Japan Trip 2012 - Ikebukuro Day 3

Day 3, we went to do some shopping and to get my friend's art books. I really wanted to check out Animate, K-Books and Mandarake so I thought Ikebukuro was the best place to hit all three and plus there is a popular shopping mall there too. To get there from Asakusa station, we took the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line to Ueno station, then transferred to the JR Yamanote line to Ikebukuro station.

The view once we got out of the subway station. Really different from Asakusa! There are more young people here and the guys look a lot cooler... xD;;

We walked to Bic's Camera and went to the toy floor. Lots of figures and Rilakkuma stuff there. Photos are usually not allowed in the stores so that's why I didn't wanna risk it and be embarrassed again. I found some Persona4 merch that was a mystery item, you could get one pair out of all the character's special eyeglasses... they were mini glasses that was perfect for 1/6 doll size. But to my sadness, when I finally opened it at home in Canada...the glasses were non-functional (ie. you could not open them and put them on!! ;^;) they're cute though! I ended up getting the main character's glasses (he's called Narukami Yuu in the anime)

There was a lot of Tiger & Bunny posters and stuff advertising something. Though I guess, it's nothing compared to the amount of mushroom things and One Piece things we saw @_@! I think the mushrooms are from a game...?

We passed by a lot of game centres with claw machines full of Rilakkumas and other popular toys you could try your luck at getting.. but we didn't play any.. xD

We headed to Sunshine City, a huge complex that has a shopping mall, aquarium and other things. I saw on the Anime News Network website that there was a Tiger & Bunny theme cafe in Tokyo but since the end date was Sept 5th (already passed) I didn't bother looking into it... but I really should've because the cafe was apparently in Namja town, an indoor theme park right inside Sunshine City!! >__<;;;It was only after I saw someone's Instagram photo of Tiger themed ice cream that I remembered...

We ate lunch at a place inside the mall that had a lot of restaurants and I swear we passed by Namja town (hence, my deep regret lol) We ate at an Italian-sounding place that served pasta and it was quite good (though I forgot to take photos of our dishes!) I was actually surprised to see that where ever we went, it was hard to find sushi restaurants, but places serving Western food was everywhere. I read that these Western foods are made to suit Japanese tastes, so I really wanted to try eating lots of burgers and pasta because personally I don't like eating raw fish often and I wanted to eat less "traditional" Japanese dishes.

We also passed by an advertisement about Sunshine 60, a very tall building that has an observatory, but since you had to pay to go up there and we just visited the Sky Tree the day before, we decided not to check it out. We were planning to go to another aquarium later on on our trip so we skipped that too. Which means... more shopping!! :D

Ahh Tokyu Hands... a hobbyist's heaven. They just have so much stuff, it was a little overwhelming. Made me wish I was into other hobbies too like woodworking or something so I could buy all their supplies, lol. They had so much clay! *__* I was tempted to buy some, but I still have unopened packages at home so I resisted that. They also had so many deco sweets DIY books! I buy some Decollage silicone fake whipped cream and although it was kinda pricey for a tiny tube... the stuff is AMAZING. I just tested it out today and I really wished I bought more >__<;;; sigh...anyways...

I really liked how Animate, K-Books and Mandarake were all so close in walking distance from one another...! I think I passed by a store called Lashinbang too but honestly I was so overwhelmed by all the character goods that I don't really remember... The Ikebukuro branch of these stores have stuff geared more towards a female fanbase, which is specifically why I went there.. XD Animate has several floors devoted to CDs, DVDs, mangas, doujinshi, books, character goods, etc. There were rows upon rows of BL books and anthologies and ...everything! *_* It was BL heaven! If only I could read it! >< The stores were full mostly of high school girls but I did see a group of guys in there.

Utapri seems to be REALLY popular in Japan. These were advertisements right outside the store. Hakuoki is also really popular. So, at this point I realized that I did not bring my friend's shopping list/wish list with me and since there was just so much stuff that I didn't even know where to begin to look, I pretty much gave up since I didn't remember the author names or anything. ;_; Jillian wasn't into anime so I felt bad having her following behind me and being bored while I was having fun looking through the stuff lol. ;; I really wanted to get some Inu x Boku SS merch and I did see a Miketsukami plush but it wasn't made very nicely and I couldn't decide on what to get so I ended up only buying a Moyashimon towel from Animate... -.-

The advertisement was too big for my camera!! (I didn't bring my DSLR with me on this day) 

We went inside Mandarake, and I should've taken a photo of the entrance because it looked totally sketch lol... you have to take this spiraling staircase downstairs into the basement. But there were shelves stuffed full of doujinshi, and I saw many Tiger & Bunny ones featured on display. They were tempting, but since I had no one to fangirl with, I left emtpy-handed (which I guess is a good thing since I already have some doujins at home that I don't even look at often.. ><)

Right near Mandarake (behind it?) was Patisserie Swallowtail, which I believe is the cakeshop run by the famous butler cafe called Swallowtail that is also somewhere in Ikebukuro. We actually considered getting a seating at the cafe, but since the reservation process was a little complicated and we both didn't speak Japanese, we thought it'd be rather hard to communicate with the butlers and fully appreciate the experience. And, not to mention, there is a video I saw on Youtube while researching this cafe that pretty much shows you what it's like inside, so it kinda ruined the surprise...

We headed back to Asakusa and decided to walk along Nakamise St. now that the shops were open!

Saw a restaurant specializing in fugu (puffer fish). Interesting, but I wasn't feeling adventurous enough to try it! After buying some souvenirs, we headed back to the hostel.

We're free to go upstairs of the hostel and out onto the roof. It's actually quite nice there... and totally reminds me of the rooftops seen in Korean dramas for some reason.. ><

There's a place to do laundry. I wished I packed less and did laundry instead of packing so many clothes T__T It was so hot and humid during our trip too that the first thing I did when I got home in Canada was wash my clothes because they were disgusting  >_> makes me sound like a slob lol. But I was just too lazy to bother with it and we both didn't make time for it during our busy packed schedule..

From the roof top we had a clear view of the Sky Tree! :) 

We decided to attend this dumpling party hosted by some Taiwanese people at the Khaosan Bar. Guests from all the Khaosan hostels in the area were invited to attend and it got quite lively/crowded upstairs where they were cooking the dumplings. Admission was 500yen and includes a drink and free food... but it was a little awkward since we didn't know anyone else there and everyone mainly stuck to their own groups. We were just standing around waiting for the food so after a bit, we just left...! I wish I asked the names of the staff working at Khaosan Samurai because there was a guy and a girl I kept recognizing/bumping into and kept saying hello to but I didn't know their names! Funny things with names happened later, in Kyoto... but I will save that for the Kyoto post.

Thanks for reading! Lots more to come :'D