Day 11 "Asakusa, Kawaii Monster Cafe, Shibuya and Jump World"

Day 11 (December 24, 2018)

It was a pretty cool and crisp morning and we had two major things on the agenda: Kawaii Monster cafe for lunch (in Harajuku) and J-World before it closed at 9:30PM in Ikebukuro (Sunshine City Mall).  I wasn’t 100% sure of what to expect from either location and just how long everything would take. We also had the issue of Terra freaking out over losing Fluffy, so I tried to appease her by checking and retracing as many steps as we could from the day before.  There were other things on my “whenever we get a chance” list such as the Tourism Center and Senso-ji.  Both were free to visit and literally within our walking path between the apartment and metro station we were using daily.  Since they both also opened by 8AM, it made sense to make them our first stops as we waited for the Drum Museum from the prior day to open at 10AM (to check for Fluffy).  The view from the tourism center was pretty great, but it was cold and windy so I think we only stayed up there for 5 minutes total, I also attempted to inquire about a cruise to see the fireworks in Odaiba that coming weekend, but they were sadly not very helpful in that respect.  Good place for a quick/free visit, especially if you are looking for a view and good pictures of the Asakusa region, but I wouldn't count on anything trip changing to come from a visit here.

Next came the obligatory visit to Senso-ji, being the main hall was under renovation in 2010, this would be our first visit here. The shopping street was just starting to open, so the walk down to the shrine was a relatively quick one. We did the offering/praying down the main hall and once again were able to admire the huge before and after restoration of the main adornments abound. I am a huge fan of the dragon on the ceiling for the main gate, so we were sure to snap some pictures and admire, what would be, our only sane (not too crowded) visit to the area. A little browsing and shopping at the early morning stores down the shopping street, many of which were still working on opening for the day as it was super early for Japan time and we were off once again.  Spending time ducking back into the Drum Museum from the prior day and striking out finding Fluffy, it was time to start heading towards Harajuku so we wouldn’t miss our reservation.  Did I mention is was a cold and blustery day?  Yeeeeah.

Harajuku isn’t too far from Asakusa, but it was still a walk to the cafe from the nearest train station. With the tall tightly packed buildings of the area, the wind was even stronger once we emerged to street level.  Sucking it up and walking briskly, any hope of “window shopping” or tucking into a few stores to buy accessories or see cute things vanished from my mind quickly.  Instead we tuck our heads inside our scarves and walk to the cafe as quickly as possible.  Like most things in Japan, you would never guess from the standard “office building” look on the outside what would be waiting for you inside the doors of the 4th floor concrete structure. It was one of the craziest places we’d seen in Japan, everything people imagine after watching viral videos and the “only in Japan” nonsense.  If you simply search “Kawaii Monster Cafe” you will be assaulted with enough internet videos to entertain you for hours.  And yes, it was exactly like that.  Our senses were happily assaulted for nearly two hours while lights flashed, the hostesses would dance and sing and, of course, you were treated to overpriced colored food.  The likes of which tasted pretty good, but nothing more outstanding than my more favored street food of the country.  Terra was a mix of elation, overwhelmed and embarrassed all at the same time.  It was pretty awesome, I would definitely recommend it, but maybe plan on a dessert instead of a meal instead.  I have also obtained info to allude to this place becoming a crazy adults only burlesque with plenty of mixed drinks at night, based off of what I saw, I could see that being its own kind of fun.

