Japan Trip Part 3 -Kuro side-
Now that aritzen's next part is up (they're all up by now actually), I'll continue with my side. Unlike her I didn't write a log of the events on the go, mostly because I didn't have anything to write with, and typing on the phone is a pain. I'll have to remember for next time though, to at least bring a notebook or something. Relying on Ritz's posts to jog my memories. ^_^;;;
Day 3: SHOPPING AND J-WORLD AND J-WORLD SHOPPING
This was my first time going to J-World so I had no idea what to expect. Since we planned out our days so that they were swappable, we put this on the shitty weather day in place of Haikyuu Dome City which was the day before on the super nice day. We headed to the Animate store first cuz whoooo needs money? *cough* Just so you know, by the end of this trip I had spent nearly every last bit of my yen. I kinda regret leaving some of the extra that I accidentally ordered at home but at the same time I know I spent wayyyy too much. Not that I regret any of my purchases. Nope. I don't. Honest! Not even those THREE USHIWAKAS I got from the gashapon machine in front of the Animate store one of which was given to Ritz. I think I passed the curse to her because after that, she started getting Ushiwakas from the gashapons. I'M SORRY LMAO. Together we had a flute quartet of purple dudes plus his purple tin badge. XD
Animate store was NINE floors of anime/manga goodies. I honestly didn't expect that much merch of Haikyuu but as we were looking at the side wall that had a few random things, I poked Ritz and pointed behind us and we were just like "Whoaaaa". Basically a whole aisle dedicated to Haikyuu. Surprisingly I didn't buy a whole lot there; a couple of clear file folders of the Karasuno boys at the movies and a feather duster thing meant to sweep away pencil eraser particles. Just like the pros use. Really! I saw it on TV the mangaka drawing timelapse videos. It was 50% off too so why the hell not? I did try it out and it's actually very effective. There's a loop thing at the bottom that I'm sure is meant to be used to hang on a wall or hook or something but I decided to put my owl sons Bokuto and Akaaaashi on there. In the Gintama section I found a clear file folder of Gin, Hiji, and Otae human-boarding on Sho-chan, Kondo, and Shinpachi respectively in purple flower fields. I snapped a picture but didn't get it as I really didn't need another clear file folder. Gin was trying to apply the penile brake which, honestly, I think is worse than the snow fields because this was SOLID GROUND.
Next we headed towards J-World but not before I visited the Pokemon Center to find me my other owl son and its merch line, ROWLET'S GARDEN. Unfortunately and expectedly, they were sold out of the smol Rowlet plushies and only had the bigger chunky ones that were 5k yen. Then I passed by the cushion version they had as part of Rowlet's Garden. At first I was like eh... until I picked it up and instantly fell in love with how soft it was. It was like a giant marshmallow! The stuffing was slightly off and to this day I still massage his face hoping that it would fix itself. Ritz must've thought I was a weirdo when I kept doing that back at the apartment lol. In addition, I grabbed the bag/purse thing which was much smaller than it looked on the internet. The person modelling for the image must've been really petite. That's something I kept encountering with many things in Japan, "smaller than they look". I also grabbed a wood charm which was randomly packaged. It ended up being a Pikipek, the beginning-game bird Pokemon for Sun/Moon. Japan seems to really love random chance things like that. I suppose it's the only way to sell merch of less popular designs. But man, it is not far off from gambling at a casino. >_>
Okay so that takes care of shopping. Er... well... not really... But onwards to J-World! The admission was really surprisingly cheap. 750 yen? Plus a 50 yen discount for foreigners (passport needed). We spent like 5 minutes trying to figure out what the machine tutorial thing was trying to explain regarding doing a "J" symbol with our hand and saying "J" to get the discount. It ended up more like "J-j-j..... J????" I had no idea if we were doing it right but the cashier guy understood at least. We got like a collector's coin from One Piece (Nami), DBZ (Piccolo), and Naruto (Temari) as an entrance souvenir. We decided to use the coin lockers to store our stuff. I wasn't gonna carry a giant marshmallow owl everywhere lol. Next stop, lunch!
