Unfortunately, what added to the crowded streets were umbrellas, since it was wet and dreary that day. We were able to find Takeshita Dori after a bit of walking and proceeded down the street to all the lolita stores. While I went shopping, AS went to 7-11 in search of snacks. He came to find me so he could share the nikuman he found.

After I finished my must see shops, we walked back the other way to see the shops we bypassed earlier. Somewhere half way down the street, we got intrigued by someone waving a sign that mentioned maguro and they waved us down a small alley and there was a restaurant there. I don’t think we were super hungry, but we hadn’t really eaten breakfast aside from the nikuman AS had bought us, so we decided to eat lunch there.

We left our umbrellas out in the full umbrella stand. AS had only just bought himself an umbrella because we only had one between us (which we found underneath the seat on the train on one of the previous days). I commented to AS that I wouldn’t want to leave my lolita umbrella out there and asked if we had to, since the rack was full of clear umbrellas that are so popular in Japan. How would you remember which one was yours? And how would you prevent someone from taking yours?

When we got in, I got the maguro that interested us and he was intrigued by the loco moco they offered on their menu. A loco moco is a dish that originated in Hawaii that consists of rice topped with a hamburger patty, gravy and a fried egg.

We walked back down Takeshita Dori after we were done and turned right at the end of the street so we could go to La Foret, a department store that was also on my must see list. We passed Forever 21 which had just recently opened in a Japan, so there was a long line out the door to get inside. And then we walked past H&M which was empty. xD I would’ve loved to have gone to H&M but we didn’t have time. Lolita fashion > mainstream fashion.

I’m pretty sure I ended up not buying anything there. I think it was that we realized we didn’t have our passports with us, so we couldn’t get the tax refunded if we bought anything that day. So we left and walked back to the station. I could see the famous bridge and some lolitas milling around, but I knew we were short on time. AS asked me if I was sure if I didn’t want to see it, but it was for the better considering the ambitious day we had.

From Harajuku, we headed to Shimokitazawa. We had to transfer to a local rail line though, so that was an interesting experience. We were unsure if we were going the right way at first. Why did we decide to go there? Shimokitazawa is where another lolita store is located. I asked him if he really wouldn’t mind going and I questioned it myself since it didn’t seem like it would be worth the work. I’m glad we did go though, because I found some super cheap stuff. There was a share of expensive stuff, but I got a decent haul. ^_^ On the way back to the rail, we saw a Cat cafe! We only stopped for pictures. I can pet enough cats at home. xD We swung by the 7-11 there to see what interesting goodies they had in stock.

I think Cateriam is the name of the cat cafe.

The (fake) cat begging you to come pet it (we didn’t )

Don’t recall what this was, but looks like there was mayo. ^^;

Bacon cheese onigiri.

Luckily the train station wasn’t hard to find (and it made us wonder how we got lost) and we were on our way to Nakano to go to the flagship Mandarake store. Luckily not difficult to find. ^^;

There was a takoyaki stand so of course, we had to stop and get some. We also got some ice pops in milk and apple flavors. I was missing the apple aisu from Disney but the apple was nothing like it. Oh well. We got the milk flavor because it was cheap and I was curious about it since I saw the milk flavor at Disneyland, too. Omigosh! I was totally kicking myself as soon as I put it in my mouth. Milk flavor in Japan is like condensed milk! In Tokyo Disneyland, there is an ice cream store that offers a seasonal flavor. We had read it was earl grey when we left, but when we got there, it was milk flavor. Not knowing what it was, we decided not to get it. This is why I was kicking myself. Looking back on it now, I should’ve hunted down milk ice cream. ^^;

Aisu – milk and apple.

Yummy takoyaki!

Mandarake takes a lot of time to go through since there are so many little stores on many floors. Getting lost at Ikebukuro had taken some of our time away, so we were trying to zip through them to get through all the floors. Luckily it’s not just anime, so some stores and floors were not interesting to us and we were able to walk past them. ^^; This is where we did the bulk of our anime merchandise buying.

I was drooling when we got to the card store because the bulk of it was Sailor Moon cards. It got the former card collector in me excited because the prices were so good, but AS dragged me out of there. ^^; He knew he couldn’t stop me when we got to the cel store, though, since I do still collect anime cels on and off. Luckily I decided awhile ago to focus solely on Tomoyo cels, which makes it a lot easier, but I still like looking at other series that I like. We were short on time and money so I couldn’t do that this time, but I hope the next time we go, I can spend more time there.