Anyway, we got to the Skytree Mall around 9:30, sleeping in a bit again today. But even that wasn't long enough because, as I mentioned yesterday, things don't open until 10 or 11. We walked the Sumida River path for a bit, enjoying the outside, as the weather was yet again bright, clear and sunshiny.
Looking at the extensive selection of restaurants at the mall, I was feeling tempura (yes, for breakfast) and so we went to a tendon restaurant and enjoyed some yummy tempura. Not as crispy as I like it, but still pretty decent. I had two shrimps, a lotus root, green beans, and even a long strip of eel in my tendon! Jeff got the beef tendon and seemed to enjoy his as well.
A quick aside: I don't like tea. I like matcha flavored items, but that's mostly because it's green tea and sugar. Matcha ice cream, matcha cake, etc,. I've tried teas at home and didn't like them. But give me the weak, watery stuff at a sushi restaurant or mugicha and for some reason I don't mind it. Mugi has a bitter, almost coffee taste (and I'm not a coffee person either) but when it's cold I really don't mind it. Anyway, hooray for me and my trash palate!
Anyway, we shopped around and around and up and down 6 (there's actually 9) floors of the mall and visited favorites such as the Pokemon Center, the Disney Store, a kid's train store, some souvenir shops, and a Daiso (it was pretty small), but we were able to pick up some souvenirs and stuff for ourselves. There was Christmas music playing, but it was all played on traditional Japanese instruments, and I dearly wish they had a CD of that music. Oh, you like Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring? Here it is played on koto!
We walked across the Sumida River again and into Asakusa to get to the Ginza line to take us to another shopping destination. Maybe we could do Shibuya today, or stop by Ueno. Then my ankle decided for us as it gave out and started hurting really bad! It's like I bruised a bone or something! Who knows, but we limped to the Ginza line and took that and the Yamanote back to Akihabara where I took a nap in the hotel and Jeff bought me an ankle compression and some nasal spray for the both of us (we've been fighting some really bad nasal drip). Jeff went to wander Akiba and shop while I napped.
By the time he got back I was rested and ready to try out my ankle again. It still hurt, but not nearly as bad, and I didn't have to limp, so that was good. It was around dinner time anyway, but I wasn't up for going too far from the hotel. I was willing to walk for some tonkotsu ramen at a place a few blocks away. Not as good as Ichiran but it was pretty darn good tonkotsu (at least, 100x better than even the best ramen at home). Across the street was a Don Quijote which is a nice place to look for reasonably priced souvenirs (better than Daiso, but cheaper than a regular store) and they have EVERYTHING, but it's all compacted into a maze, like the mall, but in aisles the width of one person, yet you will often have to squeeze past people, dance around others, ring around the rosey in the aisles. Cheap prices at the price of clausterphobia! Today was Sunday, the busiest day of the week in Japan while people are (mostly) off of work and school, so maybe when we visit the Mega Donki in Shibuya tomorrow it won't be as bad.
I'll have to find the picture I took of me and the Col. Sanders in 2008 and put them side by side. It was a lovely reunion!
Oh Godzilla, we shouldn't hold hands in public!
Skytree! Skytree! Skytree!
We enjoyed the Skytree from the ground this year.
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