Tokyo Part 2

Clear blue skies

Woke up to a perfect weather. The sun came out to play, the wind went home - it was marvelous!! I was really excited on this day as we had bought tickets to Ghibli Museum, a place that I've wanted to go to ever since I saw it on Lonely Planet 2 years ago with R, a place that I knew existed, but thought that I would never be able to go if I was on a tour, which I was suppose to join a year ago. *Sorry R, you just got to get K to go with you next time! :P*

There was scheduled times to enter the museum when you buy the tickets, so we chose the 10am slot. We bought our entrance ticket when we first got to Japan almost 2 weeks ago, as we were told it can be quite hard to get them sometimes. They even sell the tickets through agents in other countries but at a very much hiked up price!!! My suggestion : Take the risk and wait till you reach Japan and head to Lawson right away!! :D

Signages everywhere! :D

The museum is located within in the Mitaka Inokahira Park. It was opened in 2001, headed by Hayao Miyazaki as it's chief executive. Created with nothing like the generic museums in mind, this museum encourages one to 'get lost' with time, to discover the place in a relaxing manner. This, it certainly has achieved!

Front entrance of Ghibli Museum

There is 2 entrances to the museum, one being the picture above and the other to the left of the picture. The latter is not an actual entrance, but it had a ticket booth with a giant sized Totoro as the ticket man :). Real cute!

Unfortunately, we're not allowed to take pictures in the museum, for copyright reasons I think, so we had to make full use of our memory banks. It was not your typical museum, there was many animated pictures and statues, many moving objects telling the stories, the stairs that lead to the upper floor through a low arch that one has to almost crawl to fit in. It was like a little disneyland in a museum. Never had a museum been so much fun!

The outer stairway leads to the Giant Robot from Laputa

There was many schoolchildren when we were there, I supposed it was a field trip. You could really see how they enjoyed the museum, how much fun they were having. Funnily, they didn't make the place too noisy, but I suppose we were probably all behaving like children when we were there :).

We left the place just before lunch hour, walking back to Mitaka Station with a silly grin on my face. My day is already so much better than yesterday!! :). We decided to head towards Akihabara since I wanted to have a look at cameras too. Reading through the LP again, I decided that we should try one of the maid cafes, which is pretty popular in Akihabara.

Akihabara

Akihabara is famous for it's supply of electronic items, both new and used. New items are usually on the main street and used items on the back street. The whole place is just so charged with... modern gadgets. Any gadget lovers would have found their piece of heaven here!!

As we were pretty hungry when we first got there we decided to have lunch before camera-hunting. Walked past a few shops but nothing really caught our eyes, and I did feel like having sushi again. We finally found a sushi place, about 10-15 minutes walk from the station which had rather yummy sushis! And it was pretty cheap too, for a sushi place! :)

Sushi train :D

After lunch, we managed to get my camera and then decided to head to one of the cafes. While walking around earlier, we did see quite a few girls dressed as maids handing out flyers but we couldn't find them anymore! In the end, we found one at the street behind the main street. I decided to take a picture before asking her where her shop is, :D. How can I not take a picture with her?!?!?

Picture with the French Maid

Inside Maid's cafe

although I have read about them before, it was still a bit of a cultural shock to me. Not only did they dress in such a cute manner, the shop was also decorated in lifestyle concept which made it very much like a home. It was really fun, for me anyway. Let's just say, the silly grin that I wore earlier after the museum, it just got wider. Hehehe

We had reservations for dinner but as it was still pretty early when we left Akihabara, we decided to head to Ginza for a little walkabout. It was also in Ginza that we had our last taste of yakitori in Japan. It was located under a bridge (or something similiar) and the whole place was just filled with yakitori shops. The food was not bad, but nothing compared to the yakitori we had in Nozawa. I still miss that!!! :(

Pretty building

The multistorey Gucci :D

Ginza is famous for it's shopping, which is evident by the shops on the streets. Mainly upmarket shops, it was a comfortable street to walk without too many people. A street probably similiar to Fifth Avenue style of shops, it was a little too expensive for my pocket :P.

Other shops in the area

From Ginza we made our way to La Rochelle after our lovely hotel's staff made reservations for us the night before. It must have been a painstaking experience for him as his command of English was limited, and had a tough time communicating with us. I lost count the number of times he said "Uumm..", trying to find the right words to say to us. I felt so bad for him, but he did a great job! He not only got us seats, he even wrote down the telephone number and directions to get there. Mister, you've done a marvelous job!!! *grin*

View from La Rochelle

La Rochelle is actually on the top floor of the Shibuya Cross Tower, which is the 32nd floor. The view was breathtaking and coupled with a great dinner, one's in heaven! The restaurant is the brainchild of the famous French Cuisine Iron Chef, Mr. Hiroyuki Sakai. I used to watch Iron Chef every weekend on telly, so we were really looking forward to dinner!

The dinner was absolute marvelous, so delicious it's beyond description. The food were cooked in the sense that each taste was preserved and accentuated. The way the food melts in your mouth. It was mouth-wateringly tasty, one experience that's going to stay with me for a long long time. There was a total of 5 appetizers, 1 main, coffee and a set of 3 desserts :D. While it may have been pricey, it is one that I am willing to pay again if I am in Tokyo again!

Only mistake was I am a Mademoiselle :P

Not only was the food great, the service was wonderful. We had our own waiter, who spoke good english as he previously worked in Sydney about 20 years ago. Looking after our every need, explaining each dish in detail to us, attentive to every detail. It made the experience all the more wonderful.

Canadian Lobster Charlotte & Caspian Sea Caviar

Sea Urchin and Egg Gratin
*This I felt, was the best!! *
*Wipes off drool*

Organic Vegetable Salad with Cold Foie Gras Marinated in Sweet Wine
*The foie gras was marvelous!!*

Japanese Scallop Wrap with Andive and Bacon Barsamico Sauce

Soup (Pumpkin I think)

Main 1 (G's) : Fresh Fish from South of Japan

Main 2 (Mine) : Grilled Japanese Sirloin Steak

Halfway through dinner, Mr Sakai's son came up to our table to greet us which was a nice personal touch. It was too bad that Mr Sakai's gone home at that time. But nevertheless, a nice touch. They also gave us some souvenirs to take home which was really wonderful! Such good service are hard to come by! *grin*

Desserts *yummys*

Coffee and little biscuits

My only regret is, we couldn't find time to head to the other 2 Iron Chef's Restaurant. But this was good enough. Thanks Steph! for the recommendation :D. This was definitely our best day in Tokyo! The museum, the maid's cafe, the dinner. What more can I ask for?!?!? *grin*