Shiryu

After we left Ghibli we stopped at Mitaka station for an iced coffee and some doughnuts. There is a pastry, bread and doughnut shop in the station and the hardest thing was trying to limit what we bought to something we could easily consume. The doughnuts were awesome. We also went into a French Patisserie and bought creme caramel and cake. Also delicious. We sat in Starbucks and ate most of what we'd bought. We weren't in a real hurry to get back to Ginza

But when we did get back to Ginza we did need to think about dinner. We were tired and not that hungry so we decided to skip looking for a Michelin starred feast and get something simple.

Mae, Georgia and Michelle

Ticket machine at Shiryu

We wandered up and down a few streets close to our hotel looking for something. We found Shiryu about a block away. Similar to Bonten Ginza from the other night this was a small local Soba and Ramen joint. Shiryu though has a vending machine near the front door with everything they served pictured or labelled on the machine. You insert your money, make a selection and when the ticket is printed out you hand it over the counter to the cook. I suppose this is to avoid having to deal with money. One of the servers/cooks helped us with our selection though. I ordered the Soba and Michelle the Ramen. As usual we were going to share with Georgia. Whatever we ordered for her she always liked our noodles.

Ramen

Soba

For something so cheap and ordered via a vending machine these noodles were again delicious. I've never had soba or ramen as good as from either of the two places we'd been to in Ginza. It will be interesting to see if we can get a decent ramen back in Sydney. For places that look kid unfriendly they always seem to be able to dig out special spoons and bowls for Georgia. This time, I think, it was Disney characters.

Another day was done. All that is left to do is drop into Family Mart or Lawson pick up some milk and yoghurt for Georgia.

Family Mart

Monterey Hotel