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We're at Shinjuku to renew our 3-day metro passes when we figure it's time to check out these department store eats. The basement of the Big Camera in Shinjuku has a supermarket that would put a DJs food hall to shame, and this is one of the smallest. Individually wrapped melons, all kinds of cheese, Iberico magic, everything is here. We spot a sign that says there's an Alice in Wonderland themed restaurant on the floor below - we're off.
The girls are totally smitten with the place, the decorations are so clever, it's all opulent hues and finishings with a very clever mirror on mirror dreamy effect surrounding the whole room, wonderful stuff.
We're off to Ebisu, the home of Yebisu, my new favourite Japanese beer company. Yebisu is the only beer company where the town named itself after the beer it brewed, rather than the other way around. This spring they have a special Wheat Ale I've been drinking this week, delicious stuff. No English tours available so we're off to wander around ourselves. 1890 was when Yebisu was first brewed, and within a decade it took out best beer at the 1900 World's Fair in Paris. At that time it was the champagne of beer in Japan with one bottle costing the same as twenty bowls of soup - it was beer to admire in the window. In the 40s as WWII drained the economy beer production halted and Yebisu didn't return until 1971.
When the factory moved in the 80s this area was redeveloped into a restaurant precinct on the outskirts of Shibuya. We made our way through Yebisu Garden Place back to the station on our way to Tokyo Tower.
We've taken a wrong turn and find ourselves in an alley behind a school playground on our way to Tokyo Tower. The kids are fascinated by how the Japanese kids are conducting themselves in this afternoon break. Around the corner, in the park, the School baseball team is training with callisthenics, Toyota employee style. We round the corner and there it is Tokyo Tower, sans Godzilla.
We've spent so much time underground, routeing our way around via misshaped subway maps I don't really understand the physical layout of this city yet. Being up here doesn't help, apart from the harbour, I don't understand much of what I'm seeing - it's just buildings as far as the eye can see. It's has been a relatively clear day, though now it's a little overcast, it's easy to mistake the colour for city smog - but there easy to make out nearly 100km away is Mount Fuji, amazing!
Gab is petrified of height, but for some reason this is her tourist target for the day. Fid and I spot a sign promoting a glass floor one level below, we're now trying to simultaneously hide the sign from her and coax her downstairs. I'm making up a story about a special shop she'd like to see when we realise you have to go downstairs to get the lift down again - too easy! Despite our efforts, she clocks the signpost on the stairs and now knows exactly where she isn't going. We have to get a Manhole shot with a 150m drop so I hold my hand over her eyes and walk her towards the glass, even when she can't see what she's standing on she's petrified.
This time we take the correct route back to the station and walk straight past a Franziskaner bar, I don't mean one that sells it, I mean a full one Franzi bar, w00t! Fid has us on the clock to get to the Pokemon Mega Centre at Sunshine City so there's no time for the 2lt Weissbier glass, we down one round and we're on our way to Pokemon.
He's in the store for 4 minutes before he realises there is a whole Pokemon arcade around the corner, that's all he's here for. The girls search out the Disney Store, every mall here has one, but we can't sustain a single store with all of Sydney. Then Gab and I set up camp in a restaurant upstairs and the kids hit the arcades for the next little while until they close. Sunshine City is another mall way bigger than anything at home, with a range that would fill a day. After dinner, we raid the supermarket and take our second Japanese cab ride home, we're too busted to ferry the shopping home on the metro tonight. We're home by 9:45, earliest night since we got here, but not early enough for me, crash time.
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