Day 18 : Back to Ikebukuro

Okay guys, let's just get it out of the way now, okay? Yes, another supposedly quick, "it'll only take me like 2 hours max", day that ended up being a whole day of shenanigans. What's that, every time in a row now?

Ugh.

The day started off with a simple thought. "I'll just take it easy today! Let's go somewhere close.". Because of that, I decided to head back to Ikebukuro because it's basically the closest major neighborhood to where I am staying that has a lot of otaku things in a single place. Plus if I did stay into rush hour, I could just walk back since walking or taking the train wouldn't be that different time-wise. This is due to the train line I am staying at running north-south instead of east-west, so to get to Ikebukuro, I have to ride south and then transfer to go north-west even though Ikebukuro is directly west of me.

After reading a few articles, I had a new list of destinations to visit listed in my travel helper app and headed out.

My first stop was PARCO, a department store. The first anime-related store I found was the Evangelion store.

This franchise so popular and is literally everywhere. For some reason I can't figure out how much the franchise is worth, but I'm personally surprised the creator, Hideaki Anno, isn't a billionaire lol

One of the more interesting things I found in the store was some nifty collapsible hard-case carry-ons. Maybe I should've waited to get a carry-on so I could have gotten these! Although one case was $300 so maybe not...

Across from the Eva store was this other store that had a massive plush ネッシー ("Nessie")! Very, very cute!!!! I considered buying a small one but if I can't have the biggest one I don't want it.

There was also a Blue Lock pop-up but I haven't seen it so didn't stop buy. A bunch of ladies were taking pics though so I felt I should get in on the action as well and also snapped a photo.

For my final stop in the building, I headed down to the basement to find the Ikebukuro Mandarake since it was also in this building. Or so I thought. It actually turned out that Mandarake was actaully in [P′PARCO], seemingly an offshoot department store in another building. I only realized after exploring the whole department store basement and wondering where all of the anime stuff was. "Why is this all just ladies fashion???"

After I made it to the actual building Mandarake was in, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this Mandarake was actually pretty spacious and you could actually pass people in the aisles. The selection was smaller than the other locations though and it basically only had things like figures and plushies, whereas other locations I had been to also had books, manga, CDs, and all kinds of other things.

Nonetheless, I did enjoy browsing here and I actually did buy a small plushie and one figure that I thought was way cheaper than I would have expected. Specifically it was an unopened Altera Santa Ichibankuji prize for ¥1,500 (the A prize below). The reason I was surprised at its price is because Ichibankuji is a basically lottery where you always get a prize.

The prizes are usually ranked for grade A to grade F where A is the best prize and F is the worst. F prizes could usually be something like a clear file or handkerchief that I would personally say aren't really worth the entrance fee, which in the case of this set appears to have been ¥680 or roughly $5. You ask the store clerk for how ever many entries you want and then after you pay, you open them right away and then the clerk will give you the associated rank prize. There will usually only be a few A grade items and dozens and dozens of the lowest tier. So lots of luck goes into it and tickets aren't cheap so I would have expected it to be held onto more, especially considering it's the top prize so anyone playing the lottery would likely have been aiming for it? You can see all of the prizes associated with this figure / Ichibankuji campaign here.

That was quite a digression, wow.

P'PARCO actually had a lot of general otaku collabs going on in the floors above Mandarake as well. I saw more Sanrio character collabs (it never ends), a Hatsune Miku collaboration with a newspaper (?), a bunch of anime guy standees from something called Tears of Themis, and a Detective Conan pop-up shop. I've actually seen a lot of Detective Conan events since I've been in Tokyo. It's been serializing (both in manga and anime) for like almost 30 years now so I guess it must be really popular.

Next, I went to Animate, which I had been to previously but wanted to check out the 7th floor which hosts new events every once in a while. After trudging up the stairs, I found out it was a "Project Sekai: Colorful Stage! feat. Hatsune Miku" gallery with accompanying shop. Project Sekai is a mobile game that I don't play and am not particularly interested in since it's a rhythm game so I didn't get any merch but seeing the exhibit was nifty. Apparently it's to celebrate the game's 2.5 year anniversary?

