Akiba/LakeTown/Ueno.

This last post will just be a round-up of the smaller trips we made whilst Dan was here.

The day after Dan got here we went to Akihabara and experienced... it. We nommed on some treats from Vie de France, played in the arcades and had a general wander around. We also went to Mr. Donut and had bright green melon soda. Another day we went back and we went to Book Off, a discount book shop near the station. It was in the evening, and the floors with manga on just had people standing shoulder to shoulder openly reading them across all the shelves, all ages and genders. Would have been a good photo opportunity if I didn't feel so self-conscious about taking photos like that ^_^

Another day we headed to Laketown, which is a giant shopping complex not far from here in Koshigaya. There's a display duck outside which we took photos with and a pet shop which had baby kittehs and puppies and I had to practically be physically dragged away lest I spent all day in there oohing. Laketown is absolutely massive and a little confusing, so we just perused the shops, tried to find interesting flavoured Kit-kats and bought a Daruma drop toy from a slightly odd shop that sold sweets and toys. We had lunch at Saizeriya, where I couldn't get over how cheap and not bad the wine was and I had an arrabiata that wasn't very spicy but still nice all the same.

Finally, the day before Dan left we went to Ueno and to the park. We watched some baseball that was going on whilst eating some snacks from Daiso. Then we had a walk around the lake and decided to get a pedal boat, which was fun :3 We then found an amazing pizza place in the middle of a department shop which was also cheap and quite a find considering.

On Sunday morning we got up super early to take Dan to the airport :( It wasn't as hard as in Spain as I know I will be back soon and that is exciting :3 I am having a great time here and it will be hard to leave, but I am also anxious to get back and see friends and family and live in Cardiff and be with Dan. I think that's a normal balance ^_~

Mum and Paul visit Part Two.

Saturday 26th was my 21st birthday. In the morning we headed to Akihabara, intending to go to a cat café, but were disappointed when we found out it was fully booked until 3pm -_- We stopped at a café for a drink, and I opened my cards which Mum had bought with her. We had a bit of a wander and found a flea market that was going on at the time nearby. A girl was dressed as a vocaloid and dancing, apparently to sell tea, not sure though. We had some pizza for lunch (Mum and Paul are vegetarian and finding food here which doesn't have random bits of meat and fish slipped in is easier said than done).

After that we headed back for a nap, we had done a lot of walking up until then. Then for tea we went with Laura to Matsubaradanchi in search of a curry house I had read about online. We couldn't find it but we found another place instead nearby so that did just fine. Laura gave me my presents from the her and the others, including a packet of tortilla wraps (hideously expensive here) and a cat plushie ^_^ We ordered our curries, but unfortunately Mum and Paul's came with tiny bits of meat floating in the sauce. I asked the waitress and luckily they said it was fine to remake it without. Lucky really, although Mum couldn't understand why they had put meat in the vegetable curry...

After that we headed back to the hotel room for some celebratory whiskey and lemonade, snacks and some J-dorama, which was some kind of Sherlock-Holmes-with-cat thing. Headed home and called my Dad on Skype, then promptly fell asleep.

On the Sunday, we went to Otemachi, pretty much right in the centre of Tokyo, to visit the Imperial Gardens. It's all tall buildings and wide roads in that area, but the gardens were an amazing break from all of that. Plus it's free to get in! They had a variety of different styles of garden, lakes and mini bridges and old buildings set over a large area. It was very hot that day and there wasn't much shade so walking round was a little tough, but it's definitely a great place to visit in the area. We relaxed the rest of the day, and on Monday I saw them off at the station where I didn't have to catch the direct train to the airport to save some money, and I figured it was difficult to go wrong at that point ^_~ After that they headed onwards on their little jaunt around this part of the globe, heading to New Zealand and then Singapore before going back home to a slightly annoyed kitty.

Really it was a very short trip but we managed to pack a lot in, perhaps to the detriment of our feet. It was nice to have visitors over my birthday again and to see family though. It made me realise how quickly things were going though when Mum said it would only be about 9 weeks until I saw them again o_o