Day 2: Ginza 銀座 - Nenrinya and Genkatsu

We left Tsukiji Outer Market and moved on to Ginza.  The closest Tokyo Metro subway station from the Outer Market is on Shin-Ohashi Dori.  On the way there, I also passed by the Tsukiji Hongan-ji (築地本願寺).   It only took about 4 minutes to ride the Tokyo Metro Subway Hibiya Line (東京メトロ日比谷線 - 菊名行 / 中目黒行) from Tsukiji station (H10) to Ginza station (H08).  We exited on the intersection between Harumi Dori and Chuo Dori.  All department stores were still closed since it was only around 8:15 a.m.  We walked on Chuo Dori and turned into a side street near Matsuzakaya where we found a Starbucks café.  That was the perfect place for us to have our morning coffee and sit around to wait until the department stores open.  I noticed that Starbucks is fairly popular in Tokyo; I can always find a Starbucks around the areas I have visited.

Nenrinya Products

My first targeted destination in Ginza was Matsuzakaya (松坂屋) because it has a Nenrinya (ねんりん家) store which sells a type of layered cake called Baumkuchen.  It is a traditional dessert in many countries throughout Europe and is also very popular snack and dessert in Japan.  When sliced into pieces, you will see the distinctive golden rings on the side of the cake.  That is probably why it is also translated as the “Tree Cake”.  There are various flavours available, but I loved the original flavour which has a very strong and rich egg taste.   One thing to take note of is that you can buy a slightly cheaper version of the cake which needs to be consumed within the same day.  Another nicely packaged version is a little more expensive but you can save it for about 1 week.  We have bought both versions so we can eat it again a few days later as breakfast.

After more shopping around Ginza, we headed to Genkatsu (ゲンカツ), a restaurant specialized in fried pork chops.  This is no ordinary pork chop, but is a pork chop filled with 25 thin, juicy layers of meat.  The picture will better explain itself and this is definitely not something you can find everywhere.  The pork chops are crispy on the outside, juicy and tasty inside; again another recommended item to try in Japan.

Genkatsu (ゲンカツ) 25 Layers Pork Chop

The lunch set also comes with appetizer, salad, rice and miso soup

Unfortunately, we started our day too early and after few more hours of activity in Ginza, we were already exhausted and decided to go back to the hotel.  I had to cut out my next destination, Tokyo Station.  Well, may be next time.

As for dinner, we decided to try some local instant Japanese food…instant bowl noodles.  We got few flavours of the Nissan brand from the convenient store located in our hotel.  They ended up tasting pretty good, especially the noodles which are very chewy.

Cute Instant Noodle Package

Reference Links:
Store Locator of Nenrinya (ねんりん家)
Genkatsu (ゲンカツ) - 銀座アクトビル3/F, 東京都中央区銀座4－6－18