RyokOhio: The Lewises In Japan Blog: Japan Trip 2019, Days 7 & 8: Pokemon, Star Wars, and Shopping

It's not like we went shopping ONLY on these days. Oh no, we've been buying stuff this whole time! But on Monday and Tuesday we went to Shibuya and Nihonbashi and Nakano and Akihabara just to shop. We even braved the crowded, crazy mazes of Don Quijote twice for souvenirs for people at home! A Can*Do and a Tokyu Hands! A Disney store that looked like a goth rocket ship! The cluttered chaos that is Nakano Broadway! Oh woe are we, to be able to stroll around the streets of Tokyo and take the mass transit to shopping destinations!

Anyway, we started out Monday with reservations at the new (opened 2018) Pokemon Cafe! We traveled to a part of Tokyo we had never been to before, and we soon realized why: Nihonbashi is a very ritzy part of town, and it seemed to be where the wealthy go to shop. So not exactly us in our jeans and gym shoes. Coming out of the subway station we came up through a department store building. Staff were bowing at the customers left and right from behind their makeup and perfume counters. The customers that were there to actually shop were dressed to the nines. I told Jeff I felt like I was in one of those department stores from the 1950's where you check your fur coat at the coat check counter and buy fancy hats that come in hat boxes. Yes, we were very out of place, but it's always fun to walk among the rich and gawk. We did find a place where we belong among the other nerdy gaijin that were flocking towards the building containing the Pokemon Cafe and the Pokemon Center DX.

We've been to many other Pokemon Centers, and even revisited the one in Skytree Mall this trip (only bought one small thing) but they have a lot of cute things at the DX Center! Let's pray the two plates (not glass, but still) we bought survive the trip home.

We meandered the store, keeping in mind the items we would come back to possibly buy and then went over to the cafe part. I had made reservations a month in advance and loved the table we got! I reserved table B1. Not in the center table, not by the windows, and not in some corner, it was the perfect people watching spot and the perfect Pikachu watching spot! Once an hour there is a special "show" where either Pikachu or Eevee come out from the kitchen to do a meet and greet. This is a giant, fluffy costume where at times the character had to turn sideways to fit around tables! XD It was really really adorable to watch the kids go up and see Pikachu and the little antics the costumed character got into to make the meet and greet more cute and funny. Even Jeff got to shake Pikachu's hand!!

And while the food was a little overpriced (cafe food always is, you pay more for the experience than for good-tasting food) it was actually pretty delicious. I got the Pikachu Curry rice (which was pretty tasty) and Jeff got the Eevee plate with a croquette of some sort (tasted like a crab rangoon), a "burger" which was two rice "buns" and the meat inside reminded us of gyudon. He didn't finish all of his food, though. I guess the excitement of meeting Pikachu got to him!

We went from Nihonbashi to Shibuya to do some shopping. I wanted to hit up Tower Records to buy the newest Susumu Hirasawa CD (well, P-Model, but that's Susumu as well, so basically the same), and check out the Shibuya Disney store (not that great, I wasn't tempted by any of their Christmas stuff this year), Tokyu Hands (no silicone molds for Christina) and a nearby Can*Do (another 100 yen shop and more great little souvenirs) and finally the Mega Donki! We went hoping to make ourselves some hanko (name stamps) since there's apparently a machine at the Mega Donki that lets you make your own, but it was too crowded and we couldn't find it. It's hard to find stuff in a Donki, anyway. But it was Pocky Day and Donki was celebrating with huge displays of Pocky and inflatable Pocky sticks and raffles and such. Glico declared 11/11 Pocky Day in 1999, but that's because they were jealous of Lotte's Pepero Day and the money they were making from it (you can read about that amusing rivalry and all about Pocky Day here). Happy Belated Pocky Day! Share this choclate-y sweet with your significant other! <3

Were we tired after all that shopping? Hell no! After a fortifying dinner of yet another visit to Ichiran Ramen (this time a Shibuya location), we dropped our purchases off in the hotel room, took a brief rest, and went back out. Again, to an area we had never been to before: Toyko Station. That's a lie, kind of, we have been through Tokyo Station, but never outside of it, or in the surrounding area. I suppose this was the perfect time to go, because the area had been busy over the weekend with the parade for the new emperor! Near the Toyko station is the Imperial Palace where this all took place just a few days prior, but our goal wasn't the palace. Our goal was Christmas lights, illuminations, and most specifically: Star Wars. The Marunouchi area (a couple blocks and many large department buildings) were all participating in the Star Wars Marunouchi Bright Christmas event. There were different displays in the department stores and each one had a stamp commemorating each Star Wars movie in anticipation of the new one Rise of Skywalker. I found and collected all 8 stamps, and there were some tough ones too. Not everything was on the main floor! It really was a lot of fun walking around, looking at the lights, and looking for the stamps. There were some cool displays: a cute Chewbacca with C3-PO in a toy store-like display, a Christmas tree that had a light show to Star Wars music, little motion-activated posters, and a giant, lit-up snowflake statue made of Star Wars patterns/designs. On the downside, the pop-up store closed almost right after we got there.

But no worries! We vowed to return the next morning when they opened at 11 a.m. And after we woke up and bought a suitcase for our souvenirs, had breakfast at Doutor, we were right there when they opened. Jeff bought a cool hoodie and I bought some mamezara (tiny plates) and a BB-8 pin. So cute!

Our last stop was Nakano Broadway so I could pick up some Nendoroid pieces I had seen and decided to get. I'm hoping I can Frankenstein together a custom Nendoroid and hopefully make it look decent enough. Here's to hoping!

Then we headed back to the hotel to do the dreaded packing. Time to Tetris all the stuff we bought and hope it all fits into the suitcase we bought and will make our checked back at the airport tomorrow. No way to know if anything breaks until we get home, 20+ hours later. UGH.

I had 3 requests: One last karaoke session, two purikura sessions, and dessert at Denny's. We got to do everything right near the hotel as one last hurrah. Gosh I love Japan! <3

Next post probably won't be until after we're home, but we'll type it up on the plane. Until then, pray we have a safe flight home. Ta!