After staring at the menu for a really long time, we finally decided to share the stuff that appealed to both of us. I think it might've been too much if we each had doubled up on everything. In the end, we both got the Afro-float (mango juice with ice, mango cream and a Saitou cookie on top); I got the Kamui don (rice with fried vermicelli, pork slices and half boiled egg) and Vegeta Galik Gun Karaage (Garlic fried chicken) while Ritz had the Hijikata mayo fries (literally fries with a bottle of mayo) and the Haikyuu weird-duo quick attack dessert (mango/orange fruit cream sandwiches with a Hinata and Kageyama cookie with a mango pudding on the side with a volleyball cookie on top). Hands down, best lunch I've ever had, tied with the lunch I had at One Piece Tower. You'd be surprised at how good mayo tastes with stuff. I SWEAR I DIDN'T TURN INTO HIJIKATA. I only had it on the fries and the chicken. After a while I did kinda have enough of the mayo taste to which Ritz replied "THERE'S NEVER ENOUGH MAYONNAISE." After we were done eating, we stared at the little mayo bottle that we didn't finish up. "...Should we take it home?" "......N-nnnno...." Hijikata I understand your feelings for mayo now. But alas I am not a mayo freak.
We passed by this ramen place which I think might've been from Naruto? And then this other fake food shop that was called something-niku-Q (nikukyu). A meat place? Whatever it was, it had a character with a giant belly that you could poke and it would say stuff. So we poked it and it shouted some curses at us making us jump back. Ah, so that's why the instruction sign had random symbols in the speech bubble.... At the entrance to another section was a whiteboard that was separated into manga panels. The artist in me was compelled to contribute. So I drew a Justaway and Elizabeth in the corner beside the Goku-like doodle who looked rather concerned staring at them. There was also a really well drawn Kageyama doodle on there. Apparently it was his birthday? Just looked it up and indeed it was!
Next we visited the Kurobas section which had mostly displays from Rakuzan vs Shutoku. Thinking about it now, it might've been like that because they were doing some monthly character focus and December was Akashi who is from Rakuzan. This series needs a little more love honestly. I keep hearing from Ritz that the manga had some painful moments but I watched the anime and thought it was amazing all the way through. I can't remember if the end was as abrupt as it was in the manga though. But I don't remember it being bad at any point. Whilst I do love Kuroko, Midorima beats him by just a bit as my favourite character. He tries so hard to be that cool stoic guy but ultimately just comes off as dorky thanks to Takao. Although his obsession over luck and fate is already enough to make him seem dorky, haha. Ahhh I really should watch through it again in full. When I first watched it, I was watching Haikyuu at the same time and actually temporarily put it on hold to plow through Kurobas. Probably because Kurobas is a lot more flashy and definitely more exciting overall. Haikyuu's down-to-earth and relatability to the characters, as well as their development, is what ultimately made me grow to like it over Kurobas. Heck, I would put my love for Haikyuu almost on par with Gintama.
