Ikebukuro & Bunka no Hi
Surprise, it's a holiday! November 3rd happens to be a national holiday called Bunka No Hi (文化の日) or Culture Day. It's a day meant to promote culture, the arts, and academic endeavors. Museums are free, and guaranteed to be packed, but so was everything else on any given day off in Tokyo.
Our plan was to head to Ikebukuro to visit Sunshine City, a shopping area with an aquarium and two amusement parks that we weren't about to pay for. Truthfully we were mostly after the Pokémon Megacenter, the largest Pokémon store in Japan. But Ikebukuro is also home to more nerdy goodness.
We started our day a little later than normal, but still caught the tail end of rush hour. By the time we made it to Sunshine City, the crowds were beginning to pour in. Not to be outdone by Tokyo families on holiday, the heavyweight crowd champions of the world, we hustled to the Pokémon center.
Lunch time was a sea of elbows. We began our usual hunt, and soon decided to play another round of "How Does Japan Tackle My Favorite Food?" Pasta edition. The verdict was a resounding "Okay" and I walked out with a mission to make lasagna as soon as we got home.
The streets surrounding Sunshine City include a steady dotting of anime-related shops, including the Animate headquarters. The shopping crowds had pressed in even more while we'd been eating, and Hamu's knee decided enough was enough. You can only do so much shopping.
Ah, but food... a quick trip to Mister Donut and a can of coffee later we decided to head back to Asakusa. The crowds would make for good people watching, and there was a restaurant we wanted to try. Spoiler, it was a tonkatsu place.
Sharing cultures through fried chicken? Sounds good to me.
A quick train trip, because we're getting pretty confident with this stuff, and we found ourselves waddling through a new crowd. The great thing about Asakusa is you can pick a direction, walk a bit, and you'll find something interesting to see. The other great thing about Asakusa: street food. We forgot about the holiday, but oh all other plans were off. Time to stuff our faces with fried goodness
I honestly don't remember how we got back to our hotel, because everything after that point was overshadowed by wonderful third-degree burns from fresh karaage.
