Our walking in the heat kept us regularly going in and out of convenience stores to buy water and to absorb a little A/C. Fortunately, that also kept us pretty well stocked on snacks... On this particular convenience store shopping spree, we ended up with Frito Lay's Death flavored onion rings. The only English on the product were the words 'Frito Lay' and 'Death.' Conveniently, the warning was only in Japanese. Being a Frito Lay product, we didn't expect them to be that spicy, but we were wrong. They actually caused pain (and possibly permanent damage) to our mouths, lips and throats. They were awesome!

Another convenience store party.
A yogurt box drink, ice cream bonbons, and sparkling water

This sink was in a department store bathroom. It was amazing. Everything was contained within the sink. You put your hand in, and a little water shoots out, then some soap, then more water, then there is a rush of air to dry your hands. Those Japanese have thought of everything...

The double-decker Fanta bus

Shinjuku Station

To get out of the heat for a while, we decided to go and have a drink. We weren't hungry yet, so finding a place that wasn't a restaurant was a bit of a challenge. In the end, we landed in a basement bar called, Darts. Walking in, we expected there to be darts, of course, but this place was like a bowling alley for darts. It was dark, dingy and smokey, and all the walls were lined with electronic dart boards. We were the only people in the place not throwing darts. It was bizarre, but suh-weet!!!

The men's options offered in the nail salon across from Dart's

For a light dinner that night we went to Yuian, a restaurant we read about that's on the 52nd floor of an office building in the middle of Shinjuku. The building was a little difficult to locate, but once we finally did, we were blown away by the view.

Tokyo never ends

The drink menu!

Sashimi plate

Deep fried tuna

Chicken meatloaf

Grilled pork belly

The amazing thing is that this ended up being the worst meal we had in Tokyo. The chicken meatloaf was full of hard bits which rendered it inedible, and everything else was just 'meh,' not terrible, but not great. The drinks and service left much to be desired as well. On the bright side, since we had luckily decided to only order a few things to munch on, it wasn't like an eating opportunity was wasted!

Waiting for the check. At some point between us asking for it and the waiter saying he'd bring it, there was some confusion. After we asked for the check, our waiter moved us to the table next to us, which we believe caused the other employee that was bringing the check not to be able to find us. None of it made any sense to us. We just wanted to leave but they weren't allowing it.

hehehehehehehe!

After Yuian, we made our way back to the subway and headed a few stops to Ebisu, an area we'd read about that was known for having lots of izakayas and live music venues. We find izakayas all over Korea, but for some reason we hadn't been too successful finding them in Japan thus far.

We decided to head to a jazz club first, because it sounded cool and the directions involved a Wendy's, which meant Andrew could get a JBC (junior bacon cheeseburger) and a Frosty. Sadly, Wendy's proved to be the second culinary let down of the night. Not because it was bad or the menu was different, but because between the directions being written and us visiting Tokyo, the Wendy's chain said, 'sayonara' to Japan. Andrew didn't think it was possible, but this knocked Dave Thomas down a few spaces on his role model list.

Thankfully, the JBC disappointment didn't last long. Soon after, we stumbled across an awesome Spanish bar that had REAL queso manchego, Spanish olives, sangria and sherry.

Jamón serrano y jamón ibérico

Reliving the glory days of Cádiz (aka what we used to eat)

Pan con champiñones al ajillo.
This is the stuff dreams are made of...

After the Spanish place, we finally made it to an izakaya. It had 150¥ ($1.75) beers, which is pretty unheard of in Tokyo, so the place was packed.

Although we had just finished eating at the Spanish place moments earlier, we naturally ordered some more eats. The first dish to arrive was seared tuna.