Which brings us to the next section, HIKARI AREEE--I mean Haikyuu!! But also HIKARI AREEE because there was a TV there looping the trailer. The area was apparently a replication of the locker room, complete with photos, waterbottles, bags, towels, sheets of paper with player stats and of course a whiteboard and magnets with everyone's names on it for the coach to do his job. And also an upside down Karasuno jacket for when Hinata was trying to put it on like pants XD There was also an amusing sign on one of the doors with a picture of Kageyama which said "BLOCKED from this point on!! Staff only." Around the corner was another section which was the court. It had this machine thing where I think you were supposed to call out for a toss and then spike or something? We weren't sure how it worked lol. At the entrance was a mini game which was basically a lottery where you're a pretend part-timer and you "deliver" meatbuns from the Sakanoshita shop? Again, not too sure. But the buns you pick have symbols at the bottom and you get prizes based on the symbol and colour. I believe this is where I got my Tsukishima card? Regardless, I had zero luck getting something Tsukki-related so that made me really happy~
Next was Gintama! They had a past arc theme going on with displays of the Joui boys and Shinsengumi in the old days. They had a Whack the Zaki mini game where you smack Mountain Zaki's head with a bokuto while he talks smack at you which activates a roulette wheel behind him. The thing is random so you're not supposed to hit him as hard as you can like this other girl did. I didn't win anything though. Beside that was like mini shrine with Justaways and Gintoki's wig between them. Little did we know THIS WAS ANOTHER MINI GAME! THAT WE MISSED! I found out yesterday when I was looking through my stuff again and read the leaflet. How the hell would we have known with friggin' Mountain Zaki screaming insults every which way the whole time! XD We were so sad! And looking at the photo again, it does say the name of the minigame, "Megaton Punch of Love" where you punch the wig that's there like how Shouyou would smack kid!Gin. That's why there was a picture of kid!Gin under the wig. But STILL. It did not look like a mini game. Ritz has a photo on her journal if you wanna see. Down the hall past the Gin wig was a shrine, complete with bell which you can ring and your prayers will be answered by Shooogun ka yo in his tighty whiteys or Zurako from the wart arc. Not sure who else appears since we only rung it twice. Past there was a replica of Gin's office at the Yorozuya complete with the old rotary phone, a cabinet full of Jump, and a closet full of endless Justaways??? I'm not sure if this was also a minigame because there was a number in the silhouette of the negative space, as well as other Justaways around with numbers on them. Part of me wishes that I'd asked the staff lady about it. Lots of other small details were posted around the walls like Yamazaki's investigation reports complete with anpan madness and Yorozuya ads made from old Shinsengumi bulletin posters.
We played the Chopper's Quest game next which was a little more elaborate than the other minigames. There's an accomanying story which went like: Luffy ate some balloon bird that if not cooked properly would cause your insides to blow up and burst, but since he's rubber, he'll just stretch out like a balloon until he bursts. Our job is to carry around Chopper (we were literally carrying around Chopper in a backpack) and find ingredients to make medicine through minigames which we had one shot to win. I dunno if we had to win all of them, but all I know is that we failed the mission and Luffy gets saved by Law who just uses Room/Shambles and forcibly takes the bird out. I was more impressed by the technology for this quest game more than anything to be honest; having a mechanical Chopper that can speak to you and reacts when you stand in certain areas was really cool. Although since both Ritz and I had a Chopper, both would be talking at the same time when we approached certain spots. I don't think I grabbed a picture of my "wanted poster" at the end though. Shh I'm not a pirate. I'd rather be a space captain. In other words a captain in space. Zura reference. We went on a ride that just basically rolls you through a bunch of anime scenes while you ride a shark boat cart thing and shoot lasers. Not exactly sure what it was for to be honest.
Last stop before the J-World shop was the carnival games that were really hard to win but not impossible. You'd have to have some super hand-eye coordination or be really lucky. The first one we played was a Justaway one where you throw a couple rubber balls (Justaway heads) at a horde of cups to try and land them in one of the three Justaway bodies. I think they were trying to simulate the Justaway factory given by the imagery but uh, I don't think this is how they build them. Otherwise the factory would explode everyday! Anyway, I failed at that one. I believe my consolation prize was a sticker of Shinpachi and Yamazaki standing in terror in the face of Utsuro. Lovely... lol. The other game we tried was this Haikyuu one, Noya-san's ROLLLING THUNDERRRR AGAINNN, which was like a pachinko-like thing and you have to catch the ball. I got SO close but alas... My consolation sticker was of the captain from Johzenji. I know they tried and all, to make a creative carnival game, but... YOU DON'T CATCH THE BALL IN VOLLEYBALL. Ahem.
