The title has nothing to do with the current weather, which is slightly chilly; it has nothing to do with my current state of mind, not ecstatic but now feeling homesick. More like getting sick of home. After reading my cohort's entry, I am reminded how great it was in Japan and how home (hint: California) will never feel right. I'm sure people will say that California is a great place to live and I'm taking it all for granted especially my cohort. But again, it'll never be Japan. California is nice but things can be better if people here had the better mentality described in the previous entry. Man, those elevator rides were awkward. Oh yeah, the title came from the Crash Kings' single "Mountain Man". I like it.
To get on back course, Ikebukuro doesn't offer much. My uncle who lives there even said that... I think. Sunshine 60, not City (sounds close, doesn't it?) was supposed to be the highlight of the city and therefore the highlight of the day's travels since we were exploring this district first due to the short proximity to our ryokan. It sounded fun on paper (in my guidebook from Lonely Planet). It had an aquarium, shopping area, and something called Namco Namjatown. I would better describe what was actually in Sunshine since I'm actually not sure there was an aquarium, because I was cheap and returned my guidebooks to Borders for my money back. hehe Dont judge me! But it did mention that since it was owned by Namco, one would expect Namco related activities in Namjatown. One would think, "Namco? They make videogames, so Namjatown should have a shitload of arcades! I'm so smart to make that connection." This was close to what i actually thought and hoped this would be a great visit to one of Tokyo's arcades. Getting there was like walking through a typical mall then finding a theatre entrance at one end. Already a bit weird since no one could see an arcade cabinet yet, but we confirmed that Gyoza Stadium within. Gyoza Stadium, according to the guidebook, was a whole area dedicated to what else but gyoza dining. It had many shops serving their gyoza dish. Namjatown not only had that but also Creampuff City? and Ice Cream something. Not being helpful, but they had dedicated areas for each of those. And my sister and I were a bit more excited to see that they had an One Piece Strong World theme going on. One Piece is a famous anime and the movie Strong World just released. They had One Piece themed dishes displayed outside that were cute. So we entered and welcomed by the first notable annoying high pitched female voice of our trip.
The place looked like a museum and other parts looked like a Frenchman's estate. Since it was midday, we decided to head to the Stadium first to get our grub on. The Stadium covered a large cafeteria area, but it was a sight. They designed to look like you were going through an old fashion traditional Japanese restaurant street. You'll see fake rooftops and building fronts, gates and what not. ... Like how the Paris hotel in Las Vegas. It was hard to choose which to go for. In the end we just split and went for whatever, trying to cover more ground. I think we failed and only got gyoza from two shops. My counterpart went for one with a cute old granny that we each wanted to take home with us. Walking the short distance, you got a taste of tradition you can't find too often or at all in Tokyo. After that, we checked out the rest of Namjatown. One of the things we noticed was that kids ran around with these foot tall models of the mascots and found places that electronically interacted with it. Places such as mini shrines, lil caves, and i forget what else. I was only able to discern that it was a tamagachi type thing and kids tried to accomplish different tasks at each destination. Looked fun for kids. The place is kinda trippy. There was a couples bench for photo op that had a large heart light display behind the bench... next to a cave thingy where kids use their models... seemed like a strange placement... IMO. There was another thing going on, some kids walked around with detectors with pinchers that made me think Ghostbusters so i thot they were catching ghosts. There was a section dedicated to One Piece, but my sister and I (big fans of the show) didnt really interact because there was no English to go by and we didnt think we would fully appreciate the theatrics going on. There was a man dressed as Luffy (OP main character) that just freaked me out instead of exciting me... it was the mask. The Ice Cream area was small but had some novel flavors. I went for seasalt, it was delicious but i dont think i couldve handled any more than was served. They had a sesame one that was commented to be Smokers' Lung Flavor, it was incredibly black, i suppose we shouldnt have been surprised. Oh yeah, remember the games we were supposed to play, they had a very limited selection. We didnt play any except some UFO catchers. Prizes in Japan are so much better than the ones in the States. Think i tried for a weird elongated giraffe thing... vaguely remember that. So we have animatronic singing bears? well they had animatronic dead black jazz singers... it was kinda disturbing. As we were leaving, we were able to confirm that detectors were for "Gaust hunting" that you were supposed to find hidden ghosts throughout the place. Okay so that was Namjatown. I'd recommend it to kids and really no one else. Fuck Namjatown. To get the taste of Namjatown out of our mouths, I believe we headed next to Tokyu Hands. It is a department store chain that specializes variety gifts of sorts. It was highly recommended by the book and my sister's friend. It was anything spectacular but there is some appeal. You can find some random items there; there was some stuff I didnt see anywhere in our trip. I shouldve gone a second time to appreciate it further but we never entered another again. I think the only high note for Ikebukuro were the UFO catchers. Our first ones for the trip got us hooked for the whole trip. Be warned, i may mention UFO catchers a lot because we went to a lot. The one we went to did give us some problems but it had prizes I really wanted. Friggin Magician Cat... this cute ass cat doll in which one variation wears a sash saying "May I have your blood?" (in japanese) and the one i wanted wore a top hat and cape. It wasnt actually a magician but a vampire, doesnt matter. It was rigged. Fucking Magician Cat can stay in there forever. Whats different about the UFO catchers in Japan? Well, there are many different variations among the machines. They have the traditional ones with the arm grabs the prize or rings on the prizes and drops into the hole. Ones where the prizes are attached to rings that loop over a peg and you use the arm to slide it off. Large claws and small claws. =/ Those were the ones at that establishment. I forget if this was the one with the awesome metal game up top... but if it is... my counterpart should continue this.
Before I figure out how to embed videos, heres a video of something unrelated. Its more for my cohort.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBZOlipfjkQ
http://www.moetron.com/2009/10/01/black%E2%98%85rock-shooter-pilot-edition-pv-and-screencaps/#more-6338
I kinda want the black rock shooter figure now.
Since I follow vinyl toys/figures, here are some cool ones coming out:
http://www.vinylpulse.com/2010/01/brandt-peters-dead-bunny.html#more
dead bunny is pretty awesome
http://www.vinylpulse.com/2010/01/mindstyle-x-mr-ween----weenzee.html#more
this figure just amazes me and i wish for it come out soon
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