This post was written in 2004. Shop details and prices may have changed since then.
There was a Carrefour near the hotel I was staying at. For a combined dinner and late-night snack (I’d had ramen as a late lunch..)
I picked up a few things and tried them.
The wine is a half bottle of RUFFINO CHIANTI. A half bottle is just right for drinking alone, and
I bought it for the cheap price of 800 yen, but even setting that aside, it was a pretty decent wine.
Being a 2003 it was a shame it hadn’t aged quite enough, but in both nose and color it was a textbook Chianti
wine. They say this wine is D.O.C.G. class, but in reality there are two more tiers of wine above it.
D.O.C.G. class.. I wonder if that’s really okay.. ^_^
On the right is chutoro, Turkish bluefin tuna. List price 980 yen, and with a whopping 500 yen off I got it for 480.
As those in the know will know, red wine and fish don’t pair all that well.. but it was so cheap I bought it anyway,
and for the price the taste was okay, but the whole time I was eating I kept thinking I should have bought sake instead..
^_^; With fish whose fatty richness goes just a bit too far into heaviness, sake that cleanly
backs it up would have been far better than a strongly flavored wine..
Below is cream cheese with apricots in it. The price was 229 yen~ Of course it’s delicious. I wanted something sweet
so I bought it (actually I also thought about having a dessert wine), and it had a gentle, not-too-heavy sweetness.
It’s not in the picture, but they also sold Gorgonzola for 200 yen, and it was seriously good.. I thought about taking some home,
but gave up in case it wouldn’t get through customs. Next time I’ll have to work up the courage.
Those were the photos from the first day; I didn’t get to take any on the second day.
I didn’t eat anything special, so I’ll just describe it briefly in words.
Well.. good hotel or bad, I think the things most worth eating at a Japanese hotel breakfast are the yogurt and the juice.
Wherever you go the ingredients are fresh. They must have some route for bringing in good-quality fruit.
(I’ve never stayed at a hotel in Korea, so I can’t compare)
For lunch I bought a sushi bento at Carrefour. The freshness of the fish itself was really
excellent, but sushi with cold rice just isn’t that great. If that’s the case, I think an assorted sashimi
platter would be less of a hassle to eat as a bento.
I also bought a few souvenirs in Japan.. I’ll introduce those at leisure another time..