Day 2 in Tokyo Travelogue - Visiting Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Taking a Taxi

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When I woke up this morning, I checked to see how my foot was.  Something was still wrong with it.   My foot was fully healed from a lisfranc fracture (a hairline break in a couple of bones) I had received earlier that summer.  Three months of limited walking during the best time of year really sucked, and of course it weakened the foot with disuse.  So when I started walking normally on it again in October, and doing physio, it should have been completely healed in a few months, but it was still acting up.  I always pack a first aid kit (with medications and tape, but mostly for blisters / scrapes) to take care of most ailments short of a major bleed or break.  I had a roll of athletic tape with me  and I basically bound up my foot by wrapping it a few times around the middle of the foot to give it some pressure in the right place.  This helped tremendously, but I would still need to take it easy.  No running, or hills for now, but walking more on the heel of that foot would be easily done.  The vacation wasn't cancelled!

I had to change up my schedule a bit and visit things that were more centralized in various locations to walk a little less.  The first thing for the day was to have a good breakfast.  Nothing like that to reset your perspective and get a good start to the day.  The buffet downstairs in the hotel was really nice.  It was on the same upper floor as the check-in, but was a really airy, bright space with big windows.  There was a nice spread of Japanese and western type foods.  It was a real pleasure to eat here with nice miso soup, broiled salmon / mackerel, a variety of Japanese pickles, veggies, soft scrambled eggs, and white rice.  There were pastries, cereals, salads, bacon, sausages, and hash browns too.  I knew I was going to enjoy the breakfasts here for the next five days.

After breakfast, I went downstairs into Kyobashi Station (literally just in front and below the hotel) to take the Ginza line one stop south to Ginza Station where I transferred to the Marunouchi Line that took me straight to Ikebukuro Station in 20 minutes.  At the staion, i went into the food level of the Seibu Department store where the Kit Kat Chocolaterie was.  I found out that these shops have all pretty much closed.  The only remnant is a little kiosk selling these custom Kit Kats now.  Covid pretty much ended these ambitious gourmet Kit Kat shops.

Instead of walking over to Sunshine City Mall which was my next destination, I took a cab.  This was the first time I have taken a cab in Tokyo, and for a short haul, say 500 - 600 yen, it was so worth it to save wear and tear on the foot.

Street outside Ikebukuro Station.

Some really tasty looking strawberry shortcake from Seibu.

Pricey gift boxes of fruit at Seibu

I had several things to see at Sunshine City.  These were the Pokemon Bakery, Pokemon Mega Center, and the gigantic Bandai Gashapon Center. There are many other attractions in the Ikebukuro area here such as theme cafes, the aquarium, the women oriented Gamers, the Animate Flagship store (renovations to be completed in 2023), the Evangelion Store, and the biggest DAISO 100 yen store in Japan just opened in the TOBU department store attached to Ikebukuro Station.

Sunshine City is an older mall and the tower here also has an observation deck and there is an aquarium with many penguins here.  There is a bunch of anime related shops clustered around the Pokemon Mega Center here.  I was here to have a look at it as it is the only one with like a huge Pokemon statue display area / garden.  You will find many of the starters here and can have your picture taken with them.  There is of course one of the new legendary Pokemon here too, Miraidon from Pokemon Violet.  Lots of shopping to be done here.  There is also a Pokemon Go store with Go branded merchandise and life-sized figures of the team leaders of the game.  You can of course have your picture taken with them.  The Pokemon Bakery is pretty nice looking too, and you can order pastries to go.

Pokemon garden.

Everyone's favourite Gen 1 starter Pokemon. Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle.

Some other fire Pokemon starters.

There is also Pikachu

Giant statue of Miraidon.

Pokemon Go store statue area.

Portion of the Pokemon Mega Centre.

The other reason I wanted to visit Sunshine City was to see the Bandai Capsule Store and Museum.  I actually didn't realize there was a museum here until I was leaving the gashapon store.  Bonus!  It was actually really interesting to trace the origins of capsule toys from the early machines to the later machines and the types of toys contained within the capsules over the years.  The toys have definitely gotten more sophisticated and more expensive!

The photo above shows a good portion of 1/2 of the Bandai Capsule Store.  It is huge.  There is repetition in the machines, and if you are looking for something in particular, do try to ask a staffer for help.  For example, I had to ask if they had any Genshin Impact machines for a friend. You could spend hours and a lot of money if you were interested in capsule toys.  There is a huge variety.  Most of the machines now cost 300 to 500 yen per pull so it isn't cheap.  I wanted food models and I Facetimed back home to let a few people pick their favourite machines to try, so I was like a virtual gashapon experience for them with real prizes!  Plenty of machines with cute animals and anime characters too.

I wanted to try to get Yoshinoya food models. 500 yen per pull.

It took 5 tries, but I got the beef bowl! The other models were good too, and I got a grilled salmon breakfast set too!

I exited the store through the museum portion and it was pretty fantastic too.  Seeing all of these old toys is always kind of cool and there were display cases showcasing items throughout four decades of toys.  The older ones are much simpler and would have been quite cheap too!

Note the ancient capsule machine on the left.

