Tokyo: Ginza + Typhoon Hagibis

This is the fourteenth recap for LOHOjapan, my 3 week trip to Japan with my boyfriend. After a long travel day back to Tokyo from Kinosaki, we heard news of the impending Typhoon Hagibis. Still, when we woke up the next day, the sky was sunny and we decided to go out even though the typhoon was set to hit tonight.

Ginza

Ginza is a top shopping district in Tokyo. Compared to Shibuya or Ikebukuro, it is more high-class with luxury retailers and ritzy cocktail and sushi bars.

Things to do: Shopping!

We visit several different shopping areas in Ginza. First, we walk around Ginza Six, a luxury shopping mall with brands I am not familiar with. Things cost $200+ and there’s like 1 item on each rack (that kind of a mall). Needless to say, we feel awkward walking around this mall in hoodies and runners so we leave without buying anything. It is still fun to walk around and look, though.

Next, we walk around the streets of Ginza, which are also lined with giant stores like Chanel or Yamaha (pianos??). The vibe is similar to Robson Street except the buildings are way bigger and I cannot afford anything lol.

Oh scratch that, we do buy stuff… at UNIQLO!

UNIQLO Ginza

This is UNIQLO‘s flagship store. It is the largest branch in the world and stands tall with 12 floors! The building is very pretty and very rainbow. If you buy $50 USD worth of items, you don’t have to pay tax! Make sure you bring your passport!

What I like most about this UNIQLO is the top floor – it a crazy T-shirt section display that resembles something out of a kpop entertainment agency. They have some unique and special anime and cartoon designs you cannot find anywhere else! The best part – totally affordable! Around $10 USD for a T-shirt.

Lunch: Ginza Kyubey

So we know Typhoon Hagibis is coming which means we will not be allowed to go outside (not sure for how long). Because of this, we decide we want to blow all our money… on food!

Omakase (“Leave it to the chef”) meals are often very expensive. Even if it’s just a sushi lunch omakase with around 11-13 pieces of nigiri can well be $100+ USD. It does, however, provide a much more intimate dining experience since the chef is often right in front of you cutting and preparing the fish. They hand it to you directly and everything is captured and made fresh that day.

Since we are in Ginza, one of the most expensive districts, we decide to choose an omakase restaurant in Ginza. After some research, we decide on Ginza Kyubey. Ginza Kyubey is long-established and has been operating since 1935. Although it does not hold any Michelin stars, it is listed as the 7th best restaurant in the world by La Liste!

Important to note that we did not have a reservation because we literally decided the night before to blow all our yen. If you do not have a reservation, you will need to arrive early to put your name on the waiting list. We arrive at their shop at 11 am, 30 minutes before they are open and they tell us to return at 1 pm for lunch. I do not recommend arriving anytime later than that as you will probably not make it to their lunch service.

Shigaraki set course ($200)

We select the shigaraki course for lunch. It costs ~$200 per person and comes with the following:

• 2 kinds of appetizers
• 3 kinds of sashimi
• grilled fish
• 10 pieces of assorted sushi
• sushi rolls
• soup
• dessert

Appetizers

These are our 2 appetizers. The first one is a little bowl of Japanese ice fish. Upon first glance, I cannot tell these are fish because they are so tiny. They are translucent and very pretty, the taste is refreshing but also mild. It kind of reminds me of jellyfish.

The second appetizers is some sort of a jelly? Similar to acorn jelly.

Sashimi

Forgive me as it’s been a long time since I actually ate this lol (our trip was back in September/October). This is the 3 assorted sashimi – one of them is fatty tuna! Delicious.

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I don’t believe this is on the original menu, but the chef gives us some grilled octopus – delectably chewy with a smoky flavour.

They also give us the baked fish, which is a bigger portion than you would think. The baked fish looks kind of rolled up but there are no bones in there at all and it’s super juicy and flavourful when you bite into it. The fish meat kind of just melts in your mouth – definitely the best grilled fish I have ever eaten!

Sushi

Next, we begin our 10 pieces of sushi.

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My favourite of course is the ootoro (fatty tuna). It is such a delicious piece of sushi! Other sushi we receive are squid, mackeral, some special live prawn, scallop, another fatty tuna (but not as fat?), and I forget the rest. Just look through the gallery. I am slightly disappointed that the chef did not give us any uni (sea urchin) even though I don’t particularly like uni.

