Japan 2026: Reflections

As was written in my Google Notes App and faithfully copy and pasted here (annotations will be in bold parenthesis, added a few days later while at home): 

Reflections and reminders:

- Bring personal shaker of salt. Do not lose. (Fries and some egg products were severely lacking in salt, which bummed us so much we vowed to become our grandfathers and return to Japan with our own shakers of salt in our shirt pockets so this would never happen to us again.)

- The men are frying their hair possibly with bleach jobs they have to dye over, or maybe personal style, leaving it frizzy and crispy looking. Lots of dandelion heads. 

- Cincinnati has made us impervious to their allergies, because nowhere has worse allergies than Cincinnati. 

- Booking hotels 3.5 months before our vacation on Agoda seemed to be a sweet spot and gave us great deals!

- Current fashion is surprisingly very downplayed goth and I fit right in. All blacks with many flowy skirts, sheer, long layers, ruffles, tulle, etc. (Men's fashion continues to be inscrutable or business professional with no in between, so I will continue to wear black, grey, and green forever.)

- We liked our hotel in Ikebukuro, but the location was just okay. We've had better and Asakusa was worst. Ueno remains my (Angie's) favorite. 

- Always be 3 hours early (at least) to the airport. No matter who you fly with, the self check in won't work, they will insist you use the kiosk which won't work, and then you will be pointed to join the line that's at least a half hour long because there's only 2 people working.

- Pack like you're going to be warm and then bring a jacket and cardigan/hoodie. You WILL be warmer more often than you're cold.

 

- My Suica card has 1859 yen left on it. Jeff has about 800.

- Less power banks (Seriously, I used one power bank twice during the entire trip. My phone died once, at about 8pm on a long day of shopping. We only need one, instead of the three I usually bring.)

- Bring less, in general. (Seriously, I always bring too many things that we never end up using and if we need we can just buy locally.) 

- Now that we've checked in we are in the security line which is VERY VERY LONG. Luckily we have two hours before boarding which is just another reason you should arrive AT LEAST 3 hours before your flight. (Security line was long but only took 30 minutes. Didn't have to remove your tablet or laptop but do need to remove boots or any shoe above ankle, also had to remove liquids bags.) Booking with the more expensive economy ticket gives you two free checked bags. (This was more for the sake of remembering and added to the previous blog post, but still written in the heat of the moment while the memory and feelings were fresh.)

- You can't upgrade if you fly ANA but booked through United. Even if you book ANA, upgrading is a bidding system that I don't understand. 

- Lesson: booking through American on JAL has so far been the better experience. 

- My favorite Acerola cherry drink is either not in season or not being sold anymore. I did enjoy the pink grapefruit/grape drink this time.

- No matter what I think the weather is going to be like, wear an additional layer. I never regretted doing that and often regretted not doing that (did I, Angie, type that??? I don't remember typing that and it sounds more like Jeff.... Plus, I run hot and regret wearing extra layers all the time and only one time during the trip did I regrets not wearing an additional layer and that was at the baseball game after a day full of sunshine and sweating!) (You did not write that, I did.)

Awards-Angie:

Accommodation-Fufu Nikko: for being the most amazing and luxurious experience I have ever had.

Agoda: for giving us really good deals on nice places! 

Aleve and my ankle boot: really helped me get around with less pain but also, kinda nice and a relief when I didn't wear it.

Nivea Melty lip balm: Didn't irritate my already irritated, eczema-peely lips. A balm indeed. 

Favorite activity/place-Shiroi Koibito Park/Baseball game: tied for my favorite activity/place in this trip with Upopoy Ainu museum being in second place.

Family restaurants: our trip should have been sponsored by Cafe Gusto but the award for best food goes to Bikkuri Donkey. They love cheeeeeeese!

Killstar: provided my best pieces of clothing: my crossbody purse, my maxi dress and my long skirt. Very versatile and fit in well with the current fashion.

Awards-Jeff: 

- Favorite clothing item: Columbia Sport Pants. Buy more when we get home!

- Favorite Activity: Bike tour! 

- Accommodation: I feel like picking Fufu Nikko is cheating, but it was absolutely the nicest place of the trip. Runner Up is the Hotel Metropolitan. 

