Wednesday, 9/24/08 9:40 PM, Ikebukuro
Today was another near perfect day. I started off by going to Denny’s for breakfast complete with natto and then to the internet café and finding out that Naoko wanted to change our plans to Friday. That’s fine with me because today I met up with Juta, a girl I had been emailing for a while. Then we started our trek to Odaiba. It was a long ride on the Yurikamome line to Odaiba Kaien Koen.
We did get a special treat while on the train. There was a rough looking guy sitting across from us with a huge duffel bag. He was missing more than a few teeth and had probably put in more than a few days of hard labor during his life. Now, I really am not one to judge someone by their looks. I’m just saying that against the scrubbed down, prim and proper background of Japanese folk, this guy stood out like a donkey in a haystack.
Anyway, as he’s sitting there, wiping his head with an old handkerchief, another guy, slightly older but cut from the same cloth walks up to him and smiles. He is carrying a large pink and white striped bag. The two sit next to one another and start conversing. This looks like a planned meeting maybe. Well, rough guy #1 opens up his duffel bag and I see a big pair of milky tits staring up at me. There for all to see was a large stack of porn.
The two rough looking men then proceeded to swap magazines before one of them got off at a train station (I presume). One of the things I noticed about this exchange was the large, pink and white striped bag that one of the guys had. It definitely wasn’t very manly. In fact, there isn’t much sense of “macho” in Japan. The other day I saw a guy in his early twenties on a train. He was wearing sunglasses and trying his best to look cool. However, his t-shirt read, “Mickey Mouse Action.”
Sega Joypolis is situated on the Odaiba Beach Decks – a shopping area built next to the small beach along Tokyo Bay. Before going in, we walked around back where we could see Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower in the distance. There was a slight breeze and chirping cicadas. I took a short video and promptly got a splinter in my hand. 
A passport to Sega Joypolis costs ¥3,500 and allows you to do all the rides and attractions within. There was an indoor roller coaster, a rafting ride, a runaway jeep ride, an airplane ride, a Prison Break walkthrough, a fortune telling forest, a 3-D haunted chapel and a spooky room of living dolls. In the Prison Break walkthrough, four late teen to early twenties girls clamored around me, grabbing on for safety and calling me nii-san (big brother). Juta was not happy.
After several rides, we dropped by the J-Pop Café for refreshments in the form of a panini set – ham and cheese panini, French fries and a pink lemonade. Sadly, the J Pop Café is looking a bit run down these days and there weren’t many patrons. But it did offer a beautiful view of Tokyo Bay as I enjoyed the small panini. For desert, we went to the crepe stand downstairs and I got a delicious tiramisu crepe – apparently at half price! 
The seasonal promotion at Sega Joypolis was the Halloween Stamp Rally. They gave me a card, complete with cool artwork of Sonic decked out in Halloween garb, which had room on it for stamps. You had to ride 8 rides, collecting a stamp at each and play two games, also getting stamps. Once my card was completed, I took it downstairs for redemption. There, a skinny Japanese guy wearing a vampire costume told me that I had earned 3 presses on a big, red, plastic button. OK. I pressed the button and looked up on the nearby TV screen to see a drum rolling around. A golden ball came out of it. The vampire said something excitedly in Japanese and then picked up a handbell and started ringing it as I looked on, confused. He then produced an envelope and explained that I had just won two Sega Joypolis passports. The second spin wasn’t as lucky, but still made me happy – one umaibo, “sarami” flavored – my favorite! The third and final spin yielded 10 coins to play in their small pachinko section. Not bad at all! I guess that lucky fortune is coming true after all.
We bought some rainbow flavored Dippin’ Dots ice cream and went outside to enjoy the sunset and breathtaking view before heading back.
Once back on the Yamanote line, I stopped at Takadanobaba for a walk around my old stomping grounds. The neighborhood had really changed. My favorite katsudon restaurant was gone. Instead, there were a slew of new restaurants and many, many more people walking around than in the past. The Big Box had been updated and even the café where I bought a delicious mystery muffin only four years ago had been renovated and taken over by the Excelsior Café chain. I bought a few souvenirs at the ¥100 shop and went back to Ikebukuro. 
