Tokyo Vacation May 2018 Day 7

For reasons unknown, I woke especially early – around 6:30am. At 9:45 I walked downstairs to the breakfast buffet in the hotel lobby while Justin & Scott slept in. Around 11am the three of us caught the shuttle bus to Shinjuku Station then walked to Kabukicho. We first found the Okadaya Shinjuku Honten, a fabric and sewing store. We went up to the fifth floor so Justin could look for Japanese buttons for his wife’s collection. Attractive Japanese clothing buttons turned out to be rather expensive. When we inquired about fabric, we were told that the Okadaya store next-door specialized in fabrics. So Justin went next-door while Scott and I wandered the neighborhood. As Justin browsed and purchased lengths of Japanese fabric for his wife back in Florida, Scott and I poked our noses into the Lammtarra idol store then across the pedestrian street into the anime and adult Lammtarra store. I pointed out the Don Quijote store across the street, so Scott & I walked over to the store and began browsing. The Don Quijote franchise is akin to America’s Spencer’s Gifts store franchise. Each store is a bizarre mixture of kitsch, practical, luxury, and unnecessary items all mixed together with seemingly no discernable organization. While we were browsing the store, Justin texted notice that he’d finished his excursion and was ready to meet us again. So I went down to the street level to find him.

I found Justin and brought him into the “Donki” store. Justin purchased a handful of magnets as Japanese souvenirs for co-workers at home. We then collectively decided to walk back across the street again to have lunch at the Yoshinoya. We climbed the stairs to the second floor and ordered. Justin ordered the chili sauce curry with beef. Scott ordered the same with an egg. I ordered a large gyudon.

After eating, with the help of Scott’s phone GPS we managed to walk to the Shinjuku Wald 9 theater and its adjacent OIOI department store. Just inside the “Marui” department store, on the ground floor corner, is the official Godzilla shop. The selection included several vinyl monster figure toys, t-shirts and embroidered jackets, mugs, towels, post cards, and reference books for each Godzilla monster. Justin purchased a tiny glass Ebirah figure and a set of four museum exclusive Godzilla sake cups. I purchased a commemorative Godzilla Store clear file. Across from the Godzilla selection was a display of Japanese exclusive Kit-Kat flavors. So Scott purchased a few more bags.

Since the theater was right next-door, we rode the elevator up to the ninth floor theater lobby and loaded up with multiples of many of the promotional “chiraishi” for upcoming films. On the way down we realized that the fourth floor was another Surugaya store with a tremendous selection of used character and mecha figures. The store even had an entire aisle of 100 yen anime goods, including small plush figures, postcards, small tins, keychains, clear files, and other odds & ends. I’ve had the 1999 Banpresto Toru Toru Item DX Galaxy Express 999 Maetel figure for years. I found the matching Harlock figure, with his plastic clamshell so yellowed that it was nearly opaque, for only 500 yen. The figure itself, though, was perfect.

We returned to the hotel to drop off our bags. Then after a short rest we ventured back out to Akiba. Certainly some observers may criticize us for traveling all the way to Japan then spending so much time in so few locations. But for us, a trip to Tokyo is like an extended anime convention. We enjoy ourselves most when immersing in anime goods & culture.

One of Scott’s close friends asked him for photos of the Final Fantasy Eorzea Café. The pop-up restaurant is located on the second floor of a high-rise tower just west of Chuo Dori in Akihabara, across the street from the Animate Girls’ Station store. The café typically requires advance reservations, but since tables were open when we arrived, the staff allowed us immediate entry so long as we stayed for no more than an hour. The staff handed us a sheet of café rules and a digital tablet then led us into the smallish, dimly lit Final Fantasy-themed room. The restaurant has three Playstations connected to the game and replica Final Fantasy weapons and art adorning the walls. Shortly after we were seated, another café patron placed two plates of deserts before us. He explained that his party had ordered more than it could eat, so he was sharing the left-over food with other patrons. We thanked him then placed our order by looking at the printed menu and imputing our order on the digital tablet. We each ordered a drink – mine non-alcoholic. And Scott also ordered a plate of four chicken wings. For each item ordered, we received one exclusive drink coaster. Since I’m not very familiar with Final Fantasy XV and Scott paid for our refreshments, I donated my exclusive coaster to him to pass along to his business partner that wanted us to visit the café.

We then walked up Chuo Dori, intending to clean up “needs.” We skimmed through the Volks Hobby Tengoku store, but Scott forgot what he was looking for there. We browsed the toy floor of Bic Camera. We also browsed through the Chuo Dori Don Quijote store. Finally, I lead us to Liberty 8. I immediately stepped into the elevator to rise to the fourth floor, but Scott & Justin trailed behind me and missed the elevator. I’d intended to purchase used, boxed Megahouse Pretty Cure Black & White figures for 3,500 yen. But I realized that a matching Shiny Luminous was also available for only 800 yen to complete the trio with interlocking display bases. So I purchased all three figures then took the stairs up to the fifth floor. On the clearance shelf along with wall, one of the plastic 3D Sonico posters I’d been interested in appeared to be gone, but I did purchase two others. Neither Justin nor Scott had appeared to find me. So I went down to the entrance of the store and still didn’t see them. So I then walked up all five flights of stairs, quickly scanning each floor for them. When I still didn’t find them, I returned to the street, perched on a railing, and waited for twenty minutes until Scott & Justin came back from the Surugaya store facing the street where Justin purchased a pair of Mothra vinyl figures. I then led the three of us to the Akiba Mandarake complex. On the 7th floor Justin inspected then decided to purchase the vintage Marusan Godzilla figure for 12,000 yen. I purchased a Kagerou Days shitajiki for 150 yen and a Miyakawa-ke no Kuufuku shitajiki for 100 yen.

When we returned to Shinjuku Station, Justin volunteered to transport our bags of purchases back to the hotel. So Scott & I, now unburdened, walked across the street into the Nishi Shinjuku shopping area. Scott spied and suggest that we eat at a Hanamaru restaurant. So we descended the stairs. Scott ordered a bowl of udon. I chose the “mini” curry set with a bowl of udon. Since I’d previously chosen “large” size and had difficulty finishing it, I ordered today’s meal medium-sized yet still couldn’t finish all of the udon noodles after consuming the curry rice.

After dinner, Scott suggested that we go separate ways so that I could return to the hotel while he roamed the busy area around the bus terminal playing Pokemon Go.