We woke late-ish. OK maybe we were hungover. We’re on holidays so give us a break already.
More experiences were looming. To be honest, by this stage I was ready for a sensory deprivation chamber but that’s not what Tokyo does. So it was coffee, pastry and onto the subway once more. We were off to Team Lab – Planets. The latest digital visual and sensory experience from Team Lab. They’re a little bit art, but in truth they’re much more like a trip to the IMAX cinema without the popcorn but with extra touchy feely stuff – and of course truckloads of tourists. These things are massively popular – fun but also a bit tacky. This one focused on water, flowers, moss and other organic stuff and it involved lots of wading through knee deep water. It was… well look at the pics. You’ll get the idea.
Knee deep in psychedelic carp at Team Lab Planets.
Where’s Wally 1 and 2?
There they are.
Space 1999. Team Lab Planets Tokyo.
Too much tack masquerading as art leaves a bad taste in your mouth so we needed a palate cleanser. We’d heard about the Rose Bakery over in swanky Ginza. We’d also never been to that part of Tokyo before, so off we went.
Ginza was exactly as expected. Grand wide streets, the usual high end boutiques and labels (Louis Vuitton, Tiffany’s, Rolex etc etc), but the extra space and the incredible food halls – think David Jones Foodhall on steroids made for a nice change.
And Rose Bakery – located in the middle of the Dover Street Market – was a treat. Even if the so called Market was just six floors of super high end fashion labels jammed in together. Still the mushrooms on toast with a poached egg was just so.
Queueing up to get my Louis Vuitton bag. Ginza.
The OG Uniqlo store in Ginza. 12 floors of muted tones and mostly organic fibres.
Heading back to our accommodation in Shinjuku. Coming up out of the subway at rush hour.
For dinner that night we went to a super cool pizza place we’d read about called Savoy Tomato and Cheese. 10 seats, wood fired pizza, simple ingredients, cold beer, friendly staff, bliss. The standout was the tuna pizza – basically a coiled slice of tuna in the centre of a garlic pizza base. In the super hot wood fired oven for 4 minutes, a smear of wasabi (yes wasabi) and Bob’s your uncle. So delicious. The wasabi didn’t even really bite – the chef says when you mix wasabi with olive oil it maintains the spice without the zing. More please.
flyeelookee 