Ginza

I met up with Aaron, who is also in Tokyo on business, for dinner Tuesday, and it was awesome! Though he made me trek all the way out to Ginza when I don't know Tokyo, don't speak Japanese, don't have a cell phone, and don't have a map, it was totally worth it.

We met at the Apple store. When I got there, a group of people were crowded around, including some who had lined up along the store window. I assumed Apple was doing some weird LV thing where they made people line up outside to avoid having the store be too crowded. After waiting for a bit, I decided it didn't look quite like a line and asked a girl if she was in line. She said something back excitedly in Japanese which I obviously didn't understand. Next, I asked a white guy what was up and he said he didn't think it was not a line, so I went in. It turns out there had been a band (doa) playing on the 3rd floor of the store and the people (which at this point I realized were all girls) were all waiting for them to come out. We left the store before the guy (the lead singer, maybe?) but I decided the scene was just too funny so I stopped to take a picture of the crowd. Of course this meant that Aaron and I were accidentally exactly in the path of the doa guy and got a close up view that any in the screaming gaggle of girls would envy.

How do you top that excitement? You eat fried skewers! At this place, a little tray of sauces was put in front of us. Each of our trays was matched by an identical tray in front of the cook (we sat at the bar for easy access). The slot in his tray in which the cook placed the skewer indicated the sauce we were supposed to use. The most delicious of the skewers was a fried white fish topped with a tartar sauce, tiny chopped veggies, and salmon roe, and paired with the mustard sauce. It was an amazing explosion of flavors. Yum. A very close second (and Aaron's favorite) was the incredibly tender beef accompanied by a sesame sauce. It's definitely been the best meal I have had on this trip so far.