So, shopping time before heading out! I hadn't gotten anything from Kurobas so I decided I should get at least one thing here. It was a random acrylic chain of Christmas Midorima! Such luck! Most of the stuff I got was a random thing (ie. you don't know until you open), which included two clear postcard things, one from Haikyuu and Gintama, that turned out to be Futakuchi (again, a character I actually quite like) and Shouyou-sensei. Randomized Haikyuu acrylic chain turned out to be Aone from Date Tech. Also got a magnet that turned out to be Oikawa. He's unfortunately not smiling like a dork and looking almost annoyed in the picture, haha. Grabbed a rubber mascot thing of the Gintama pixelated version set and got Sakamoto whose existence should arguably be pixellated or under a mosaic if Mutsu had the choice. XD Another rubber mascot from Gintama I got was from their arctic animals version, I managed to get the one I wanted most!! It's Zura and Eli dressed as snowy owls! I friggin' love owls! Why couldn't my luck be this good with Haikyuu?! Last thing I got was a tote bag of the Joui boys as kids with Sensei on it which became one of my most useful purchases for the rest of the trip. I still use it today to carry shit around for work or just in general if I need a larger bag. My only gripe is that it's white so dirt shows up really easily.
After J-world we had planned to visit the Haikyuu themed Animate cafe, but the line was stupidly long and we really didn't want to wait around that long to get in if it was even possible. On the way back, we passed by a cat cafe which was one of our bucket list things. We could use some grub so why not. The first one we went to was closed for private event. We found another one that was more of a lounge than a cafe even though Google maps said it was a cafe. LIARS. It was kind of on the expensive side considering it was just a chill place but with cats. I guess it wasn't too bad as I don't think there was really a time limit on how long we were allowed to stay. There were beds in the other room after all if you wanted to nap with a cat? There was also an area to play games like Super mario Bros on the Famicom. Like, a real Famicom! And also Splatoon on the WiiU. You could also watch TV; they were playing Finding Dori which is, in my opinion, a really stupid movie. I couldn't even finish watching it when I saw it on my flight there. Anyway, beside the beds was a mini library of manga volumes. Ritz and I decided to read some Gintama and Haikyuu for a while before leaving. None of the cats seemed eager for our attention so we mostly just watched them and took pics. There was a window cat that reminded me of Gintoki when he was pretending there were blinds in his office window. I have a video of one that was basically snoring, not purring. That was legit snoring. One of em got mad at us for trying to pet it so we just left them alone for the most part. That didn't stop one from using Ritz as a stepping stone to the table. XD
And that ends Day 3. Geez the more I type, the more I realize just how much we did in Tokyo. Being back at home I still think to myself sometimes, "did all that really happen?" And then I look at the horde of stuff I brought back and internally nod my head. I'll do more after thoughts at the end but for now...
<|= To Be Continued | \ | /
Day 3: SHOPPING AND J-WORLD AND J-WORLD SHOPPING
This was my first time going to J-World so I had no idea what to expect. Since we planned out our days so that they were swappable, we put this on the shitty weather day in place of Haikyuu Dome City which was the day before on the super nice day. We headed to the Animate store first cuz whoooo needs money? *cough* Just so you know, by the end of this trip I had spent nearly every last bit of my yen. I kinda regret leaving some of the extra that I accidentally ordered at home but at the same time I know I spent wayyyy too much. Not that I regret any of my purchases. Nope. I don't. Honest! Not even those THREE USHIWAKAS I got from the gashapon machine in front of the Animate store one of which was given to Ritz. I think I passed the curse to her because after that, she started getting Ushiwakas from the gashapons. I'M SORRY LMAO. Together we had a flute quartet of purple dudes plus his purple tin badge. XD
Animate store was NINE floors of anime/manga goodies. I honestly didn't expect that much merch of Haikyuu but as we were looking at the side wall that had a few random things, I poked Ritz and pointed behind us and we were just like "Whoaaaa". Basically a whole aisle dedicated to Haikyuu. Surprisingly I didn't buy a whole lot there; a couple of clear file folders of the Karasuno boys at the movies and a feather duster thing meant to sweep away pencil eraser particles. Just like the pros use. Really! I saw it on TV the mangaka drawing timelapse videos. It was 50% off too so why the hell not? I did try it out and it's actually very effective. There's a loop thing at the bottom that I'm sure is meant to be used to hang on a wall or hook or something but I decided to put my owl sons Bokuto and Akaaaashi on there. In the Gintama section I found a clear file folder of Gin, Hiji, and Otae human-boarding on Sho-chan, Kondo, and Shinpachi respectively in purple flower fields. I snapped a picture but didn't get it as I really didn't need another clear file folder. Gin was trying to apply the penile brake which, honestly, I think is worse than the snow fields because this was SOLID GROUND.
