東京に行こう! Part 4 - Ikebukuro & Nekobukuro
A 10-minute train ride on the Yamanote Line from the area we stayed in, Ueno, gets you to IKEBUKURO, well known for its shopping area called Sunshine City -- a four-building complex with multiple floors of things to do, eat, buy and see!
We were here last year to see the Sunshine City Aquarium and Toyota’s Amlux auto showroom, and came back again this year to shop and eat :)
October 29, 2008
Tokyu Hands is my favorite department store, so I had to go back there! It has just about anything you could want -- from practical home goods, art supplies, bicycles, to the silly novelty items we love about Japan!
On the seventh floor of Tokyu Hands in Ikebukuro, inside of the pet shop, is NekoBukuro (“cat’s house.”) For a small admission fee, you can enter NekuBukuro and pet and play with 20 some cats that live there, for as long as you like -- so, if you can’t own your own cat in Tokyo (or if you miss your cats you left at home while vacationing!) you can come here to get your fill of furry cuddles.
Also in Ikebukuro, we saw the the new Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli film, “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.” (We figured since the main character was five years old, maybe we’d understand some of it!)
Trailer
A lunch of tempura at TempuraTen-ya in the basement of the Sunshine City Alba building. For 695 yen (about $7), we enjoyed the yasai (vegetable) tempura lunch ”セット” (“set”):
We went back to our favorite sukiyaki restaurant again...
Last of all. . .
What would a night out in Tokyo be without karaoke?!
And enjoyed desert at “Milky Way”