- Cafe Gusto Cafe Gusto Cafe Gusto 

- Travel Scissors continue to be a winner every trip

- Biggest Disappointment: Honestly, Akihabara. It was cool 15 years ago, but now it's just an expensive tourist trap. 

- Best Souvenir Buying Experience: Sapporo. Seriously, better selection and better prices. Akiba can't compete anymore.

What to do different next time: 

- Stay in Ueno or Akiba or a new favorite (check Reddit for suggestions).

- I'm still trying to decide if it was worth it bringing the empty suitcase or not.... As much as I love being a one-bagger, I really did like not having to lug my carry-on around on my back, thus giving my poor ankle some relief, or having to fight for a spot nearby in the overhead bins. It will take losing my luggage to make me go back to one-bagging on a long-international flight like this with lots of moving around and walking. I feel I enjoyed the rolling suitcase much more. Maybe I'll do a smaller roller inside a larger (size of what we brought this time) roller instead of my backpack for when I inevitably check it.) (I will continue to always carry-on only, because like hell am I going to chance losing my luggage. And I will be smug and insufferable when Angie's luggage gets lost and mine is right there because it never left my control. :P)

And with that, we dream of our next adventure to Japan! Maybe December 2028? Here's hoping it will be to celebrate a newer and better president having been elected!

Concluding with pictures I'm pretty sure didn't find a way onto our blog, so here's a random bunch of them:

The Central Day 15: The Final Day

One day remains... 

Jeff and Angie comin'atcha from gate D6 at IAH, the furthest fucking terminal in this entire place! (Seriously, the D Terminal goes in descending order from D14 - D10, then D9 - D7, then D1? Through D6? What psychopath did the layout for this place?) But we have time to finish up this last blog post with what we did our final day and then some retrospection. 

 Our last full day in Tokyo was spent sleeping. HA! Fooled you! No, we shopped. We started bright and early leaving the hotel room at around 8:30 because early morning on a weekday is the secret best time to go into a Don Quixote. There's hardly anyone there to crowd you as you navigate the narrow and winding passageways of never ending STUFF. Luckily we had a list of what we still needed to purchase, so our superfluous expendatures were kept to a minimum. One such planned purpose was another suitcase. Yes, that's right; even though we came with an entirely empty suitcase, our purchases were so many that we ended up buying another! You can't make me feel bad! I regret nothing! 

We toted that purchase back to the hotel since it was only about a 10 minute walk away through the Ikebukuro station and then went on to our next part of the plan: shopping at Akihabara. Starting at the furthest bookmarked location in our Japan 2026 Google Map, we worked our way back toward the Akiba station. Our first stop was to a shrine we've never been to before: Kanda Myojin Shrine. This shrine's schtick is horses, and seeing as how it's the year of the horse right now in 2026, it was an appropriately themed shrine. Not only does it enshrine the samurai Taira no Masakado, whose crest was a horse, this shrine has an actual, real, live, sacred, divine, miniature gray pony! We saw it divinely chomp down on an apple! 

Jeff and I bought some omamori (blessed amulets or charms), I getting a horse one for "Everything is going to be all right" and Jeff getting "Data-loss prevention/IT protection" and a "matchmaking and success in love and relationships" charm as a requested omamori for a friend. I also had us wait in line to give some yen to a big statue of Daikokuten to thank him for all the luck we have had so far on our vacation (this is important). 

We left and walked for about 5 minutes toward my last "need-to" place to visit, which was BEEP where I found the Nightwalker PC game in 2024. They did not have any more copies this time, but that's okay, it's a fun and unique shop and the only place that really sells PC-98 games. 

We hit up some Mandarakes and Surugayas and a Book Off. I found another copy of the Nightwalker anime on DVD and bought that. Jeff, I know you found a few things as well? Do you remember what?  (Copies of the FF6 and FF7 soundtrack, a few odd magic cards, and a [for some strange reason laminated] trading card of our lord Il Palazzo!). 

We took a rest and got of our feet by chilling in a McDonald's and tried their cheese Shaka Shaka chicken (which was like a giant, dry, chicken nugget they put into a waffle maker and flattened it) and then you dump mac and cheese powder on it in a bag and shake it up. Neither of us finished our chicken. 