Next we headed towards J-World but not before I visited the Pokemon Center to find me my other owl son and its merch line, ROWLET'S GARDEN. Unfortunately and expectedly, they were sold out of the smol Rowlet plushies and only had the bigger chunky ones that were 5k yen. Then I passed by the cushion version they had as part of Rowlet's Garden. At first I was like eh... until I picked it up and instantly fell in love with how soft it was. It was like a giant marshmallow! The stuffing was slightly off and to this day I still massage his face hoping that it would fix itself. Ritz must've thought I was a weirdo when I kept doing that back at the apartment lol. In addition, I grabbed the bag/purse thing which was much smaller than it looked on the internet. The person modelling for the image must've been really petite. That's something I kept encountering with many things in Japan, "smaller than they look". I also grabbed a wood charm which was randomly packaged. It ended up being a Pikipek, the beginning-game bird Pokemon for Sun/Moon. Japan seems to really love random chance things like that. I suppose it's the only way to sell merch of less popular designs. But man, it is not far off from gambling at a casino. >_>
Okay so that takes care of shopping. Er... well... not really... But onwards to J-World! The admission was really surprisingly cheap. 750 yen? Plus a 50 yen discount for foreigners (passport needed). We spent like 5 minutes trying to figure out what the machine tutorial thing was trying to explain regarding doing a "J" symbol with our hand and saying "J" to get the discount. It ended up more like "J-j-j..... J????" I had no idea if we were doing it right but the cashier guy understood at least. We got like a collector's coin from One Piece (Nami), DBZ (Piccolo), and Naruto (Temari) as an entrance souvenir. We decided to use the coin lockers to store our stuff. I wasn't gonna carry a giant marshmallow owl everywhere lol. Next stop, lunch!
After staring at the menu for a really long time, we finally decided to share the stuff that appealed to both of us. I think it might've been too much if we each had doubled up on everything. In the end, we both got the Afro-float (mango juice with ice, mango cream and a Saitou cookie on top); I got the Kamui don (rice with fried vermicelli, pork slices and half boiled egg) and Vegeta Galik Gun Karaage (Garlic fried chicken) while Ritz had the Hijikata mayo fries (literally fries with a bottle of mayo) and the Haikyuu weird-duo quick attack dessert (mango/orange fruit cream sandwiches with a Hinata and Kageyama cookie with a mango pudding on the side with a volleyball cookie on top). Hands down, best lunch I've ever had, tied with the lunch I had at One Piece Tower. You'd be surprised at how good mayo tastes with stuff. I SWEAR I DIDN'T TURN INTO HIJIKATA. I only had it on the fries and the chicken. After a while I did kinda have enough of the mayo taste to which Ritz replied "THERE'S NEVER ENOUGH MAYONNAISE." After we were done eating, we stared at the little mayo bottle that we didn't finish up. "...Should we take it home?" "......N-nnnno...." Hijikata I understand your feelings for mayo now. But alas I am not a mayo freak.
We passed by this ramen place which I think might've been from Naruto? And then this other fake food shop that was called something-niku-Q (nikukyu). A meat place? Whatever it was, it had a character with a giant belly that you could poke and it would say stuff. So we poked it and it shouted some curses at us making us jump back. Ah, so that's why the instruction sign had random symbols in the speech bubble.... At the entrance to another section was a whiteboard that was separated into manga panels. The artist in me was compelled to contribute. So I drew a Justaway and Elizabeth in the corner beside the Goku-like doodle who looked rather concerned staring at them. There was also a really well drawn Kageyama doodle on there. Apparently it was his birthday? Just looked it up and indeed it was!
