

GINZA SIX EDITORS
Fashion, jewelry & watch, lifestyle, beauty, foods…
Unique editors who are familiar with each genre GINZA SIX aimlessly
We spell way of enjoying that we found on foot.
A GINZA SIX Adventure A GINZA SIX Adventure
Takuya Ebe
GINZA SIX EDITORS Vol.95
There is old mall that gives its Ginza in town where I live in. Street is filled with people, and there seemed to be exaggerated vigor once, but is really relaxed mall as far as I know. Sign which is not useful now anymore with the term of service is enshrined at entrance and can find "silver six firm" and plot written down on map of freehand drawing. One day I saw letter of silver six, and GINZA SIX flashed across head incidentally. When we visited "silver six mall" of Togoshi-Ginza by work, it is so. Silver six is rearranged in brain by GINZA SIX, and mysterious feeling. When there is sushi restaurant called "silver eight sushi" in town where I was born and raised if we say more and we return home and pass in front of shop, feed enters with mind when it is GINZA EIGHT. We are somewhat surprised at condition called GINZA SIX always on my mind in daily livings a little.
Is there that we go to visit important GINZA SIX once a month even if we say so? No, there is not so. We walk Chuo-dori, and there is that we enter so that it is breathed in hyutto several times in year. We aim at 6F without question in such a case when it is GINZA SIX. Restaurants form in particular a line at 6F if is not significant to number of 6, and seek reason; become empty. The important thing is it is hungry. While controlling impulse that wants to drop in at "Ginza TSUTAYA BOOKS" in the same floor, to "Tamarind" (tamarind) of Indian restaurant.
"You should not fight against temptation of curry"
Words that aunty of school canteen gave to me who was university student 30 years ago. Still protect faithfully, and iza tamarind.
In Japanese India restaurant of these days when subdivision advances, we are slightly glad of both north India and south India being all direction models. It is said that chef comes over each from north India and south India. Oh, chef who floated big smile if compromised when then wanted to ask about story falteringly "nihongo, it is difficult".
I see. It is India here. When it is honest India restaurant, voices of visitors whom language that menus which thin bread "rumariroti" of India which color in bright shop folds like too strange handkerchief to eyes in Japan lines up routinely are various flies about fall into bowels not India restaurant for Japanese by Japanese Japanese. It may be place that is the nearest India in Ginza.
White curry "chikinsuteyu" and coconut of Kerala order fragrant "marabaru-style fish curry" from south India "saguchikin" using standard "chicken butter masala" and spinach from north India on that day (for each 1,580 yen ※ lower than, all + tax price).
Were you too greedy? Appetite is stimulated by flavor of spice while thinking so, and chopsticks do not stop (it is spoon that uses). Lips melt when we wanted very often to eat such a curry in standard taste not to make a show of eccentricity.
Honestly, we do not cook pleasure of tamarind. You should push if available without sitting at back seat, and hesitating about button of part of back. Star is shiny if we move eyes to direction of kitchen. If have be deliciously, three stars by all means. Chefs are delighted, too. Lucky you, it is such a sense of fun.
After "having eaten curry, we know reason to want to drink coffee"
At the age of high school student, older sister of cafe which we went along almost every day asked me. In the first place reason cannot be identified because we have not thought that we want to drink coffee after curry. Continue eating curry whether adult is such a thing; and ikuhoshishimo. Without although we may want to drink coffee after curry, the reason being identified without any regret. There is not cafe even if we want to ask older sister about reason anymore.
We go from 6F of GINZA SIX on 13F. To drink coffee; to "GRAND CRU CAFÉGINZA" (gurankuryukafeginza).
Though it is coffee after curry, it is not flavor called cafe. Jose. called coffee Hunter The shop which Yoshiaki Kawashima produces is known for being able to taste dazzling coffee experience, and preciousness and mysteriousness drift. We set foot in preparation to remind of in dream of Cooper investigator of some "Twin Peaks" while feeling some strain and diffidence that there is few.
In the point, development that common sense vanishes far to distance for coffee is developed from there. On menu like illustrated book, coffee beans which we chose from the world are introduced by sentence that we wrote kindly. Well, which shall we be going to have? I chose hesitation, the latter with Blue Mountain with geisha. One cup of Blue Mountain is 2,000 yen in cafe of high school days. We speak of once.
What is genuine Blue Mountain as expected? As for my absentminded Blue Mountain statue, understanding deepens by careful commentary of Sosuke Hasegawa of evangelist, also known as missionary of coffee. oishiiha information is important, too.
