Lounging in Tokyo

We've been in Tokyo for a couple of days now and it's been pretty fun. Yesterday we met Ayu's sister and walked around Chiba for a bit. We had lunch at an awesome place that was actually quite cheap. We were able to enjoy some brews that they made on site. For 4 beers and 3 meals, we paid a mere 4,300 yen. Not bad when you consider right down the road a pub has pints of Guinness for 900 yen each.

In Chiba we also found an awesome shopping mall. It was so huge that after walking around for 2 hours, we only covered 20% of the mall.

After shopping we went to Ayu's sisters place and I made some ratatouille that we enjoyed with a baguette we bought at a local bakery. Even though we spent all day walking around, it was a great day.

Today we went to Asakusa and checked out the famous Kaminarimon. It was super crowded, but enjoyable. At the gate, some dude came up to me and asked me if I could help him call his family. First he needed 1,000 yen, and I said sorry, I don't have it. No sooner than I finished saying that, he demanded to use my cell phone. He was rather pushy and the whole thing seemed strange to me, so we walked away after saying we can't help him.

After Kaminarimon, we took a stroll down towards the Tokyo Sky Tree area. The main structure is finished and it's massive. We ate lunch on a bench while taking in the scenery.

After returning to the apartment for a bit we set out to do some grocery shopping. Unbeknownst to me, but perhaps knownst to the rest of Tokyo, just 10 minutes away by walk is culinary heaven. In the basement of an upscale shopping center (that has a Harry Winston jewelry shop in it...) are two shops that have import foods (and an abundance of delicious beers!). After shopping around, I really dread going back to Ishikawa where all grocery stores carry the same thing and it's hard to find anything...well...Western for groceries. We picked up two Hawaiian beers, some nectarines (!), Indian curry and came back.

I have a feeling we'll be doing a lot of shopping at this place in the coming week.

I think that's all for now. I'd post pictures but I don't have my connector cable for the camera. I'll upload pics upon our return home.

By the way, I cannot figure out why on earth when Japanese men drink something on the commercials they look like they're giving birth or something. They make drinking something refreshing look absolutely painful. I dunno...

EDIT: It just occurred to me I never posted a link for the awesome brewery/restaurant in Chiba. Here it is: Harvest Moon