Next we visited the Kurobas section which had mostly displays from Rakuzan vs Shutoku. Thinking about it now, it might've been like that because they were doing some monthly character focus and December was Akashi who is from Rakuzan. This series needs a little more love honestly. I keep hearing from Ritz that the manga had some painful moments but I watched the anime and thought it was amazing all the way through. I can't remember if the end was as abrupt as it was in the manga though. But I don't remember it being bad at any point. Whilst I do love Kuroko, Midorima beats him by just a bit as my favourite character. He tries so hard to be that cool stoic guy but ultimately just comes off as dorky thanks to Takao. Although his obsession over luck and fate is already enough to make him seem dorky, haha. Ahhh I really should watch through it again in full. When I first watched it, I was watching Haikyuu at the same time and actually temporarily put it on hold to plow through Kurobas. Probably because Kurobas is a lot more flashy and definitely more exciting overall. Haikyuu's down-to-earth and relatability to the characters, as well as their development, is what ultimately made me grow to like it over Kurobas. Heck, I would put my love for Haikyuu almost on par with Gintama.
Which brings us to the next section, HIKARI AREEE--I mean Haikyuu!! But also HIKARI AREEE because there was a TV there looping the trailer. The area was apparently a replication of the locker room, complete with photos, waterbottles, bags, towels, sheets of paper with player stats and of course a whiteboard and magnets with everyone's names on it for the coach to do his job. And also an upside down Karasuno jacket for when Hinata was trying to put it on like pants XD There was also an amusing sign on one of the doors with a picture of Kageyama which said "BLOCKED from this point on!! Staff only." Around the corner was another section which was the court. It had this machine thing where I think you were supposed to call out for a toss and then spike or something? We weren't sure how it worked lol. At the entrance was a mini game which was basically a lottery where you're a pretend part-timer and you "deliver" meatbuns from the Sakanoshita shop? Again, not too sure. But the buns you pick have symbols at the bottom and you get prizes based on the symbol and colour. I believe this is where I got my Tsukishima card? Regardless, I had zero luck getting something Tsukki-related so that made me really happy~
Next was Gintama! They had a past arc theme going on with displays of the Joui boys and Shinsengumi in the old days. They had a Whack the Zaki mini game where you smack Mountain Zaki's head with a bokuto while he talks smack at you which activates a roulette wheel behind him. The thing is random so you're not supposed to hit him as hard as you can like this other girl did. I didn't win anything though. Beside that was like mini shrine with Justaways and Gintoki's wig between them. Little did we know THIS WAS ANOTHER MINI GAME! THAT WE MISSED! I found out yesterday when I was looking through my stuff again and read the leaflet. How the hell would we have known with friggin' Mountain Zaki screaming insults every which way the whole time! XD We were so sad! And looking at the photo again, it does say the name of the minigame, "Megaton Punch of Love" where you punch the wig that's there like how Shouyou would smack kid!Gin. That's why there was a picture of kid!Gin under the wig. But STILL. It did not look like a mini game. Ritz has a photo on her journal if you wanna see. Down the hall past the Gin wig was a shrine, complete with bell which you can ring and your prayers will be answered by Shooogun ka yo in his tighty whiteys or Zurako from the wart arc. Not sure who else appears since we only rung it twice. Past there was a replica of Gin's office at the Yorozuya complete with the old rotary phone, a cabinet full of Jump, and a closet full of endless Justaways??? I'm not sure if this was also a minigame because there was a number in the silhouette of the negative space, as well as other Justaways around with numbers on them. Part of me wishes that I'd asked the staff lady about it. Lots of other small details were posted around the walls like Yamazaki's investigation reports complete with anpan madness and Yorozuya ads made from old Shinsengumi bulletin posters.
We played the Chopper's Quest game next which was a little more elaborate than the other minigames. There's an accomanying story which went like: Luffy ate some balloon bird that if not cooked properly would cause your insides to blow up and burst, but since he's rubber, he'll just stretch out like a balloon until he bursts. Our job is to carry around Chopper (we were literally carrying around Chopper in a backpack) and find ingredients to make medicine through minigames which we had one shot to win. I dunno if we had to win all of them, but all I know is that we failed the mission and Luffy gets saved by Law who just uses Room/Shambles and forcibly takes the bird out. I was more impressed by the technology for this quest game more than anything to be honest; having a mechanical Chopper that can speak to you and reacts when you stand in certain areas was really cool. Although since both Ritz and I had a Chopper, both would be talking at the same time when we approached certain spots. I don't think I grabbed a picture of my "wanted poster" at the end though. Shh I'm not a pirate. I'd rather be a space captain. In other words a captain in space. Zura reference. We went on a ride that just basically rolls you through a bunch of anime scenes while you ride a shark boat cart thing and shoot lasers. Not exactly sure what it was for to be honest.
