Friday 28 February
We set an alarm for 07:30, to give me time to get ready and leave at 08:00 to walk to the last day of my ISO Photography Standards meeting. I had some leftover sweet food items as a makeshift partial breakfast before heading out, and picked up an onigiri and a cup of vegetable sticks from a 7-11 near the meeting venue to fill it out with something a bit healthier.
The last technical session was about image information content, measuring camera reproduction fidelity using metrics based on Shannon information theory. Following this we had the administrative closing sessions, going over action items and planning for future meetings. The next will be in Berlin in June, which my wife and I will also be travelling to. At the start of the lunch break I had to participate in editing of resolutions, a job which falls to one representative from each country. As the only Australian attending, I always end up doing this task.
For lunch I walked over to the MSB Tamachi building, which has a couple of floors of restaurants. I looked around before choosing こびんちょ (Kobincho) a place that had a lunch special of a bowl of udon noodles with a small tempura-don bowl of tempura prawns and vegetables on rice. It was pretty good!
After lunch, the meeting concluded at 14:29, one minute earlier than listed in the agenda.
I walked back via another different route, this time taking a walkway along one of the canals running north-south through Shibaura. This was a more pleasant walk, and I took my time a bit since I saw several different birds: mallards, tufted ducks, eastern spot-billed ducks, eurasian coots, a white wagtail, and lots and lots of black-headed gulls. I also saw what looked like an eagle soaring high overhead, but couldn’t identify the species.
As I neared the hotel, walking through Shinagawa Station, I spotted a very bewildered looking young woman with a large suitcase looking around in obvious confusion. I asked her if she needed help finding anything and she answered in an American accent, saying she wanted to get tickets for the Narita Express to the airport and her phone had died and she didn’t know where to go. I knew there were multiple ticket offices in the station for different train companies, and checked which was the right one on my phone, then pointed her in the right direction. She was very grateful – I hope she made it to the airport okay!
I got back to the hotel a bit after 15:00, and the others were waiting for me in the hotel lobby, keen to go out again! They’d spent the morning walking down to Kitashinagawa to explore the old style neighbourhood there, which we’d discovered ourselves last trip. But now, rejoining me, the plan was to head out to Sekaido, the giant art supply store in Shinjuku. My mother-in-law is a keen artist, working in pencil and watercolour, and wanted to browse and maybe buy some things that would be difficult to get at home. And my wife has recently taken up ink sketching and watercolour as well.
We took a Yamanote Line train to Shinjuku and headed across to Sekaido. The walk passed through a vibrant shopping district, and the others stopped to check out another of the shops before we got to our destination. Once in Sekaido, we explored the third floor with painting supplies, then the second with paper and drawing supplies. This took some time as there was so much to see, and everyone but me bought a few things. We briefly looked around the ground floor, which had stationery, before leaving to head back to Shinjuku Station to catch a Marunouchi Line subway train to Akasaka-Mitsuke Station.
Here we walked a short distance to Hitori Shabu Shabu Nanadaime Matsugoro, a shabu shabu restaurant which I’d booked for dinner. When we walked in the door, a woman asked if we had a reservation, and when I said yes, she knew my name instantly without having to check. She showed us to four adjacent bar seats that were part of an oval surrounding the central kitchen area, and then explained the menu to us in moderately good English. She was extremely friendly and helpful, and after our meal my wife gave her one of the Australia stickers we’d brought to give to helpful people.
We all ordered food, my wife getting the vegetable plate, while the rest of us got a meat plate, which came with vegetables as well, and we all ordered an additional bowl of rice. The meals came with ponzu sauce and sesame sauce, and additional condiments of chopped spring onion and dried garlic to mix in to taste. There was also a small bottle of chilli oil, which my wife mistook for soy sauce and poured a lot on her rice before tasting it and realising her error! My in-laws had never had shabu shabu before and were very impressed with the variety of ingredients and flavours of the sauces, and the fun of cooking everything yourself in the steaming hotpot, which was really pleasing. I was a little worried they might not like some of the new food experiences, but it’s been a positive experience for them, which is great.
After the meal, we pondered finding some place to have drinks and maybe a small dessert. I searched the area on Google Maps and located the Bar Wagokoro Akasaka, which was described in Maps as a “cocktail chocolate pairing bar”, which sounded ideal, and it was only two short blocks away. We walked there, but had trouble locating it until my wife spotted a photo outside one building which showed cocktails and chocolates. There was a logo with Japanese on it, but no other indication what sort of a place it was, and the indication that it was on the third floor.
We went up in the tiny lift and emerged in an intimate room with only 15 seats: two tables of four and seven along the bar, facing an impressive wall of whiskies. The top shelf was entirely Japanese whiskies, the second shelf entirely Scotch, and the lowest shelf had other whiskies and various other bar essentials and liqueurs.
The bartender, immaculate in a blue pinstripe suit, brought us English menus and explained the various chocolates and selection options. I chose an “oriental chocolate cocktail” with cinnamon and cardamom, my sister-in-law got a “ruby chocolate and raspberry” cocktail, my wife got a non-alcoholic version of the same, and her mother chose an apple one.
I ordered the sweets assortment, which allowed two choices from the menu of 21 different types of chocolates, plus it came with a selection of other small chocolates, bites of gateaux, and dried fruits, presented on a spectacular patterned plate, while my in-laws chose individual chocolates each. The bartender also brought us complimentary rice crackers.
The drinks and chocolates were extremely well presented and delicious. The bartender was the only staff present, and also the owner according to some online reviews, and very friendly. M. gave him another of our Australia stickers in appreciation. This was a truly delightful find and a delicious way to end our last dinner before heading to the airport tomorrow.
We walked the short distance back to Akasaka-Mitsuge Station and caught a Ginza Line train to Shimbashi, where we changed for a Tokaido Line train to Shinagawa. The Tokaido Line trains are more express and Shinagawa was only one stop away. We got off there and headed back to our hotel for our last night in Tokyo.