After when "Blue Mountain Juniper peak farm" which entered champagne bottle (15,000 yen ...) came up respectfully, was sawed on the spot, drip. It was offered with cup of initial old Noritake. We enjoy taste, flavor, lingering sound. Supreme bliss.
By the way, we can taste repeatedly until my bottle which we ordered is kept by seller, and beans disappear if it is less than two weeks. We did not think that day to keep bottle of coffee in GINZA SIX came though we had not kept bottle in club of Ginza.
Drop in at return cliff, 5F; and to "Snow Peak Mobile" (Snow Peak mobile).
Place to come back through last is our hometown via India, Jamaica. "Snow Peak" is outdoor brand which Sanjo-shi, Niigata where I was born and raised is proud of to the world. We become glad that we feel hometown in the middle of Ginza.
It is said that it is the world's first concept Shops proposing new maruchihabiteshon of urban life here. I see. We go around the shop around while dreaming of days that are maruchihabiteshon coming sometime and try to put on "Indigo TAKIBI Vest" to be useful at the time of open fire (34,000 yen). Existence and hometown of Snow Peak synchronize, and sentimental feeling. We remember that we built a fire with grandpa in a childhood in backyard of house, and chest becomes slightly hot.
Near entrance, we discover cool bottle. Surprisingly, it is said that it is sake. As for the concept, "we enjoy sake in outdoor" if we ask. Interesting. There is with "**kyuhodenyukiho" if we pick up bottle (3,000 yen). We ask whether it is joint development with Asahi Shuzo and further nearly fall forward. We nurse delusions with figure to enjoy sake ahead of open fire. Unbearable. Of the old age let's look forward to.
It falls at 1F and appears from GINZA SIX to Chuo-dori. Scenery of neighboring mall flashes across head in way back, the middle of Ginza. Country of birth and town where I lived in now were wrapped in happy feeling connected around, and far-off foreign country left for station.
Text: Takuya Ebe Photos: Kanako Noguchi Edit: Yuka Okada(81)
The district where I live has an old shopping street named Ginza. In the past, this was apparently a vibrant place teeming with shoppers, but I’ve only ever known it as a quaint and quiet little street. There’s a guide map posted at the entrance, but with so many years gone by, it’s not all that helpful. On the handwritten map, you can find a block with the name Ginroku Shokai. I saw the characters “Gin” and “Roku,” which means six, and immediately thought of GINZA SIX. On assignment at a shopping street named Ginroku Shotengai in Togoshi Ginza, I thought the same thing. My brain somehow replaced Ginroku with GINZA SIX; it was weird. What’s more, in the town where I was born and raised, there’s a sushi shop named Ginpachi Sushi, and whenever I go home and pass by the shop, I think “GINZA EIGHT;” it seems to have lodged in my mind. In the midst of my daily life, I’m a bit surprised to find GINZA SIX so often on my mind.
Having said this, I think I actually only venture into GINZA SIX maybe once a month or so. Maybe less. I along walk Chuo-dori Avenue and find myself drawn in through the door a few times a year. When that happens, it automatically occurs to me: I have to go to the sixth floor. No, the number 6 has no special meaning for me. It’s just that the sixth floor is where the restaurants are. That’s the reason. And, basically, I’m hungry. Suppressing the desire to stop by Ginza Tsutaya Books—also on the sixth floor—I head to Tamarind, an Indian restaurant.
“It’s best not to resist the lure of curry.” These words of wisdom were spoken to me by the lunch lady thirty years ago when I was in college. I attend to them even today. Now, I’m at Tamarind.
With Japanese Indian restaurants becoming more specialized of late, it’s nice to see Tamarind is neither North nor South India. It’s omnidirectional. The chefs, too, I’m told, are from northern and southern India. I ask to hear a little more about this. The chef, smiling from ear to ear, says, with some difficulty, “Japanese is difficult.”
“I see,” I say. So this really is India. The vibrant colors inside; a menu that naturally features Rumali Roti, a thin Indian flatbread that folds like a handkerchief and which is rare to find in Japan; the voices of customers speaking in various tongues—this is more a true Indian restaurant than an Indian restaurant run by Japanese for Japanese. Makes total sense. In all of Ginza, perhaps this place is closest to India.
Today, I order, from North India, the standard Chicken Butter Masala and Saag Chicken, made with spinach. From South India, I order Stewed Chicken, a white curry from Kerala, and Malabar Fish Curry, with an aroma of coconuts (1,580 yen each; all prices listed before tax).
