I'm staying in the Presso Inn Higashi-Ginza which is steps from the Tsukiji fish market which I hope will be one of the highlights of Tokyo for me. After dropping my luggage off, I walked up Harumi-dori through Ginza. My first stop was at the Nissan Gallery, where they displayed this classic Datsun car. There isn't much to this "gallery", just a promotion about road trip tunes over the decades and a boutique selling branded merchandise.Further up the street, I checked out the Sony Building which features several slick and glittery levels of hands-on toying around with their latest and upcoming products. Check out the second floor where the cameras are: you can pop in your memory card into one of their pro-model printers and get a super-fast print of one of your photos.
While looking for a pastry shop a coworker's acquaintance recommended, I stumbled into Paper Place, a sparsely furnished showroom of colourful papers. They had a display of incredible, textured and raised inkjet printouts that seemed almost like papier-mache.
Qu'il fait bon (2-4-5 Ginza, Chuo-ku) didn't have a name out front but there was no mistaking this was a high-end sweets store. Shelves of packaged cakes, tarts, jams, teas and cookies lined one wall with a pastry case along the other side. There was a 20 minute to eat in the cafe, so I managed to order a slice of peach bavarois (Y680!) from one of the shopgirls. Notes about the packaging: there was a frozen gel pack enclosed to keep it cold; a styrofoam tube to keep the cardboard from getting crushed; separate paper bag for the fork and napkin. Two blocks away, I was startled by one of the employees who had followed me and wanted to know if she could assist me with directions!
Next stop was a pilgrimage to the Hotel New Otani (4-1 Kioi-cho, Chiyoda-ku). I've never had Pierre Herme's desserts before, but knew that a cafe in Japan sold them. I took the JR Yamanote line from Yurakucho to Akihabara, then switched to the JR Sobu line from Akihabara to Yotsuya (several subway stops are closer to the hotel but I wanted to use the train). From the station, I went out the east exit then followed a path past Sophia University. The hotel is really ugly; they're doing renovations right now, but it looks like they're just slapping some glass on top of the existing exterior. Next to the lobby, Cafe Satsuki served a Y1680 tea and cake set which featured desserts from the Herme boutique next door. 
Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed by the available selection: I chose a layered chocolate/coffee cake (nice thin cake layers and rich flavours) and a strawberry shortcake. I also took the opportunity to eat the cake I bought from Qu'il fait bon: delicate cream filling, sweet white peach topping and a baumkuchen outer layer. Back in the retail area, I bought two more pastries to try at home.
As it was nearing sunset, I went back to Akihabara to walk around Electric Town. I was amazed by the specificity of some of the smaller stores: ham radios, security cameras, electric circuit components, batteries, telescopes, laptop computers, cables, manga, etc.
On my way home, I had dinner in the basement of Ginza Core where I mistakenly walked into a restaurant serving European food. The bouillabaisse risotto I had was an interesting take on the two dishes, more of a soup with rice.
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