TacoCat’s Travels #272 (Tokyo): Yummy Rice Bowls and Giant UNIQLO 👕

12 days ago · 9 min read · Chūō

Hey Hive!

If you missed the last few posts, I started sharing about our anniversary trip to Tokyo back in Feb 2023! It'd been at least 3 years since we visited Tokyo and the last time was pre-covid so we decided to go back and find some new places to explore while revisiting our favourite hot-spots.

Last week, we finished our day in Akihabara looking at tons of anime merchandise from Genshin Impact! I used to be really into the game back then and I was so excited to see merchandise irl for the first time!

While I geeked out on all the Genshin merch, Sean went off to the arcade section to play some DDR of course.

We got free tickets to play the claw machine twice and I actually won this cute Kirby toy on my first try! It was such an adrenaline rush to win at these seemingly unwinnable machines.

Anyway, on to the next day!

5 Feb 2023. Sunday.

We had a late start to the day since we were quite tired from all the shopping and games we played the previous day. So first thing on the agenda was lunch!

We didn't really have a plan on where to go for lunch so we wandered around our hotel neighbourhood in Ginza and came across this place called Nakau, which seems to be another rice bowl franchise.

We'd seen a few different branches from this chain before but never really tried it because we favoured Sukiya and Matsuya more. But I'm always on the lookout for new places to try and was admittedly pretty hungry at the time so we figured why not.

Just like most Japanese "fast-food" places, you place your order from these vending machines by the entrance and get a ticket stub with your order details on it to pass to the staff.

I think this spicy oyakodon (scrambled egg rice bowl) was their special at the time.

They seem to special in oyakodon but they have other types of rice bowls and noodle dishes as well.

This outlet seemed pretty small from the outside but had quite a few different types of seating from tables to booths and counters.

They also have a physical menu if you would like to see and order some other stuff. The one that caught my eye was the karaage (Japanese fried chicken) rice bowl, because the chicken looked so crispy! There was also a generous helping of chili oil flakes on top which intrigued us.

Of course the physical menu only comes in Japanese, but the pictures show plenty. They have quite a few noodle dishes like soba and udon.

And even a kids menu too with some toys like a happy meal!

After you place your order at the ticket vending machine, you get tickets like these. We handed them to the staff for them to prepare our order.

This was Sean's order which came with three big karaage pieces and a generous side of chili oil flakes.

I initially wanted to get the karaage bowl too, but I didn't want to order the same thing as Sean so I decided to try the oyakodon since that's their specialty. It came with a generous helping of spring onions and also a side of chili oil flakes. I'm not sure if I added on the soft boiled egg or if it just came with the set as well.

We exchanged our types of chicken so we could both try a different version and they were good in their own ways. I'm personally not really a fan of oyakodon but decided to just give this a try and it was alright. I think the sauce was a little sweet for me and while the chili oil flakes looked like they would be spicy they weren't that spicy at all. They did provide a nice texture contrast though.

I think for people who like this dish in general it would be good, but I definitely preferred the karaage. It was still good but I probably wouldn't get it again.

It was a beautiful sunny day today so after our lunch we went out and took a nice stroll.

Since we didn't make it to the main street of Ginza yesterday, we figured we might as well check it out since we're here. Ginza is known for being the hub of luxury brands like Orchard Road in Singapore so it's not really our scene but we figured why not.

The main street of Ginza is closed off to cars on the weekends so this place tends to be quite crowded but thankfully it is pretty spacious. There are chairs with umbrellas for shelter in the middle of the street and if you're lucky enough to get a seat you can sit and soak up the sun to people watch.

We saw some people walking their doggos and they looked so cute with their winter coats on!

Of course no trip to Ginza is complete without visiting the biggest UNIQLO in the world! This is probably the only store in Ginza we would ever visit tbh.

If you've never been, the UNIQLO is really something else compared to the other branches. It's 12 levels with a different category on each, divided into Men, Women and Kids sections. You're also greeted with this swinging display of winter coats here just past the entrance.

The walls are lined with colour block displays of various UNIQLO items almost like a museum. The first floor is pretty much just a display to attract customers in.

Here's the floor guide. There are quite a few floors dedicated to Women and Men clothes of course but they also have some other unique sections here like a cafe on the highest floor literally called Special Floor.

We weren't really in the market to buy anything so we took the lift to the 12th floor and decided to work out way down from there.

The cafe at the top floor offers a nice view of the bustling street below and is quite a nice place to chill away from the crowds. I think I might've dozed off here last time we were here and were tired from walking.

Of course there's the cafe here as well and you can get different types of specialty coffees here including the UNIQLO original blend coffee or even souvenirs like the UNIQLO tumbler.

After we took a look around we headed to the UT section on the 11th floor to see if we could find that elusive LINE Friends shirt from years ago that we missed out on.

This was the UNIQLO branch where Sean found one of my favourite shirts with Sally from LINE Friends on it. They did have a matching Brown shirt but didn't have his size at the time unfortunately. So we've been trying to find this shirt ever since but to no avail.

Unfortunately it's been too long now since that shirt was in rotation I think it's pretty much lost to time now. This section is still really cool though since you can find some other cool designs you missed here. It's also a really cool photo spot with the mirrored ceiling.

As with some other UNIQLO outlets they have a custom printing station where you can make your own designs on their basic shirts as well.

One thing I haven't seen before is this Custom Order Salon section where you can basically get a tailored suit from UNIQLO.

Of course people who think of UNIQLO as basic or sub-par will probably think there's no point but I'm sure their suits are of decent quality and maybe more budget-friendly compared to a proper tailor.

We headed to the winter section mainly to get more heattech wear since we needed thicker ones.

Although UNIQLO is fast fashion they do engage in some CSR to conserve the environment by making some clothes from plastic bottles. They have an interactive exhibit here to show you that works.

This UNIQLO also has mirrors along the criss-cross escalators which make for pretty cool shots.

I was in need of some more comfortable pants so I bought some sweatpants from the kids section and also found this skirt that was on clearance.

That shirt is the Sally shirt I mentioned earlier, so you can see how it would have matched with the Brown shirt.

We bought quite a few things and that ends our trip to UNIQLO!

By the time we headed back out into the street it was late afternoon.

There was a department store nearby that supposedly had a supermarket so we went to go check it out and look for some fruits to buy.

As expected in Ginza it was a pretty fancy department store though, and you can tell from the products and the decor it wasn't a typical grocery store.

They did have a fruit section though but the fruits there were obviously handpicked to be the prettiest and most expensive.

They even had these giant strawberries the size of apples that cost 864JPY (or about 5USD) a strawberry! And the white ones cost even more! It was crazy how huge and how pricey they were. I knew we'd never buy it but I was also curious about the taste.

Thankfully they did have a section of cheaper strawberries and we bought a pack so we could have them tonight.

After that we headed back out into the street and came across these two Lassie-looking doggos in winter coats!

By the time we wanted to leave Ginza the sun was already setting and we could feel the chill of the evening air.

But I think that's going to be it for today! Tune in next week for more shopping adventures as I fulfill one of my dreams - visiting a Nintendo store!