Day 4 – Ikebukuro! Another great place to visit! My friend had been there before and was
itching for us to check it out. In
Ikebukuro there is a mall called Sunshine City. This mall has an aquarium, a planetarium, and a wonderful
amusement area called Namja Town.
NT is so much fun. There is
winding town of super-small stalls and teeny restaurants that have the BEST
gyoza ever!! No lies! They are
served in sizzling cast iron skillets so they are crispy all over. They taste delicious – by far the best
I’ve ever had. We had the normal
gyoza and a cheesy one with Italian herbs. Ohemgee that shit was good! The town was made to look like an old and rundown town
area. There were little rooms big
enough for 2-4 people with small tables.
They had so many little details like broken TVs, bookshelves, animals,
etc. So cute. No detail was spared. Then through the winding and confusing
town there was another town – a haunted town. All the kids were running around with these winding toys
looking for clues and trying to open secret doors.
One
guy told a friend to look thru the peephole of a door and she hesitatingly
did. We were all expecting her to
see something thru the hole but suddenly BANG! Something slams the door from
the other and she screams – we all did! Then the guy laughed and kept walking –
he didn’t even work there!
Hilarious!!! There were hidden doors, scary cabinets with holes to stick
your arm in waiting for things to jump out and grab you. It was so fun! Then on to Ice Cream Town! Yup, you read right! And they weren’t
lying. There was thing large store
with hundreds of flavours of ice creams – milk, salt, beer, sesame, fish oil,
eggplant. Weird ones, yummy
ones. Then there were the stands
where you could get scoops or soft serve.
One of us got black sesame, another got beer (I think), and I got really
cool mango shaved ice. It wasn’t
like kakigori! It was fruit
ice/ice cream that was in a block.
Then they thinly shave it off in a circle so you get layer after layer
of this ice. Then you spoon into
it and you get all the layers and it tastes like fresh mango and you feel the
ice crystals. It was absolutely
scrumptious!!! I want more!!!!
Then
we went to the planetarium!!!! It was beautiful! But we all so tired we fell
asleep throughout the whole show.
And it was in Japanese so I understood none of it but it was really
gorgeous. So pretty and
entrancing. If only my room had
that for its ceiling….
Next
we went in search of food and found this sketchy looking place in the
basement. We thought it was gonna
be dead and we would be the only ones there – this place was bumpin’! So busy
and the food was yummy! I had steak on the sizzling skillet with egg and rice
and salad. It was delicious – and
then I got food poisoning. It was
good while it lasted J
Day 5 – Saturday was a lazy
day. Sam and I got up and slowly
made our way to Futako-Tamagawa (essentially Tokyo outskirts, super-fun and
busy) to meet my friends and the others who were staying at the other apartment
to watch fireworks. I was warned
it was going to be busy but I was NOT expecting this for fireworks! Hundreds upon
hundreds were pouring out of the train station in yukatas (I want one so bad)
of all colours going to the river to sit and watch the fireworks. My friend and I needed food and found a
really good Italian restaurant in the mall and I also had a ginger ale made
from scratch. It was strong but
was so refreshing and tasty! The
pasta was great too. Then we
waited for the other two and made our long journey to the other side of the
river where my friends were meeting.
They had scored a decent spot right by the water and in perfect view of
BOTH fireworks shows. That’s right
– there were two!
Tokyo
and Kanagawa both put on shows at the same time. They both last for an hour straight and they are
stunning! We were trying so hard
to watch both but in the end Tokyo won – theirs was just more spectacular. Kanagawa did their best but choices
must be made. Tokyo had also not
puts theirs on the year before b/c of the earthquake and flooding so their
budget was considerably larger this year.
One whole hour of fireworks was such a treat. At home they last maybe 15 minutes. We were all very impressed. One of our friends was ecstatic that she
had dropped hanging out with her friend that night to come watch fireworks,
hahaha! J
It
was a great night and I met new people so that’s another score! Next - aquarium and trick art museum. There were ferris wheels and a roller coaster in there somewhere...I'll fit it in! :p
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