Last stop before the J-World shop was the carnival games that were really hard to win but not impossible. You'd have to have some super hand-eye coordination or be really lucky. The first one we played was a Justaway one where you throw a couple rubber balls (Justaway heads) at a horde of cups to try and land them in one of the three Justaway bodies. I think they were trying to simulate the Justaway factory given by the imagery but uh, I don't think this is how they build them. Otherwise the factory would explode everyday! Anyway, I failed at that one. I believe my consolation prize was a sticker of Shinpachi and Yamazaki standing in terror in the face of Utsuro. Lovely... lol. The other game we tried was this Haikyuu one, Noya-san's ROLLLING THUNDERRRR AGAINNN, which was like a pachinko-like thing and you have to catch the ball. I got SO close but alas... My consolation sticker was of the captain from Johzenji. I know they tried and all, to make a creative carnival game, but... YOU DON'T CATCH THE BALL IN VOLLEYBALL. Ahem.
So, shopping time before heading out! I hadn't gotten anything from Kurobas so I decided I should get at least one thing here. It was a random acrylic chain of Christmas Midorima! Such luck! Most of the stuff I got was a random thing (ie. you don't know until you open), which included two clear postcard things, one from Haikyuu and Gintama, that turned out to be Futakuchi (again, a character I actually quite like) and Shouyou-sensei. Randomized Haikyuu acrylic chain turned out to be Aone from Date Tech. Also got a magnet that turned out to be Oikawa. He's unfortunately not smiling like a dork and looking almost annoyed in the picture, haha. Grabbed a rubber mascot thing of the Gintama pixelated version set and got Sakamoto whose existence should arguably be pixellated or under a mosaic if Mutsu had the choice. XD Another rubber mascot from Gintama I got was from their arctic animals version, I managed to get the one I wanted most!! It's Zura and Eli dressed as snowy owls! I friggin' love owls! Why couldn't my luck be this good with Haikyuu?! Last thing I got was a tote bag of the Joui boys as kids with Sensei on it which became one of my most useful purchases for the rest of the trip. I still use it today to carry shit around for work or just in general if I need a larger bag. My only gripe is that it's white so dirt shows up really easily.
After J-world we had planned to visit the Haikyuu themed Animate cafe, but the line was stupidly long and we really didn't want to wait around that long to get in if it was even possible. On the way back, we passed by a cat cafe which was one of our bucket list things. We could use some grub so why not. The first one we went to was closed for private event. We found another one that was more of a lounge than a cafe even though Google maps said it was a cafe. LIARS. It was kind of on the expensive side considering it was just a chill place but with cats. I guess it wasn't too bad as I don't think there was really a time limit on how long we were allowed to stay. There were beds in the other room after all if you wanted to nap with a cat? There was also an area to play games like Super mario Bros on the Famicom. Like, a real Famicom! And also Splatoon on the WiiU. You could also watch TV; they were playing Finding Dori which is, in my opinion, a really stupid movie. I couldn't even finish watching it when I saw it on my flight there. Anyway, beside the beds was a mini library of manga volumes. Ritz and I decided to read some Gintama and Haikyuu for a while before leaving. None of the cats seemed eager for our attention so we mostly just watched them and took pics. There was a window cat that reminded me of Gintoki when he was pretending there were blinds in his office window. I have a video of one that was basically snoring, not purring. That was legit snoring. One of em got mad at us for trying to pet it so we just left them alone for the most part. That didn't stop one from using Ritz as a stepping stone to the table. XD
And that ends Day 3. Geez the more I type, the more I realize just how much we did in Tokyo. Being back at home I still think to myself sometimes, "did all that really happen?" And then I look at the horde of stuff I brought back and internally nod my head. I'll do more after thoughts at the end but for now...
<|= To Be Continued | \ | /