beard papa

another intimidating sweet stall located on one side of the shibuya station was beard papa'a sweets-since 1952. it's so silly to be intimidated by goodies like sweets, and i've been eyeing them for months. they have only a few, maybe 3 kinds to choose from. i just pointed at the gigantic poster of the flakey pastry with custard flowing out of it like a waterfall. most of the time posters such as this one are an exaggeration of the real thing. and for 102 yen, i pointed at it, and it came. i hid in a corner, unwrapped the goodie, and bit down into paradise. light custard oozing out from every direction, like shibuya crossing. and i know i must go again. and again. and again. there are no sweets like this in chicago.

we ventured into muguinbo, an amazing udon shop in the mark city building next to shibuya station. i was taken there my 3rd day in tokyo and was able to locate it and take jeff for the best udon. and off to the best and cheapest food and liquor store in a small alleyway in that same area where we tried to buy the same shochu we had the other night. it's hard to know how to choose sake and shochu because the labels are strictly in kanji. so we took a chance on relento, one that was supposedly number one. this liquor is made from either rice, potatoes or barley. it is similar to arak, a native beverage in indonesia, but way less alcoholic, which makes it a nice beverage to sip anytime without getting hammered. i only wish i could read the labels, because i like sake and shochu very much, and other options are beer, which is too cold to drink right now, and wine, which can get tedious. shochu and sake can also be extremely affordable.

now we are listening to the newest finds by jeff at some music stores, japanese soundtrack music from the 60s, the new supersnazz, fifty taiken, a band recommended by tommy ramone, a rare cornell campbell (rare reggae crooner from the 70s) and some king brothers, and funky instrumental music from the 70s of japanese girl gang movies which came with a book.

i think the next plans are to go back to the czechoslovakian wireless internet place with great food, then to aoyama to show jeff the weird shops, bars, and head shops i found on my journeys on saturday. more later!