Exploring
Ginza
(with Best Buffets)
Upon my first visit to Ginza in 1985 I was dazzled by the district's bright lights and bustling atmosphere. I soon found out that all this glitter came with a price, however, as any of the multitude of elegant coffee shops and restaurants were asking Y1,000 for a cup of coffee and a small piece of cake. Simple meals were close to Y2,000 in this area that would soon become the world's most expensive real estate.
In the years that came while working in Japan, more visits to Ginza led me down many side streets where in the evening mizuwari trade was in full swing with more glitter. Prices for visits to most of these hostess bars ran some $400 or $500 or more per person. In the direction of Tsukiji, I later found a couple of blocks chalk full of real-life geisha houses (see Aug. 98 JT for detailed geisha info) where the roads were overtaken in the evening with black limousines and their appointed drivers waiting for the eventual return of executives who were blowing mind-numbing sums of money for an evening of food, drinking and service.
Even the occasional izakaya where Japanese friends would take me to seemed to be a little pricey when we got the bill. Other than McDonald's I often wondered how any normal person could go into Ginza on a regular basis, spend some time, have a meal and not go broke.
In recent years, the answer has become abundantly clear. "Viking," as the Japanese like to call it or American-style buffets have become very common at many restaurants that offer them during lunch and sometimes in the evenings at prices that cannot be very much above cost. After lunching in Ginza for seven years, I have several favorite spots.
The "best value" that I have found is the all-you-can-eat buffet at John Manjiro's (03-3575-9191) near Shinbashi Station and located cadycorner across the street from the famous Hakuhin Toy Store. Here Y1,300 will buy you a nice salad bar with rice, spaghetti and three or four trays of entrees to chose from. Then there is a Japanese food corner with sushi and various kinds of noodles. The drink area has juice, coffee and tea, and there is a dessert area with several selections of cakes and fruit. After consuming all of that you will wonder why anyone would ever spend a thousand yen on a simple coffee and tiny-piece-of-cake set.
The "best meal" I have found is at the Farm Grill (03-5568-6156) which is right behind John Manjiro's. Billed as a California-style restaurant, the Farm Grill has undergone several format changes over the past two years with the recent buffet menu being the best by far. Fifteen hundred yen entitles you to an attractive green leafy salad bar with several kinds of fresh fruits, over 10 trays of unique entrees, grilled rotisseri chicken, and you can cut your own roast beef and ham. The meal comes with a choice of drinks, and there is an inviting dessert table with a wide selection delicious cakes. In addition to all of this, one of my favorite things about the Farm Grill is that the tables are big (American size) and the restaurant layout is spacious. You feel as if you have been transported to California. The lunch buffet runs from 11:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. when the dinner buffet begins at Y2,300 for men and Y1,900 for ladies. There is also an all-you-can-drink Y1,500 option available including a wide selection of wines.
The Farm Grill also seems to be operating its own food import business and there is a wine and cheese store in the restaurant with very good prices and a great variety of cheeses and wines to choose from. If you walk down the stairs you will encounter a discount supermarket with a great selection of meats and other foods, and this has to be about the cheapest supermarket shopping in the entire central area of Tokyo.
If yakiniku (Korean-style barbecue) suits your taste buds, keep walking down those same stairs to the basement of the Farm Grill building and you will find one of the few all-you-can-eat yakiniku buffets in all of Tokyo, Karune Station (03-5568-6167). You can make repeated trips to several vegetable trays and more than ten different trays of meats, each a different type of pork, beef or chicken sauteed in a variety of mouthwatering flavors and spices. Then taking your bounty back to your table, which has a grill in the center, you cook your own food and eat it right from the grill after dipping it in one of several sauces. There are also drinks, soups, fruits, rice and desserts. At Y970, unbelievable! This lunch menu is from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. when the dinner menu begins. This is still an all-you-can-eat buffet, but at a more rational price of Y2,900.
The "cheapest" lunch Viking I have found in Ginza is at the Maharaja Indian restaurant (03-3572-7196), which is located between Ginza and Higashi Ginza Stations. Here Y950 buys you repeated visits to four trays of authentic Indian curries along with white or saffron rice and freshly cooked, hot, unbuttered Nan. Drinks are separate but the meal also comes with a small salad bar.
