Another day, another taiyaki

Lucinda here on day 10 of our journey to Japan.

Today marked our first long lie of the trip, which was very much needed.

With George still stirring in bed, I went and picked us up a breakfast consisting of pork cutlet sandwiches and cans of sweetcorn soup from the 7 Eleven convenience store across the road. I was going to head back to the hotel straight away, but my taiyaki cravings were kicking in, so I went on a hunt to find one to go along with the free hotel coffee.

I looked all over the market in the pouring rain, but I'd forgotten my phone to use Google Maps to find somewhere, so aborted my taiyaki mission and went back to the hotel to feed George.

First stop for us both for the day was a train ride to Shibuya. We went back to the chain Streamer Coffee which we'd really enjoyed in Osaka.

I had a gingerbread latte and George went for a revolver latte which is a very strong coffee. George had ordered these for us whilst I used the toilets, and it wasn't until we finished the coffees that he remembered he had ordered us a cake too but we hadn't received it. It took George a good five minutes of broken Japanese, tired English and hand gestures for us to get a refund.

Next, I visited the shop Zara (which we have back home as well) and bought myself a new dress for the staff party next week and a new pair of nice heels for my work too. There's a little touch that I absolutely love here - in the changing rooms, if you're wearing makeup the staff hand you a bib-type thing to protect the dress from getting anything on it. They should enforce this back home!

To continue our afternoon, George suggested we visit a karaoke place, as you can't come to Japan without giving this a go, and last time we had a lot of fun. We went to the convenience store across the road, bought some beer and other drinks, then came back and paid for an hour in the karoke booth. It was such a laugh and it also rated how well you sang at the end of each song. George rated far better than me of course, nailing all the high notes.

Now that the sesh had started, we needed to soak up the alcohol with food. Since we were in Shibuya, we went to our favourite ridiculously cheap sushi haunt Genki Sushi. We shared teriyaki yellowtail tuna nigiri, beef rib nigiri, karaage fried chicken, tempura prawn California rolls, shrimp and avocado nigiri, smoked duck nigiri, egg omelette and hamburger nigiri. For both of us, including a glass of wine, the bill came to around £6 each.

Full from a lovely sushi feast, we went for a relaxed stroll to the neighbouring district of Harajuku. Harajuku is known for its famous street Takeshita Dori, which is full of teen fashion, amazing make up and lots of cool sweet treats. It has all the food and fashion trends you could think of, from massive, multi-coloured Instagrammable candyfloss sticks, to ice creams in the shape of animal heads and coffees with pictures of yourself in the foam.

I passed a good amount of time in one of the makeup shops, amazed at all the products and debating whether to buy a very pretty, colourful, glittery eye shadow palette. I'd already spent enough on myself today so decided against it.

Before heading back to the hotel we went to nearby Omotesando, which we'd yet to visit. It has a very long street lined with every designer shop you can think of and all of the staff are wearing white gloves to protect the clothing and items when touching them.

Google had arranged the illuminations to promote their Pixel smartphone and staff were handing out free roses to the ladies as well, although somehow George ended up with one too.

We got some drinks and crisps on the way home and of course I found a taiyaki stall that was open to get my fix. After another disappointing result for Stranraer we drifted off to sleep, with plans to visit Shinjuku tomorrow.

鯛焼き

Lucinda