Of course, this whole time the chef is slicing up the fish in front of us and rolling the rice in his hands. We watch in delight and hope that every piece he makes lands in front of us (there are other customers seated around as well).

We did ask for less wasabi because my boyfriend and I cannot tolerate too much wasabi. I think he is accommodating to this request but he still uses wasabi.

Soup

Our next course is a soup with abalone! The broth is quite clear and light. The bowl of soup in general warms our soul and the abalone is yummy.

Another thing not really on our menu, we are given 2 pieces of grilled eel! Like the smoked octopus and grilled fish from before, it is smoky and delicious. The size of this eel meat is thick and oozing with juice.

Sushi rolls

Our second-last course are some sushi rolls. We have some pickled veggie roll, negitoro (tuna + green onions), cucumber and I forget the last one but I also think it’s a type of vegetable roll. They look cute and colourful. I enjoy the negitoro roll the most.

Dessert

Lastly, we have dessert which comes in 2 parts. First, we have the sweet tamagoyaki (egg roll). It is fluffy and my boyfriend loves this.

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Next, we have some Japanese fruit. I believe these are peaches of some sort? Or maybe persimmon? Anyways it has a big of a harder texture to bite into but the juice is sweet, not sour.

And this is the end of our $200 lunch lol. We are the last 2 to leave the chef’s table and as we are leaving, our chef reminds us that typhoon hagibis is coming and tells us to talk to our hotel about coordinating our travel plans. He probably thinks we are staying in some fancy hotel where a concierge will actually do things for us, but unfortunately we are actually poor and will have to figure things out for ourselves.

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Asakusa

The skies start turning dark so we head back to the Asakusa area where our hotel is. Our plan is to stop by the nearby 711 to stock up on food in case we are trapped inside for more than 1 night.

Empty convenience store

I cannot even begin to explain how crazy it is when we walk inside the 711. The shelves are empty. EMPTY. There is NO water, NO premade meals, NO hot foods, NO bread. All that is left are things like frozen foods, hygiene products, maybe 10 cup noodles and alcohol. It is such a rare sight to see.

We even go to Family Mart and see the same thing. Shelves are empty and have been long cleared out. Actually, a few convenience stores are actually closed. CLOSED! When does that ever happen in Tokyo?

We grab whatever we can find – one chicken and egg bowl (the last microwavable meal left), 2 cup noodles, some ice cream and a bunch of alcohol (lol liquid diet leggo).

Dinner: random family restaurant still open

Evidently, we do not really have enough food for dinner, especially since these are items we are planning to save in case we cannot go out tomorrow for lunch. At this point of the night, it is around 7 pm and it’s raining hard with some wind. We venture out to see if there are any restaurants still open and decide to visit a nearby family restaurant.

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The food is nothing I would recommend. They have different dinner sets and my boyfriend chooses a chicken and egg bowl set (lol WHY we just bought one from 711). I choose a fried chicken and vegetable dish with oyster sauce. Both sets come with rice and a miso soup and some side dishes.

We finish up quickly and return back to our hotel. As we are walking back, our umbrella breaks because it is much windier than before. We are literally the only people walking down the street. Maybe 1 taxi passes by in 20 minutes but aside from that, there is no one on the roads.

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Typhoon hagibis

Typhoon Hagibis has arrived. After our dinner, we chill in our hotel room and watch live streams and commentary of the typhoon sweeping across rural parts of Japan. The footage is damn scary.

The typhoon is causing massive floods, windows of older houses are breaking and there are videos of giant billboard signs being ripped off the top of towers.

Our 1 window doesn’t really show much happening outside. Our hotel building is a tall skinny building sandwiched between two taller skinny buildings so we feel pretty safe and stable. We do hear our window making chattering noises, as if there is a tree branch constantly slapping against it (but it’s just the wind).

Curious, we take the elevator down to the lobby and see there is a small group of other hotel guests standing outside. There is cover outside of the lobby, kind of like a U shape sandwiched between buildings so it is safe as the wind doesn’t swoop in. We go outside and watch as leaves and signs tumble across from right to left. It looks like the rain is moving horizontally through the air. We do not step out past the building walls and neither do anyone else.

