The rain of the previous day had moved away when we awoke on Day 10 so it was a good day to be out and about in the city.  One of my companions had gone for a walk and taken the key to the apartment with him and the other was still asleep.  Both could be in their respective states for a few hours so, rather than waiting at the apartment, I decided to head out to our day’s target location on my own: Ikebukuro.

My first stop was Nishiguchi park since:

1. It is near the rail station,
2. The Animate store wasn’t open yet, and
3. The park features in one of my all-time favorite anime series, Durarara!!

Sadly, I didn’t see a Dullahan riding a motorcycle or any flying vending machines (Durarara!! reference) but I did see things I recognized from the anime nevertheless.  I’ll add some screenshots for illustrative purposes later.

Continue reading →

Day 6 was a low-key day for us as today was the breaking of the fellowship with one of our number heading back to the U.S. and the next morning the remaining 3 of us would be catching the Shinkansen for Kyoto. Our imminently departing friend hadn’t been feeling well so we stayed in for the morning, hence the uneventful post.

Not to say that we had a totally quiet morning: to hopefully make himself feel better, he ended up downing some energy drink packaged in a pink bottle that made him feel a bit jittery and wired, which was somewhat comical. None of us had any idea of what was in the drink but it had 47 of something and 25 of something else so it must have been good, right? It seemed to make him feel better, even if he was bouncing off the walls. We didn’t worry about him much, though, as we all kept saying, “Trust him, he’s a doctor,” because he is (of medicine, even). Continue reading →

Day 4 dawned with rain pouring down but that didn’t stop me and one of my traveling companions who happened to be awake from venturing to Harajuku to see what fashions the young people had on display.  We took the Yamanote line from Shibuya to Harajuku (Japan Rail passes have come in quite handy this trip!) and soon after arriving we came across a green mascot shuffling up the street.

Continue reading →