We slept in again today (this hotel is really quiet so great for sleep ins!) and then headed off to Ginza. I have realised the jacket I brought is simply not going to cut it once we get to Nozawa…if I am not coping in 0C in Tokyo I sure won’t cope in -15C or worse there! Ginza had both a Uniqlo and a Gu store (sister brand of Uniqlo) and failing that a very pricy montbell store. I was out to get the “super warm padded” jacket from Gu rated for 0 down to -25C and was lucky enough they had it in stock! I had to buy it one size too big but for $90 AUD I’ll take it.
While in Ginza, we also gave pudding lab a go. We tried their most well known gimicky product which is called “100％プリンソフト” (100% pudding soft). It’s not exactly a soft serve ice cream, but more like pudding turned into a soft serve style by liquefying the pudding, then running it through a soft‐serve freezer machine so it comes out creamy, soft, and swirled. You also get to choose two accompanying sauces. It was expensive but I thought it was yummy.
After lunch and shopping it was nap time before a wander to Hie Jinja Shrine and dinner at my all time favourite restaurant Kobe Beef Kaseikii 511 Kobe Beef Kaiseki 511.
The shrine is apparently lovely during the day but we wandered over after they had closed to see the 90 Tori gates at night time.
Then we walked 10 mins to the restaurant. Among the 12-point scale, they exclusively offer Kobe beef rated BMS 11 or higher – an extremely rare grade representing just 0.1% of the approximately 800,000 Wagyu cattle produced worldwide each year. So…definitely expect to pay $$$ for that level of Wagyu. This is definitely a special occasion restaurant for us! I even had to bring a nice dress just to go here haha.
This was my third visit and we did notice changes this time! Everyone had a separate seating area and it was quite private (although you can hear people next to you). It’s also different to other countries where a degustation is very spread out….this was one dish straight after another. I think that may be a cultural norm though? Not sure.
I did the four course menu with sirloin and B did the same one but with ribeye :
1. Kobe-beef rillette
2. Appetizers
(Kobe-beef ham with smoked cheese
Red wine braised Kobe-beef
Marinated Tasmanian salmon)
3. Fruit tomato Salad
4. Kobe beef sushi
5. Kobe-beef minestrone
6. Kiln-baked Kobe-beef Sir-loin steak(150g)
7. Dojima Roll Cake
It was delicious! And so worth the cost. We continued our tradition of pairing with a French Pinot noir although I do note they seem to have shifted from having a sommelier to training their service staff in which wines to suggest. He did seem to know his stuff though.
After dinner we wandered down the road to champagne and gyoza again and had a few glasses of bubbles before we then walked 50m up the road to codename mixology which had very expensive but very tasty cocktails. We were able to sit at the bar and watch them make the drink which was definitely worth it.
Then it was home time and drunken sleep time for me 🙂
Mel's Travel Blog 