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We had planned on staying in Tokyo for just one more day, but we ended up staying another day. It was actually Jonathan who wanted to stay more than I did. I still wasn't feeling 100% better and felt like I wouldn't get completely better until I rested at home, but I was well enough.

Once we went outside though and started walking around I felt really good and was glad that we had booked another hotel.

We spent the morning in Akihabara. It was such a pretty, sunny day! I don't like cold weather, but winter here isn't too bad and it's very sunny! The cold just mostly bothers me at school because there isn't heat and they leave the windows open because they think that prevents influenza. Ugh. If it wasn't for the freezing schools I would actually really like winter here! Well, it's not so great when riding my bike either.



We didn't eat at the hot dog restaurant. I just thought the statue was creepy.


I bought some ginger ale and thought that the bottle was cute. It made me think of Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony, hehe. :)

Next, we went to Harajuku (because I wanted to go to the K-pop store, haha). I didn't go in many other stores because Jonathan kind of hates Harajuku (at least the Takeshita street area, he's fine with Omotesando I think). We started getting hungry and decided to eat at a McDonald's we passed by on Omotesando. 


I got a chicken nugget Happy Set and some cheesy potato bites. The cheesy potato bites were just ok. I wouldn't get them again. I don't think they even have them anymore anyways.


This McDonald's was really big. I just looked it up and just found out that it's the largest McDonald's in Japan. It can seat 328 people.

There's a separate McCafe counter and they had some really good looking cakes and sweets that I've never seen at other McDonald's. They also had some different drinks, like the Hazelnut latte that Jonathan got.


So fancy for McDonald's! A real glass! A real spoon! And a cute design! It was also SUPER delicious. I kind of wanted one for myself but I was full and didn't need it right then.


We then went back to Akihabara to get our luggage from the hotel. I took this picture somewhere between the station and the hotel.

Then we headed towards our hotel near Yashio station, which is not actually in Tokyo. It's in Saitama. When we arrived it really didn't feel like Tokyo anymore. There was a small shopping mall near the hotel and it had a parking lot. It seemed like we could be somewhere in Hamamatsu or something.

After stopping in the mall to get some medicine (Jonathan had a headache) and playing basketball in the arcade, we went back into Tokyo to go to Ikebukuro. I wanted to buy some Converse shoes because I missed my pink ones that I left at home and knew a store there that had some cheap ones. Or at least they had good deals the last time I went. I'm not sure of the name of the store, but it's in Sunshine City.

Last time I had seen two pairs that I had liked. Pink ones and light teal ones with dinosaurs. The dinosaur ones hadn't been on sale though, but this time I saw them and they only had one pair left. When I picked them up, I saw that they were my size! Yay!!!!!! They were also on sale! Lucky!


Jonathan decided to buy a pair of Converse shoes too, but that store was just women's shoes so we went down the street to an ABC Mart. He bought a regular plain black pair.

I really like wearing my new shoes because they're more comfortable than dress shoes all the time and people don't really wear tennis shoes at the mall and stuff. These are good though.

We were hungry then and decided to check out TGI Friday's. I was amused by this sign while we waited for a table. Let's American Party!


When we got our table we were given English menus by out waitress who spoke English really well. It seriously felt like we were in America! The menu is pretty much identical to what you would expect in the US. I got a salad with chicken and it was tasty. :)
 

The restaurant was decorated with a lot of American movie posters. I thought it was cool that they had an English poster of Howl's Moving Castle, which is a Japanese movie.



It was so American-like! Even the ketchup and mustard were American! I guess that "Let's American Party" sign was pretty accurate! We even paid at the table (in Japan you usually receive a check at the table but you pay at a register at the front) and there was a 10% service charge added (tipping is not typical in Japan). It's kind of weird, but this was one of my favorite parts of our trip, haha! I'm so glad that we spent an extra night in Tokyo and went there.


I don't know what these decorations were for, but they were colorful. They were in Ikebukuro.

The next morning we headed towards Tokyo Station to put our luggage in lockers there. 