Things to do: Watch a movie

It is now almost 9 pm and the typhoon is still happening outside. We return to our hotel room and eat the rest of our food and drink our alcohol lol.

Luckily we brought our laptop and HDMI so we are able to watch a movie of our choice by plugging it into our room’s TV. We end up watching Parasite and fall asleep.

Your flight is cancelled

At around 10 pm, we receive an email from Japan Airlines telling us our flight is cancelled due to the typhoon. This is a lightning bolt to us because our flight home to Vancouver is actually tomorrow. With our flight cancelled, we are not sure what to do.

We call JAL and we are put on hold for hours. We talk to no one. Their website instructs us to go on a wild goose chase. Basically, we end up calling the same help line which only hangs up on you after 3 hours of being put on hold. We contact FlightHub, the third party we used to book our flights, but they tell us that we need to contact JAL as they are the ones who cancelled the flight. Apparently on their end, the flight is not cancelled (lol wtf…). We understand it’s not the FlightHub call center worker’s fault, but we really feel like no one is able to help us.

We read threads on social media about other people being stuck in Japan after having their flights cancelled too. Some people are stuck in other parts of the world and are trying to go home to Japan. It sounded like everyone else was having a similar experience – no one was able to get through to JAL. Tokyo’s airports have shut down for the night completely so planes that should have arrived tonight and would be used to depart tomorrow are not there. Also, trains and major transportation routes have also been cancelled.

Granted, these JAL workers are probably also at home hiding out from the typhoon. But for us, we have no idea how much longer we will be staying in Japan. We are given no information on whether or not our flights will be automatically rescheduled or not.

But insurance can help!

We get in contact with our credit card insurance companies and receive good and bad news. Bad news is that my boyfriend’s travel credit card does not cover for weather-related incidents. This means they will not reimburse him for another flight home and they will also not give him any allowance for hotel and food for the additional days he is stranded.

Good news is that my credit card does. I am eligible for $200 a day for hotel and food for every day I am stranded, plus an unlimited budget for a one way ticket home via the fastest way possible.

Bad news again, I can’t really use these benefits because I will be leaving my boyfriend behind and he will break up with me.

Just a side note on credit card insurance, every card has a different policy and it will only cover for your self, family or common-law usually. Make sure you check the terms & conditions for what you are eligible for. Because of my broken knee fiasco earlier in the year, we decide to keep it safe and buy our tickets separately on our own credit cards so we are both covered. I suppose in this case, my boyfriend is still not covered.

I go downstairs to the lobby to renew our booking because I am very certain there is zero chance of us leaving Japan tomorrow as scheduled. The reception quotes me almost $140 to extend one more night – this is double the price of our original booking. But since we do not want the hassle of moving all our luggage and possibly having nowhere to stay, I proceed and spending $140/$200 we have for tomorrow.

I go to bed anxious and worried about how we will return home and what we should do. The psoriasis on my scalp goes crazy.

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Final thoughts on day fourteen

Thoughts on Ginza

There are two very contrasting parts to this day. Our day started off fun and spontaneous, from exploring the luxury shopping areas to the most expensive lunch in my life probably.

If I really have to compare, I think I still prefer the kaiseki (multi-course) meal we ate at our ryokan (traditional inn) in Kinosaki. While our omakase was certainly delicious and a meaningful experience we’ve been wanting to try, a part of me really wonders if it is worth $200 per person (especially since we didn’t get any uni! hmphs). If you are deciding to head to Kyubey, I recommend one of their sushi-only courses instead of the set meal. I think that might be more worth it.

Thoughts on Typhoon Hagibis

As you can tell from this post, we were not in danger at any time. It was windy and rainy but it’s not like I saw any cars or people flying off. I had a friend traveling in Osaka at the time and he actually told me that the weather seemed very normal (just rain). I think Tokyo had it a bit worse than Osaka.

Our flight being cancelled was the biggest effect the typhoon had on us. If I think back on it, we still went out the whole day. We even went out for dinner! But the whole day we were freaking out about when we should return to the hotel and whether or not it would be safe to go back out. We basically were out the whole time.

To read on about what happened next and how we got home, stay tuned for the next post. Nothing fun happens, I’ll let you know that.

Stay tuned for my next post and follow along with the other recaps!
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Sincerely, Loewe