Day 14 - Ikebukuro Part II

Wow, it has already been 2 weeks here in Japan. Time really does fly when you're having fun -- too bad. Fortunately I am trying to make the most of it going to unknown areas everyday I can, and visiting all there is to each city. Today, I again went to Ikebukuro, the place I thought was originally mundane, for another reason. Nami mentioned to us earlier today that there was another part to the city, the back side we didn't actually venture.

It then occurred to me that there is probably a lot more to see to each city than I've previously seen, only because when I exit, it's only out of one direction of the station (North, South, East, or West). So today we exited from a different point and there was a lot more to see and do there.

The main attraction that brought us back to Ikebukuro was hearing that there was some sort of Ice Cream museum and the fact that we'd find and eat lots of great ice cream. Seriously, who wouldn't pass up the opportunity, correct? So we made our way to a mall while stopping at a few stores for the girls. Ashley for shoes, and Joy for Sanrio. Oh man, I have never seen so much Hello Kitty in my life, and it was all packed into one store. She could seriously spend hours in there I'm sure if she didn't feel guilty about keeping us from going someplace else.

So finally we made our way to the fable museum which was called "Nanja" or something. Weird name, I know - but it turns out it was like an indoor amusement park with the main character being this Nanja cat. There were things you could do there like hunting ghosts throughout the three floors of this amusement, where kids were running around with these electronic gadgets trying to find and hunt ghosts. Parents would relax in spas that they'd provide for a certain fee inside private rooms. We were there to find this ice cream, and from the sign outside, some pretty damn good gyoza.

So we made our way through the floors checking out the little things they had, and finally came across the "Ice Cream City" where there must have been about 8~10 stores selling different types of ice cream. It was an insanely hard decision to make because every single one of the ice creams/gelatos looked delicious. I finally made up my mind and got this Belgian waffle with ice cream, bananas, a strawberry, whipped cream, and chocolate/caramel spread over the entire thing. That was so sweet and good it was almost worth the 980yen I paid for it. :D

After the sweets, we decided to do some hunting of our own to find the gyoza area. We had to do some running around but finally found it. There were again about 8~10 different stands with different types of gyoza. It was soo hard deciding which one to get, especially because some were in Kanji and even the ones in hiragana made no sense to us. Joy ended up getting a garlic one (which smelt and tasted so good) -- everyone back home, you would've loved it. Clinton and I tried these other ones with special sauces. I really enjoyed them both but Clinton's one had a nice spicy kick to it which made it even better.

And again after that, we decided having a garlic-salty taste in our mouth wasn't how we wanted to leave this interesting area so we walked back to Ice Cream City to get some more. :D I used some of my Japanese to try the different types of gelatos, and finally decided to get the Berry Cheese Cake (oh my god it was delicious) and a slightly tangy, yet equally good Mango gelato.

Yes, I'm a fatty, you all know that. So I spent roughly 2,300yen on food there, haha. Tired of eating, we walked around the town some more and came across a few stores. I happened to find my awesome Uniqlo store I love so much, and ended up spending ANOTHER 8,500yen there. It's ok though, I purchased a pair of pants, two shorts, a t-shirt, and sunglasses. So money there goes quite a long way. And it's the perfect type -dry fit- for the upcoming hot months.

Afterward, we all rushed through the seemingly-always crowded train to get home. And now, it seems as though I will crash in the upcoming minutes because all this walking everywhere is finally taking its toll on me.