Our Final Night

Our next stop after Yotsuya was Ikebukuro to check in at the hostel. For some reason we got a bit confused with the trains though, but I can't remember why anymore... We managed to make it there in one piece though and before our luggage had arrived too. Seeing a Japanese person and not thinking "oh duh I bet she speaks English..." I checked us in in Japanese, we got our keys, and checked out our rooms. There was two bunk beds and we unfortunately had one roommate, though he was not there at the time (more on him later). It was mid-afternoon by then and we still had not eaten anything that day, so we went to a nearby restaurant. We got our meal tickets, sat down, and got our food within a few minutes.

Looking back at these pictures makes my mouth water!

After we ate, we headed back to Ikebukuro station and headed to Shinjuku to go shoe shopping. I still had not replaced my hole-y tennis shoes, so I decided I wanted to get new shoes before I left Japan. I was so tempted to buy those boots I had been longing to buy at that point, but I ended up not getting them and bought these new pink and black tennis shoes instead. Later when I tried them again though they seemed to be a little bit big...maybe I should have gone with the previous pair that was a little bit tight and I could break into. The ones I bought fit perfect at the time though, I don't know why they felt different later!

Beyond that, we started wandering around. I only took the above picture, which was the entrance to a karaoke parlor.

After it got dark, we headed back to Shinjuku station and rode the trains for the last time. Our luggage had arrived and so had our roommate. He was quiet and, to be honest, the exact definition of "otaku," who had clearly come to pay hommage to Japan. He had some anime character statue which he had set up on the only bureau in the room. We got on our computers to check what was going on in the world of the internet, and eventually got hungry. So, we headed out to see what our options were.

This was one of our many options.

However, we ended up opting for the bar called Beer Saurus across the way, located on one of the floors of the building in the above picture. The beer was very nice although there were not too many people so luckily it was not too smokey.

Our first drinks were as above: that ginormous mug filled with Hoegaarden and my tiny martini (I think it was). Don't remember the drink, but unlike other bars they definitely did not skimp on the alcohol!

After studying the menu for a while, we ended up ordering the "party" size of fish and chips.

And here's a bit of the decor inside of the bar. It was a really nice place, I wish we had discovered it sooner.

Unfortunately all good times come to an end. While we paid the bill, I noticed that the tip jar for the earthquake and tsunami relief was stuffed full of 10,000 yen bills (about $124 at the time of writing this entry).

We began our tipsy walk back to the alpaca...and discovered an arcade. I wanted an alpaca so we went in. Daniel won one last Rilakkuma keychain and then we attempted the big one.

This alpaca was the boss battle of all UFO catchers up until this point. It was stuck between a big Rilakkuma's legs (I think it was) and refused to budge. I think we spent close to 4,000 yen to win this giant alpaca, but win it we did! We went back to the hostel with our spoils of war and had an unfortunate terrible night. Neither of us got a wink of sleep that night. The beds were so uncomfortable and every time we turned over there was squeaking. Our jetlagged roommate was sound asleep though, so who knows if we woke him up or not. The entire night I found myself wishing there was a Glade or Febreeze air freshner in the room though...

Not to mention, the room one over from ours was filled with drunk Japanese people screaming the entire night. It died down eventually, but that was soon replaced by the sounds of retching as dawn approached.

Needless to say, that was not a very pleasant night.

A Dark, Lonely Shinjuku and Ikebukuro

It's been four days now since the quake. Our town has been very quiet. There haven't been too many trucks coming by, but the earthquake hasn't stopped the baked sweet potato vendor from coming by twice since. The shelves are still empty at most of the convenience stores and supermarkets everywhere.

Since yesterday was relatively quiet and warm, I decided to head out to Shinjuku and then to Ikebukuro.

I went around 2:30 and the trains were pretty much empty.

Surprisingly, Shinjuku Station seemed even more empty. Usually there is at least three times as many people walking through this walkway over the Marunouchi train line. As it had been a day when people were instructed to stay home, the only ones out were pretty much only foreigners and couples because it was White Day, a day in which guys give girls gifts for what they received on Valentine's Day.

I stopped by Shinjuku ALTA to buy some cosmetics for a customer. There weren't that many people in there, but there usually isn't. I took this picture of the Liz Lisa display as seen from outside. So cute!

Then I headed over to Ikebukuro. Unsurprisingly, there were still plenty of people riding the JR lines. As you can see though, the lights on these buildings are not turned on. Since it had gotten cloudy, Ikebukuro seemed like a very dark place.

There were not so many people on the street heading to Sunshine City either. Normally these streets would be filled with shoppers. But no music played as you walked through the street, there were no maids handing out fliers for their maid cafes. In fact, there were hardly any people advertising their restaurants at all! Normally the street is lined with people shouting at the top of their lungs about the special deals and services their restaurant offers, but yesterday there were absolutely none. Surprisingly the arcades were still open, but only for a limited time.

When I got to Sunshine City, most of the stores were closed shut as in the picture above. It was a bit shocking to see store after store in this condition. I went over to the ALTA side and there were still up and running, luckily. I couldn't find what I was looking for though, so I backtracked and headed outside to Animate.

Pictures of Animate that I managed to take from the outside. I got inside of it just minutes before they closed at about 5pm I think it was. A lot of stores were closing up shop at 4 to 6pm. It was the strangest thing though, since they had an anime-sounding guy come on to tell us that they were closing and hoping we could meet again. Then they played this song about parting and meeting again. They played this over and over on a loop in order to drive customers out of the store. It was a bit surprising they let us all the way up to the fifth floor though as Donki had the stairs leading beyond the second floor blocked off.

