As part of Thursday's adventures around the posh part of town, we came across some rather expensive goods. First off, $126 grapes in the lobby of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Yep, you read that right. There were also $300 melons in the same shop. And $30 bottles of juice. Definitely not within my budget, but still beautiful to see. Sadly, no free samples. We also spied these geometric watermelons- sans price tag, and $30 single peaches. This is not to say that all of Tokyo is so expensive- the grapes at my local market range around $4-6 a bunch, and peaches run about $1 each, sometimes $3 for the more desirable varieties.
In our wanderings we also ended up in the lobby of the giant Mitsukoshi Department Store (below). The store has its origins in a 17th century kimono shop (1673 to be exact), and the Nihonbashi location is particularly luxurious. We saw a weaving demonstration in the lobby, complete with gorgeous handcrafted obi (kimono sash) for sale.... starting at $10,000. Needless to say, we were starkly reminded that we are living in the most expensive city on the planet, and as such grabbed some small pastries from one of the basement food stalls and headed over to a public park.
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