//TOKYO_Q4::DAY5-GINZA
WELCOME BACK EVERYONE !! 
Today is the fifth day of my travel log 
On today's menu : going to Ginza in an abandoned building, drinking life-threatening amounts
of caffeine, and unlimited fish eggs!
Fancy Coffee time ! 
The plan for that day was to coffee-hop in Ginza because they happen to have a lot of
specialty fancy coffee shops in the area. My partner is a self-proclaimed coffee
snob so those coffee shops were on the must-visit list for a WHILE. Apparently these coffee
shops are so good that there's always a line to get in. 
Our first stop was a place called Glitch Coffee which is a coffee shop that serves a
lot of specialty single-origin coffees. We waited in line for about 30 minutes to get in,
but it's worth it because they give you a personalized consultation when picking your
coffee and advise you on the best beans depending on your taste. That's why the line tends
to get long because they take their time to serve you. 
Now the issue is, I absolutely hate coffee... 
Purely based on the
taste itself, so
unfortunately this was NOT the place for me, however I still ordered something so my partner
could try out two different coffees there ! 
I did try a sip
of both just for the experience
(unsurprisingly, it was way too bitter for me) but I have to admit they both tasted
COMPLETELY different, and not like any coffee I've ever had before. On the pictures below
you can see they gave us some little facts-cards about each coffee beans. (Click on each
pic
to zoom in)
And ANOTHER Coffee Shop 
A few streets over is another coffee shop that we wanted to try called X Coffee, same thing as the last one
where they have really rare and fancy coffee beans available. Thankfully they also have some
really good matcha too so that's what I got instead of coffee ! The
interior of this place
is really sleek and modern compared to Glitch Coffee, which has a warm and rustic feeling to
it. At that point my partner had 3 cups of coffee so we also grabbed a sandwich nearby to
offset that
A Gallery In An (Abandonned?) Building 
Next on my list was this building I had bookmarked for a while, from the outside, it looks
like a very old building with greenery growing on the outside facade. A big contrast from
the modern office buildings around Ginza Some might think this
building is abandoned, but upon entering you'll notice quickly that every mailbox in this
(previously residential)
building has a little sign on it for each of the galleries & businesses that now occupy the
different apartment spaces... the building is far from abandoned. In reality, Okuno Building is now a
huge complex of art galleries, small vintage shops and artist studios. If you ever visit it,
make sure your legs are in good condition to go to over 10 floors ! You can also use the
very
old elevator that has almost no doors, but I'll be honest I wasn't brave enough to use it
Orb Pastries ? 
After spending a few hours visiting all the art galleries accross all those floors, I was
getting seriously hungry 
(and also really needed to sit down for a bit after going up all
those stairs...) so I had a quick look on Google Maps and spotted a super cute pastry shop a
few buildings away 
The whole place was covered in marble and fancy chandeliers, so I knew we were about to have
some overpriced and fancy pastries We ordered some milk
tea and some super cute orb-shaped cakes. Mine was blueberry flavored, the outside was a
purple hardened chocolate
layer, with the inside being multiple layers of sponge cake and blueberry jam. My partner
got a
strawberry one, with strawberry jam inside ! Honestly it was REALLY good so I was pleasantly
surprised
! 
I also
noticed in their display that they had some seriously adorable cakes for sale. The
prices were a bit crazy but for this level of detail, it seems pretty understandable.
Unlimited Fish Eggs 
After that we headed back to the hotel to rest a bit, and booked a reservation at one of my
favorite restaurant that serves my favorite kind of food : IKURA ! (Also known as Salmon Roe). I know some people might find it gross
or weird, but I seriously love it. If you like
popping boba well... it's basically the same thing but salty and umami
Personally I absolutely LOVE it but unfortunately it's absolutely OUTRAGOUSLY expensive in
my home country. I'm talking 2 table spoons for 12 dollars... Needless to say this is just
enough for 2 small little sushis. So whenever I
come to Japan I take advantage of the fact
that they sell it for much cheaper here (I believe I got that big bowl pictured below for
2'500
¥), and you can find it in every sushi restaurant too.
However this specific restaurant called Iroriya (multiple locations in Tokyo) serves a specialty
from Hokkaido called "kobore
ikura-don" ("overflowing bowl of salmon roe"). Well the name is pretty self
explanatory, a
bowl of rice topped with a stretchy yam purée that gets completely covered in Salmon Roe
until it overflows !
The best part is they serve it with a teapot of warm broth, as well as some seaweed
sprinkles, some spring onions and wasabi. Then you're supposed to mix all of it into the
broth and enjoy ! It's seriously one of my top 5 dishes of all time. Below is a video of
them serving the salmon roe until it overflows, as well as how it looks when you mix it into
the broth with the toppings. If you like seafood, I HIGHLY recommend !
The thing that scared me when I ordered it for the first time some
years ago is that, when you order that dish they will come out with a giant taiko drum and start chanting "YOISHOOO ! YOISHOOO
!" (Heave-hooo! Heave-hooo!) accross
the entire restaurant every time the staff pours a new spoon of salmon roe on your bowl !
You
can imagine how mortified I was the first time when the entire restaurant was staring at
me
and the commotion Maybe if I had known beforehand that this was going to happen I
wouldn't have been so embarrassed but they completely took me by surprise with this
tradition ! I think it's specifically this restaurant that serves the dish this traditional
way. I was sooooooo full at the end of this evening... 
Thank you for reading this fifth travel log ! I hope you had
as much fun reading it as I had writing it ! I'll see you
in the next one, stay tuned ! 
