitress said the chef would like us to have the rest of the bottle instead with his compliments. She was from Japan but spoke very good English having spent some time in Bournemouth and explained that we would be served an amuse bouche, two starters, a main course and dessert.
We started off with a deer blood macaroon, which tasted like black pudding. I was a bit put off when she said what it was but it was outstanding and the perfect combination of sweet and savoury.
Our amuse bouche was a soup shot with boar bacon and crisps, a delicious way to start the meal.
This was followed by mackerel with fig and eggplant (aubergine). The mackerel was marinated in curry oil and the flavours all worked really well together.
The main course was the highlight for us both - young deer loin with redcurrant jus and root vegetables. In the words of my sister Fran this was a "taste sensation"!
Just when we thought it couldn't get any better, the waitress brought us out a plate with a candle saying "happy honeymoon" and a musical snow globe with a bride and groom in it. This was really unexpected and we were both thrilled with the nice touch from the restaurant.
The dessert was a tarte tatin served in "oops, I dropped the dessert" style on a "broken" plate, with home made ice cream. Again this was absolutely delicious.
To round our meal off we had some lovely Shibuya coffee with cream and miniature chocolate cakes, and the chef came out to thank us for dining at the restaurant and also walked us to the door when leaving!
Next up was a trip to the Shibuya station, home to the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world.
Just next to it is the statue of Hachi, a famous Japanese dog whose story is a little bit like Greyfriars Bobby. The dog followed his owner to the train station when he went to work, and waited patiently there all day before walking back home with him.
When his owner died, he continued to go to the train station every day and sat loyally at the same spot to wait for his master's return. There is a very lovely film based on this story which we watched a few weeks before the trip.
As George pointed out, it's half tourists talking selfies and videos, and half commuters and business people in a rush to get somewhere. We went to the Starbucks which overlooks the crossing to enjoy some Christmas coffees and take in the madness.
Next, we spent a lot of time in a shop called Don Quijote. It has everything under one roof and six floors in total. When we went into the shop it was still light, and once we were finished it was dark! It's like an all in one shop. George got himself a Japan football top and we picked up lots of interesting sweets and juice.
We couldn't decide what to do for dinner tonight after such a fantastic lunch, so agreed to do a food tour of the area around our hotel.
We started off by buying a can of hot sweetcorn soup from one of the vending machines on the street, which was very tasty. We then went on to McDonalds and tried the Teriyaki Pork Burger which was really good, better than any of the food I have had in the UK chains.
I thought it would be nice to revisit the Skytree as last night I wasn't feeling too good when we were there. We had a look around the different food outlets and bought some food from the supermarkets to enjoy back in our hotel room.
The feast included grape Fanta, a pork cutlet sandwich, tamagoyaki (sweet egg omelette), cakes, some interesting tubular crisps which tasted of the corn soup we had earlier, and my favourite things in Japan so far - corn dogs. These are hotdogs wrapped in a lovely hot doughnut topped with ketchup and mustard - sounds disgusting but it's soooooooooo good!
We've got a two Michelin star lunch tomorrow at a Spanish place called Zurriola, and plan to have another fairly quiet day exploring the city.
Lucinda
Comments