TacoCat’s Travels #117 (Japan 5.0: Tokyo): Shopping and BBQ after a Walk in the Park! 🍱

July 2021 · 6 min read · Shinjuku

Hey Hive!

If you missed the last couple of posts, we're currently on a new journey through Japan with my family and Sean, starting from Tokyo! Since we've been here before but it's my relatives' first time we had to bring them to all the popular spots we visited previously already, but it's all good.

Last week, we brought my family along to visit the very beautiful and peaceful Shinjuku Gyoen! Neither Sean nor I have ever been there before either, so it was a new experience for all of us!

And man, we enjoyed such a tranquil walk through the traditional Japanese gardens, just basking in the nature. And we took so many photos!

But after a while, my uncle was grumbling from walking for too long and they were getting hungry so Sean and I reluctantly left and headed off to have lunch at a Chinese restaurant of my mum's choosing.

19 December 2017. Tuesday.

After that meal, we walked around the department stores and malls nearby.

The building on the right is probably one of the biggest Isetans I've ever seen.

My camera couldn't even capture the entire building from across the street!

This was a display of a chocolate cake that was on a rotating ring for some reason. I could probably have fit both my arms in that ring.

There was also this display of fake bentos that were actually really expensive! I guess it takes a lot of work to make it look so convincing. But other than restaurants who would buy these I wonder? I guess maybe collectors?

I remember when I took a module in college about Food in Japan and actually wanted to do a paper on these types of fake bentos.They're pretty cool!

I have no idea what this is about but I think that's a solitary strawberry that they're selling for 1080jpy, for some reason. What is so special about this strawberry I dont get it.

But damn, these Migaki-Ichigo strawberries were like luxury strawberries or something; 1 box of 6 was legit selling for 6,480jpy!

I thought these apples looked pretty cute tho! But they were humongous! I don't think I could finish one of those apples by myself.

There were these cute Hello Kitty apples too!

But yeah most of these Japanese department stores have so much of these expensive fruits they're practically luxury goods. That you can eat.

I also saw this really cute fruit Christmas tree! I think it was just a display though.

There was a butcher section there as well, and dang, those are some huge legs.

More chocolate displays!

And some very tall chiffon cakes! They actually looked really appetising and I wanted to try one so bad! There were mango, chocolate and lemon flavours!

After ogling at all the cakes and sweets, we just walked straight through the women's sections while my mum and her sisters took a look around.

What a colourful entrance for a somewhat bland looking-building. I mean, it has an ornate design, but other than that it's kinda meh.

We went shopping around and looking at stuff in Shinjuku until evening time and all the lights were starting to turn on.

Sean and I found ourselves in the electronics section again an I saw these super cute LINE Friends speakers! But dayum they were pretty expensive and the sound quality wasn't the best so, unfortunately we couldn't get it.

This was probably in the subway but it's one of the few Z-shaped escalators I've been on!

Soon enough, my relatives stomachs were grumbling from hunger yet again, so we brought them to eat at our favourite yakitori chain - Gyu-Kaku!

Thankfully it wasn't too crowded and we managed to get seats fairly quickly. There's English on the menu so they had no problem ordering. But they've never BBQ-ed before, so we gave them recommendations on what type of meat to get.

Sean and I got our own table just beside them, and we ordered our own share. They didn't have our favourite 3-in-1 meat set this time, so we decided on our usual karubi and kurobuta.

It was their first time eating BBQ and actually cooking the meat right at the table like this.

My relatives also bought different cuts to share.

But I personally like the cuts we chose better.

Look at Sean the serious chef:

Overall though, the meal was delicious! And I'm so glad everyone enjoyed it! With our bellies full, we continued walking around for a bit to digest.

There was this stall by the side of the road selling souvenirs and touristy shirts and I saw this cute one and was tempted to buy it! But it was definitely too big for me so I didn't.

On the way back, we saw this very pretty illuminated Christmas tree!

We didn't really have much plans after that so we escorted my family back to Akihabara and some of them went back to the hotel to wash the smokey smell out and rest up while we went out to get dessert! My mum went to buy some tarts from Pablo and Sean and I shared a chocolate cheese tart:

It was soo melty and chocolatey inside! There was hardly any cheese taste but it was super smooth and chocolatey! It wasn't too rich either, so it was just nice and perfect. But I'm glad I shared it with Sean, because it might've been too much for just me.

We also bought a couple of stuff from Beard Papa! Like this chocolate chip cookie bun:

And this swirly cream donut:

Neither of them were that sweet, and both of them had a crispy outside and creamy inside. Yummy!

What a sweet ending to an awesome day! That walk through Shinjuku Gyoen was so nice and peaceful.A well-deserved respite from the humdrum of modern life.

Anyway, that's gonna be all for today! Sorry this post is so short, but we had to retire early since the next day we'll be heading off to Osaka!

Thanks so much for reading!