Japan trip - Day 13

We woke up still a bit beat up from all the running around, got ready and left for a stroll and breakfast.
Since the hotel is literally next to Sensoji. Senso-ji is Tokyo's oldest temple and one of the most famous. It is absolutely beautiful and really peaceful early in the morning.

Houses along the way. They have small swastika along the roofs

Typical small residential street in the area.

It was a bit chilly but sunny and so, very pleasant. We decided to take a stroll first and then find a place to eat as it was eally early.
Along the way we found smaller shrines around the temple which I always find adorable. They can calmly and peacefully co-exist in a perfect harmony.

Small shrine

We started stopping a bit along the way because we are both avid cat lovers and we started noticing a lot of stray cats (and its not very normal to find stray animals everywhere in Japan) ...

Miau

Sign that speaks of a group of voluntaries who not only feed the cats but also get them nuttered and clean up their mess. Only these people should feed the cats. - something like that. You can read more about this here.

Right after this we enter the temple's area. There are a lot of buildings and a lot of stalls, etc so basically i'll just leave you with the photos. I am sure (even though I appreciate ancient culture and art) some of you will probably appreciate these more than I do hence me posting them.

main building

Huge sandal. It is supposed to belong to one of the gods.

One of the few shots I have of myself in a tourist location from this trip.

From here to the main gate its all stalls stalls and more stalls.

We took this oportunity to shop for omiyage for mom and dad. Whenever we visited anything tourist-y we got them something typical to eat. I found that to be rather adorable and they seemed to enjoy it. ^^

Favorite stall: pet clothes and articles. Aw...

After visiting the Temple we looked for anything open but the first thing we found was McDonald's. We were starving so we went in. We grabbed a strange burger looking sandwich  and coffee and some hashbrowns. The bread was sweet but it was still tasty.
I left with my coffee in my hands which made the trip back to the hotel much more pleasant. (coldddd...)

McDonald's breakfast sets.

For some reason I never remember to take photos of things my friends might find interesting but i did that time. Here's a Japanese tabacco vending machine for you, Lucy. And see? one can be posh and smoke Vogue (we don't have those in Portugal, i think... i wouldn't know anyway since i smoke the regular stuff).

A pack is around 4,50 euro there. So basically its around the same price you get in Portugal. Now lets compare people's incomes... oh ouch!

We also checked some stores along the way, we were definitely still waking up and taking our time.

The most adorable portable umbrellas in the world for 5 euros each.

We got back at the hotel and got our luggage and said our thank yous and goodbye. In a few minutes we were going to say goodbye to Asakusa. <3 We hope to be back next year.

Asakusa subway station. They have this portable shinto shrine. It is still used, they just place it there when there are no festivities for people to be able to gave upon it. It's gorgeous.

I also took a photo of the subway line for you to gaze upon. I find it really confusing, not in the sense of how to use the line itself but because there may be stations with this only in kanji, so i suggest that you keep your own map with you at all times. Of course since I always go with my husband I don't do jack so if one day i have to go alone i'm sure i'll have to ask for info once or twice.

Buying tickets.

After this we headed over to Shinjuku again. First because we would have to get the bus from there to Oji and so it made sense to go and leave our luggage there and second because i wanted to visit Maruione.
But first it was lunch time, we were hungry again obviously so we went to an Udon fast food chain store.

Curry Udon, absolutely delicious. Also the topings etc are all free so you can just add as much as you want.

There was an Angelic Pretty lolita wearing white slurping udon right in front of me and although i really wanted a photo I thought it would be really rude so i snapped an outfit photo from the back. That should do it as a means to preserve her identity. I also have a photo of the cooks, they were really nice and posed for the photo happily. ^_^;

Udon loving lolita

Store front. If you spot it, go in. Affordable and delicious food ahead. <3

We got out and started heading to our destination. Since we did go buy many of my favorite things i am going to share some more photos.
First i must say that there's something really adorable about girl relationships in Asia: the holding hands thing. We don't hold hands in portugal very frequently, its just... odd to us so i always find it strange yet adorable when girls do so in Asia. I used to feel the same when i lived in China.

culture point: girls holding hands.

