Day 4 - Meguro, Ebisu, then north to homebase

We headed south on day 4 to Meguro, to see the area and visit the Parasitological Museum. After viewing all of the frightening things we could have living in our bodies, we thought we'd have some street food for lunch and picked up some takoyaki (octopus balls). From Meguro we headed north into Ebisu and stopped at the Yebisu , we sampled some of the beers on offer. The Yebisu Black is wonderful if you are able to find it.

We walked further north through Daikanyama, an area apparently filled with rich expats...which was obvious from all of the high class stores and English signs everywhere. We weren't very excited by this area, so we walked back up to Shibuya to find some dinner. Eventually we located an izakaya restaurant which was recommended in our guidebook. We had read that their specialty was meat, but opening the menu and seeing that it was all in Japanese with no pictures we were a bit dismayed. Luckily, one of the waiters who spoke a bit of English recommended some dishes for us. We started with an amazing mushroom salad with a ginger dressing, then raw horse meat served with bits of horse fat, then grilled beef (which is probably the best beef I've ever eaten), and they gave us a complementary dish of raw beef liver. Everything was delicious! We were still hungry so we also ordered some grilled wild boar.

Feeling invigorated from our meal, we went in search of the elusive Nyanpire doll at Kiddyland in Harajuku. Though we didn't have any luck, Leo found a doll called Cheburashka, which he had as a child. Apparently, since Cheburashka resembles Japanese characters (with his big eyes and head), the character was purchased by a Japanese company who is making toys out of it and will be creating a cartoon program.

We took the train back to Shinjuku and went to the Golden Gai to find a place to have a drink. The Golden Gai is a very old area in Shinjuku, with tiny bars lining the narrow streets. You can only fit about 7-10 people in most of these places and most cater to locals, so we were a bit intimidated to go into one. However, we passed a place called Aces where there was a sign on the door saying that foreigners were welcome and then the bartender caught my eye and waved for us to come in. We sat there for the next couple of hours drinking, eating candy (everyone had something they wanted us to try) and talking with some of the regulars, many of whom spoke English and translated for those who didn't. Around 3 in the morning we stumbled home.