We then plodded along to Amiami figure tower which was many floors of anime figurines that were way out of our price range. So we went around the block to the Amiami in Radio Kaikan that shares the building with many other resellers and second-hand as well as new nerd merch. We started at the top on the 9th floor where there was another Big Magic TCG shop for Jeff (alas, there was not another great vending machine)[There actually was and I won some protective sleeves with Vivi from FF9 on them]. I waited outside of the tiny shop in the hallway and did the American Lean on a wall while waiting. Jeff came out with his purchases and I had to grab on to him. "I think I'm gonna faint, my legs are suddenly really wobbly," I told him and grabbed on, but then he said that he noticed it too. I glanced at another customer nearby, caught his eye and made a swaying gesture and he nodded in confirmation: this was an earthquake! We were at the tippy top of this building and it was swaying (thank goodness we weren't on the 24th floor of our hotel room at the time!!!). It was very weird feeling as this was the most intense earthquake we had ever felt (we're thinking this was about a 3 or 3.5 magnitude) and I swear there was a weird, high-pitched ringing sound. Luckily it was over after a minute or two. Another gaijin who spoke English came up to us and we both kinda gabbled and spouted strange conversations in our shock about how scary that was and how we've never felt one before and are we going to die? We must be okay because all the local Japanese people are continuing to shop like it's nothing. Yeah, we were all a bit scared and giddy. I checked the news and found out that we were feeling an earthquake that originated offshore near the east coast of Hokkaido/Iwate and the Tohoku, Shin-Aomori, and Sendai shinkansen to Tokyo had all been suspended as they evacuated those cities along that coast in Iwate and Hokkaido. Y'ALL, WE COULD HAVE BEEN STUCK IN THAT JUST LAST WEEK!! Again, I would like to thank that frog statue for warding away evil, and Daikokuten for keeping us lucky! We stumbled about the next few floors in a daze, trying to get back into the shopping mood, and my spirits lifted a bit when I found a doll shop that sold more and better NuiCHIBI DIY plushie materials including the perfect eyes for a Yayoi and a Shido! 

We decided the give up the pretense as our heart just wasn't into shopping anymore, and our feet were hurting, and I just wanted to see the outside after having a scary experience in that windowless, 9-story, crowded building. So we headed back to the hotel, it being about 6:30pm. Jeff did a small load of laundry with what we were going to wear on the plane while I took a shower. While he took his shower, I started to pack my clothes. Then together we tackled packing the rest of the souvenirs into the new suitcase. By the time we were finished it was about 9pm. Too late to go out for one last hurrah and, quite frankly, we were pretty tired and had to wake up early so we gave ourselves plenty of time to lug our luggage and check in to our flight. 

And so, it was with a heavy heart, we had to say goodbye to the city as we made our way through it on a long Yamanote ride to the monorail, and then to Haneda Airport (or, as the Japanese say, maize), lugging our two wheeled suitcases, two backpacks, and two personal items. 

Once again, I had the same experience as in 2024 where you go to the check in counter and they tell you to use the kiosk before you get in line. The kiosk doesn't work. They tell you to get in a different line which is, of course, the longest one. You wait 1/2 an hour. Luckily, even though I bought the airline tickets through United, ANA still honors the fact that I got the higher-cost economy tickets that gives us two pieces of checked luggage each. So I just checked my wheelie suitcase full of souvenirs and my Nomatic backpack with my clothes leaving me with just my personal item smaller backpack. Jeff checked his wheelie suitcase of souvenirs but kept his carry-on backpack and personal item. 

The security line was the longest I have ever seen it! It was winding through all the stanchions, past all the ANA desks, and making a right turn to then extend all the way past at least 4 more airlines-worth of aisles of check-in counters. Thankfully, it moved pretty quickly and we were through security in about 20 minutes.

