We've just been out for dinner
At -
We've just been out for okonomiyaki for dinner
At Osaka Okonomiyaki Tomokunchi
Here in Shimbashi
This time-
(Everyone's staring at me!)
We need to move...
It's about that time of the evening
When salarymen have been out for a few drinks
After a long day at work
So clearly this was a great spot to pick for filming
Usually when I come to Tokyo
I like to stay in Shinjuku
Which I think is the best place to stay
Because you're right in the middle of everything
But this time we decided we should really stay somewhere else
To try & explore a different area
So we're staying in Shimbashi
Which is in south east Tokyo
So this evening I'm going to take you on a walk around
And show you what's in the area
We might go into Ginza
Which is a sort of high class, designer shopping district
It's right next to Shinbashi
And maybe we'll go into Shiodome as well
Where they've still got one of the winter illuminations on
That I'm hoping to catch
I haven't really planned where we're going
And it's not the main sights of the area
We're just going to take a wander around
And I'll point out some of the interesting things you might see on the streets of Tokyo
We're just going to see what we find
Including a place called Queen of Chickens
A restaurant full of nothing but vending machines
And some beautiful winter illuminations
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So now, let's take a look around Shimbashi
We've just been out for dinner
For okonomiyaki
At Osaka Okonomiyaki Tomokunchi
In Shimbashi
And it was really good
Other times I've had okonomiyaki
We've cooked it ourselves
At the table
But on this one, they cooked it for us
Then brought it over
And - surprise! - when it's cooked by a chef who knows what they're doing
It tasted a lot better!
It's one of my favourite Japanese foods
And it was really good
Here we're on a street leading up to the train tracks
Down that way is Shimbashi Station
Which is quite a major station actually
You can see all the bright lights from all the signs
There's lots of restaurants around this area, and bars
At this ramen restaurant they've got a vending machine outside
Where you place your order
It gives you a ticket that you take in and give to the staff
It just makes it easier for them to handle money
That's quite common at small restaurants, especially ramen ones
Look up here at this big gyoza!
It says Japanese Gyoza Izakaya there
And then across the street
What have we got?
The signs show there's all different things on each floor
Down here we've got Family Mart
The convenience store
Jonathans: that's a family restaurant
And this one
Kagaya: Frog is stranger than fiction
I'm not sure, but there's a lot of videos about a really strange bar
Where a man comes out and dresses up as loads of different things
And really strange things happen
I'm thinking it might be that one
But I'm not sure
Tendon Tenya
That's a tempura chain
Sort of a fast food version of tempura
You see quite a lot of them around
Tempura's the deep-fried seafood & vegetables in batter
But the batter's a lot lighter than you'd get on your fish & chips
Across the road we've got a big pachinko place
Now I have no idea what's going on with pachinko
I don't know how you play it at all
When you go in there
It's always really loud
There's quite a few of them around
Usually in the nightlife districts where you find arcades and things
And across the way there's a standing sushi bar
Although we went past it earlier
And you could see everyone'se actually sitting down
Standing sushi bars tend to be pretty cheap places
To go & grab a bit of sushi
It's 10:15 pm on a Monday night now
And there's still loads of people around
It's still really lively
And this isn't unusual for a place in the centre of Tokyo
Places seem to be open quite late
Even shops tend to be open fairly late
Tokyo is a city that never sleeps
It's true!
In this area, Shimbashi,
We've noticed there's a lot of restaurants and bars
And places to eat
And usually in areas like this
Where there's a lot of nightlife going on
You'd expect to find arcades
And game centres
With all the UFO catchers
The claw machines
And video games & things
But we haven't seen any around here
Which seems kind of strange
Just here we've got Yoshinoya
Which is a Japanese fast food chain
They do gyudon
Which is beef on rice bowls
It's really cheap
Not the best quality
But it's a place to get a cheap meal
And it's open late
I think it's really good you can get fast food here that isn't just burgers & chips
And down there
Can you see, with the yellow-orange & blue sign
That's a very similar chain as well
Matsuya
Just here's something else you'll see a lot in Tokyo
Karaoke!
Big Echo is one of the big chains
Usually you go in at the bottom
And the rooms are on all the floors above
Looks like there's an Irish bar there as well
Something we spotted earlier
These vending machines are having an opening sale
Only 100 yen
Ididn't know they had that sort of thing!
Here's a sign for the Irish bar
You can see it says no charge
That means there's no cover charge
Most bars have - I suppose it's like an entrance fee
It's called a cover charge
That you pay per person when you go in
Something else that's different about bars here
Is if you order a beer
It's normal for it to have quite a big head on the top
Like that one in the picture I guess
That's just what people like here
It's not something you should complain about
We've just turned into a backstreet
And behind me, this place with the yellow sign
Is called Queen of Chickens
Always amusing names of places!
This is a much smaller street
In the backstreets
Still lots of bright lights
Here's a sushi restaurant
Looks like it's quite cheap
It's 90 yen for these
You can see that nigiri sushi's a lot more popular here than rolls
From what I've seen
That's because it's better
There's the shinkansen going past
We're on the line between Tokyo & Shinagawa
Two of the main shinkansen stations in Tokyo
Up here we've got a capsule hotel
They've got a sign outside
Saying no one with tattoos allowed
And it's also men only
Here we are, just underneath the train tracks
Where we saw the shinkansen
There's all these restaurants
In the arches
They look really cosy
Look at the size of the lantern outside that one!
