Thursday, March 25, 2010

Day 5 - Coffee and Monja (Ginza)

Doutor at Ginza 4th February, 2003 - After a long day, we leave the Kabuki-za and head back into Ginza. It's been a very long day and we enjoy watching the street-life from Doutor Coffee. Ginza is (if you don't know) the premier up-market shopping area (at least as far as our budget would allow us to know).

And no... I'm not married to miss smiley face :-) .... it's just that we prefer if she remain mysterious... and that we maintain some privacy in our on-line life. That's why she's called T-chan in my blog. If you're also wondering if she's been trying out for a role as Winston Churchill ("we will fight them on the beaches, we will fight them..." you know... cigar in one hand, the sign V for victory with the other) - Japanese people love to take photos making the peace sign. Don't ask me why as I've long since got used to, and indeed indulge in a bit of "V-ing" myself these days. Quite liberating really.

Monjayaki at Ginza
After an afternoon of Ginza-viewing, we started off on a search for the Godzilla memorial which is supposedly around there... somewhere. After 30 mins of getting lost - and what better place to get lost in - we decided to have dinner. Ginza has a number of smallish streets with inconspicuous cafes, restaurants and izakaya (Japanese pub-cafe). We found a nice little place that had a monjayaki (or just monja). Monja is a cabbage/flour based pancake... similiar to okonomiyaki but more watery. It's a specialty of the Kanto region around Tokyo. In Japan, there's a fair bit of cook at your own table kind of cuisine... and this is one example. It's yummy... and did I mention the all-you-can-drink-beer-offer? I put that to the test - and found that I just about did drink all that I could. In fact, I was pretty well wasted by the end of the evenings eating and drinking. I remember getting on the train, but didn't really know or care where we were going.

I never did find that Godzilla statue.

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2 comments:

  1. I like Ginza most on Sundays when the main street is closed to traffic and you can walk around freely. The Godzilla statue is not far from Doutour coffee, close to the Hibiya station.

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  2. Hehehe that would be right... well - anyway, we had a good night that night. Thanks for the heads up - was not aware of the sunday road closures.

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