April 15: Ginza, Tokyo

This morning Luke was able to sleep all the way until 6 so hopefully he is over his jet lag. After we woke up we headed down to the basement of the hotel to grab breakfast at a soba place called Yudetarou, but they didn't open until 7 so we walked over to the Shinjuku Chuo Park for a little bit.

Shinjuku Chuo Park

There were some tulips blooming, which were colorful and there was a nice playground area for Luke to play at. He seemed to enjoy riding a rocking car, all the while clutching his onigiri.

Still Holding His Onigiri

He played on the on the car for a few minutes and then it was time to go back to the restaurant for breakfast. I ordered tempura with cold soba and it included eggplant, shishito, white fish and shrimp tempura. The soba noodles were homemade and they had a nice firm and chewy texture to them. The tempura was pretty good and it went well with the cold soba.

Soba & Tempura Set

After finishing breakfast we headed back up to the room and I worked on my blog for a bit while Christal was getting Luke down for a nap. At 10 we met Auntie Kanako in the lobby of the hotel and then took the train over to Ginza for lunch. She took us to Unagi Toku in the Tokyu Plaza mall, which Ojiichan had gone to with her family back in October.

We all had the unaju teishoku that included the eel liver soup, tsukemono, a couple of side dishes and some yuzu sorbet. The unaju had two layers of rice and then eel and each serving consisted of two whole eels. It was very luxurious. The tare that was used to flavor the unagi was a good, with a nice sweet and savory flavor, but in my opinion there wasn't enough of it. When we started eating Ojiichan and Auntie Kanako both commented that it tasted different than in October and that last time it tasted a lot more like how they had unagi growing up and this time was a little dissapointing. It was still a top three unagi dish for me though.

Unaju

From the restaurant we headed up to the roof of the building, which had a little courtyard and a sakura tree and an observation deck. We let Luke run around and use up some of his energy up there, which he enjoyed.

Tokyu Plaza Roof

After leaving Tokyu Plaza Auntie Kanako took us to a toy store that was four stories tall. We wandered for a couple of minutes until Luke found a mini piano so he played on that for about 20 minutes.

It's Schroeder!

After he finished we went and found the Brio wooden train track. Luke really enjoyed the trains because he ended up playing on it for at least an hour. Ojiichan was able to find a seat and took a nap and I browsed through the rest of the store while Luke was playing.

Conducting the Trains

When he finished we walked back to the main drag of Ginza. Apparently on the weekend they close one of the main streets so people can walk around easier. It was still pretty crowded, but with the whole street open it didn't seem very bad at all.

Ginza

Since we were in Ginza everyone humored me and we went to Dominque Ansel Bakery in the Mitsukoshi department store. I kind of went wild with the ordering, but I figured who knows if I'll ever get here again. Of course we had to get a cronut and this months flavor was violet lychee. It was bigger than I had expected and just as tasty.

Violet Lychee Cronut

The Paris-Tokyo, which is their take on the classic Paris-brest, had matcha ganache, vanilla ganache and passion fruit jam inside of choux pastry dipped in a matcha glaze. The ganaches were smooth and light and tasty amazing and the jam added a nice freshness to the pastry.

Paris-Tokyo - Choux Pastry w Match & Vanilla Ganache, Passion Fruit Jam & White Chocolate Icho Leaf

The marble cake was as delicious as it was beautiful. It was a take on the black forest cake with cherry jam, kirsch vanilla cream and dark chocolate.

Marble Cake - Cherry Jam, Kirsch Vanilla Cream & Dark Chocolate

The square watermelon raspberry pistachio mousse cake had soft pistachio and raspberry mousse with a watermelon lime gelée, pistachio biscuit and a pistachio feuilletine. It had a really smooth, silky texture and the flavors exploded on your palate.

Square Watermelon Mousse Cake - Pistachio & Raspberry Mousse w Watermelon Lime Gelée, Pistachio Biscuit & Pistachio Feuilletine

The cotton soft cheesecake was pillowy soft and light. It had a ricotta mousse on top of a soft almond biscuit with a bruleed top.

Cotton Soft Cheesecake w Ricotta Mousse, Soft Almond Biscuit & Bruleed Top

The tamagokake gohan was in fact coconut mousse with coconut dacquoise and shredded coconut to mimic rice and the 'egg' was made from a mango passion fruit gelée 'yolk' and a coconut lime gelée 'egg white' and it was right up my alley with all the coconut.

Tamagokake Gohan - Coconut Mousse, Coconut Dacquoise, Shredded Coconut, Mango Passion Fruit Gelée & Coconut Lime Gelée

The last thing we got was the kokuto black sugar DKA. The flavor of the black sugar gave the kouign amann a more rich, caramelized, earthy flavor. The texture was really crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. It was far and away the best kouign amann i've ever had.

Kokuto Black Sugar DKA (Dominique's Kouign Amann)

Once we finished eating we left Ojiichan because he was going to meet up with his classmates. Auntie Kanako took us back to the hotel where we got refreshed quickly and then met up with Uncle Kiyonari, Auntie Megumi and Karen for dinner. We decided to go to an Italian restaurant in the basement of the hotel called Capricciosa Restaurant and it ended up being pretty good. Christal ordered the pappardelle with wild mushroom cream sauce and I got the squid ink spaghetti. We were hoping Alyssa would be able to join us after work, but unfortunately she couldn't make it and Luke was beyond tired at that point so we said our goodbyes and headed up to the room.

Pappardelle w Wild Mushroom Cream Sauce

After Luke and Christal were asleep for the night I headed out and wandered around Shinjuku a bit. I was hoping to go the the Shinjuku Gyoen Park, but I found out later that it closes at 4:30 pm, so I wasn't even close to making it. I ended up just wandering for about an hour before I walked back to the hotel and turned in for the night.

Shinjuku Station