Not many photos taken today, and I told myself that I wouldn't do any big trips, but it was still plenty of walking. I did treat myself to some relaxing at a sento, but more on that later.
My original itinerary had me going out to Shibamata, a 40 minute train ride, so not too far, but it would have been a very walk-y day. So I moved it around with a shopping day and decided I'd rather walk around stores all day LOL. Completely different!
I started with a hearty breakfast of a beef bowl at Matsuya with my favorite of a soft boiled egg and lots of green onion! Don't worry, I have mint gum on me!
I headed to Shibuya and Google told me to find a certain exit but finding ANY exit was proving a little difficult. Usually I've just been following the crowd but this time that didn't quite work, so I just found a skywalk into a department store and was able to exit from there.
I went to Tower Records first because a favorite band of mine just released an album a few days ago! Even now, 40 years later, they are releasing an album and the first one since Atsushi died in 2023. We met them at Shinjuku station yesterday: it's none other than Buck Tick! I was able to buy Subrosa (the new album) as well as two Susumu Hirasawa albums I don't yet have a physical copy of.
Apparently Tower Records had a free gift for buying the new Buck Tick album so I went down to the first floor where there was a line for various new album's promotional gifts (not just Buck Tick). While I waited for the employee to get mine she was flagged down by some old man and, I may not speak much Japanese, but the experience of a customer service employee being yanked aside and complained at by rude men is universal. I did my best to have understanding and pity in my eyes for her when she finally was able to get back to helping me and apologized profusely. Anyway, my free gift? SHOELACES!! No, these are great and I have already put them on my shoes. I love it!
My next stop was nearby anyway, so I headed to the main stop of the day: Shibuya Pokemon Center! Located on the 6th floor of the PARCO mall, it was a week away from opening when Jeff and I were here in 2019 so we juuuuuust missed it. I was really interested in going because each Pokemon Center has a certain Pokemon mascot. Magikarp for Hiroshima, Ho-Oh for Kyoto, Snorlax at Nihonbashi (I think, might also be Vulpix), and so on. Shibuya's mascot is my favorite Pokemon, Mewtwo! And they have a very cool display of him outside the store (and a cute graffiti at the entry)!
I kinda want this as a tattoo...
Aaaaand, that's as far as the magic of the Pokemon Center went. Beyond the entrance it was PACKED. There was hardly any room to get to the shelves, not too much merchandise, and a line for the registers a mile long (I'm only slightly exaggerating). I looked around but after having to squeeze past the 3rd person wheeling around a full-sized wheeled suitcase in a friggin crowded store, I decided there wasn't anything I NEEDED. I saw my Mewtwo, I was happy.
The case was the same across the way at the Nintendo store and the Shounen Jump store. The bathroom on that floor was surprisingly empty though! My feet were starting to get a little tired but I didn't want to head back to the hotel because my other stop of the day, Nakano Broadway, was out in this western-ly direction, so I decided to get lunch and see if any tattoo-friendly sentos I bookmarked was nearby. I was in luck! There was one in Nakano!
So on the train I went and headed north and a little more west to Higashi Nakano. There weren't too many choices for food, but there was a place near the station (which was small and like one platform) called Omoriken that looked like it served something that looked like fried rice. Upon entering it was a small shop with a ticket ordering machine. I let a business man go in front of me and just watched what he did (that's my secret, let someone go in front of you and just watch them, then you seem like a polite creeper!). Alas, there was no English translation button so I did my best with the few words I recognized in katakana: pork, chicken, or beef something, something kanji something. I picked pork something and ended up getting this:
Apparently it's called Teppanyaki rice set. We use the term Teppanyaki and Hibachi in the U.S. with the big flat steel grill that they fry stuff up on and serve it to you. At this place that black metal plate on the wooden board is the grill. Like that big, sizzling plate you get at the Mexican restaurants, my meal also came out steaming and sizzling with seasoned, flavorful pork and cabbage. It was pretty good! I had no idea if I was eating it right, but pretty much I'd take a bite and then follow it with a bite of rice LOL. The restaurant was full, but most of the room was taken up by 4 Quebecois women with babies??? Very interesting. Once they left it was quieter with some breathing room.
After lunch it was a 10 minute walk to the
sento Matsumoto-yu. This place allows tattoos! Hooray! It did offer some great baths. There were jet massagers for your back where you would lay down like in a lawn chair, or sitting up and the water up to your neck with jets for the bottoms of your feet, thighs and sides. I needed that very much. There was the usual hot water bath where I sat and marinated for a bit, then moved into the "beauty pool" which was bubbly/fizzy and cooler, a nice reprieve from the hot, hot waters. There was also a corner labeled "a breath of fresh air" with vents that blew a gentle breeze of cooler air. All in all, it was very nice! After drying off I bought me a nice, rehydrating Pocari Sweat and sat in their little lounge area and drank that.
Refreshed (but makeup-less and my hair still damp and pulled back), it was a very quick walk to another station that would take me to central Nakano, and from there, a quick walk up a shoutengai to Nakano Broadway. I headed straight up to the back corner of the 4th floor where the anime cel store is. Alas, no Nightwalker, but I did get a cel of Inaho from Mosquiton out of the unidentified discount bin for like $4. I wandered to the Mandarake cel store and when I asked the lady about any Nightwalker cels and handed her my prepared papers with the info in Japanese she chuckled and mentioned something about nostalgia. But no, no Nightwalker cels there. That was my main quest for Nakano Broadway, the rest of the time was walking around and getting lost, making sure I explored every nook and cranny. Nakano Broadway should just be relabeled "Would you like to buy a watch?" or "Mandarake central" because the whole place is either a specific Mandarake second-hand store selling anime merch (but not the kind I'm looking for) or a watch shop. The 3rd and 4th floor corners are pretty fun though. There's weird nooks in the wall with aliens in them?? And one hallway with red, portholes like on the side of a spaceship, but if you look through them, it's just the back office of Mandarake. I found the cafe that was recently in
Sarah's Tokyo Creative video but didn't stop in. It was kind of fun just getting lost in there and finding weird displays in windows and corners. My feet were once again sore and my lips very chapped. Fortunately I knew right where to go as I had passed a Sun Drug on the way in. I bought me a Nivea Deep Moisture "melty type" lip balm and a big pack of Lion foot and leg patches. You be your bippy I was gonna plaster those all over my feet and legs tonight!!
After making doubly sure the ramen place Jeff and I had enjoyed back in 2012 was well and truly gone (it was 😢) I took the train back to the hotel. I also double-checked the tiny UNIQLO that's under the Ueno Station tracks for a new coat but there were none in my size. It's okay, I still don't need it. In fact, it's the perfect temperature outside for just a hoodie and pants! Then the subways and some stores are blasting the heat so I get warm very quickly!
I hit up the Family Mart on the walk back to the hotel and got me a pastry and a Calpis for dinner (I was craving sugar). There was a new type of Calpis, a fresh cream and cheesecake flavored, and not liking cheesecake, I should have known I wouldn't like it, but I had to try anyway. It made it taste too yogurt-y and cheese cake-y, so alas, not a new favorite flavor (like the cherry). It also made my tummy very rumbly and grumpy.
Even though it was only 8:30pm I still hit the sack early. Hooray jet lag!
Night night!
Today's spoils
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