Ikebukuro

After taking a nap, we headed off to the train station around noon. I told Daniel we wanted the Nerima station, but he thought that the Nerima station was actually where the Ekoda station was, and so there was a bit of confusion with the trains and we ended up being a bit late for meeting up with Nicole, but luckily she was running a bit behind herself. After much confusion in the Ikebukuro station about where we'd meet up, she finally found us.

First off we went to the Hello Kitty gift store, though I only just did a quick run through it since Nicole wasn't sure if the lunch special for the restaurant she wanted to take us to would be over soon or not. So, we followed her and went to a Japanese Indian restaurant that was down a little alley way a few blocks away from the Hello Kitty store.

I just went with Daniel's recommendation and ordered curry with mutton. Such a huge piece of naan though! It was really good, although a little bit spicy. I only managed to eat half of the naan though. The restaurant was rather interesting though, since it had a large TV screen playing Bollywood music videos.

After that, we checked out a few of the arcades like the one above and Daniel and Nicole tried their luck on some of the UFO catchers. Unfortunately, today was neither of their lucky days. I didn't really like any of the prizes, so I didn't try my luck.

Afterwards, we headed into the Ikebukuro Tokyu Hands since I asked Nicole to show me a good place to find cute school supplies, and the floor they have there was what she recommended. We didn't buy any stationary or school supplies yet, but we bought two adorable sponges that you can dress up, slippers that look like lions and the bottoms are actually dusters, a pillow for sitting on, and the vibrating pig pictured above. It was just too cute and since my feet hurt all the time, I figured they could use a way to get a massage. I was also eyeing the portable comfy chair (which really were comfortable) but decided I'd sleep on it and decide whether or not to get one later. One thing I really do miss is back support.

I tried to look for a phone strap since my phone still needs one, but Tokyu Hands didn't really have any I like. I need to find a more recent fandom from which I could buy some goods from!

After Tokyu Hands we were taken to Sunshine City, a multifloored mall.

I discovered that there's Toys R Us's in Japan. After walking around in Tokyu Hands, my feet were hurting and I was starting to feel a bit tired so we sought out a specific cafe. But to find it, first we took a look at the restaurant listing in the mall...

So many restaurants!

Apparently Sunshine City has its own indoor theme park.

Sanrio was having a summer festival in Sunshine City. The children in the pit of blue foam are searching for prizes hidden on the bottom.

We got a bit confused on which floor the cafe was actually on at first, but eventually we arrived at Cafe La Mille. We had to wait a bit to be seated, but eventually we got in although it was in the smoking section.

Since it was Lady's Day, a waffle set was 10% off, so I ordered what's pictured above to share with Daniel. It was pretty good, although the drink I ordered and expected to taste like chocolate and cookies actually tasted like coffee (I'm not really a fan of the taste of coffee).

Nicole had invited us to go see the new Ghibli film, but by that point I was feeling pretty worn out and decided it'd be best if we went home. We headed back to the station, but we weren't sure which train line we were supposed to take back to Ekoda. I ended up having to ask a police officer at the information desk for help, but we got the right one. After we made it to Ekoda, we headed home...or so we thought. We ended up going the entirely wrong direction for a long, long ways. It took practically forever to get home. My feet were even feeling numb on the way home.

Boy, the vibrating foot massaging pig sure feels good now. So glad I bought it.