Pond Bag (Ikebukuro)

It was rather disillusioning to find out the literal translation of one of our favorite spots in Tokyo, Ikebukuro, was Pond Bag. Not a very good ring to it. That also made one of the cuter stores in Ikebukuro, Nekobukuro, mean Cat Bag, or Bag of Cat. Hm.

None of this has anything to do with what we did today, but it was on my mind.

A late start to running this morning (5:30) meant a lot more people and vehicles. And cats.

"I don't get up until at least 5"

As in most large cities, there is a certain amount of graffiti in Tokyo. Unlike other large cities, Tokyo graffiti can also be cute

Being all tough and gangsta' is hard with a chibi devil as your symbol.

Today was rather rainy, so we didn't get to walk around outside much, but we did hop a train to Ikebukuro for some souvenir and supplies shopping. We started our day in the basement of Sunshine City (ALPA building, to be exact), where there was some teenage Korean idol scheduled to perform. We were there at just before 11AM. She wasn't scheduled to start until 1PM. The otaku were already lining up and polishing their camera lenses.

There are a group of "cute" stores next to the stage area that Sumi enjoys going to, mostly the Sanrio store and Moe Garden. There is an assortment of chara-goods (character goods), mostly non-TV-anime stuff, like Ghibli, Disney, Sanrio, Moomintroll, etc. Items were purchased. Pictures were taken.

Creepy

Taken outside the Moomin Waffle House, a Moomintroll themed waffle cafe.

Fans of Totoro will understand

For lunch, we decided to head upstairs to a sukiyaki restaurant that we've gone to before. There were a few newer additions to the stores up there.

It just won't go away. An entire store of Pikachu

and I'm only slightly exaggerating

A whole area dedicated to Shonen Jump, the magazine that infects the anime scene with 500 episode series of people yelling, fighting, yelling some more, speed lines, bizarre hair, some more fighting, some more yelling and long winded monologues detailing the exact way in which one character will use a specific secret fighting technique on a second character, the results of said technique, how the second character should cower in fear of the first character's overall awesomeness and extended mocking of the pathetic nature of the second character, followed by several minutes of screaming the name of said secret technique in order to "power up" enough to use said technique, as all the while the second character just sits there and spouts exposition about this horrific technique that is about to be inflicted upon them, usually with detailed historical notes on said secret technique, making you wonder just how secret this technique is. It is the crap that 10 year old boys love and the rest of the world should hate, but for some reason doesn't. it is also, sadly, what many people first think of when they hear the word "anime".

The sukiyaki restaurant has changed their menu slightly. The $10 special is now $15 and there is less stuff in the bowl (including the rice), but it is still tasty.

Sukiyaki, miso soup, rice, an egg (to be added to the boiling pot) and egg custard. In some moment of insanity, the restaurant decided that seaweed should be added to egg custard. How anyone thought that was a good idea is totally beyond me.

We hadn't had a parfait since arriving in Japan, and after all the running and hiking we'd been doing, we were still hungry after lunch, so there was nothing else to do but go visit Ducky Duck.

This is Ducky Duck

And this is why you visit Ducky Duck. Sumi grudgingly agreed to share.

We did make the mistake of going during the lunch hour, so the wait was pretty long, but the payoff made it worthwhile.

Afterwards, we stopped at Tokyu Hands for some Japanese stationary (all of my schoolwork and notes are on A5 paper, which is not easy to get in the U.S.) and souvenirs for friends and relatives. And Sumi. We also made a quick stop at Yellow Submarine, a board game and card store right off the main drag. They had a surprising amount of good board games, but the import tax must be awfully steep. All the games were going for about 10% over MSRP, which is itself already inflated by 10-15%. Some neat stuff, but all way too expensive. And in Japanese, making them most likely difficult to play with non-Japanese speakers.

Heading back to Asakusa, we did some "shiraberu-ing" (researching) for tomorrow, which is our last day in the Tokyo area and supposed to be sunny and warm. We came across a few outdoor places to visit that we haven't been to before, so that and some final souvenir shopping will be the order of the day tomorrow before we send our big suitcase to the airport.

Surprisingly, it was 5:30 and we were still awake, so we decided to visit a Retaurant Rin, a little restaurant next to the hotel that had smelled good when we passed by it. It turns out it had only been open since mid-May, and was more of a drinking establishment than restaurant, but the owner did have small margharita pizzas for us to eat. It was bar pizza, so a little bland, but adding the supplied tabasco sauce to the pizza made it quite good. The owner had visited the U.S. a number of times, as her daughter was in college in California, and was quite friendly. She took our picture and printed us out a copy while we ate.

Restaurant Rin and owner Arisu-san. 

Feed us and we're happy.

Afterwards, we took a walk down to Sensouji, which was just closing up for the evening. All the shops along the roads leading to the temple were shutting down, and all the restaurants and bars were filling up. After the light dinner, we were still a little peckish and, remembering from a previous trip that there was a Cafe Gusto in the area, we headed on down for our second dessert of the day. I blame the Japanese for their incredibly yummy desserts.

No sharing this time. Belgian Chocolate Mousse Chocolate Parfait and Fresh Strawberry Parfait.

We waddled ourselves back to the hotel (Arisa-san stepped out to greet us as we returned) and vowed not to eat another dessert until at least tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, our last day of being tourists. Nature hikes, souvenir shopping, packing, laundry, Ramen. It'll be a full day.