Once we had enough with the overwhelming sounds and lights, our stomachs full and frostbite wearing off, it was time to drop by the Voyagin office to get our Ghibli tickets.  Ghibli tickets are still just stupid to obtain, if you are in the country it is a simple matter of running into a 7-11 and using a kiosk to purchase them for about 1,000yen.  However, if you are outside of the country it is a nightmare of waiting in a virtual line that begins exactly 90 days from the day you would like to visit, don’t be a day early or late, to request the day and time you want.  I had put plenty of research in and thought I had this down, but I somehow STILL screwed it up and ended up with the Voyagin service to have someone located in country purchase at the 30 days mark from one of those 7-11’s, at a mere triple markup.  So, 12,000yen, a few emails and a physical trip to their office later we were finally set to go to Ghibli later in the week.  The walk wasn’t as bad as the wind was a bit calmer, but it was a steady 20 minutes from Harajuku to their Shibuya HQ.  A lot of back alleyways and nothing of interest to note, except for one of the strangest (and only) graffiti seen in the country (seen here).  Don’t ask me to translate the meaning, I don’t understand it either.

After leaving their office, the Shibuya station made the most sense from where we were so we simply continued our walk until Hachiko came into view.  There was a SOLID line to take a picture with him!  It was becoming obvious the Christmas season was here and things were about to start getting hectic. Still stuck on the fact that Fluffy was missing, I promised Terra we would run through Akihabara station to check the lost and found there (which, funnily enough, was difficult to find!).  If she left him on a train, he would have been there. We also tried to run through a few of the stores we weren’t able to check the night before, but after wasting upwards of 2 hours looking, it was time to call it and head to J-World.

Based off blogs and reviews I had read of J-World it was a barely-worth-mentioning overpriced stop.  But I still wanted to see it, grab pictures with the photo op spots and eat at their themed cafe if nothing else. I obtained discount tickets to get in months prior and so it was a must-see for me, however I only allowed us about 3 hours during the evening to explore the place.  By this time, their closing had been announced and they were on the last few months of operation. It is closed now, but due to this turn of events, they had a special hunt going on where you had to complete missions to receive a coin upon leaving.  I was also aware we would be located within a mall, a mall I knew next to nothing about.

Oh goodness, once arriving at Sunshine City (several train stations and another 20 minute walk from Shibuya), regret washed over me immediately. I wished we had set aside the majority of the day and not a mere 3 hours.  The mall itself was huge, with a bunch of shops I would have rather gone into. Music also filled the air, turned out they were having a Christmas party/concert with (what seemed to me) a Korean boy band.  We stood and watched them perform one song before making a B-line for J-World. Let me just start by saying, I don’t know what people were experiencing when they reviewed this place.  It was pretty darn awesome!  Especially with a 6 year-old in tow.  Almost every single thing you could experience had more than enough English guidance to get by, the cafe had a wide array of themed options and there were two floors with activities and photo ops.  I think we could have easily spent 5-6 hours here, but instead we scarfed down some Naruto ramen and immediately started on our list of experiences we had to attend/get stamps from in order to obtain our coin.

It was so much fun, Terra took Choppers merry-go-round, we played Choppers save-the-day with backpacks and all, a few “hit the touch panel” type games, riding on a nimbus cloud, shooting a kamehameha, finding the Dragonballs and a Naruto spy ninja type game that accumulated in you throwing as many plastic balls at the screen as you could manage. Some games had subtitles on the videos and some didn’t, but all were simple enough to understand and enjoy either way. Every game had a set of English instructions for you to read before starting, which made it clear enough to make your way through. We made it through our entire “to-do” list just in the nick of time.  Even with a little disappointment at most of the “side attractions” not being open, one being from My Hero Academia and another was a basketball game from Kuroko’s Basketball, I would assume.  It was still a fun-filled evening and I think we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  We shut the place down too, staying right up to the 9:30PM final bell (most games shut between 8:30PM and 9PM).  The “shop” inside was the only thing I found lackluster, I literally found nothing to purchase, which was a surprise. After the experience, I would have highly recommended a visit here and to allow plenty of time, a little sad that it’s gone now.

We obtained our coins and headed back to Asakusa to turn in for the night.  It was a relaxing walk from Sunshine city to the station, but was still 20 minutes after being exhausted so I don’t remember the entire thing.  At this point, we were aware that a taxi from Asakusa station to the apartment was pretty easy to find and well worth the 700yen, so we opted for one this night and turned in shortly before 11PM.