We made sure our gate existed and actually went and ate some miso-butter ramen and a restaurant near our gate and enjoyed sitting down and eating a meal. This flight was completely full so they were unable to find us seats next to each other, so Jeff sat in the seat behind me, and we were both middle seats in the middle row. I'll leave it to Jeff to describe his seatmates, but mine were both men (one Japanese and one American) who both manspread and did not follow the proper etiquette of giving up an armrest for the middle person. American guy downed at least 4 red wines, and Japanese guy only got up once the entire flight and kept moving his foot into my footwell as well as encroaching on my leg space! I spent the entire flight hugging that tiny pillow so that I was touching no one and took up as little space as possible. I did get a good 45 minute nap though. [My row was a couple who tried the "both of us book an aisle seat so that hopefully nobody will sit between us" method. Which failed, because here I was. At no point did either of them do the courteous thing, which is to offer the person in the middle one of the aisle seats. Instead, they had a conversation over me on and off over the duration of the flight. Much like the Japanese man in Angie's row, the man in my row *literally didn't get up the entire plane ride*. I cannot imagine. I tried to be as small as possible, so as to not inconvenience them, but there was little in the way of returned courtesy. I think I got maybe 15 minutes of sleep on this flight. ANA's meals were such a disappointment on the way out and back that I can no longer recommend them for long-haul flights. JAL or bust, apparently.]

We landed in Houston and encountered the most empty, swift, and relaxed re-entry into the USA we have ever encountered! It was about 9am and we must have been the first international plane to have landed that morning because there was NO ONE else in customs. Re-entry consisted of having our photo taken on one of those facial-recognition tablets, one at a time, and it still took only 3 minutes tops. We grabbed our luggage from the carousel and then headed for the exit for the connecting flights. No one asked us to declare anything, no need to even flash our Global Entry status. It was very odd, but also a relief. We dropped our bags off at the conveyor line where the guy made sure our bags' final destination was CVG, and then we went through TSA precheck line, where I sleepily almost forgot to throw away my bottle of Pocari Sweat, and we were off to find our gate. Which was a good 20 minute walk away and of course at the end of the concourse. I freshened up a bit with washing my face, reapplying deodorant and brushing my teeth, and then it was time to board the 2 hour flight to CVG. In-flight entertainment was weird and not great as it was through Direct-TV??? So you pretty much had weird, limited cable, so I picked the channel that just ran Zoolander over and over and pretty much watched that 1.5 times when I wasn't nodding off from sheer exhaustion. [The controls for the in flight entertainment were also *on top* of the arm rest, so if you leaned on it the wrong way, your channel changed. I was able to eke out about 45 minutes of intermittent napping on this flight.]

Then we were home! Back in the land of Skyline chili and Graeter's Ice cream, and where Espelage Airport Transport Service gave us a ride to Skyline for a meal and back to our car. A great service! I highly recommend them! :)  And then we were home, reuniting with our cats that thankfully didn't forget or hate us.

Stay tuned for one last blog post for this trip, as we go through some trip reflections and deal out some awards! [A preview: My biggest disappointment was Other Tourists.]

The Central Day 14: Biker Gong? Boker Ging? What are words?

 Ever wanted to take a bike ride through the central business district of the largest city in the world on the day when nobody is conducting business there? Fantastic! You're gonna be very envious when I tell you that's exactly what we did today. 

Bright and early, around 830am, we hopped on the trusty Yamanote Line to head over to Kanda. There, we met up with a tour group from Cycling Holiday Tokyo. Our tour guide Jenny-san showed off their fancy electric assist bicycles, which were a technological marvel for a boy from the sticks like me ("You mean ta say them bikes are actually motorbikes what can help us pedal? What a marvelous country y'all have! Japan's livin' in the future!"). (Angie: I had done an e-bike tour with Jenny-san in 2024 during my solo trip so I was very excited to see her again! I did make them worry because we were 5 minutes late to the meeting time, so I made sure to bow and gomen-nasai profusely. Luckily they didn't seem to mind and were just relieved we weren't lost and everything was okay. I was happy to show off Jeff to her!)