Yashio Station is kind of new and nice and has a cool stained glass window.


When we arrived at Tokyo station we left our luggage in the lockers in the basement near the Narita Express track. There are a ton of lockers there and usually a lot of empty ones. They were filling up though so I'm glad we got there when we did!

We went back to Akihabara and went to Yodobashi Camera again so that we could get a Play Station 3 for Jonathan and I could buy the puzzle that I wanted.



I made the puzzle during the last week of my Christmas break. It was a really super fun puzzle to work on! the plastic pieces were great and fit together so well. The colors look amazing too!


We also got some little camera keychains from a Gachapon machine. They're cute! Jonathan got one with a bigger lens.

We had time to do some more that day but we were tired and it was getting really crowded in Tokyo. It hadn't been so bad the other days, but it was obvious that a lot of people were starting to travel for the New Year holiday. That's why the lockers had been so full. So we took a bit of an earlier train than planned. We also got to the platform a bit early to wait in line so that we could get a seat. I'm glad because otherwise we would have had to stand for a while. The train was a bit busier than usual.

Overall, the trip was really fun! Being sick wasn't any good, but at least I was well for most of it!

Thursday the 22nd was our last day in Tokyo and the end of our summer traveling. :( We started out the day by going to Tokyo Station to put our luggage in a coin locker. First Jonathan got a drink from a fancy vending machine. There were a lot of Star Trek ads all over Tokyo that week.



The vending machine showed information like the weather and how many calories were in each drink.

After putting our luggage in a locker we went to the Marunouchi side of the station to see the new renovations. Now this part of Tokyo Station looks like it did before the bombings of World War II. It was under construction last time I lived in Japan.





I had originally planned for us to visit Meiji Shrine that morning but Jonathan didn't want to be out in the heat much. I didn't mind though because that meant I had time to go back to Shinjuku and visit Shinjuku Marui One. :)

We passed by Bikkuro and stopped in to look at the Lego displays.





As we approached Shinjuku Marui One I was very happy to see that it was open! It's filled with lolita stores including two of my favorites: Baby the Stars Shine Bright and Angelic Pretty. Photos weren't allowed in the stores and many mannequin displays near the elevators had signs saying not to take pictures, but I didn't see a sign on this display. It was Disney themed which was kind of neat but definitely not the cutest stuff I saw there. I really wish I could have taken photos in there!


I saw a really cute pink jumper skirt at Baby the Stars Shine Bright and the girl there said I could try it on. I really wanted to but I didn't because I had no intention of buying it. It was about 25,000 yen.... :(

On our way back to the station we saw something really exciting. Menchie's! It's a self-serve frozen yogurt place. Jonathan and I went to Orange Leaf, which is very similar, a lot back in the US. I went to Menchie's once there too.


It was very small and didn't have a huge selection of flavors (six I think, plus three swirled combos) but it was fine because they had chocolate and banana. When I went to Menchie's in the US banana had been my favorite flavor.


I put bananas, some flavored chocolate pieces, marshmallows and sprinkles on mine. It was SOOOO tasty! :)

Next we headed to Harajuku. Before doing any shopping we went to Jonathan's for lunch. I've seen a few around Japan and always tell Jonathan he has to go and we finally did. When we went in we had to write our names down on a waiting list and I was amused that I got to write "Jonathan."


The picture below shows the Jonathan Salad with J's Dressing. He got it, haha.


I had hamburg (hamburger without a bun) with grated daikon and mushrooms. It was tasty!


I also got the drink bar which is always nice because refills aren't common in Japan. I took advantage of it and got melon soda, ginger ale, and tea. They had a selection of about ten different loose teas and special cups with infusers. I had the guava blend.



That sign says "Jonathan" in Japanese.


After a good lunch we headed towards Candy Show Time. First I got distracted by a store with cute cat themed products, but the stuff was a little pricey.


Candy Show Time was a lot of fun! The name is very fitting because you get to watch the candy being made.


The workers were layering different colors of the candy and rolling it into a large log.