Some toys from 1983.  Monochrome, but colourful.

I then took a taxi down to Shinjuku.  This turned out to be a $50 cab ride, but it was okay as I was dropped off right across the street from the Godzilla store there, saving me a long walk.  I was willing to spend more money than normal for transportation as it was needed, but I'd try to avoid cabs / uber as they are still pretty expensive.  It was interesting that the cab drove by the Nissin Foods HQ here too and I saw some parts of Tokyo that I would not normally see.

There are two Godzilla themed attractions in Shinjuku.  One is the giant Godzilla head and the other is the Godzilla Store which is some distance away in the OIOI Marui Annex Shinjuku.  There's always a bunch of merchandise I want to buy here so I bought a technicolour t-shirt and a few other items.  Don't miss the hallway to the bathrooms (on the third floor?) which is completely Godzilla themed with all of the movie posters.  I never knew Anker had a store/outlet, but there was one here too.  After the Godzilla store I headed back east towards Shinjuku Station.

Underarmor Store had Black Adam theme going.

The next attraction I wanted to see was the giant Cross Space 3D Billboard where I wanted to see some of the animations, especially of the big calico cat which is like the mascot.  It looked pretty real and 3D too!  Lots of fun to watch and see.  It started to rain at this point on and off and the forecast was more wet weather ahead.

Cross 3D Billboard

I took the Yamanote Line down to Shibuya and thought I would do a bit of scouting of the new buildings that have popped up since my last visit.  There has been a massive amount of redevelopment and new construction going on here.  I was going to go up high to Shibuya Sky View, but the rain made me put it off until tomorrow.

Yamanote Line.

There were some detours and a number of new above ground pedestrian bridges around Shibuya Sky and the Stream buildings.  I was kind of tired by now and wanted to get some lunch.  There were a number of restaurants at Shibuya Stream, but I wasn't sure where to go and then I saw another ramen shop. If you can't decide, have ramen!  It was a tasty choice for miso ramen this time and I didn't regret it.

Shibuya Crossing

Shibuya Stream Christmas Champagne light decorations.  There is also a Google office of some sort here.

Miso Ramen

Ramen shops almost always have some nice cold ice water handy and it was really nice to get a few glasses of water at this point too.  I headed back to the hotel after this on the Ginza Line and rested before heading out again in the evening for dinner and more sightseeing.

Click here to continue onto the evening sights (more Godzilla and Christmas lights).

Day 3 - Back to Shibuya for New Parco, Nintendo Store, Pokemon Center, Miyashita Park

The Japan Trip 2022 Posts

1. Planning My Tokyo 2022 Trip Highlights and Attractions (for Anime and Regular Tourists)
   
2. Highlights From My December 2022 Trip to Japan (with links to daily pages)
3. Day 1 - The First Night In Tokyo
4. Day 2 in Tokyo - Visiting Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Taking a Taxi 
5. Day 2 in Tokyo - Evening with Godzilla and Christmas Lights
6. Day 3 - Back to Shibuya for New Parco, Nintendo Store, Pokemon Center, Miyashita Park 
7. Day 3 -  Views From Shibuya Sky, Shopping at Tokyu Hands and Don Quijote
8. Day 4 - Nezu Shrine, Ameyoko, Ni No Kashi Candy Store, Yamashiroya Toy Store, and Ichiran Ramen in Ueno
9. Day 4 - Sensoji Shrine in Asakusa, Tokyo Midtown Christmas Illuminations, and Pokemon Store and Cafe Nihonbashi
10. Day 5 - Yokohama, Giant Gundam at Gundam Factory, Landmark Tower Shopping, Harry Potter Christmas Trees
11. Day 6 - Yokohama , Nissin Cup Noodle Museum, World Porters Mall, Landmark Tower Shopping Area
12. Day 7 - Kyoto Part 1, Kiyomizudera and Yasaka Shrine
13. Day 7 - Kyoto Part 2, Kodaiji Temple Night Illuminations and Yasaka Shrine at Night  
14. Day 8 - Travelogue - Kyoto Part 1 - To Fushimi Inari Shrine and The Mountain Summit 
15. Day 8 - Travelogue - Kyoto Part 2 - Kennin Ji Temple and Evening at Kyoto Station
16. Day 9 - Travelogue - First Visit to Nara for Deer, Pikachu Donut, Daibutsu Temple, Kasuga-Taisha, Kohfukuji Temple 
17. Day 10 - Osaka - Seeing Osaka Castle, Pokemon Center, and Dotonbori 
18. Day 11 - Seeing Himeji Castle, the Most Beautiful One in Japan, and the Umeda Sky Building
19. Day 12 - Osaka Aquarium (Whale Sharks!), Den Den Town, Shinsekai, and MOS Burger
20. Day 13 - Travelogue - Back to Tokyo - Akihabara - Shinjuku at Night
21. Day 14 - Underground to Ginza, Shopping, Ginza GoldFish Aquarium, and Tokyo Skytree
22. Day 14 - Tokyo's Underground Labyrinth 2 - Walking From Tokyo Station to Ginza
23. Day 15 - Travelogue - Museums Close Monday - Ueno Park - Narita - Flight Home

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