Moving a little upscale, there are several hotels in Ginza with nice buffets under Y5,000. The Dai-Ichi Hotel Tokyo (03-3501-4411) has one of the better known deals with its World Buffet on weekdays at Y2,500 and Y5,000 for lunch and dinner respectively. On the weekend this becomes a World + Western Buffet for an additional Y500. The Ginza Dai-Ichi Hotel (03-3542-5311) has an Asian buffet at Y2,300 for lunch and Y4,200 for dinner, and a Western lunch buffet on weekends for Y2,300. The Ginza Tokyu Hotel (03-3541-2411) has a Chinese lunch buffet for Y3,600.
After or possibly before lunch, there are many things to do in Ginza other than the obvious window browsing at the upscale boutiques and department stores. Jena Foreign Books is located just a few buildings down from the San Ai Building (cover picture), and just another two blocks away is the famous Sony Building where there is a seven-floor tour of Sony's latest technology and gizmos. Hanging a left at the Sony Building and stepping one block in the direction of Shinbashi Station before making a right toward the tracks, you can find an international shopping arcade, which is a mall located under the Yamanote Line. These stores sell not so much "international" goods but rather many Japanese items aimed at tourists. This is a good place to do souvenir shopping. From there walking on the other side of the tracks one block back to Yurakucho Station you can find the American Pharmacy. The Yurakucho Denki Building in front of it houses the Foreign Corespondents Club where you many of the established international clubs (usually welcoming visitors) hold meetings in the evenings.
In the opposite direction of the San Ai Building at Higashi Ginza Station there is the famous Kabuki theater. This could be a little interesting and a colorful but not necessarily the most exciting thing in the world and expensive. Unless you are just very interested in Kabuki or are a visiting East Asian Studies professor, this could be avoided after snapping a picture of it.
On the edge of Ginza, not to far from the Kabuki theater, lies the Tsukiji fish market (see April 1999 JT). This is itself a tourist attraction but something reserved for the hardcore traveler as you need to hit this site early in the morning between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. to catch most of the action.
Hamarikyu Gardens is located next to the fish market and overlooks Tokyo Bay and the Rainbow Bridge. A popular place for picnickers in Ginza, this is a former hunting grounds of the royal family who kindly gave this spacious wetland area back to the Japanese people as a park area.
These days you do not have to be a blue blood to get in, but you will have to fork over an admittance fee of Y300. Hamarikyu makes for a nice way to spend a number of leisurely hours in the afternoon. Inside the park, you can hop boat rides up the Sumida River to a more well known tourist site at Asakusa or over to the new waterfront development area at Odaiba or even to the aquarium at Kasai Rinkai Koen.
If you find yourself heading back to Ginza or maybe recuperating in a hotel room from an afternoon of gluttony, walk past the Geisha houses quickly (they would not let you in anyway); do not even bother thinking about any of hundred hostess bars in Ginza unless you are independently wealthy and/or have a hard time socializing with women; and then head for one of several reasonably-priced foreign-style bars or Japanese isakayas.
Irish House just across from Shinbashi Station has authentic decor and a nice friendly atmosphere to relax in. Get there between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. (Monday through Thursday) and take advantage of the half-pints of Guinness on tap for a palatable Y350 during happy hour.
Pop Inn is an English-style pub with a bit more of a working man's atmosphere. There are four of these in Ginza with two being small pub set ups, one being a cafE and the other being a Mexican-style bar and restaurant. There are two Hubs in the Ginza-Yurakucho area, and these are very reasonably priced English pubs. Henry Africa (03-3573-4563)is a bit more upscale and a very pleasant place to go in and have a drink. It is between Pop Inn 2 and the Hub.
If you are looking for a more Japanese-style menu, I recommend the Tengu isakayas. They are ubiquitous around Tokyo and indeed the McDonalds of isakayas. In other words, they have a consistent menu with good prices and good food in a clean environment. Some of the isakayas can get a bit pricey if you do not know your way around, but Tengu will not bust your wallet. Be sure to watch the time and know your way home because after the trains stop around midnight, the taxis will bust your wallet.
Who says Ginza is the most expensive place in the world? In town on a budget? Trying eating BIG brunches. With a piece of fruit in the morning, a gluttonous brunch and maybe some soba noodles and a couple of happy hour pints of Guinness in the evening, you can live high on the hog even in Ginza.
Ginza is situated among several train stations, including Shinbashi and Yurakucho Stations on the JR Yamanote Line and Ginza Station on the Ginza, Marunouchi and Hibiya Lines and Higashi Ginza on the Hibiya Line. Bon appetite!
by Jay Firestone
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