Itinerary

Our group also included two very nice ladies from Seattle, Cassie and Steph. I am guessing at the spelling, as I never saw them written down. It was fun to meet some fellow Americans with a similar outlook on Japan travel (seeing the out-of-the-way spots to make sure to get a better view of the reality of the place, that kinda thing). Jenny-san asked the group about their trips so far, if we knew any Japanese, and then quizzed us on some basics of the language. I, being a dutiful dweeb, did not answer until after giving the ladies with us (who were on their first trip to Japan) a chance to answer. Jenny-san seemed very excited any time I knew correct words or bits of trivia about the country (she was particularly impressed I knew who Hattori Hanzo was, though I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was because I played way too much Samurai Showdown in college) (I was wondering what weeby thing taught you that name! I figured it was some anime with genderbent historical figures like that one with waifu Ieyasu) [We don't talk about Hyakka Ryouran in front of polite company.]. I'm sure I earned a lot of Good At Answering Questions On A Tour points, which are a real thing that I'm certain everyone tracks throughout their day to day life. 

Tour Company

The tour started with a roll through of the Otemachi financial district where Jenny-san very thoroughly explained that it was Sunday and that all the Salarymen were off work today. Also that drinks there cost nearly ten times what they do over in Kanda, which is a more working-class neighborhood. (She showed us an office building with a nice brick façade and said that the outer part was new, but inside it is very old (and run down) but it was once the tallest building in the area, until the rich businesses moved in, but they made sure the outside looks nice so they can brag about being The Oldest Building That Was Once The Tallest.)

Then, on to Tokyo Station to see the third busiest station in the world. Most people who use the station never see the outside, as it's primarily a transfer hub for regional transit to local transit. Angie and I have seen it loads of times, though. Because we're cool like that. There was a flower arrangement display, tied to Pokemon's 30th Anniversary (frick, I'm old). (She also showed us that the architect supposedly based Tokyo Station off of Amsterdam Central Station, a place we have never been but Cassie and Steph have. Points for them this time!)

Tokyo Station, as seen over flower displays.

A cool little park we rode past, behind which was a high-rise with a terraced garden on the twentieth floor. This photo was taken at top speed on an eBike and has not been edited in any way. I am just that good at photography, somehow. 

Our next stop was the area around the Imperial Palace. Several gates, of varying historical significance. (I learned that there are two gates that all are at right angles to each other at a short distance so that when they rode in on their horses, the horses couldn't quickly change direction, they would close both gates to trap them, and then shoot them full of arrows. The horses would be perfectly fine and survive, of course, we and CasSteph concluded.) We rode past the Nippon Budokan, famed home of both Sumo and The Beatles. One of them is an ancient performance where 800+ pounds solemnly perform in front of thousands of serious and hidebound fans, and the other is Sumo. (She said "Budou" or all of the sacred, Japanese Martial Arts. She was very intent on making sure the sanctity of this sacred place where traditional sports were played for hundreds of years was forever tarnished starting with the audacious Beatles demanding to perform a concert there. And they weren't even Japanese! She had a list of all the non-Japanese people that went on to also demand they perform their concerts in this martial arts hall, of which Eric Clapton seemed to be a repeat offender.)

The Budokan

One of the castle gates.

Budokan, peeking out from behind the castle gate wall.

We were on our way past Yasukuni Jinja, a shrine that is famed for a yearly remembrance ceremony related to the end of WWII, when we started noticing a *lot* of police. Like, *a lot* a lot. Like, "The President Is About To Announce Something Very Unpopular And Is Worried The People Will Revolt" a lot. Jenny-san tried to talk to a few of the police nearby, who were in the process of putting up barricades, but they all gave her the brush off and an "everything is daijoubu, mind your damn business" type response. Several blocks later, we met up with a bike cop who gave us the skinny. There were two protests happening the same day, at the same place. One, the hyper-conservative ultra-right wing party who wants Japan to go back to 1930s Japan - with the conquest and the violence and the... all that stuff. The other, a moderate group who wants Japan to continue its peaceful ways. The police were putting up barricades because when those types of protests happen, things tend to go sideways. So they were being cautious. (I was sad we had to ride past the Diet building, the seat of both the left and the right wing politicians and official judicial decisions are made. Also central setting to a favorite anime of mine: Yami no Matsuei.)

How I imagine every Japanese politician felt in their offices, knowing that they continue to stoke dissent amongst the populace in a bid to retain what power they have. (How DARE you post another Shido on this blog??? There is only one Shido allowed on this blog and he is certainly NOT this bald creep!)

