Japan Holiday, July 28 (Maybe I'm A Lion)

Last day in Tokyo. Yesterday I discovered there's a Square Enix Showcase just out of Shinjuku - for those that don't know Square = Final Fantasy and Enix = Dragon Quest/Warrior. I had some rough directions on how to get there, but once again it would have been real handy to have a compass (actually haven't had as much trouble getting around in Tokyo as the other cities for some reason). We finally got to the shop, but it was strangely located well away from the main shopping district of Shinjuku, there was mostly business offices and freeways nearby, so not great. The store was alright, since it was all video game stuff, but they could have done a lot more with it. Too much of the Slime character from Dragon Warrior and just a few of the popular Final Fantasy characters - soft toys and key rings mostly. I would have paid pretty much any amount for some kind of Parasite Eve OR Vagrant Story merchandise. They did have a cool Sepiroth model in the floor, I didn't get a photo but here is a link to one on their website.

From there I went back to Ikebukuro since I didn't get much time to look around previously. I actually found this place a bit more confusing to navigate than anywhere else, so I didn't risk trying to find West Gate Park, if there is actually such a place. Also went back to Harajuku, since it was a week day it was a lot less crowded and there was actually some room to move. Walked past the NHK Studios on the way back to Shibuya, I would have liked to have gone on the studio tour (and perhaps seen a life-sized Domo-kun, or a person in a suit at least) but it was only in Japanese.

Back in Ikebukuro.

Friends forever !

I tried to research how to get tickets for the Tokyo F.C. derby match that was on tonight, but it seemed like you had to register in advance and go in to a ballot for tickets. It's possible you could have got some from the Lawson convenience stores too, but given my last experience there I didn't think that would be very successful. So Kris suggested we go to a sports bar and check out the game, I wasn't that desperate to watch a soccer game but sure why not. So we found some English or Irish place that seemed like a sports bar of sorts, and Kris asks the guy if the game is on. The manager is basically clueless as to whether they even broadcast soccer games on television and that noone ever asks to watch the games (sounds a bit like the A-League). The TVs were just screening some baseball game instead, but noone really seemed to be watching. At "happy" hour in this place all the drinks were 500 yen, which didn't make me happy at all.