Our first proper day in Tokyo! Looking back on it to write this, I didn't realise just how much we managed to cram into one day. In my mind I'd definitely spread these out over two different days, haha. So I'll apologise now for the sheer volume of this post, I'm too lazy to split it into two! >.<
First stop was some form of breakfast, and considering Ann-Marie and I were up and ready earlier than expected, and we had to wait for Tom to turn up (he was staying in a capsule hotel for the first few days) we headed out and bought some strange-looking things from the nearby 7-11.
In Korea, buying food isn't too much of an adventure anymore, because I can at least read the label and guess at what it might taste like. I can determine if I should expect vegetables, chicken, beef, fish, or anything else. But I can't read Japanese. Sure, I'd saved a hiragana and katakana chart to my phone, but when you're hungry and just want to grab something, spending 20 minutes poring over small charts searching for each individual character then hoping it's a word you know isn't the most appealing option.
So, up for an exciting food morning, we grabbed the most unusual and mysterious things we could find, including a radioactively-pink croissant and a few random onigiri. The onigiri were great, as you'd hope, and after a little effort, and mostly thanks to Ann-Marie's studies, we managed to read the description on the croissant. Apparently it was a "strawberry croissant". It was certainly interesting...and very sweet.
We waited by the station for Tom to turn up and then headed further into Ikebukuro to visit the Sunshine 60 building. I'm not going to lie, the main motivation for our visit was this:
The world's largest Pokemon Center. No I'm not "too old for that stuff". :p
It was absolutely PACKED. There was a queue to get in that doubled in on itself twice, and there was barely room to breathe once you got in (hence the lack of photos). From the abundance of people of all ages lurking around every free space outside and even trying to play whilst INSIDE the mass of bodies, it was safe to say there was an event on.
Thankfully I'd recently started Pokemon X and always bring my DS to Japan (mmm those sweet, sweet street passes!) and bagged myself a shiny Charizard and a special Pikachu.
Shrieking sweet nothings into the past at our 8-year-old selves, we all shuffled around grabbing various figurines and plush toys. It was quite funny to see a group of 23-year-olds suffering from intense internal debate over things like:
"Should I get this Torchic? But I love Squirtle..."
"I could buy this Fletchling plush...but it's the same price as these little figs of Meowth, Pikachu, AND Lucario..."
"Do I really need a Pikachu pencil case and 3 different kinds of Pokemon-adorned notebooks? And this hat? And keychain? And lunchbox set? And driving gloves? Who am I kidding, of course I do."
In the end I came away with my Fletchling, a little Absol, and my obligatory Pokemon Center coin.
[photo]
The Sunshine 60 building is also famous for its observatory deck. Towering high above most of the rest of Tokyo, at 60 storeys it was the tallest in Japan up until 1991 (and was the tallest in Asia for a while, until Seoul went and outdid them by 3 storeys).
After buying your admission ticket to the top floor, you enter a lift. Rather terrifyingly, the lights turn off as you start whizzing up, but they're soon replaced with a cute array of glow-in-the-dark stars that I think were activated by a blacklight.
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| Top speed of 600m per MINUTE. Horrifying. I'm glad it doesn't have windows. |
The bright windows and darker interior allowed for some really cool silhouetted photos, which I'm a bit obsessed with at the moment.
