Fan Fare - Pokemon Centre

We came around the back entrance, missing the front door completely because we were instantly drawn to the giant Pikachu face on the wall. (See picture below)  From where I am standing in this picture kiddy corner from the door is a gaming room. I don't know why I didn't bring my DS but it might have been better that I didn't since I would have registered in the room and I would have never seen the light of day again. 

As soon as I walked in I saw nothing but stands of new Pokemon merchandise. Now the sad thing about this shop is that I thought it was going to look like the Pokemon centre in the game, you know the room where you heal your Pokemons. We have all been there a billion times, I wanted Jenny to be standing at the reception desk. I figured that it would have been a very fitting venue based on the game that the Japanese would have been able to replicate to a tee. I was saddened by the fact that I they didn't however I'm happy that I was standing here.

As for the plushies that were available they only had the starter Pokemon from all the games and the odd ones from the new version. My friend and I were quite disappointed that they didn't have all the Pokemon from the older generations. There are so many and they featured less than 200 of them.

Since the new X & Y (the new Evee type), the new game and the Mewtwo movie is the big rage at the moment pretty much everything sold in the store was based on these three events happening in the current Pokemon world.

I couldn't find Danny a Slowking, I didn't even see any of my favorite Pokemons from before Black and White.

They had no shortage of Pikachu everything, bentos, chopsticks, stationary, pillows, purses, wallets, dusters, sweat clothes, key chains and more.

You can choose a pokeball and hope that you get a good one.

Okay so here are some of the things I took pictures of that I thought were way cool. I really dig the 8-bit stuff but I don't think I could afford to buy them all. Also look a Charizard!!

Why does this section look like they are all doped up?

Kyle and I at the Pokemon Center.

Yokohama

Cup Noodle Museum: 

YAY Yokohama!! First off we headed straight for the cup noodle museum since it seemed like a logical place to hit up first. We were all under the impression that this place would have the longest line ups. Which wasn't incorrect after we arrived. There were quite a few people there.

Going through the Cup Noodle Museum in the right order is highly recommended, since we kind of went backwards through it.  We should have taken a closer look at the map that they gave us. First was nice that the movie about Momofuku Ando's life and accomplishments had an English (plus Korean, Chinese, etc.) audio guide which I really appreciated. Making the story all the more comprehensible.

Since the entirety of the museum is 97% Japanese it made it hard to truly enjoy the whole walk through. To my surprise it wasn't as large as I would have hoped but we had Japanese friends to answer any questions we had about the descriptions on the wall. The pictures were definitely cute though!

From there I was easily roped into making my own cup noodle. For 300 yen we were able to draw on it, put the noodles in (I even cranked it in the cup myself, finished by a cute 'DING' pick our soup stock, and 4 ingredients!

To finish everything off we got to place our cup noodle in an air bag attached to a string to carry around and serve as a protective barrier. Since most of the customers were children under the age of 10.

Mine is the one on the left!

All in all it took about an hour, I wasn't going to post my drawing but hey whatever we only live once. Enjoy.

Mine's the wolf.

Enough Cup Noodles? I don't think so there are 4 walls.

Vanish- Roller Coaster @ Cosmoworld

For 700 yen it is totally worth it, Japanese roller-coaster  ✓  

We were incited by the pictures all over the internet of a watery chasm that you just disappear into. If you like roller-coasters do it. Also when you go take someone that laughs like a maniacal super Mario, it will make your day. I will never forget that sound.

Yokohama Chinatown

If you like steam buns, soup dumplings or all you can eat Chinese food this is the where you want to be. I found massive and I mean massive steam buns that sell for 2100yen but they are the size of half a soccer ball. I don't know if they sell any but I was so tempted to buy one and see if I could take on the challenge. If you like any anything or everything panda hit up China town.

Red Brick Warehouse

Is it weird to say that this place smells amazing, or maybe I was having my second wind after Chinatown. Their food areas have samples of all sorts, imported goods and also bakeries. I love the smell of fresh pastries!! The other half is a shopping mall, with mostly overprices but interesting things to look at. The building itself has some history but I had already had a drink or two by this point and was ready to move along to the park. Wait I think I came from the park.

