The Ordinary Wanderer

Not a beer drinker at all, though hubby and daughter are I though tI would cut my losses at finding prosecco in Tokyo and dive into the amazing beer culture.  With Asahi and Sapporo the most obvious choices we thought we would try out the Yebusi Bar in Ginza

Super Potato Vintage gaming shop is not for everyone.  My daughter was beside herself.  Me on the otherhand.  (awesome mother...you're welcome daughter:)

Super Potato 1 Chome-11-2 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tōkyō-to 101-0021, Japan

Electric Town in the Akahibara area  is nothing new and a weird and wonderful area to visit, especially at night.  The neon lights glare everywhere with Japanese girls dressed in maid costumes for their clientele (not sure how I feel about this?).  

Taiwanese Pineapple Cakes in the most amazing architecture ever!

Sunny Hills Pineapple Cake House
11am-7pm

3-10-20, Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku

With the dollar weak against the Australian currency and the New York tax added to every purchase I was skeptical I would find a bargain in Manhattan.  Having the luxury of spending a month in Manhattan I was able to scour the city for sneaky bargains.  Here's what I found. (I am sure there are so many more to be found)

1. Zara on 666 5th Avenue

Our second trip to the Granite Belt region, we decided to take a different approach to wineries. Opting out of the half day wine tour that we did last year, we decided to follow the the Strange Bird wine trail. Strange Bird Wines, alternates to the usual were fun and complex. Tasting wines such as Tempranillo 9named after the grape) and Barbera just to name a few.

Cawfee anyone! Well good cawfee! The challenge is real in NYC.

The hunt for the great flat white in Manhattan is certainly not for the light hearted. American coffee by Australian standards is weak, bitter and milky. Looking for a great tasting espresso or god forbid "Flat white" is rare and far. With all the glitz and glamour and NYC snobbery, its quite a fiasco finding that great cup of coffee.

 “Bluestone Lane Coffee is the best you can do.” 

Let's start with the obvious.... Starbucks. While many abound, the coffee is average. However if you are desperate, then this is as low as I would go. Great free wifi too.

Blue Stone Lane Coffee Shops and Cafes 
https://bluestonelane.com/
55 Greenwich Ave, Greenwich

 

Needing a break away from Brisbane, Sydney was just the trip for a quick getaway.

Yellow Taxis

With very sore legs this morning we set off to meet our pre-booked Big Apple Greeter, Mike.

Click here to apply for a free A Big Apple Greeter.

A lovely older gentleman, teens girls a bit skeptical of our day where there would be not shopping and listening to someone that looked like their grandfather! I let Mike plan our day as we really didn’t mind and I thought it would be best that he shows us the places he knows best and it was free of course. So off we went to the subway where he explained in detail how to use the Subway. Awesome instructions. He suggested we buy 1 card for 4 of us as we wouldn’t get our money out of $120 worth of unlimited cards as we were walking so much. Once we had learnt about uptown and downtown we had the subway set!