Am I gluttonous? Perhaps. But the aroma of spices stimulates my appetite, and I’m powerless to halt the motions of my spoon! The flavor of the quite standard standard… yes, yes, this is the curry I’ve wanted. I find myself beaming.
The joy of Tamarind transcends food. Sit at the table in the back when it’s vacant and go ahead and press the buttons behind you. Now look toward the kitchen—see the stars light up! If you love what you’re eating, go ahead and give them three stars. It’s a charming, whimsical arrangement bound to delight all, the chefs included.
“Do you know why eating curry makes you want to drink a cup of coffee?”
This question was put to me by a waitress at a coffee shop I went to almost every day in high school. I never found myself wanting to drink coffee after eating curry, so, of course I didn’t know why. It must be an adult thing, I thought. I continue to eat curry after so many years. I do sometimes want a cup of coffee after curry, but I don’t know why. I want to ask the waitress, but the coffee shop is no longer there.
I go from the sixth floor of GINZA SIX up to the thirteenth floor to Grand Cru Café Ginza. I want some coffee.
I’m having coffee after curry, but this isn’t an ordinary coffee shop. It’s a café produced by José Yoshiaki Kawashima, coffee hunter extraordinaire, known as a place for dazzling coffee experiences. It gives off an exalted and mysterious air. It feels a bit like Twin Peaks, as if it may have appeared in one of Agent Cooper’s dreams. With a corresponding sense of tension, and even a little trepidation, I step inside.
And I enter an atmosphere where the conventional conceptions of coffee appear to have vanished. The menu is a field guide. The writing is reflective. It presents the café’s coffees, selected from the world over. So, which to choose? I vacillate between Geisha and Blue Mountain and end up going with the latter. At that coffee shop in high school, Blue Mountain was 2,000 yen a cup—I never had it, not even once.
What makes authentic Blue Mountain coffee? I had only the vaguest notions, but thanks to the detailed explanation by coffee evangelist Shusuke Hasegawa, my knowledge deepens. Information is a key component behind what you find delicious.
Blue Mountain Juniper Peak in a champagne bottle (from 15,000 yen) appears. It’s ground on the spot, dripped, and served in an early-period Old Noritake cup. The flavor, the aroma, the aftertaste—pure bliss.
Incidentally, they’ll keep the bottle you order in their cellar so you can receive free coffee for up to 2 weeks, as long as the beans have not run out. I’ve never had a bottle kept for me at a Ginza club. I never thought the day would come when I would keep a bottle of coffee at GINZA SIX.
On my way back, I pop into Snow Peak Mobile on the fifth floor. I’ve been to India, to Jamaica, and now, finally, I return to my hometown. Snow Peak is a world-famous outdoor gear brand from Sanjo, Niigata, where I was born and raised. It’s a joy to get that hometown feeling in the middle of Ginza.
This is the first concept shop in the world to advance a new, urban style of multihabitation. Dreaming my days of multihabitation will arrive someday, I sojourn around the shop and try on the Indigo TAKIBI Vest (34,000 yen), a handy thing to have when starting campfires. Snow Peak syncs with my hometown, and now I’m feeling nostalgic. I think back to making fires with my grandfather out in our backyard when I was kid, a heart-warming memory.
Near the entrance, I find a cool bottle. Hey, it’s sake! I ask, and the idea is sake for the outdoors. Very interesting. I inspect the bottle: it’s Soujo Kubota Seppou (3,000 yen), developed jointly by Snow Peak with Asahi-Shuzo brewery. I lean a little further forward. I imagine myself enjoying a cup of sake in front of a campfire. I can’t get enough, but I think I’ll save it for after retirement.
I descend to the first floor and exit GINZA SIX onto Chuo-dori. On my way home, in the middle of Ginza, my neighborhood shopping street comes back to mind. Far-off foreign lands, the town where I was born, and the place I live now. They all connect in a swirl, filling me with happiness as I return to the station.
Text: Takuya Ebe Photos: Kanako Noguchi Edit: Yuka Okada(81)

Takuya Ebe
Born in 1969. Joined President Inc. after graduating from Waseda University. Worked in President’s editorial department, then joined the editing team at dancyu in 2006. Served as editor-in-chief of dancyu from September 2012 to July 2017, overseeing 55 issues. Launched dancyu web as editor-in-chief in November 2017.
https://dancyu.jp
Tamarind
GRAND CRU CAFÉ GINZA
Snow Peak Mobile
2020.03.10 improves