Right next to where Christon Café is there's a small shring. Yes right in the middle of the city confusing and one of the busiest spots in all Japan. Its like entering a completely different world.

Hanazono shinto shrine

It is located in a parallel street to this huge avenue:

One of the streets there

We made a small stop at the local Sanrio store and I managed to not spend money but encouraged my husband to get a kitty tie for work. It's very fitting for him to own such a tie i think haha. It's an adorable store, i really like it. <3

Gift Gate - sanrio store entrance

Maybe some of these are portuguese!

Karaoke building. I love the castle on top of it, its beautiful!

We decided to leave Maruione for later and went to our next assigned destination: Akihabara.

Saw Algonquins in the subway, which i thought was surprising in a way.

You know you're at Akihabara when images such as the next one start appearing everywhere. It's a mix of cute, revolting, silly, disgusting.... I don't know what feeling. I suppose if I was very innocent it would just be "cute" but i can never just look at things without processing them at least a bit so i myself ruin things for me haha. Oh Japan Japan.

This one is for Duarte.

We can't spend many ours there without coffee so...

Afternoon cofee stop!

Right next to the main station entrance there was a huge queue. I then looked at the start of it to try and see what it was and another feeling of disgust came to me: AKB48 shop and café?!? THAT's what that huge line is for? Oh Japan Japan Japann....

That annoying jail bait pseudo band was everywhere this year, i mean everywhere.

Right next to it was something much better with a smaller queue.

Gundam Café. Although i'd prefer a Macross Café, its still pretty awesome. I obviously didn't go in, no time to stay in a line like that. Maybe next time.

An interesting thing about Japanese Otaku is the difference between how seriously they take their hobbies as opposed to how not seriously so called anime fans take their hobby over here (not sure about other countries, you'll be the judge of that). They spend tons and tons of money on their hobby and they are very loyal and faithful. In fact in order to actually be respected as an otaku by other otaku in japan you would probably have to lead a very finantially confortable live otherwise there's no way one would make it.
A sign of that are the local car mod otakus. These otaku ride their modified and decorated powerful cars around the area probably showing off or something. It was hilarious but also (I admit) slightly cool at some point. I totally respect their love for their hobbies.

Example (I have a couple more but can't post everything)

The area is basically formed by very tall buildings that sell game, anime, manga, collectible related things. There are also big electronics department stores and themed cafés and stores. It's a lot of fun but you would need a full day just to check some of it and we were running out of time. I did snap some photos for you guys.

General view of the area.

There are also advertisement for releases and things of the sort.

My destination was Mandarake. They sell second hand models and figurines and I was hoping to get wigs for my future dolls. I found that 25 euros a wig was a big too much for me at this point so i didn't actually buy anything there.

Mandarake building

Ok maybe just one more hahaha

After browsing the area we left for Shinjuku again. I really wanted to visit Maruione and we had to have dinner and eventually leave as it was already past 5pm and the bus was leaving at around 8.

Maruione, this time with its normal amount of visitors unlike the previous day.

Isetan building view at night, gotta love all the lights.

I found a small store at Maruione that was only staying for a small period of time. The store sold a big number of Pullip dolls and they also had some doll clothes. Doll clothes as I would find out are ridiculously expensive, you can actually buy clothes for you with the price they charge for them. So I basically spent the same i later spent in boots for myself in doll clothes and left.

Next was Juniemoon, the blythe store. I drooled over all the dolls they had there, cried with the even more expensive clothes they had for sale there and asked some questions.
I really wanted to buy the Blythe x Emily Temple Cute doll but it was 180 something euros and, since i didn't know much about the hobby, i thought it might not be a smart move. If it was today I would have gotten her because i found out that the price will only go up from that and also because i can't stop thinking about her and i still want her badly. ;_;

Next stop was the footwear floor. They were the only floor with sales already and i fell in love with a pair of gorgeous boots that I got. They also had another pair i loved but they didn't have the LL and L was small for me so i got a pair of very pretty brown shoes instead. I love their shoes, they are more affordable than brand and as beautiful!

