Japan: Ginza

While on holiday in Japan, I kept a detailed series of notes in honour of Nanowrimo.  All posts about Japan comprise excerpts from my journals. 

 8th November 2013

"7:17pm

It's early but I'm just about ready for bed, so it's going to be a short, quick list tonight.

1) We find ourselves in Ginza for the last couple of days of the trip.  Ginza is bright and sophisticated - fancy brands and big roads and a rather gentrified clientele.  The malls are shiny and spanking and large, light green gingko trees line the sidewalks, shedding their leaves all over bikes.

2)  We pull up into a 24-hour sushi joint and have some of the best salmon sashimi I've ever had in my life.  It's sinuous but not unpleasantly slimy; this is the taste and texture of a beautiful, healthy, fatty fish.

3)  Of course, the other priority is the 12-storey Uniqlo, the flagship to beat all flagships, which proudly advertises itself as the best Uniqlo in the world.  We are inclined to agree.  There are about six floors for women's clothing, three floors devoted to men, one for kids, one floor for new innovations and fancy collaborations (with 10 Swedish designers that have made amazing prints), and one entire floor for Heattech alone, the mannequins all wearing outsized moon boots.

I think of Wei-Yuen the whole time I finger silk dresses and wintertime corduroy.  Between my mother and I, we only buy about four things, which I think shows admirable restraint.

4) We find a charming little cafe in a side street on a corner, all red light and warm, smoke-scented tables and fairy lights.  We try one of the next sweets on the list: MontBlanc.  I've had a MontBlanc a couple of times in my life and I just haven't loved it that much.  It's sweet and bland and nothing, really, to write home about.

But this one.  This MontBlanc is covered in a chestnut paste that is pure chestnut and barely any cream.  It's slightly sandy in a good way, with tiny chestnut pieces, and is not too sweet.  Against the clean, fresh cream in the centre and the light meringue on the bottom, it's a hit even with my mother, who doesn't like sweets.  I spend a very cosy hour sipping coffee from a delicate floral cup and slowly cleaning up my portion of the MontBlanc.

And now, to bed because..."

To be continued...