Scrambled

We took the train to Shibuya today. We had a plan:

1. Scope out our lunch venue
2. Cross the Shibuya Scramble Crossing
3. Visit the big shrine
4. Find some sake
5. Go up the tower with the view
6. Have lunch
7. Have tea

We’d used Happy Cow to find our food venues. We found our lunch venue easily, then went to the shrine. It was very big and full of tourists. There was a ceremony going on, but I don’t know what for.

After the shrine, we went to the scramble crossing. It’s meant to be the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world, but I’m sure I’ve seen busier – one in Osaka was one huge zebra-painted crossing, with people crossing every which way. Anyway, the scramble crossing is famous for being in Lost in Translation.

Lunch was disappointing.

We found some sake in the Bar Liquor Museum. If you’re drinking in a museum, it makes it more sophisticated than drinking in a bar. Culture, innit?

The tall building with the viewing floor was closed – only for today.

We went in a very dodgy bar, where they gave us a pot of something each. It turned out it was only tofu, so we ate it with soy sauce. We would’ve been charged for it either way. This bar wasn’t as dodgy as some of the bars we found in the back alleys.

One of those back alleys housed our tea venue. That was a brilliant place. Not everything was vegan, but the lovely man checked what we did and didn’t eat, then stuck a red sticker on all the items on the menu that weren’t obviously unsuitable.

The food was absolutely delicious. An unassuming dish was the dish of the day: ‘Mapo vegetables (instead of tofu)
There are lots of vegetables in this
And this used soy meat instead of minced 10min meat with handmade chili oil
Please choose spicy or not spicy’.

The sauce for this (I chose spicy after establishing it wouldn’t blow my head off), together with more of their own recipe chilli oil was one of the most moreish things I’ve ever eaten. If I hadn’t have been so full, I could have eaten another bowl of it. And maybe another one after that. I can’t emphasise enough how tasty it was. I complimented the chef afterwards; he looked delighted.

We returned to Ginza, which is where we’re staying and is where you want to be if you like designer labels (we don’t), for ice cream.