Then we saw the British Embassy. And the park that *used* to be part of the British Embassy, until they couldn't afford the rent anymore, so they gave it back to the City of Tokyo to manage. So now it's a park. I was a very good lad and didn't deface *any* posters outside the Embassy, despite very much needing to correct it to "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and The North of Ireland". Several more points of me, there. 

Something blooming here smelled REALLY GOOD!

We rode downhill towards Tokyo Bay, heading for some of the reclaimed/constructed islands there. Riding through Tsukiji Market was a trip, so incredibly full of people. We stopped for a potty break and then rode on to Tsukishima Monja Street (not related to Tsushima, no matter how many times my brain autocorrected the name), famed for being the place that actual Tokyo locals go to get Monjayaki (a sort of make-your-own pancake on a hibachi grill, I promise it's better than I'm making it sound). A nice little area. (It's a soupier, goopier version of okonomiyaki and I would like to try it someday.)

Tsukuda Island was up next, one of the only pieces of natural land in Tokyo Bay. It was where, in the 1600s, Soon-to-be-Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (*ptooo~*) brought a bunch of fishermen and shamans from Kyoto to be the foundation of his new Imperial capital. Because you can't go having a capital in one place for too many consecutive centuries or it's bad luck or something. (Jenny also took us across some really scenic and beautiful bridges to get us to the "reclaimed" little islands. She also showed us a tiny shrine that was built around a large, old tree, and how you don't cut down nature to build in Japan, because that would be disrespectful to the kami, the gods, that are all in all things in Shinto religion. Instead you build a shrine around it to respect it and keep it safe. She also said that all Shinto shrines have the torii gate at the entrance of them and they don't have to just be the ones painted that red-orange color. They can be plain wood or even stone. -100 weeb points for me thinking it was Buddhist if it was all natural colors and materials with no glitzy paint job.)

The "Buddhist" temple in question.

We swung through Ginza, one of the most expensive places to purchase property in the entire world. Our little convoy of heimin got a lot of glares from rich folks. Okay, just a few. And it was primarily from rich tourists (Europeans, Americans, etc), rather than locals. But I could tell from their eyes. We weren't wanted there. So we rode on through Ginza without kicking a single $200,000+ car. (That was legitimately a concern of mine. I would ride right alongside or behind these expensive cars and be very worried I was going to suddenly run into it and scratch it!)

Our last stop was a lovely temple where they had painstakingly dragged thousands of rocks from Mt Fuji to Tokyo, so that people could venerate the highest mountain god without leaving the comfort of their home. Apparently, there are around 90 or so of these Fuji-Outposts throughout greater Tokyo. Now, with the advent of faster travel (so that it doesn't take a month for a healthy person to walk to Mt Fuji), people can just ride the train there if they wish to do so - even if they're in poor health. Nice! (I loved Jenny's explanation of it. That people's grandparents would get sick and ask their strong, young grandchildren, "Do you love me? Do you want me to get better? Go be a good lad and fetch me a giant rock from Mount Fuji!"  Jenny asked Jeff, "If your grandpa asked you to fetch a rock, wouldn't you do it for him?" LOLOL! She also joked that Mount Fuji isn't as tall because all these shrines have their own little Mt. Fujis with all these stolen rocks LOL!) [Neither of my grandfathers would ever request that of me, because until their deathbeds they were both *incredibly* physically active with daily gardening and woodworking, respectively.]

We saw a fox or two that we knew.

And with that, we arrived back at the base for our tour group. Jenny-san took some photos and we went our separate ways. Angie and I took the train back to Ikebukuro to have a quick respite before heading out for some more shopping. 

And that is where Jeff ended his half of writing the blog as it was 10pm when he started it and we were tired. Now that it's my turn, it's the next morning and uh.... what in the heck did we do next? We came back to the hotel and made a game plan. Ah yes! Since it was Sunday, that means any place we were going to go was going to be crazy hopping (except the business district, apparently), so we were going to go to the last couple of shops in Ikebukuro we didn't get to the other day. First up: a card store in a mall on the other side of the station. It was small and didn't have much or affordable in the ways of Magic cards for Jeff. They DID have a Tower Records on the top floor, and you know I can't resist a tower records! Jeff bought a soundtrack to Persona 4 Golden. I bought a soundtrack to Jet Set Radio Future and a Malice Miser CD (the money for which we hope goes to Mana), and we both yearned to buy the vinyl for Twin Peaks and Blade Runner, but decided we can more easily buy those in the states for about just as much moneys.

