(Monday) Day 3: Akihabara

Right now it is Tuesday morning. We were so tired last night we went to bed right after dinnertime, so this is the post I would have written last night for that day.

In the morning, we packed up and moved out of our first hotel. It was, again, an adventure to get from one side of Tokyo to the other with three suitcases, but we made it. We dropped off our luggage at our next place and left to find some lunch. Our new neighborhood is called Ikebukuro, a very nice business district with tons of restaurants and convenience stores. We found a small restaurant with plastic food models in the window that looked tasty. Inside, there was a machine where you order and pay for your food on a touch screen. I could read the names of the meals, but it was nice that everything had pictures, too. I ordered katsudon (pork cutlets with egg & onion on rice) and mom got a set that included rice, salad, hamburger patties, potatoes, green beans, and miso soup. The waitresses were super nice and helped us get a table. One asked me if I wanted a spoon and I said, "Kekkou desu", which basically means no thanks. She looked surprised and happy that I could speak some Japanese. I guess I don't look like I should be able to?  :P

After lunch, we hopped back on a train to the famous electronic district of Akihabara. Everywhere you look there are anime pictures, electronics stores, and capsule machines where  you can put in coins and get figures or other trinkets of your favorite anime or video game characters. We went inside a store called Animate (guess what they sold) that was around 6-8 floors high. They had so much manga and anime stuff it was kinda amazing. After that madness, we went in another store called Don Quixote, which sells literally everything. We got some passionfruit-flavored Kit Kats but they are almost gone now... Yum.

When we got back to our new place, it was time to check in. This place is called Kimi Ryokan and is a traditional Japanese style inn. The rooms are tatami mat and we slept on futon that I found really comfortable. They provide a lot of nice amenties here too, like free hot water and green tea, plus a microwave and kitchen. They even gave us yukata (cotton kimono) to wear, although I haven't tried mine on yet.

Okay, that was basically our day yesterday. We slept a lot so we're ready to have a good day. We're planning to see Kamakura and Yokohama today. See you later!