#ikebukuro
No pictures today, as I am super bad/lazy at taking those.
Not too much exciting stuff happened on monday. I went out for some shopping (mainly gifts for friends) but had to cut my trip short. Jet lag is still gnawing on me (to be fair, I have been very bad at trying to get into a normal rhythm) and I am about the least sporty person in the world, so walking around in crowded areas for extended periods of time just made me feel exhausted and sick. I also had what was probably the first bad meal ever in Japan, so by 2pm I was already back in bed in my Airbnb. Hadn’t even bought anything. Hmpf.
“Today” (It’s actually 6am on wednesday here already but everyone reading this is still stuck in the past) was a lot better though. I discovered a lot of nice shops in my area, including a supermarket selling the most wondrous vegetables (would have loved to take pictures of those but I felt it would be rude to photograph inside a store). As I have a kitchen here, I might cook something some day, unless I have plans for each of the coming evenings.
I did, for example, meet up with my friend Mari (yes, that’s her name) in Ikebukuro today. Together we shopped a bit at Tokyu Hands (huge store selling all sorts of things, from kitchen appliances to stationery) and she helped me buy some books I had been hunting for. Then we had a really nice Yakiniku dinner and a chat over cocoa/coffee afterwards. Gonna meet up again on sunday before I leave for Osaka :)
This date also finally gave me the opportunity to sleep at a normal time, so yay!
(Wednesday, 28. May)
No pictures for this day (nor the next), sorry! I’m getting a little lazy regarding that, though it’s also not quite in my nature to take photos of everything.
On Wednesday we switched Hotels. From Odaiba to Suidobashi, where the Tokyo Dome Hotel is located. This is where we stayed at our first time in Japan, so it’s quite nostalgic. The area has lots of entertaining things to offer, as well as many restaurants.
Since we arrived a bit too early for check-in, we just dropped off our bags and re-explored the area. Sadly, our favourite Burger place from last time was gone :(
We also used the opportunity to hop on the subway and go to ikebukuro, because that’s one of the places where one can exchange their pre-purchased voucher for a Japan Rail Pass. This pass will be used for the 7-day-period following our stay in Tokyo, allowing us to take any Shinkansen train (with a few exceptions) for free. We also reserved seats for the upcoming trips right afterwards. It’s an odd feeling that not even half of our vacation is over, there’s still so much to come!
The rest of the day was basically just strolling around, checking-in, strolling some more, go to bed.
