So first real day in Tokyo.
Decided to check out the closest ‘big’ city to my room. Which was Ikebukuro, a developing city for the youth. And maybe even travel on to Shinjuku.
All I can say about Ikebukuro station, it’s a maze. When I finally got out, I was greeted by these owls. The owl has a special connection to Ikebukuro as I see them everywhere including owl café’s.
Walked around for a bit and found a “Mahjong School” but nothing much special on this side of the station. As I was heading towards the local Pokémon Center, I crossed the station to the other side and BAM. Here’s where live happens in Ikebukuro. Shops eight floors high, advertisement boards everywhere. Just abig buzzy shopping street.
On my way to Sunshine City, the mall that has the Pokémon store in it. I walked past a small anime event. It was apparently the Animate Girls Festival -Animate is one of the biggest anime and manga chains-. So cosplayers everywhere in the park and surrounding stores.
Arrived in the mall I got to the Pokémon center and bought the stuff I wanted and got also got a Yokohama Pikachu card as a gift there.
This mall also hosts a small Shounen Jump amusement park, J-World.
For lunch I took the elevator up to the 59th floor to enjoy a nice view over the city while eating this hamburger.
I then walked to a Buddhist temple around 15 minutes away. It’s really crazy to see how big this domain is, in the middle of a city like this, surrounded by skyscrapers.
Then I went to do some more shopping and eventually went back to that Mahjong School. Played two full games there, lost the first one. But won the second one with a 200 point difference! I’ll definitely be going back here. Automated tables are a bliss.
For dinner I went for some chicken again.