Ikebukuro for the second time!

We went back to Ikebukuro and managed to find the attractions we wanted due to careful planning before we left.  Since we do not have working phones/data plans here, there is no opportunity to look at a map while we are trying to find something.  So I found some interesting attractions, looked up the locations on Google maps, took pictures of said maps and also wrote down in Japanese characters the names of the buildings we wanted to go to and the address in case we needed to ask someone.  It worked out perfectly, and we were easily able to find every location without asking for help!  After I felt very confided we can go anywhere around Japan as long as I plan before hand.  The had part about finding your way here is that no roads are named.  I still can't figure out how people know where they are going, and even Miki said she can't understand how areas are labelled.  But every address has 3 numbers to it, I believe in reference to the area, block, and location on the block.

I took some pictures on the train again because the mountains and valleys are so beautiful.

After we arrived we went to a well known sunday restaurant called Milky Way.  Even though the sunday was big, there was only two small scoops of actual ice cream.  The rest was a weird assortment of some kind of whipped cheese, whipped cream, ritz crackers, plain yoghurt, blueberry sauce and cereal flakes.  Greg refused a sunday but did eat the plain yoghurt from mine and Aiden's.  He got a boring old pita. Aiden was so cute, after he ate all the ice cream he said very remorsefully to me "sorry mommy".  I asked him what for, and he said "I ate all the ice cream and didn't leave any for you...".  He was so regretful, what a sweet boy!

 After that we went to a popular building called Tokyu Hands that had a large assortment of gadgets and house hold items.  There were some really interesting things to see, and maybe the most interesting was the top floor which housed 20 cats.  Customers can go there and pay to play with the cats.  Aiden wanted to go but Greg definitely didn't, and since we both have allergies, we passed on the opportunity.

Next we went back to Sunshine shopping mall (where we had originally visited the aquarium) and went to the planetarium.  That didn't go over too well since it was only in Japanese.  I thought it wouldn't matter and we could just enjoy the visuals, but it was a little boring for Greg and Aiden.  Greg fell asleep and Aiden snoozed too, it was only me to enjoy the constellations.  Luckily I had just watched a documentary on black holes (which is what the movie was about) and so based on what I learned from that, and the few sentences I could understand, I had a good time.

After we went to the Sunshine 60 building and up to the 60th floor to the observatory.

That might be the Skytree in the background.  If so, that's the tallest building in Japan!

The train station is at the Seibu/Parco sign

We then had to head back to catch out train.  Greg wanted to get a hamburger, so we stopped to pick some up.  We went to eat them on the train and much to Greg's surprise, they were 2 bite burgers! (I had previously experienced tiny Japanese burgers last time I was here!)  Thankfully we also got dinner out of the train station basement.  On a side note, many department store/large buildings have elaborate food courts in their basements, so if you are ever hungry in Japan and want a wide variety of food, head to the basement!

My burger, the size of three fingers.