Next stop: Super Potato (there's a popular one in Akihabara but there's also one in Ikebukuro). A great place to go for used games, especially for older consoles. We bought nothing but had fun looking around.

Tsugi wa: Book Off. There we DID find a used copy of Fire Emblem for Nintendo DS (which is the last of the Nintendo handhelds to not be region-locked).

Then: Big Magic, a teeny tiny store jam packed with people so that I just waited outside downstairs, while Jeff didn't find any Magic cards for sale but DID find a blind-buy Magic Deck gashapon vending machine, where he got a random deck of MtG cards for 500 yen that DEFINITELY had a great return on investment for him! I'm proud of him for only buying 4 boxes. [Foil, full art, JPN Meathook Massacre for only 500 yen is a *steal*. The other packs weren't that much of a steal, but they were all worth well over 500 yen. I may go back tonight...] [Also, Angie makes a big deal about it taking forever, but I was inside for a total of 8 minutes.]

84 years later: I decided to get my refills of Japanese beauty products shopping done now while were were near a Matsumoto Kiyoshi and found everything on my list but one thing that I tried last time and loved and had used up. I bought 2 of everything which will hopefully hold me over until next trip to Japan.

Despite our feet starting to hurt we couldn't resist taking a little LookSee into the nearby GiGO arcade but only went up two of the floors and wasted 400 yen to realize all the machines had the weakest claws in existence. We left.

And then we plodded along for the remaining 8 blocks back to our hotel, dropping off our stuff and deciding on the nearby Ootoya for dinner. Like a Cafe Gusto setup but with traditional Japanese foods at not expensive but higher than Saizeriya prices, I had the shrimp tempura on rice and a pumpkin croquette (best part) and Jeff had sweet and sour chicken and a creamed corn croquette. Their sweet and sour is only sour and a strange taste that neither of us really liked. The creamed corn croquette was pretty good though!

It was now about 8pm and we could hear the sounds of cheering and singing from a concert going on nearby. It was either Idol Cream Soda at the Municipal Building, or performers at the Curry Festival at the park. Either way, it sounded fun, but it was time for us to turn in. It was a little early, so I made the decision to start packing, decanting, and unboxing our souvenirs now rather than the night before we leave. That took an hour or two, but I'm glad we did it. Now we know how big of a second suitcase we need to buy. Jeff hopped on the Discord to say hi to his Sunday morning game group and I washed my face and went to sleep.

Today is our last day in Japan! T-T The worst part of any trip is leaving! I do miss our kitties though.

Our next blog post might not be until much later, so we'll report back with a conclusion when we can!

The Central: Day 13 - A Repeat of a Shopping Episode

Cerulean Hart: There's a lot of shopping and not much else today. 

Slightly Longer Version: We woke up, we went downtown to look for a job, then we hung out in front of the drug store. 

Actually Longer Version: 

We started the day by trucking ourselves (well... public transit-ing ourselves) to Shibuya to hit up the SEGA store to grab some Persona merch. Come to find out, there was also a Capcom store, Godzilla store, Pokemon store, and Nintendo store on the same floor. Needless to say, we found many other things to acquire to sate our little weeb hearts. 

After that, we planned to go to a revolving sushi restaurant, but all of them were far away. Then, we decided on Ichiran (since it's safe and was right there), but there was like... a lot of people. Minimum of an hour wait. No thanks, I'm hungry now. While we tried to find alternative options, we wandered up to Tower Records (styled TOWER RECORDS everywhere) to try to find some Japan Only albums. Sadly, they only had albums we already owned from previous trips. What a horrible issue to have! Woe are we! (Angie: I was pretty much just checking the Susumu Hirasawa selection. Finding that vinyl last time has me hungry for more!)

In the intervening time, we decided to hit up Pronto to get some pasta. It was down in the basement of a nearby building, so thankfully no lines. The pasta was... eh. It was okay. Angie got a yogurt strawberry drink (which, at the time, she did not know was yogurt related) (But was still pretty tasty! I did use my pasta spoon to spoon out the remaining chunks of strawberry at the bottom. Ice cubes in fancy drinks here really are preventing us from enjoying the good stuff!) and it had a similar problem to the drinks from Caffe Veloce - the milk product stuck to the ice cubes and was hard to extricate. 

