Day 14 – Tokyo Temples Done Quick 2019

17,620 steps taken

Today’s plans were nice and simple; head to the Pokemon Center and Nakano Broadway to appease the inner gamers in us. We were headed towards the Tokyo Pokemon Center DX (Deluxe) by 10.30. This is supposed to be the biggest one in Japan! It was pretty impressive, as it holds an entire floor to itself in a department store. The elevator doors open and you walk into a hallway with Pokemon artworks plastered floor to ceiling, leading you to a room, which housed a statue of a giant Snorlax with Pikachu and Mew on his shoulders. The store is impressive – walls of plushies and gadgets and gismos everywhere. Pretty much any item you could possibly need, but with some kind of Pokemon branding to it. Japan goes hard for Pokemon! Totally awesome! We did end up leaving with nothing but a Gatchapon in hand since we had gone pretty deep into the Osaka store.

After dragging ourselves away from Pikachu branded everything, we were on a mission to get to Nakano Broadway and meet up with the others. We have visited this maze of little stores before, and most people had a shop in mind that they wanted to visit, so there was less mindless wandering, but more aim. We still managed to spend over 3 hours in there though. The weird shit that you’re able to uncover in there kept us busy! Gatchapons everywhere, weird vending machines, stores with the most random memorabilia – you could spend an entire day in there and still miss things! I did walk away with a couple of bags full of cool things I’d been looking at purchasing in Australia for much more than I paid for them, so I am content with that!

After a quick stop off at the hotel, Drew and I decided we would push to complete our temple book, so went off in search of 3 more temples. It was surprisingly easy, and within the hour we had our book complete!

Being the last day, we all got together for a last meal. We even managed to reign in Karen for it, which is nice! This little energiser bunny doesn’t stop and has been off on her own for the last couple of days exploring every inch of Tokyo! It was nice to just see everyone together again for one last time before we travel back to reality. We took it as a good opportunity to say our goodbyes to Lobada, as he will travel off back to the US tomorrow. With our alarms set for bright and early tomorrow morning, it’s time to get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a very, very long day.