While making a phone call, I noticed a small, white van pull up onto the sidewalk and almost hit a parked bicycle beside the phone booth. By the time I got off the phone, the driver had set up shop, starting a generator and lifting the hatch to reveal a counter complete with a paper lantern and signage.
Curiosity got the better of me so I walked over and saw that he was about to make takoyaki. Japan really does give you just what you need. The man behind the makeshift counter looked like a man who knew his takoyaki. He told me, “ju pun” or “ten minutes.” I waited nearby and watched him ply his trade. As soon as I saw him start to package some of the takoyaki, I walked back over. Eight takoyaki balls were dished up into a plastic tray and topped with sesame seed and an extra helping of bonito. I paid my ¥400 and happily took my treasure back to the hotel.
Two long toothpicks were provided to eat the takoyaki with. It turned out to be just a bit messy with the octopus bits wanting to escape their doughy prison, but the taste was absolute Heaven.
Thursday, 9/25/08 9:27 PM, Ikebukuro
I miss my SUV. Today was completely exhausting – and I didn’t even leave the neighborhood! This morning began with me performing surgery on my hand to finally remove the splinter I picked up in Odaiba. Then, I had my favorite plastic food for breakfast, complete with gyoza and tamago-san again (How could I refuse?). Then I went to the internet café and found out that Juta wanted to meet again. Crap. Now I have to make a choice about Friday night.
Next, I dropped by the bank to pick up another ¥10,000. Then I found a great shortcut through the Nort Exit of Ikebukuro Station to get to the East Exit and Otome Road.
First up was the Hello Kitty store where I picked up two Hello Kitty purses stuffed with Halloween candy for ¥350 each and two Hello Kitty gachapon figures for ¥200 each for friends. Then I went to Comic Tora no Ana just around the corner. There I picked up three Gurren Lagann figures. They were boxed so it would be a mystery as to which ones I got. It turned out to be Leeron, Vira and the prized Simon. 
I walked further down the street and beyond the overpass to Mandarake. Today was a much more enjoyable experience since the store was much less crowded. I asked an attendant if they had any Gurren Lagann doujinshis and she happily led me to an entire section. Overall, I bought about a dozen assorted doujinshis – D Gray-man, Naruto and of course, Gurren Lagann.
After Mandarake, I walked further up the street to the Sunshine 60 Building and made my way to Namjatown. Namjatown is a really cool indoor theme park with sections like Ice Cream City, Ghost 13th Street, Gyoza Fukubukuro Bazaar and Dessert Garden.
Each of the food themed wings had about a dozen restaurants. In total, I got an order of curry rice, which was good but tasted a bit like Rice-a-Roni, a fancy chocolate ice cream, a chocolate coronet and something that was sweet and came in a bottle. I’m not exactly sure what it was but it had the consistency and approximate taste of custard. I kept the glass bottle instead of throwing it away.
Overall, Namjatown was cool. There were several neat nooks and crannies that you could walk into and there was even a demon wing! I think I would have enjoyed it more with a firm command of the Japanese language. 
Next I walked back to the AMPM beside Mandarake and picked up a few more flavors of Umaibou that I couldn’t get in Akiba. Then I passed K Books and Lashinbang to go back to Animate. I found some Code Geass cards and a really nice Code Geass keychain. I went up to the fifth floor and looked around a bit but couldn’t find what I was looking for – goods from an anime I saw on TV here about a boy who apparently has a pet eyeball that sits on his head. So I walked up to an attendant, took out my notebook and drew a sketch of the character and showed it to her. “Ah! Kitaro! Roku furoa.” She immediately recognized the character, Kitaro, and told me that what I was looking for was on the sixth floor. So, I went up another level and picked up a Kitaro phone strap and mirror along with a few Bleach and Code Geass items.
After Animate, I made my way back toward my hotel, again via the North Exit. At the AMPM nearest my hotel, I discovered Pumpkin tarts, a special treat for the Halloween season. They are pumpkin flavored chocolates with crackers in the middle for obvious reasons. Officially wiped out, I retreated back to my hotel room and the comfort of my covered brick bed and freezing cold air conditioner.