After leaving Animate, I checked out a checked out a bunch of random shops in the area. Some were secondhand shops but nothing particularly stood out to me. I actually ended up entering quite a few shops targeted at women that were selling BL (Boy's Love) manga and where all of the signage was catboys and things like that. It was actually pretty interesting seeing the genders reversed. In most of these shops I was the only guy but I didn't feel too weird about being there or anything.

I had been surprised to see a lot of these shops because I had thought that most shops targeted at Fujoshi (lol) was actually just the single street called Otome Road, but it turns out that there is also another concentrated group around Animate. I'd actually recommend checking a couple of these out, just to see the other side of the coin (if you have visited Akihabara for example). I think the Lashinbang Ikebukuro stores (all 3 of them!) all have a female target audience and stock things like figures or male idol group photos. If you looking for something a little more spicy, check out Toranoana for doujinshi.

Toranoana's mascot characters

The final shop I visited was Surugaya, another second hand shop. The basement level has the same Otome Road staples as the stores listed above but the first floor is almost entirely full of bargain bins. Here, you can go through sorted bins to find items that are under ¥300 for whatever franchise you like. While there were a lot focused on otome games, many of the bins were just full of popular anime or manga goods. Most of these will usually have key-chains, sticker packs, or buttons. However, you might find bigger things like plushes or mini-figures on occasion.

9 full bins of Fate! Yeah!

Somewhere in the area, I also found this vending machine. Now, I promptly need one installed in front of my apartment building in Seattle!

By this time, it was actually pretty late so I decided to grab dinner at Sunshine City and then walk home. Everything was packed so I decided to not grab dinner but did stop to take a quick picture of the insanely cute Pikachu Sweets cafe logo.

It should probably actually be illegal to be so cute

But, since I was already in the Sunshine building, and since I had already been going to every other paid observation deck in the city, I decided to visit the "SKY CIRCUS Sunshine 60 Observation Deck" for ¥1,200 since it's the busy season.

The view from the deck was pretty good as you might expect from an observation deck 240 meters up.

Skytree is over there wow!

Although it is very high, it didn't feel as impressive as the Mori tower I visited the other day. Although this tower is technically taller, the other observation deck was outside on the roof so I think it was higher up.

This one faces the direction I am staying in. Also caught the reflection of the Detective Conan x Sunshine 60 collab lol

I think even though the main deck of the Tokyo Tower is lower, it's probably also better too? That's just an opinion though. The top deck of Tokyo Tower is roughly the same height but arguably in a better part of town to see from an observation deck. I probably should just go to Skytree through the subway so I don't see the tower at all until I am at the top so I can see if it's worth the 3x price that the other towers are generally asking for.

One thing unique about the Sunshine 60 observation deck is that it has some artificial greenspace for people to relax on.

I think if you can come and actually get a spot to sit or come on a non-busy day it would be cool. While I was there I felt that it encouraged people to say too long and made the overall space feel more crowded. Especially on the west side of the building where everyone was gathered to wait for the sunset to take photos. I couldn't really get near the windows to get any sick pics but I wasn't particularly bothered by it either. It might have been nice to lay on the grass for a bit though haha

After descending from the top at 600 meters per minute (the elevator tells you!), I proceeded to walk home. It was already dark and I got to see a different cool view of the Skytree.

On the way home, I finally got to try Sukiya, a mega-cheap beef bowl place. I ordered the large size, which had honestly way too much rice, plus miso soup and pickled veggies all for like ¥700! Ordering was really easy. Once you walk in and seat yourself, the staff will bring you some water and then you order on the tablet at your table and they will bring the food and your bill. Then you just pay the bill when you leave by the door. Very convenient and easy.

When my beef bowl arrived it actually smelled a little weird, maybe because of the three cheese blend? I think traditionally, it wouldn't have cheese but some YouTuber I watch had recommended getting the cheesy kind lol Although I wasn't particularly enthused by the aroma, I can't even begin to imagine me saying something to staff about any food problem much less this, so I dug in. It was actually pretty tasty! Obviously it's not like a gourmet meal or anything like that but it was definitely filling and tasted good. Maybe it's one of those things that people think smell bad and taste good, like durian (although I don't like durian anyway).

After paying and letting the staff know that it had been a feast ("Gochisousama deshita"), I finished making my way back home.

Google still gets a little confused sometimes