Now, the bulk of the day. We grabbed the Yamanote line to Shinjuku then transferred to the Chuo line, bound for Nakano. 

Nakano Broadway, for the uninitiated, is like 5 (4) floors of random anime nonsense and "completely legitimate" watches. 

Very, very few of the shops allowed photography, so we decided to not, ya know, take any photos. 

Angie: Now that I'm all showered and soaked, it's Jeff's turn to get clean and relaxed and my turn at the blog!

Yes, this isn't our first time at Nakano Broadway so we know to start at the top, 4th floor and only make left (or right, but pick one) turns. Like a maze, because it is pretty maze-like. The floor plan is almost set up like a ladder with 3 rungs, but not perfect rectangles, the ladder has little dead-end hallways at the tops and bottoms.

Plus, this lets me go to the place I wanted to go here for anyway: anime cels. There are 3-4 cel shops, but two of them have large enough collections you can rifle through binders or bins of labeled and unlabeled misc. anime. Like flipping through records! Right off the bat Jeff found a cell with about 5 douga of Shido! And it was only 1,500 yen! The least I've bought one online was for $30 so this was literally the best deal I've ever had!

Alas, that was the end of any Nightwalker purchases for today, but one is better than none, and with that anime in this day and age, that's pretty lucky!

So we snaked our way through each floor, around every corner, to every nook and cranny, sumimasen-ing and squeezing past other people in the tiny little shops filled to the brim, floor to ceiling, with second-hand anime merch. I feel like there are more anime stores than there were in 2024, but maybe that's because it's nice to have a second set of eyes, or if you need a break, send the other in to scout it out while you wait outside the shop. 

In the end I bought a souvenir or two for Christina, a plushie, some cute, little, chibi L asleep (from a gashapon series it looks like), and a Death Note doujinshi. I kept seeing a figure of L in a chair for about $130-$200 but couldn't bring myself to spend that much. I'll sleep on it. If I really care I'll go back for it.

Jeff bought some doujinshi, also some souvenirs, a D&D guide book, and a Fern figurine (it's really cute).

This all took about 4 hours, so about an hour each floor, but once we got to floor 1 there wasn't as many anime stores and we were tired and hungry. There was a Kura Sushi near the Nakano station and since we didn't get it last night I was still craving it. The wait was only about half an hour so we used the facilities and I bought some essentials from the nearby drug store (Lion foot relief pads, more chapstick, and Biore UV sunsecreen for the bike tour tomorrow).

After some confusion because we SWEAR it displayed our waiting # on the screen at Kura sushi, we finally were up for our turn. We got two spots next to each other at the counter, once again in a gaijin corner, but that's okay. Kura sushi has the Janken Pon (I think they called it Bikkura Pon) chance to win a prize for every 5 plates of sushi you eat. Drinks, sides, soups, or desserts don't count, but sushi plates are all the same size, and you slide it into a little plate-sized hole at the top of your counter and it deposits the plate to a waiting dirty dish conveyor below. So after you return 5 plates you get a chance to win a little gashapon prize and right now the prize were little magnets of.... Detective Conan. Have we mentioned that it's everywhere, yet? If not: It's everywhere right now. The 29th Detective Conan movie is in theaters right now and it's being promoted everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Much like Evangelion, they really really love Detective Conan. Anyway, I didn't win and I only had (only, ha) 7 plates of sushi, BUT when I sat down, the person before me forgot their little gashapon prize so I got it and it was a magnet of Conan himself (I think the plot of the story is a famous detective either goes back in time or is accidentally regressed in age to a child again, but he continues detecting?)

I think the best thing I had was a fatty pork (cut real think like ham-thin) sushi. Jeff's favorite was a teriyaki hamburger with mayo sushi. It was great to get off our feet, too, and so when we left, we had the strength to make it back to the hotel.

And so here we are, freshened up, showered, eating snacks from Family Mart, and ready for our bike tour tomorrow morning. Wish us luck!!