Yamashita Park:

The park here wasn't something that I would have talked about but I thought it was worth the mention since we sat around and smoked our friends hooka with panazz. On the Sunday that we were there they had some DJ talk for hours but eventually we found our little spot. In the pouring rain we sat until I was ushered home cause I drank all the wine.

Getting a good view in Tokyo

The Tokyo Metropolitan government building:

This building is a bit hard to miss since it is so tall, but the architecture for this particular building is developed by the same person as the building to the left in the photograph. I though it fitted Tokyo very well. The Japanese local that I went to the observatory with found this government building very fascinating and enjoyed the unique look of it, all in all it was a spectacular view.

 I highly recommend going here since it is free and open to the public: pick a day when there is something else going on in Tokyo, then you won't have to queue.

View from Tokyo Tower.

 The entrance fee for Tokyo Tower is 850yen and the tower itself is more impressive than the view. Plus when you go up there is another booth asking you to pay another 600yen to make it up a little further. At the Metropolitan government building 150m up.All in all I think I might have to check out the Hyatt and the Skytree.

Fan Fare - Kill Bill Restaurant - Gonpachi

Yes. Today we went to the restaurant that got trashed in Kill Bill.

Unfortunately it doesn't have the glass floor, but it is still way cool. When I got there I was expecting the stair case that she flies towards the second level during the fight scene but I guess it was a prop. Either way it was still super cool to go. It wasn't the easiest place to find and we were running a bit late since that is the Tokyo way. Being lost I mean. We were meeting people I had conversed with on Couch Surfers so into a  taxi from the station and 900yen and a couple of alley ways later we were there.

Upn arrival we were immediately greeted by the people we were meeting, and then when we stepped inside we were all greeted in one unison word by the whole staff of the building. Like a quick note that new customers had arrived. It was strange but I liked it, after that I noticed them doing it every time someone arrived. 

Of course they would have something like this near the doorway.

The staff were friendly and were from all around the world, from there we were able to order food. They had a variety of dons (meat on rice) and simple things like Japanese fried chicken. Also on top of your meal you can add the open buffet salad bar/drinks to your meal for an additional 300yen, which is what I did. The food looked pretty decent and was reasonably priced about 1000-2000yen for a rice dish but the menu itself was quite small - maybe they had a bigger selection for dinner.

This was everything they had the buffet for 300yen which is about $3CAD. So I hopped on the idea and ate my 3 dollars worth. Lol.

I think I'll go watch the movie now.

Fanfare - Maid Cafe

I initially didn't want to go to a maid cafe but I met up with a fellow couchsurfer for an anime event: Neon Genesis Evangelion in Ginza, which was awesome if you know what it is all about. Either way we were approached on the street by several different girls in Akihabara. A cute Japanese girl dressed up in a maid costume spoke to us in broken English about different locations that we could go to. There is a huge market for it in this otaku area since there were so many different brands of maids. 

They ranged between different coloured maid costumes and girls that probably do different acts and whatnot. We ended up going to one which was quite small in size. When we arrived we were greeted at the door and then at the table, they do a full introduction at your table and tell you how much your table charge would be. The one we went to was on the 4th floor and was a 500 yen charge per person per hour.                                                                                                                                                                                                             From there we had our maid tell us that her name was 'Mew Mew' she did little hand gestures. The cafe itself was all very pink and all the girls talk in this very high pitched voice, maybe some people would think it was cute but for me it was strange and would be very horrible if I was made to talk that way all day. It would have probably give me a massive headache after 15mins. 

The customers consisted of single men, couples, foreigners and one large group of salary men. They had huge sundaes for about $8, instead we bought a cute chicken curry teddy bear made out of rice, it wasn't fantastic but we had tonnes of fun eating it. Before we were allowed to eat it we were made to sing a song with the maid that dropped off our food, I assume that because of this table charge they had to entertain as well as be cute. 

During this time we were made to put on some animal ears which we did and so did some of the other customers. They did a dance and song and also tried to persuade people to buy a Polaroid for 500yen. They were tiny but very personable since they drew on the photos with markers. I didn't want to pay for a photo but they wouldn't let me take one with my camera. Either way it was an experience but a lot of people would think it is demeaning for the girls that work there. As for myself when one of the new girls started shift she jumped right into action and looked pumped to be at work. Go there and see for yourself.