Sushi and Martini

Hand Roll

This was a jet lag kind of day. We didn’t sleep well, even with the sleeping pills we took. I will never understand how pilots and flight crews on international flights can survive.

 

Breakfast at the hotel (excellent) and then on to shopping. The Ginza area is known for its shopping. Every big brand name is there with elegant stores that makes Beverly Hills look puny. Beyond the stores are the giant department stores. In the US we would never consider going to a department store except to buy a pair of Jeans or sneakers that you can try on.

 

In Japan the department stores are huge and filled with customers and amazing merchandise. In addition, they have multiple floors of food.

 

We returned to the hotel and semi-crashed from jet lag. I went and had my beard professionally trimmed and shave with a straight razor. It is amazing with all the advancements in engineering no electric razor or razor blade gives as close and clean a shave as a straight razor. If you never had one you should go get a shave a good barbershop.

 

We had drinks on the roof of our hotel (it is quite beautiful) and I made the rookie mistake of ordering a Martini in a foreign country that didn’t suffer under the British Raj. I wouldn’t agree with Rudyard Kikpling’s that the Raj was bringing civilization to the natives, but I would agree that the Raj brought the ability to make an acceptable Martini to many far-off lands. Japan was never ruled by the British and hence, they don’t know how to make a good Martini, which one would think is a basic bartending skill. One time I offered to teach the bartender how to mix a Martini but Cathy chastised me for it. So, I ordered a Martini and it was undrinkable. Luckly the service was extremely slow, and they recognized by the time the drink arrived we had to leave. So, they didn’t charge us, and I didn’t have to either complain or alternatively drink a bad Martini.

 

We went for Sushi to a new Sushi Restaurant for us: Sushi Ya in the Ginza. It was probably 12 courses of fish. Many of them were from Hokkaido (the Northern very cold island). The restaurant a typical Japanese Sushi Bar had only 8 seats and over the course of the dinner we interacted with the other guests. The Sushi was wonderful. In the past, I have recommended other Sushi restaurants, this one is also excellent.

 

We returned to the hotel and had drinks (not a Martini) and went back to our room to crash.