Day 1 - East Ikebukuro

Yaaaay!! Finally! A Japan trip!! My second time to Japan ever and 7 years since the first! T__T!! This time I traveled with just one friend, Sean, and I thank him for coming with me and tolerating my bossy and sadistic ways. XD 

Anyway, we flew to Japan on a night flight and WTH his birthday is midnight on the bloody plane! Of course I've been reminded about it time and time again so I'm not that heartless not to plan anything. I secretly worked something (though small) out with the stewardesses and they brought him a small dessert (which is taken from business class, and with a candle and a fake paper-drawn flame stuck on it which I prepared :P) when the clock struck twelve. They even gave us cider, I think. Wahahhaaa! Sean was surprised enough, I think, and mission  accomplished. >:3 Happy Birthday, Sean. (Now you're one year closer to the dreaded thirties!! Wahahahahahaaaa!!) 

We finally arrived at Japan at around 7am or something. I was gonna get us NEX (Narita Express) tickets but the earliest ride to Ikebukuro (where we stayed) was 8:30 or so, so the attendant recommended us to take the rapid train which would cost cheaper anyway. I didn't know how any of the trains worked, so I just went with it and got on the train soon after that. Problem is, we got on the wrong train at the next station where we have to make a transit and ended up on the normal train instead of the rapid, which wasted at least 1 hour of our time before we got off at another station to switch to the right train. It was a waste of time, but it was a bit of an experience. At least now we know that more than one line of train (that goes and stops at different stations) share the same track. o_o 

Eventually we arrived at Ikebukuro station and found our hotel after getting somewhat lost for 30 minutes. The room was surprisingly spacious for a cheap Japanese 'hotel'; one of the beds (which I took :P) was even a queen size, I think). We rested for a short while and left our luggage there before we set out for our first plan – otaku shopping at East Ikebukuro! 

Of course, before we do that we have to energize ourselves with food; I was already dying of hunger the whole time on the train. My coworker recommended me this place called Yama-Chan at North Ikebukuro so we went there only to find out they open at 3pm. Luckily, my coworker also recommended me another place, Taizou, which is close to Yama-Chan and so we went there and were glad to find that it's not crowded whatsoever thanks to the time of day. I didn't know what to order, though, so I just went with whatever they're famous for as written on their menu – Taizou don. It's a pretty small bowl of rice with half a boiled egg, 3 thin slices of pork and 4 pieces of nori (seaweed). I didn't expect much out of it but turned out, it's awesome (and cheap too)!! XD 

Now that we've recharged ourselves, we proceeded with the plan: 

Don Quijote:
This shop is located near the start of Otome Road (this street name isn't real, it's a nickname given by otakus cos that street is full of shops selling yaoi stuff XD). The shop is of moderate size but it's soooo full of things and everything is packed sooo close together it's quite a mess. They sell all sorts of merchandise from cosmetics, accessories, clothes, sports equipment, video games, random toys to pretty much everything else small enough to fit the store. Quite interesting, but there's not really anything in there for me except for the excessive Ryu Ga Gotoku ads. XD 

Toranoana:
The first 女性向け (targeted at females) shop I went to! XDXD!! It's only one floor and that floor isn't very big, but I guess the biggest disappointment to me is that it mostly sells doujinshis rather than anthologies. Still, I got myself two doujinshis and a random manga to commemorate my first 女性向けshop experience. ^_^ 

Book Off:
OMG! Book Off! Yaaay! This wasn't part of the plan cos I didn't know there was a Book Off there but good thing we found it by chance! We spent about 30 minutes here but sadly, and oddly, I couldn't find anything (yaoi manga to be precise) that perked my interest so I left empty handed. :( 

Nekobukuro:
This is a little shop on the 8th floor of Tokyu Hands where 20 cats roam about freely for you to touch and take pictures of. It costs 600 yen for a single ticket and 1000 yen for a pair. There is no  limit as to how long you can stay in there but once you leave you will not be able to re-enter.

