Trip – Page 118 – Robot Claw

Broadway

May 29, 2017

I just wrote a lengthy post but the app I used to blog from my phone crashed and it was all lost! So here’s an abbreviated version…

Yesterday we spent the day at Nakano Broadway mall, a Mecca for fans of anime/games/manga/toys etc, filled with shops that look like this;

And this…

We’ve been many times but it gets better every trip. It’s not for those with shallow pockets though; I think as the awareness of this place has grown so have the price tags!

I saw countless amazing things but none more so than Japanese imprints of the FF books I collect. That deserves its own post in the future though; watch for it!

Broadway isn’t just shops, there’s also a few arcades and lots and lots of gashapon (toy vending) machines:

We love all this stuff. It was a great day 🙂

Temple Garden

May 28, 2017

Yesterday, after waking bright and early at 1 am, we set out for Senso-Ji temple in Asakusa.

That is of course an alternate fact, since at that hour the previous (Saturday) night hadn’t even ended, much less Sunday starting! So there was all sorts of lazing around like dogs before staggering through empty Ueno at 6 am before breakfast and eventually arriving at Asakusa just a tad early.

You can see the temple in the distance framed by the stores of nakamise–dori in the foreground. We always end up here first on our Japan trips and while it tends to be choked with tourists it’s a fun place.

Those are the fortunes we pulled; KLS at the top and me the bottom. As is custom we kept hers but mine got tied onto a rack in the hope it wouldn’t come true…

There’s all sorts to be seen around Asakusa and we wandered a while taking in the sights. Partly because of the line of people buying them, KLS tried a cream-filled fish pastry and found it delightful:

In the afternoon we headed over to the big park in Shinjuku. As with most of the sights in Tokyo we’d been there before but not for a few trips. It was the perfect place to leisurely stroll around to chase away the remaining jet lag.

Of particular note was the rose garden, with countless flowers in bloom and hordes of people photographing them.

It was the perfect opportunity for a selfie 🙂

Following this there was shopping and more walking and eating and in the end it was a long and tiring day. Sets the tone well for the entire trip I expect!