Only in Japan... Part V

I've caught up with my Japan food photos but there are still several Japan-related posts lining up in draft form, like this one in the Only in Japan series for example. I didn't do a post in this series throughout our time in Tokyo but it's better late than never.

Spotted this cool-dude-who-gives-zero-f*ck outside the Marunouchi Cafe Kai on the ground floor of the Kitte Building, across the street from Tokyo Station. Let's just say when you were minding your own business and then looked out the door to see guy sporting samurai hair, outfit, and hiking shoes, you just couldn't help but sneak a photo or two. I do wonder if there were a theater or film studio of some sorts nearby. Then again, he didn't look like he had any stage or film makeup on.

Tokyo Eats - Roppongi area Part VII

The last of the Roppongi food posts :(

Hubby and colleagues were super excited when Blue Bottle Coffee opened yet another branch in Roppongi (they're up to 6 branches in Tokyo now!), in the spanking new Tri-Seven Building across the street from Midtown. It made their daily coffee run much easier than, say, Omotesando (will post soon!). Hubby loved going there, and he loved to drag me along. I was more, umm, indifferent. Sure, I like coffee, but more so the flavor than the actual beverage, which can sometimes be too strong and bitter for my unsophisticated taste buds.

Tokyo Eats - Roppongi area Part VI

My god, how many food photos did I take?!? I finally made it to the first week of August in the photo backlog, and it filled up yet another Tokyo Eats - Roppongi area post! I guess it was because hubby worked there, and so I went there everyday to meet with him for lunch. That was how I ended up with lots and lots of photos of mostly food ^.^"

Tokyo Eats - Roppongi area Part V

Many more photos build-up and here we are at installment #5 of Tokyo Eats - Roppongi Area.

Back in late June, the Midtown building had a fun exhibition on daruma art.

Tokyo Eats - Roppongi Area Part IV

More food in Roppongi, though probably not the last since I'm still waaay behind on photos. I'd thought to wait until I'm all caught up but the post will grow too long, so I'm posting what I have now, already pretty darn long as it is!

An art display at Midtown, along with even more photos of sakura that I didn't get to in the previous installment. I know, I'm posting spring photos in the fall and summer photos in the winter. Ha.

Tokyo Eats - Roppongi Area Part III

It's taken us a while but hubby and I are slowly exploring the Roppongi area for good food ^.^

This Hainan Jeefan Shokudo in Azabu-Juban was a discovery from last fall. Hubby and his colleagues stumbled upon it and that was that. Funny enough I don't like the Singapore chicken rice, but I'll give them due credit that the chicken rice here is out of this world! My god that breast meat is unbelievably tender and juicy. How do they do it?! Anyway, I prefer their curry to the chicken rice, because it tastes like mum's curry ^.^

Tokyo Eats - Roppongi Area Part II (Picture heavy!)

Alright, I can't procrastinate on this post anymore because it's growing too long. More food ahead, folks. In the Roppongi area, same old, same old. Took some photos over the holidays too, trying to get just that special one for the holiday cards. Too bad they all turned out meh so no cards this year. Oh well.

Afternoon Tea at the Lobby Lounge & Bar, Ritz-Carlton Tokyo

Our December afternoon tea session was at the Lobby Lounge & Bar, on the 45th floor of the Ritz-Carlton Tokyo inside the Midtown Tower, Roppongi (well, Akasaka actually...).

This one was another maze of a hotel entrance. We walked around for quite a while before going through two narrow hallways just to the elevators. Perhaps this was designed to keep us riffraffs out? Ha.

The hotel lobby was on the 45th floor with very high ceiling, which I really enjoyed. The huge Christmas tree made the atmosphere festive, and the killer view didn't hurt either.

Murakami Takashi: The 500 Arhats Exhibition

Got a pair of free tickets for Murakami Takashi: The 500 Arhats Exhibition in the Mori Art Museum, so we went on a weekend back in mid December. When we got there, we were greatly surprised to learn all cameras and cam-corders were A-OK! Pretty cool, I thought! I took a ton of pictures, and since the artist is ok with sharing his arts with the world, I didn't watermark my photos of the arts either. Feel free to take and share!

The Art of Gundam Exhibition (Picture heavy!), Roppongi, Tokyo

So...I suspect this post might be boring if you're not a Gundam fan. Hubby and I aren't fans either, but we heard great things about this Art of Gundam Exhibition at the Mori Art Museum on the 53rd floor of the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, and having free tickets helped. And so we went to see it on a Friday night towards the end of Silver Week.

Tokyo Eats - Roppongi area

When hubby and I were living in Japan last, we were in Yokohama, and Tokyo was a bit of hike for us, a 1hr+ train ride with transfers, depends on destination. Needless to say we felt like outsiders the entire time and we sort of were (still are...). Whenever we went to Tokyo to hangout, dine out, or to be with friends, there was always that train ride back to dread (drunk salarymen, anyone?) and the last train to watch out for (packed-sardines with drunk salarymen, anyone?).

Now that we actually live in the heart of Tokyo, the game changed drastically. We go out so often now I'm running a few thousand photos behind, which means the back log for this blog is hitting a growth spurt and I'm marathoning to keep up. That's to say I'm going to follow my Taipei model and do group food reviews by the areas I frequent most, just to keep things simple and save time.

The first area that's racking up photos is Roppongi. We used to loath this area. Being an expat haunt, Roppongi had a bad rep, you see. Ten years ago when I was still in business school, a frat-boy classmate bragged about spending his summers in luxury high-rises, interning for Goldman Sachs in Roppongi, and this was Business Ethics class, mind you (proving Goldman Sachs' pervasive tone-deaf problem, from executives to interns). Five years ago when we were in Yokohama, hubby went to several school and work events in Roppongi and always came home sick and disgusted, having met some world-class a-holes, some of whom are diplomats (oh, the irony...). So earlier this year when an offer came in to work in Roppongi, our response was, "If and only if we don't have to live there."

Thankfully, it seems Roppongi has changed a bit and it doesn't feel too sleazy. Sure, there still are sketchy parts of town we avoid, and we're not nightclubbing, party folks anyway, so we're making do OK living a few train stops away. With hubby working in Roppongi, I go there at least twice a week to have lunch with him and then wander around for errands, etc. So that list of unsorted photos just grows and grows and grows.