The cats in here are really cute... and big o_o. They must really be living a good life. XD One thing to keep note of, though, you may touch the cats freely but hugging/holding them up is  disallowed unless you pay extra, which is 300 yen per cat. Most people do this only if they want to take a pic of them holding the cat.  

Animate:
Wheeee!! One of the major otaku shops!! (Toranoana is too but the one at Ikebukuro is just small) This Ikebukuro branch happens to be the main one so yay!!

Small problem is, due to  it being a weekend the place was considerably crowded, which made it hard to get around from floor to floor considering how narrow the building itself is. Still, it's an all-in-one shop for most anime otakus. (What I remember they don't sell is Gundam kits and anything Kamen Rider.) As for me, I got myself a few anthologies and shitajikis. ^_^ 

Sunshine 60:
This is a 60-storey building right across the street from Animate. We went there to check out the Gintama festival thingy but we decided to drop it when we found out it wasn't free. ^^; So we went and got dinner instead at a random restaurant called Bambi. The food portion looked rather big so Sean and I shared one dish. Personally I love the croquette the most but Sean thought it was okay. Well, good for me I get to eat more of it! But oh, my sling bag's strap broke here so I'd have to get a new bag the next day at Harajuku. >:/ 

Sunshine 60 Observation Deck:
This observation deck is on the 60th floor of Sunshine 60 and admission costs 620 yen. I don't know if this is higher than Tokyo Tower's main observatory but it sure is cheaper.

Also, there's always a free display of some anime/series depending on the season in the center of the deck. This time, it happened to be Gintama (yay!!) thanks to the movie's release, which is why they're promoting it all over the nation.  

Toys R Us:
You may be wondering why the hell we bothered with this, but dude, it's a TOY shop! Better yet, a TOY shop in Japan!! Of course we had to check out what they have in store for the kids, like Kamen Rider or something I hope! =D But... T__T... Turns out it's quite disappointing. The store is huge but there's like what... 20 people in it? And my Kamen Rider!! They barely got one shelf of Kamen Rider merchandise and all of it is vinyl dolls for babies! T__T 

K-Books:
After leaving Sunshine 60, we headed for the other otaku shops further from Animate (it's really just 1-2 blocks away). The furthest one was K-Books so we checked it out first so that we can explore backwards and end up at Ikebukuro station. Confusingly, there are three K-Book branches along that street alone and the one we went to was a branch that specializes in doujinshis. I didn't think I was gonna get any cos I'm not big on doujinshis due to their price vs number of pages, but I managed to find *gassssp* Kamen Rider Den-O (and FF8 Seifer x Zell) ones that I ended up buying several! XD!! That was actually an unexpected and pleasant surprise. XD Poor Sean, though, he had to wait for me for a while staring at nothing but yaoi doujins. XD We left the shop a little past 8:30pm and were about to check out the next shop, Mandarake, when we realized that all the shops were closed o_o WTF...? It's a weekend and you're closed at 8:30??  

ABC Mart:
Sean wanted to check out some of the many ABC Marts, which are actually shoe stores (who could have guessed). I never planned to get any shoes in Japan so I just waited around for him. 

Club SEGA:
This arcade is right across from Book Off along our way back to the hotel. The first two floors are full of UFO catchers, racing games (e.g. Initial D), music games as well as a bunch of other silly (funny) arcade games, but there is not a single fighting game whatsoever o_o. I thought the Japanese take their fighting games very seriously...?

Anyway, the third floor is the 'casino' area. The whole level is full of giant fancy looking machines/games that people sit around and insert their buckets of tokens in their attempt to win more tokens, I think. I doubt they can exchange their tokens for cash so either they really love the arcade like hell, or they really have nothing better to do. o_O 

Yama-Chan
With nowhere else to go, we decided to go for supper here since it should now be open. All we ordered were their famous chicken wings (tebasaki) and woooot!! It's awesome tasty (and cheap)!! (400 yen for 5 pieces) The sauce is what gives it its special taste but I can't possibly figure out what it's made of so I didn't bother analyzing (unlike Sean). Just eat and enjoy~