Welcome to Day 7! I guess it was pretty darn busy the last couple of days in Japan that I didn't have time to post anything! So I'm back in Hilo now, playing catch up before my vacation is officially over (booooo). I unpacked, sorted through all the stuff we got, made some videos, grouped all the omiyage, and am now catching up on posts and youtube. Phew! Not to mention I did grocery shopping and laundry! Yay!
I'm sure you don't want to really hear about all of my post-trip accomplishments, so I'll get back to posting... Day 7 was a shopping day for us. In retrospect, we should have gone to Ashikaga today, but since we didn't it was all about shopping!
We decided to get a late start... meaning Paul could go for a long run. He had planned to run to the University of Tokyo where they put up the new Hachiko statue where he is reunited with his owner! I have a feeling my husband cried when he saw it.. LOL!
Here he is petting Hachiko. Hachi looks so happy!
Before Paul came back from his run, I asked Mom and Denise if they wanted to go to Shimojima with me. I looked it up and Shimojima was open at 9:00am, so I thought we could hit this store first. Stupid me should've known this store would take a long time. Duh. I didn't take much photos here cause we were busy shopping, but I did take this photo for my friend to see if she wanted any mizuiki. The prices were awesome! My sister bought more washi and I bought pretty much everything else! Needless to say, I wasn't that happy walking home with all that stuff! LOL!
Before Shimojima opened, we had time to kill, so I showed my sister the Darth Vader Samurai I remembered seeing on my last trip. The display was still there! I hear they are coming out with an action figure soon. More on that later.
After we got back to the hotel to drop off our stuff, we packed the last of our purchases and went to drop off our luggage at 7 11 of all places. Why you ask? They accept stuff for the Ta-Q-Bin. We always thought that the delivery service was arranged by the hotel, but they advised us that they do not do that. So my resourceful hubby looked it up and said we can request it through the convenience stores as long as they had the cat logo. So I saw that 7 11 had it and we sent my sister's luggage the day before (since her flight was earlier than ours) and dropped off ours that morning. It was quite reasonable and so worth it for us not to have to take all those suitcases on the subway! Yay!
After we sent off our luggage, we headed to Ikebukuro. I was excited since I had never been there before and heard good things about Sunshine City. Ikebukuro was pretty darn crowded. I don't know if its always that way or only busy cause of Golden Week? It was a bit too crowded for my taste. The minute we got out of the station, I saw this.... Yay! More Sanrio shopping! I bought a lot of stuff there and I guess I spent enough to get tax free!
Then we headed to Sunshine City. Its actually several buildings with a lot of shops in a mall. I looked up the stores we'd be interested in so we could maximize our time there. Believe it or not, there was another Hello Kitty store. I didn't think I could possibly find anything else to buy, but I found the rest of my Sanrio Tsum Tsum look alike collection. Yay! Mom and Denise checked out the Disney Store and Totoro store but bought nothing.
We saw Gudetama outside of the Sanrio store... yep, that's disturbing alright!
More Gudetama...
While Denise was shopping in the Totoro store, Mom wanted to check out McDonalds. So we wandered over there to check out their menu and across from McDonalds we saw these cute donuts! We didn't buy any but they had so many cute animals!
Then we stumbled on a store called Passport. I saw so many cute things! I wanted to buy them all.. good thing I didn't have much room left in my luggage!
I think I need to back for these tofus. They are so soft!
We then ate lunch at a place that we apparently didn't know the "rules" for.. Didn't get any pictures cause we were so stressed, but it was basically pay a flat rate and then you make your own teishoku.
We made a quick stop to Daiso, but it was a very small one and we didn't buy much there. Then went to Tokyu Hands for another purchase for some friends. While heading to the train station, I remembered that the Kit Kat store was in Ikebukuro! Man! We had to research it and then find it. It was in Seibu, which is a department store right above the subway station. In fact, when you go down to the station, its in the basement level. We finally found it in the back of the store and bought a bunch of weird flavors like butter, strawberry maple, bitter chocolate, dark raspberry, a fruit assortment, and cream cheese. I still didn't find the apple pie flavor.
After our Kit Kat attack, we decided to leave Ikebukuro and head to Harajuku. I guess I was too busy shopping cause the only photo I got was this!
I honestly didn't think I'd buy anything from Kiddie Land. In fact, I put back a couple of things I was thinking about buying, but when I saw the Tsum Tsum display, I changed my mind and bought a bunch of stuff. I couldn't help it! It was calling my name!
Then we saw this cute Tsum Tsum car display!
Denise and Paul saw the Storm Trooper Samurai in the front and asked sales clerks if they could get one. But alas, it was only available on pre-order. Bummer. My brother in law and Paul would have loved to have them!
After we finished at Kiddie Land, we headed back to the hotel. I saw this funny sign at the station. I think its trying to tell you to hold onto the railing or a punk kid will bump you and you will fall? He he he.
When we got back to the hotel, my mom gave me this.. Cute yah? How did I miss that? Its Tsum Tsum kleenx!
Mom and Denise decided to stay back at the hotel, so Paul and I headed back out to get dinner. I let Paul choose since he had to follow us around shopping all day (which is torture for him). He chose sushi, so we researched where the nearest sushi place was in our area. He found one in Asakusabashi- which is just a subway stop away.
Funny story... earlier that morning, my sister was getting stopped by the gate. This happens when there's something wrong with your card and usually you need to see the attendant. Well, what was wrong with my sister's card you ask? She was using her hotel room card!!! Bwahahahaha! I made fun of her.. but I totally got bachi.
When we headed out for sushi, I did the same thing!!! Now I'm like that rabbit in the poster. LOL!
So if you know me, you know I don't eat raw stuff. That's why my husband hesitated to take me to eat sushi. But I told him that I'd find something to eat, so not to worry about me. The place we found was in a back street behind the station. I don't think we would've normally found this place, but that's the kind that my husband likes to eat at.
When we walked in, we were directed to go upstairs cause (I guess) downstairs was full. It had a sushi bar and a couple of private rooms (tatami). When we walked into the upstairs, everyone stopped talking and looked at us. I felt really uncomfortable, like we walked in on a secret meeting. I guess the realized we were harmless, so they eventually started talking again. We ordered a couple of beers and I found some cooked sushi that I could eat. Yay!
Hubby was happy he got to try sushi that you don't normally get to eat in Hawaii!
The one in front is my FAVORITE! They didn't have unagi, but they had anago and it was just as good to me! Love how they served it on ti-leaf.
After dinner, we walked home cause I wanted to see if I could find the Puri-cube machine again. I saw it when we walked home from Shimojima earlier that day. It must've been in one of the driveways that was locked up. Bummer.
We ended up going to 7 11 for dessert. I heard from my friend Karen that 7 11 had good ice cream. So we picked out a few to try and they were all good! I didn't really try the ice cream cone- thought that would be stale, but hubby said it was good. I ate the Black Thunder and it was awesome! Hubby ate the Haagen Daz sandwhich and loved it. I had a bite too- it was still crispy! Totally recommend that. Had my mom buy it later in the trip and she was so happy.
You are gonna love the next post! Stop by soon!
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