Reid Main

For our penultimate day in Japan there were only two goals:

1. Visit TeamLab Borderless
2. Find Yamazaki single malt whisky

I have been keeping my eyes open for Yamazaki whisky this entire trip but most shops weren't selling the good stuff. So we decided it was time to bust out the big guns and visit Ginza, Tokyo's most upscale shopping district. It may cost an arm and a leg but if we were ever going to find Yamazaki whisky it would be here. We took the Asakusa Line to Higashi-ginza Station and began our quest.

However, we got a little distracted because as we were searching Google Maps Elsie noticed that Itoya's flagship store was just around the corner. An 18 floor building that contained every possible stationary or art supply we could ever want. After spending quite a bit of time (and money) we intended to continue our whisky quest but on the walk to Itoya I spotted a knife shop named Kikufugi. For years I have wanted to buy a nakiri (vegetable knife) so we quickly doubled back and did just that.

Armed with expensive paper and a knife we redoubled our efforts to find some whisky and Google Maps did not disappoint when it recommended Ginza King's Cellar＆Lounge. If the King of Ginza doesn't any Yamazaki whisky then surely no one will right? As we approached the store we could tell that we had entered an entirely different level of shopping. Outside were two supremely well dressed foreigners who greeted us and then one of them, a French-national, guided us down some stairs and proceeded to showcase the absolutely insane amount of high end whisky they had. I think I may have seen one or two bottles of Yamazaki throughout this entire trip. Inside this store they had dozens of them stacked like a pyramid. I purchased a surprisingly fair priced bottle of Yamazaki 12 year as well as an 180 ml bottle of Hakushu.

Our quest completed, we returned to our hotel and dropped off our haul before walking to Azabudai Hills. We grabbed a late lunch at a restaurant called Shogun Burger and while the burgers were quite delicious they were also very expensive so I'm not sure I'd recommend it. We caffeinated up in the basement of Azabudai Hills tower at Arabica before finally queuing up to enter TeamLab Borderless at 4:30pm.

If you are in Tokyo, I think TeamLabs Borderless is a must see attraction. It is effectively an art gallery with no set path through it. You're just suppose to wander around and try to find each of the various "rooms" and the unique installations they contain. But the entire gallery is affected by lights, screens, and projections so it is constantly changing. It is almost guaranteed that the first time you pass any area of the gallery, it will not be the same the next time you see it. It took Elsie and I about 90 minutes to find every nook and cranny, we think.

Deciding that there could be no more apropos way to end our final night in Japan, we returned to Shibuya and EXBAR for some beer and food before blowing the rest of our cash on crane games. Our wallets thoroughly drained, we grabbed some snacks from 7-Eleven and headed back to our hotel to start packing up our luggage.