More on Tokyo
We are back in NYC, but I want to finish the Tokyo posts. Azabudai Hills, a new development, is where we were staying. There are luxury stores and galleries (Dior, Gucci, Pace) as part of the development. There are also apartments, offices and a large food area with a grocery store, small food stores and a few restaurants. The area is still in development and there are plenty of signs saying coming next year. The architect is Pelli Clark Pelli Architects Heatherwick Studio, developed by the Mori Building Company that is owned by one of the wealthiest families in Japan.
It is insanely clean, and each brick and wooden plank was put in with an eye for detail. I do love the short aisles where product display is much easier to see, and I assume to buy.
We noticed throughout Tokyo and even Seoul that all the vegetables and fruit are wrapped individually in plastic for hygiene and protection.
Comme’N is an award-winning bakery, supposedly a first for Japan, at “Mondial du Pain,” where the baker, Shuichi Osawa, won for the bread.
We tried three treats, but hands down, the Macha bread was the best.
Our next stop was downtown Ginza, where the streets are closed on Saturdays and Sundays. We hit up a few of the stores in the area.
A few brands have died in the US but live on in Tokyo, such as Dean and Deluca, Tower Records, and Barneys. This entire section of Barneys, the second floor of the two story store is Barneys private label. I never understood why Authentic Brands paid so much for the business to turn it into a private label company except for moving around debt, this is where all the private label must have ended up. No purchases, I can’t support.
We did Dover Street Market, one of my favorite places to explore, and hit up a few more stores in the area, such as Onitsuka Tiger, which seems to be everywhere and packed!
Higashiya Ginza is a confectioner shop and tea salon that makes traditional bean-paste sweets. You are not supposed to take photos, although I obviously couldn’t help myself. I wanted to bring these goodies back to the office for the team but in order for them to last it they would have to be transported on ice packs, so I opted for a no. That took a few minutes of back and forth before I understood but in the end, we got two treats to try, and not so sure we have yet to develop the taste buds for this.
It was late, and we were starving. We went over to Godaime Hanayama Udon Nihonbashi and stood in line. This happens often that at a certain time, or when the noodles are done for that shift, the sign goes out. We were the last people to make it for lunch. They asked us to keep moving the sign up with us as the line diminished and for that we were given a big thing of noodles to bring home. We were thrilled.
The wait is worth it. Two things were over the top. The Gunmas noodles, thick and chewy, served cold along side a sesame sauce for dipping that is out of this world. The other item is the maitake mushroom tempura, with a beer to split the whole thing was $22 and definitely one of the best things we ate.
Another jump to the subway, that has another level of ticket machines.
21-21 Design is one of our favorites in Tokyo located in Roppongi and built by brutalist architect Tadao Ando and fashion designer Issey Miyake, two incredible Japanese artists. The installation was called the pooploop, a brand new concept, around the products of human waste and the impact on the world. This installation started the journey, by Taku Satoh, showing that individual effort can make a difference in our global environment.
It was raining and this umbrella stand is brilliant.
Dinner was at Pizza Strada. Pizza has been growing in popularity in Japan since the 1950s but in the last decade several smaller pizza spots with an attention to detail have opened. It was tough to choose the right one but so glad we went here. The pizza is incredible, watching them make the pizza is even better.
The oven is hot, roughly 900 degrees, baked in a Neapolition wood-burning. It creates crisp, charred crust that makes the pizza soft and chewy. It bakes in 30 seconds, and it comes out the perfect temperature. One person is responsible just for cutting the pizza and getting it out to the table.
Back to the hotel to sleep for another day.