We've just come underneath the train tracks
So we're on the other side now
I can hear all the trains above me
And we're on the way to Shiodome
Which is a sort of futuristic
Kind of business-y area
It's got lots of high-rise skyscrapers
It's got trains on elevated rails
So I think it looks really cool
We're just going underground
Through the subway that's part of the station
You can actually go a really long way underground
Down here behind me
There's lots of little restaurants
Inside the station
Underground
In a tunnel
I remember seeing all these on my first trip to Japan
And being too scared to go into any of them
Because they're so small
And it looks like they're all for locals who know each other
If you've seen Jiro Dreams of Sushi
The documentary about the man who owns the sushi restaurant
His restaurant is in a place like this
A couple of miles away
In Ginza
But it's an underground restaurant inside the station
Just like these ones
A lot of those bars are so tiny
Most of them are only a row of seats along the bar
And that's all there is
Some of them only have about 3 seats
And the restaurants only have a couple of tables
It's really cosy
And friendly
Look how big this area is
It's just an underground walkway
Between Shimbashi Station
And Shiodome Station
There's not really anything here
Just a big space for people to walk
Here we've got a little Tower Mini
A mini version fo Tower Records
In the station
I'm not sure if it's still true
But until a while ago
CDs were still more popular than downloads here in Japan
There's a Family Mart down here
That's one of the main chains of convenience stores
Which are everywhere
You can see there's one here
And just over there, there's another one
And that's not unusual at all
We're headed towards the illuminations!
I always think of these sorts of lights
As Christmas lights
But here, a lot of them are winter illuminations
Rather than just for Christmas
That's why it's still on now, at the start of February
Wow, it looks really magical!
So pretty!
So many fairy lights!
You can't go wrong with lots of twinkly lights
This is just on the street
In a square outside a shopping mall
There's no charge to get in
It's just here, free for everyone to enjoy
Definitely worth coming out on a cold winter evening
*Japanese announcement*
It's so pretty!
It's magical!
It's really nice how they've got the Disney music on
I think it's Frozen & Beauty and the Beast themed
They've got the rose over there
I had to take the music off
Because of copyright
But they're actually playing a song from Winnie the Pooh!
This is what I was looking for to show you
It's a little shop with just vending machines inside
It's a kind of bar / restaurant
All made of vending machines
There's some that sell beer
Some that sell food
And even some that sell hot food
And cook it for you
I don't think it's that great
As you'd expect
But it's something different!
I couldn't really film much of this
I'm sorry!
It's really small
There were some other people sitting in the middle
And I didn't want to disturb their night out at the vending machine restaurant
Phil was going to get a beer
But the beer vending machines
You have to scan your ID card
To prove you're old enough to drink
And of course, our ID from the UK isn't going to work there
So it wouldn't work for us
Unfortunately
I didn't really fancy anything from the hot food vending machines!
Although it would be kind of interesting
We've just come across a little shrine
On the street corner
There aren't that many shrines in this area actually
Look how brand new and shining the tori gate looks
This really is an area of skyscrapers
Look how tall these buildings are
All around
Quite a few of these are hotels
And offices I think
I've stayed in that one up there
It had a really nice view of Tokyo bay
Shrines come in all sizes
This is just a small one
But it seems kind of strange
How it's just on a street corner
Next to some really busy roads
And a major intersection
We're just going through the tunnel underneath the train tracks
I can hear the train up there
We're headed towards Ginza this way
Which is a high class shopping district
That's got lots of designer shops
Like Chanel and Louis Vuitton
For me, there's not that much of interest there
But it looks cool at night with all the signs
Ooh, there's the shinkansen up there
Up there, if you can read katakana
That sign says karaoke
And there's another one across the road
Big Echo
Up here's another pachinko place
So many of them!
In this karaoke place
They've got some cosplay outfits there
For you to borrow
Here's the prices for the karaoke
If you don't read Japanese
It is kind of confusing what you pay
And it is pretty expensive
But it's definitely worth it, because it's so much fun
This Mos Cafe's actually a branch of Mos Burger
The fast food chain
It looks really fancy
Most of them aren't like this
I've seen these little guys around a few times now
They're the character mascots for the Rugby World Cup
They look really fluffy
Like little yetis!
Here's the main street in Ginza
Look how tall all the buildings are
And they look really fancy
HEre we've got Abercrombie & Fitch
On the corner
There's a big Dior shop
And there's lots more designer places down there
I've seen Louis Vuitton
There's a big Apple shop as well
And lots of other places that are probably so fancy I don't know what they are
I'm not really into designer brands & things
Lots of the shops down here have someone standing on the door
So they probably wouldn't even let someone like me in to look round
Well it's 11:30pm now
And it's pretty cold
The temperature has dropped
So I'm going back to the hotel now
So that concludes our tour of the Shimbashi, Shiodome, Ginza area
I hope you found it interesting
This has been a pretty good place to stay
You're on the Yamanote Line
So you can easily get around to other areas of Tokyo
I don't think it's quite as well connected
As Shinjuku
It doesn't have quite as much around, close by
But it's still been a good place to stay
There's new videos about Japan every Thursday on my channel
If you want to see the other things we've been doing during the day
So subscribe if you want to see them
And I'll see you soon!