Next they stretched it out a lot.


The showed us what the design was. It was a winking man with a hat and mustache and it said "Look!" I don't know why it said that, but it was really neat and so detailed!


They cut the candy into shorter lengths and then rolled the rods around on a cold surface to harden them.


Then they quickly cut the candy into individual pieces. The woman who did that was really fast! Next she passed out samples. I'm not sure what the flavor was, but it was more flavorful than I expected.





They had little bags that were three for 600 yen. I bought grapefruit, kiwi, and strawberry milk. The grapefruit ones are good, but I don't care much for the strawberry milk ones. They're just kind of sweet, though they're kind of what I expected all of their candy to taste like. I haven't tried kiwi yet.


Jonathan hadn't been looking forward to Candy Show Time but he ended up liking it. He didn't know that you get to watch them make the candy.


Next was... Kiddyland!



I was amused by the instant cameras. I thought now with digital cameras that Polaroid pictures were long gone. They had some really cute film though. Rilakkuma and Little Twin Stars and Hello Kitty!



So many Totoros!




I got excited to see an ad for the Sailor Moon action figure. Too bad it's about 4,000 yen. I would pay like 1,500 but definitely not 4,000. Why are action figures so expensive???


Yotsuba and Sailor Moon! So much happiness!



The top floor was half Rilakkuma and half Sanrio. Sorry for the horrible picture above with the random woman looking at me, but I wanted to show what each half looked like.




The Rilakkuma side also had a small selection of other San-X characters. I bought a stuffed light pink Mamegoma. :)




After Kiddyland we walked down Takeshita, the crazy street of Harajuku. Jonathan hates that area of Harajuku so I didn't get to look in many places.





There are new signs at the ends of the street. This one was just displaying a boring image of people walking around. There were some balloon decorations, but I like the older sign better. It was more colorful and fit the street better I think.


The last stop of our Tokyo trip was Akihabara. First we visited Super Potato which has a TON of old video games. Both sides of the aisle in the picture below were filled with nothing but Super Famicon (Super Nintendo) games!


They had a lot of Dreamcast games, too. You never see that in the US!



I tried to take another picture of the store as I was leaving and really startled this guy. Hahahaha. This picture cracks me up!



We went in a random store (well, actually it was several different stores in one building) that ended up being really fun. One floor had tons of gashapon (capsule) toys so if there's ever a particular one that I really want and can't get I know where to go. Many of them were a bit more expensive than you would get from a machine, but it's better than spending a ton of money trying over and over again and getting stuff I don't want.

One floor had a bunch of really adorable dolls. You can make your own doll by buying separate bodies and heads and decals for the faces and stuff.


At first I was sad that I couldn't take pictures of the dolls because there was a sign saying no pictures allowed, but on the case it said that you could take pictures of just the stuff in the cases. Yay!





The doll floor was really cute and fun, but also creepy because it was all men shopping there until towards the end when an elementary-aged girl and her mom came in. Oh and there was a female working there too which helped tone down the creepiness a bit.

Next time I'm in Tokyo I think I'll buy stuff to put together a doll. There were some really neat accessories and stuff. They even had scale models of gashapon machines and train ticket gates and shopping carts.


The top floor had some old Sailor Moon action figures which I was excited to see. I didn't see a price though but I'm sure they were expensive.

I was also excited to see Yotsuba phone straps. I had seen them online but not in any stores. There are five different designs and it's a mystery which one you'll get. I got the raincoat one which was my second choice. The yukata one was my first choice.


When we cut through the station to get to Yodobashi Camera I saw ads for the Sailor Moon action figure. Seeing Sailor Moon stuff made me so happy!


After spending a little time in Yodobashi Camera we grabbed a quick dinner at Vie de France. I can't remember everything that mine had, but it included boiled egg, mushrooms, edamame, and bacon.


Jonathan's had macaroni!


Then we went to Tokyo station, grabbed our luggage, and got on the 6:30 train. I was sad to leave Tokyo, but I was also excited to get back and work on my blog and talk about my trips.