A vending machine outside of Animate. Apparently the drinks taste horrible though.

After I checked out a few other nearby stores, I decided to start heading home.

Cute advertisement of fat kitty on top of an arcade.

All of Ikebukuro was so dark it felt so strange. Normally the entire place is so lit up that you might not even notice that it's night time. I was glad I had gone back to the train station when I did though, since I managed to catch the very last train out before they shut down the trains for an hour. When I got to my station, I stopped by McDonalds and grabbed us dinner. Walking home I noticed there were a lot of restaurants closed. Those that had remained open were completely empty. The area I live in, which can be a bit bustling in its own right around the "Ginza area," kind of felt like a dark ghost town.

Today we're staying inside for the most part again. Pretty much all of the major shopping malls have been closed again, too. Luckily there were no blackouts yesterday because of everyone's efforts to conserve energy. I hope today is the same.

A Big Shopping Trip

Today I went and hunted out a specific necklace for a customer, so it took me to quite a few places in Tokyo.

First I went to Shinjuku. I headed to Liz Lisa but they didn't have the necklace, so I went to MA*RS after to pick up another item. I was going to take a picture of the outside of the store but it looked like the shop staff were trying to watch me leave or something so I chickened out and just left.

It was such a beautiful day out! I think it was around 20 degrees (Celsius) out. It was so warm that for a little while I actually felt a bit hot in my cardigan. I hope the days after this continue to be this way.

It was also pretty windy as you can see from the girl's hair here. It almost looks like that one guy in the corner is trying to sneak into my photo. Hopefully these trees will have some green on them sooner than later! I headed across the street from here and into the station to hop onto the train to Ikebukuro so I could head to the Liz Lisa in Ikebukuro Parco.

I only took this one picture as I headed to Parco. I've seen lots of posters and such recently, especially in Shinjuku, of the new products they're adding to the Heroine Makeup line, and when I saw this big display of Lady Antoinette from Rose of Versailles I couldn't resist taking a picture of it. Maybe I should try their BB cream? I've always wanted to same flawless face and glow of a shoujo manga heroine.

Unfortunately the Ikebukuro store didn't have the necklace either, so next I headed to Harajuku.

A bit of a better closeup of the entrance. I guess I felt a bit more comfortable taking pictures here since there were tourists everywhere with cameras. What's one more gaikokujin with a camera? A lot of people go there expecting to get their pictures taken anyway.

Display with a kind of creepy bunny in the window. I guess this store is called Wonder Rocket.

The stairs leading up to Body Line. I think that backpack hanging there off the store below it is one of those popular shark ones.

I don't remember the name of this store, but the costumes are quite impressive!

The last stop during my adventure: Liz Lisa on Takeshita Street. Unfortunately I couldn't get a clear shot because so many people just kept on walking by. Luckily they had the necklace, so I went home after I bought it. I was pretty tired by the time I made it home.

Pictures From Around Shibuya

While I'm slowly working on my Edo Museum post, I figure I'll make a quick post of pictures I've taken recently. I really wish I had the courage to take more pictures more often. Since I've gotten so used to just living here, I kind of feel weird now when I try to do the touristy photo taking thing. These were all taken in Shibuya.

Right around the corner from Shibuya 109 is H&M.

A karaoke place somewhere across the street from H&M. You can see the cute mail truck there on the bottom right.

Down an alleyway you can find this karaoke parlor and ABC Mart, a popular shoe store.

Famous model Kumickey is currently on the front of Shibuya 109, advertising the new 109 brand name cell phones. I really wish I could get the Cecil McBee one.

Walls of nails in Donki. There's so many that it's hard to choose! Now that I think about it though, these were actually taken at the Donki in Ikebukuro.

Christmas Lights in Ikebukuro

I realized this is over a week late and I should be doing other stuff, but inspiration strikes at the oddest times. So, let's rewind to Thursday of a few weeks ago (12/9), when after a crappy day Daniel sprung me with a surprise outing to Ikebukuro. The reason? The need to buy a Christmas present at Tokyu Hands.

It was hard not to immediately notice the Christmas lights once you stepped outside of the station. There were other displays, but I didn't get a chance to snag a picture.

A rather blurry shot of the entrance across the street to the road that leads to Sunshine City amongst other shopping attractions, such as the Sanrio Store.

Along the way, I noticed a bunch of bouquets in front of a new game center. This was a sign that the arcade was brand new and had just recently opened, probably during that very week. I think the arcade was simply called Game!. Naturally, we went in and checked out what prizes there were to be won in the UFO catchers.

Oh the prizes we came out with! We got super lucky, since Daniel was able to win two regular-sized Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma and a jumbo one. The jumbo one is so nice, soft, and plushy. We didn't even end up spending that much to win him.

Before heading to Tokyu Hands, we took a stop inside the entrance of Sunshine City for some Burger King. It was a good thing we went too, since I was about ready to kill for a hamburger or any kind of American food that day.

After a delicious fast food meal, we headed back outside and next door to Tokyu Hands. We headed upstairs to the furniture floor, and Daniel bought us two comfy chairs. Our desperate need for back support in our apartment has now been solved. I'm so thankful. T-T Daniel even bought a pink colored one for me, and green for him. With that and our winnings at the UFO catchers, I was feeling much better after!