Tokyo Tour

Our precursor to the day’s exploration was a stop at BunCoffee, a small (and I mean small) kiosk specializing in pourover coffee and Australian pastries called lamingtons, which are small layer cakes coated in a thin layer of chocolate and finished with coconut flakes. The table—which I hesitate to even call a table—was better suited to holding a few candles than multiple cups of coffee with accompanying food items. But it did make for a hilarious ambiance. In fairness to the establishment, not much else would have fit in the limited space, and it did give us a chance to practice our balancing skills. Add this experience to the list of times I’ve wondered: is Japan just fond of smaller things, or are we too used to outsized American excess?

Before much of the rest of this day’s entry, I feel a mea culpa is in order. I am aware that the Venn diagram overlap between the general readership of this blog and the wider video gaming community is likely not considerable. So you may have to hold your applause when I announce that much of our afternoon was spent in homage to our shared love of games developed by Square Enix, a Japanese game creator and publisher responsible for some of the most popular gaming franchises of all time, like Final Fantasy, DragonQuest, and Kingdom Hearts. Amusingly, many of these locations were within steps of our original Tokyo Airbnb but weren’t on our radar until this second pass, so we ended up revisiting some of our old haunts.

Artnia, a small-ish shop that neighbors the Square Enix headquarters, serves as both a source of merchandise and a café with themed food options for enthusiasts like us. With an expanded selection on offer over some of the shops we encountered yesterday in Akihabara, Paresh secured some memorabilia from his favorite game, Final Fantasy III, before we settled in for some of the culinary fare. Our pancakes came branded with images of famous characters from the franchise and were surprisingly tasty beyond what you’d expect for this level of gimmick.

We are particular boys with particular tastes, and even after three separate stores, we weren’t quite ready to give up the hunt for some souvenirs honoring our all-time favorite characters. So off we headed to Square Enix Garden, a separate official merch store dedicated to the game developer. Hidden deep within a labyrinthian mall complex, this final site led us on a considerable wild goose chase that lasted well into the afternoon. But a score on some exclusive items meant the excursion had been worth it. Finally certain that we had exhausted all avenues of homage to our favorite games, we finally tied a bow on the pursuit and called time on our nerd quest for the day.

Recognizing that tomorrow’s mercury would likely ascend into triple digits, and also cognizant that our step count had dropped considerably in Kanazawa, we chose to spend the remainder of the afternoon enjoying the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, an expansive green space with multiple different sections that manages to exude peace and calm despite its placement in the middle of the world’s busiest city. With juxtaposing vistas that combine tranquil greenery with the towering cityscape on the horizon, Gyoen serves as a respite to Tokyo’s otherwise ceaseless whir—although I commented that the place is probably crawling when the cherry blossoms are in bloom in the Spring.

As a general rule, especially when traveling abroad, I like to keep my experiences to new things I haven’t seen yet. But certain memories are so good that they merit a revisitation, and Paresh and I were in strong agreement that, as far as dinner options go, Pizza Studio Tamaki was just such a place after our appetites were whetted from our original stop. After second inspection, I am confident awarding this place with the title of greatest pizza I’ve ever had—consistent, innovative, and just so goddamn delicious. I could write poetry about this crust, salted right up to the point of ruin but not one step further. Other pizzerias, take notice: this is the new bar by which you will be measured, and it is high indeed. I am already sad at the thought of being thousands of miles from it.

We’ve batted around the idea of finding a sake bar for well over a week now but haven’t managed to pull the trigger, but after discovering that Akasaka appears to house dozens if not hundreds of options for sake and cocktails, we decided that tonight should be the night. Chill Labo Akasaka is aptly named—a short five minutes from our hotel, the bar is situated on the second floor of a tiny building concealed between residential dwellings and welcomes patrons to a laid-back, all-you-can-drink experience where the staff helps you enjoy a sake tasting progression with as much or as little guidance as you prefer. We enjoyed casual conversation with the bartenders as well as our neighbor at the bar counter, a kind Japanese man who persevered through linguistic obstacles to express an interest in our experiences thus far in Japan. We felt instantly at home here, exactly the type of place you would dream of having in your own neighborhood, and we may end up going back to cap our final day tomorrow—such was the extent to which we appreciated and enjoyed hanging out here. I rarely feel these types of instant connections with businesses in my own hometown, and it’s remarkable how many of them we’ve accrued here.

It’s late here, and the final full day in Japan beckons. So rather than invest any more brain power in a clever wrap to this post, I’ll just say thanks for reading and we’ll have more thoughts from our last hurrah tomorrow.