Robots & Gay Bartenders

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The boys wanted to sleep in, so I took the train to Ikebukuro on my own. I wandered around the area until I found Otome Road. This area is known for it's manga/anime focus for girls. I found a 9 story store that had floor after floor of manga comics, knickknacks based on the stories, and anime. I was in heaven! It took me an hour to explore all the floors and then another half an hour to narrow down what I wanted to buy! If things had been in English, I'm not sure I would have been able to carry home all the things I wanted to buy. Somehow I managed to leave with one small bag. After doing a little more exploring of the area, I headed to meet the guys in Marunouchi at the Tokyo Station entrance for a free Imperial Palace tour we read about at the hostel.
I didn't see the guys still about 5 minutes from the tour leaving. I was having troubles getting the free train station wifi to work, so I walked outside to scout out for a Starbucks. Guess who I saw crossing the street. Since they didn't hear me call out, I ran after them. They had forgotten to look up the meeting point before leaving the hostel (at least they got the time right!).The free walking tour was incredible. It started with history of Tokyo Station which used to be three stories but lost the third in a fire. With the birthday coming up for the station, the government refurbished the station so it is like it did originally meaning even the local Japanese were taking pictures of it. From there we walked through a garden designed to celebrate the Emperor's wedding. It had an awesome fountain that I went to take a picture of, but as soon as I lifted up my camera it shut off! That had the entire tour group teasing me. The volunteers took us around the imperial gardens explaining the way it used to look and how it had been used when the Shogun was in power here in Tokyo. Unfortunately, the majority of the complex had burned down in the 1800's so mostly it was a garden and the stone foundations. The guide had pictures of how it used to look and could point out the different aspects of the area to us. It was a good enough tour that I would have paid for it! They gave up 2 hours of their time to tell us about their history. I do wish we had come 3 weeks ago though to see all the flowers in bloom - we seem to be right between flowering seasons. An interesting fact about Japanese gardens is that they are designed to encompass all aspects of the country in one place. That means there's a waterfall, stones to represent all the islands of Japan and flowers from each season. We had one pitstop point where we all got these amazing waffle cookies filled with chocolate and ice cream.
The last time we were in Ginza, we didn't have the time to stop at the Sony building, so since the garden is right by it, we headed over there next. The headquarters had an interesting exhibit on the history of Sony products and then took you through to their current and newly releasing products. I was intrigued by the old products because it was things from my childhood. What surprised me the most is that Sony had a CD player back in 1984 but they didn't get popular until the mid-1990's.
Perfect on timing, we headed over to Shinjuku to attend a show we booked at Robot Restaurant. Fred had seen a sample of this show on a TV ad for Travelocity. We started by going to the elaborate waiting room with plush over the top decorated chairs to sit and listen to a band dressed up like robots play some music and sing. After grabbing a beer, we were called in for the show. Our seats were perfect, we sat right in the center in the 3rd row (of 3) so we could see everything. The room was two sections of 3 rows facing each other with a wall of TV screens behind them to add to the atmosphere. The show was incredible with elaborate costumed girls doing dances and shows... it seemed like a live action version of anime movies to me! It was high energy with fun music and of course, robots. We enjoyed dancing along to the music and watching one crazy act after another. The first was a high energy drum ensemble followed by a big dance number on raised stages. Then the scenes got complicated by introducing aliens and their robots battling animatronic animals partnered with nature warriors. After a brief marching band interlude the big robots came out for Robot Wars and the robot dance. We had ordered bento boxes to accompany our show, so we feasted on some super tasty sushi along with the entertainment.
After the show, we were all keyed up to go out in Shinjuku (well known area of Tokyo for its night life) and we seemed to just fall into a group that were at the show with us. We went to a nearby Scottish Pub with a British Airways flight crew and small group of US Marines all visiting Tokyo. We spent some time getting to know them while enjoying a couple drinks before going to explore the true Japanese feel of going out. On our walk over Elliot had a little drip incident but nothing a napkin couldn't help. The four of us went to an Izakaya (local bar with only enough room for about 5 people). We went to one on the 2nd floor that had a bartender that spoke no English but we were able to communicate our desire to try some local sake. He offered us some small plates of nuts - the boys were hungry again, so I think we ate our way through half of his container! There was a 3rd floor to the Izakaya that housed another group. When they left for the evening we chatted a bit with them because they were our age and spoke some English. They told us our bartender was gay (which is not a big deal to us) and that he found Tyler cute 😉 We had a good time trying to chat with the bartender after they left. Mostly it was hand gestures, but still had us all laughing a ton by the end of our drinks. We took a quick picture with him before we left. Elliot may have gotten a little nip in the process from our bartender, but he was a good sport about it. Enjoying the area we found, we stumbled into another Izakaya that was based on Heavy Metal. Inside were some additional tourists, so of course we had to catch up with them and how their trip was going. It was a bit smoky and I was lacking sleep, so I chilled outside people watching for a bit. This place just fascinates me! I can see why when they come to the United States the Japanese take a million pictures because everything is just so different. Tyler was starving, so we hunted down some food for him and Fred. Elliott spilled a drink on a girl accidentally so he stayed behind to make it up to her. The three of us did some wandering in Shinjuku finding a tiny suit of armor and a tall mirror. Fred managed to fall off a railing he was resting on. Once we finale made it to a restaurant, I was falling asleep at the table so I left them to continue exploring the bar scene in Shinjuku while I cabbed it back home. I tried to figure out the train system, but it closes at midnight and being 11:30 many of the entrances were blocked off. It is also the largest station in Tokyo, so I gave up and just took a taxi back.

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