Any good trip needs a foil. After enjoying the wilds of Hokkaido, I was in need of a dose of urban inspiration, so I headed to Tokyo. Tokyo, like all mega-cities, can be anything you want it to be.
For me, this time I wanted Tokyo to be about shopping and food, so I spent much of my time in the ritzy neighborhood of Ginza. In Ginza you’ll find high-end department stores with buzzing food halls, incredible streetwear you can only find in Japan, and everything from delectable sushi to immaculate French pastries.
To get more out of Ginza, I booked a personal shopping tour with a local stylist named Hiro. Hiro took me and my tour companion, a young Canadian woman, on a tour of high-end Japanese style. At the Ginza Six mall, he introduced us to beautiful and bizarre Japanese brands. After gazing at Comme des Garçons duds we could never afford in a million years, our trio moved on to cute department stores that typical Japanese people love. I left with a pair of geometric gold earrings, the perfect Tokyo souvenir.