After grabbing a conbini breakfast, I met up with K, a friend I knew from college who has been in Tokyo for over two years now, by Harajuku station at 10:30 am. There was an insanely long line of people waiting for something. K said that often people wait in huge lines to get into the famous restaurants in this area. We walked around Harajuku. It was early enough that the crowds hadn’t started yet. Lots of clothing shops (such cute socks!), and crepe stands! There were some themed cafes as well. After getting her phone checked out at the apple store, we stopped in a giant theme store that sold all the character goods you could possibly imagine. They even had the mole character from Czech Republic. We wandered through some back alleys that had some interesting architecture and fancy restaurants. We got lunch at a crepe truck and both tried an avocado salmon salad crepe. It was huge and delicious. Much bigger than the dessert ones.

We caught the train over to Ueno Park and stopped by a place that had tons of gachapon (vending machines that give capsule toys), before walking over to the park. Some early sakura were already blooming. We visited a shrine, passed by the zoo, and the National Museum. We headed around the pond to visit another shrine near the park, Yushima Tenjin. The plum blossoms there had just started to bloom and they were having a festival with performances and food. We got to listen to some taiko drumming.

We hit the road again and walked to catch the next train over to Ikebukuro to visit the Pokemon Center as today was the 20th anniversary of the Pokemon games! It was my first time in Sunshine City, a large mall that we access from the basement level. The Pokemon Center was hopping! An unbelieveable amount of people were shopping and waiting in the checkout line. I picked out some of the exclusive Japan anniversary goods: a folder, keychain, t-shirt, the Japanese Pokemon Blue game (although I can’t play it on my US 3DS, it came with a magnet and a map). I also got a free plastic poster for spending over 4000 yen. The checkout line moved really quickly and the guy at the register even double checked that I knew the game was region locked. I thought about getting the green version because it’s only available in Japan, but Pokemon Blue was the first video game I ever played.


On the way, we stopped by the bus depot area so that I could buy my return ticket for tomorrow. K really helped out with her great Japanese. No missing my bus back this time! We got some pastries at the cafe next door that K recommended for its chocolate croissants. It was yummy, but a little too sweet for me. The melon bread that K got was much better.

Inside Sunshine City, they had a Pikachu hunt going on. We picked up a copy of the map and puzzle and set off to find all 60 little Pikachu posters hidden around the mall. The map only had a rough estimate of their locations. The second floor took us awhile but we got to be pros after learning where they were hidden. We even started writing location numbers on a map of the mall. Nothing like some logic to figure this out! Two of them were really tricky though! One was on the backside of a potted plant facing the wall, and the other was almost outside the mall in a construction zone. It took us a bit over an hour to find them all and we really learned a lot about the mall. Our three prizes were a sticker, a postcard, and a shiny certificate.

After the hot and sweaty hunt, our feet were really killing us, and we made the walk to Ichiran ramen, a chain, that served delicious ramen. It’s the best one I’ve had yet. They served one type of ramen and you could customize the ingredients like how much oil, flavor, spiciness, and how soft or hard the noodles were. It was interesting because each booth didn’t allow you to see the server’s faces. It’s supposed to make you appreciate the flavor of the ramen more. We headed over to Tokyu Hands to surprise her girlfriend who was shopping there. It was great meeting her. She was super nice and even spoke some German! After checking out some arcades, we said our goodbyes as I headed off to my capsule hotel. I’m so lucky she showed me around. According to our phones, we walked about 20 km today! No wonder our feet were dead.

I really wanted to try a capsule hotel once and I waited too long to book so that this one, Capsule Inn Kinshicho, was the only one available with women capsules. It was a bit older and a little further out, but that suited me fine as it was cheap! I was on the top floor, a women’s only floor, that held three sets of eight capsules. Basically a hostel room as you could easily hear people. I managed to just barely fit lengthwise, but it wasn't claustrophobic at all. There was even a tv built in and an outlet to charge your phone. The only problem was that the heaters were turned on much too high and it was super hot. I was sweating in my tank top and flannel pj bottoms. I didn’t even need to use the blanket they provided until later in the night when I woke up chilled after the heat had been turned off.