I also visited  the rest of the stores and broke my heart at Kera. They had the Mére Vierge Juliette et Justine dress and i nearly cried of happiness when i saw it and asked to try it on. Unfortunately I found out that the shirring is there to make suckers like me get their hopes up and then fall in an instant meaning, it is there for nothing as it does not work so it didn't fit. I was so sad that even the store employee was clearly feeling sorry for me. It sucked really hard. Oh well...

We then left Maruione and I went up to Innocent World really fast just to check if they had anything special but i didn't want anything other than the shirts that never fit me anyway so I left.

Innocent World Shinjuku store

Tired as heck but happy (especially with the doll clothes) we went to another chain restaurant and had dinner.

I think this photo clearly illustrates the tired but happy idea. XD

My "not yet arrived" girls's new clothes! At least two of them won't be naked anymore!

My dinner, so damn tasty!

After that i had to make a choice: dessert at Christon Café like usual or Alice café for the first time? Even though i love Christon the alice café was just there and i did feel like i should try something new.

We went down the stairs first because we didn't read the sign properly and found out that the only way to access the café was through the elevator, so we went back up and looked for it. Found it and got in.

The café sign outside.

When we got there it was amazing, the decoration was fantastic and all you could hear were disney songs and other wacky old tunes. haha I guess my older brother would want to kill himself as he hates musicals but whatever.
Anyway we found out that people usually make reservations for these and it was completely booked. We did say we only wanted to stay for a bit so he found a spot for us right away. Apparently when people go there they stay there for a long time! They told us "we have a table for you but only for one hour, is that ok?". It made me wanna laugh and i said "ok" - I mean for me 1 hour is a looot of time! o.o

The reception: the employee who greated us was dressed as a fancy buttler. I didn't want to disturb him so i took a photo of the space instead. There was a hidden door in a panel and he lead us in after that.

The open menu, a lot of alice illustrations and alice related names.

The menu was amazing, it was basically like a story book with images and gorgeous features. All the food names was alice related and one would have to read its content to know what they were referring to.
All the waitressed were dresses accordingly, as alice or something else. The place was completely full.

Menu2

Closed menu

The room was small but lets not forget that in order to reach it one has to go throught a lot of different individually booked rooms which means its bigger.

Center chandelier.

Another photo of how full it was and myself.

I think this is a ginger ale but am not sure. The 8 card is our "coat" hanger number

As an appetizer they brought caramelized fruit or something. I can't say because i don't really like these. The bowl was adorable though.

And this is what i ordered for us: Cheshire cat dessert! Check the little chocolate made paw!

The face (I ate that first muhahaha)

It was pricey, around 25 euros for both cocktails, the dessert and the experience but i think it is worth it. It's not something you do very often so...

The entrance/exit doors

We left for the bus stop area. It was still a bit early so we checked some of the subway stores.

Ballet window. Gorgeous!

We always spend time at the book stores, and for japanese people this means nothing but common, how can you not laugh at...

This name!!! XD

I must say its the first time I see a complete wall of gothic and lolita bibles in a book store, including older numbers. Very cool. I couldn't buy anything though, i had gotten too many mags already. :|

Gothic & Lolita bible wall.

Lastly we went to a coffee shop right in front of the bus stop. They were a smoking ok coffee shop and the place was full of smoke. I understand how people can be anti-tobacco when they go in a place like that haha, everyone there was smoking and the ventilation system must have been really bad.

We ordered drinks and just relaxed for a bit. The staff was nice though, very nice.
They kept filling our glasses with water and saying nice things.

After a couple smokes we just left. Getting on a bus at shinjuku is quite challenging i tell you that so be sure you get there on time or you are screwed.
But we found our bus and got in and everything went as planned. We were so tired that we slept the whole time.

Bye bye Tokyo, see you next time!