Day 2: Sunshine City + One Anime Store in Ikebukuro

So I did my best and went to sleep at a 'reasonable' time, around 4 AM, but for some reason I couldn't sleep past 9:30. I'm also still pretty stiff from yesterday. Even though I woke up early, I couldn't convince myself to leave my accommodations until well after 1 PM and I decided it would be a pretty light day (in hindsight IDK what light even means now).

I had a couple items bookmarked in the Toshima, which is one of the inner wards of Tokyo and, I'm pretty sure, the one I am staying in. Probably the most famous neighborhood in the ward is Ikebukuro (I'm not going to fact check this), and it has tons of shopping and things to do.

Primarily, I was interested in visiting Sunshine Aquarium, since I can't remember the last time I've been to an aquarium and I'd read that this one was pretty cool! I decided to walk the 2.5 kilometers there so that I could get in a little exercise and also to spend more time out of the apartment. I'm trying to take the stance of being out most of the day to make up for staying in my actual apartment all the time the rest of the year.

Anyway, after a good 30 minute walk I made it to Sunshine City which houses the aquarium and is basically a giant mall. It was pretty quiet both at the mall and on the way there, probably since most people were at work or school.

I located the aquarium with ease since the signs were in English and got a ticket to enter for ¥2400 (which google tells me is currently ~$17.88). Compared to food prices, this was a bit high but I think worth it. I think there is an audio tour available in English but I was content to just look at the fish (and other critters) without the tour.

Look at this cute ticket!

The first floor has mostly fish and other... things... that live in the open ocean. I saw this cool school of fish and suddenly began to wonder if we are all like a school of fish in a tank going round and round just following the person in front of us in order to fit in. Before I had time to think about it any deeper, I realized others were waiting to look as well so I scurried onward.

The next few dudes were pretty weird. The first (IDK about exact order just trust me), was this eel that I kind of felt was cackling but in reality is probably just trying to snag some food. Either way, not sure I like it.

The most absolutely absurd thing I think I saw in the exhibit was this thing.

Apparently, it's a "Weedy Seadragon" which is way cooler than a Seahorse. It's a dragon, after all! Anyway, this helps me understand the Fruits Basket anime a bit better now since it's about the Zodiac and one of the dudes turns to a seahorse it in. I guess it's referencing that he's a Seadragon instead of a regular dragon, which is pretty funny.

Also they didn't have one of these but it seems the Weedy Seadragon isn't even the most exotic of the sea dragon lineup! After perusing Wikipedia for literal seconds, I stumbled upon the entry for the "Leafy Seadragon" which is way more intense looking and somehow, still a fish.

After that, I saw some regular fish which had lost just a bit of their coolness to me.

Finally, I took a look at a cool jellyfish exhibit. They are so weird lol

The second floor of the aquarium has animals that live in shallower areas near land or just regular, wet environments on land. I actually didn't take many photos up here but probably the coolest thing was the poisonous frogs. They are so blue. It definitely works though because there's no way I would eat any meaty thing that was that color (although I probably wouldn't eat any kinds of frogs, poisonous or not).

I did take a photo this axolotl though because I thought it was cute.

I also saw this weird kind of fish that I can't say I've ever seen before (the one on the left with the weird fin that almost appears to positioned more like a horn relative to it's body, so strange).

After that I visited the gift shop to buy another plushie for my niece (she will have hundreds before too long!) and then was mega surprised to step to the outside portion and see penguins!

There were some other animals outside like otters and seals. The penguins were the least playful seeming of the three, but I think that's expected since the seals just seal like doggos and otters are like weird water ferrets or something (don't look up the taxonomies lol). The penguin exhibit also had a section where they were swimming and there was an overhang so you could see them swim over you, which was cool.

After leaving the aquarium, I spent basically the rest of the afternoon in the mall.

I decided to grab something to eat so ended up at a tonkatsu (pork cutlet) place, Tonkatsu Wako. It was alright and seemed reasonably priced. The full lunch set I got was roughly half the price of my aquarium ticket, for reference. I got the Roast Katsu, which is fattier compared to Hire Katsu. I began eating before I remembered I was going to take a photo.

After that, I spent like 3 hours checking out the mall. There was a huge Bandai Namco capsule machine store I wasted some money at and got scammed at a few crane games. I then walked to Animate, a store that specializes in anime and manga goods, and explored all of its billion or so levels. I was truly tired afterward and headed home, making sure to stop at both Lawson and Family Mart to prove that I wasn't a sellout for either. Side note, Lawson's Karaage-Kun RED chicken nuggets are really tasty.

There was some other shops I wanted to check out so I will have to go back to Ikebukuro. I can't just keep saying that every day though, the math doesn't add up!

Here's my activity for today, carefully hiding where I'm actually staying lol

Google is still convinced I only did an hour of walking but I can assure you that's incorrect. All-in-all, less activity than yesterday but probably a more manageable level of energy to put into exploring every day I'm here.

BTW IDK if I will keep blogging about this since it seems like it will be a lot to go out every day, blog, and work but we'll see. If I do stop blogging about it, just take solace in knowing that every day I get a little better at telling the cashiers "No thank you, I already have a bag".