Japanese Food Bites: Indulging in the Taste of Summer

The day before my flight back came way sooner than expected. During the first week and a half we were in Tokyo, it seemed like we had infinite time — and even when that infinite time would run out, we’d have more once we came back from Kyoto. In Kyoto, time moved a different way still, with constant activities and excursions filling up days and blending into each other. But when we got back to Tokyo, the time raced by faster than a Shinkansen train.

I had plans for this day that were fairly boring, but important to me. More tying-up-strings than anything — leaving no regrets for when I returned to California. I already had enough things that I felt I missed when I was sick in Kyoto. 

First order of business: the Pokemon Center. This was my third time! I’d visited it with some friends in our initial week, going to the Pokemon Center, the Nintendo Store, and a Minecraft pop-up all on the sixth floor of a Parco. I had bought a Leafeon key chain this first night, but found in one of the bins a huge Leafeon stuffed animal that I was enchanted by. The price dissuaded me at first, but once we returned, I felt confident that I had reined in my shopping enough throughout the trip that it was worth the splurge. The second time was the day before, when I went back to try and get the Leafeon, but there were none left. I moped back to the hotel, dejected, but figured out that it opened soon enough the next day that I could manage one final run.

That one final try was this one. There were exactly two of the Leafeons that had been restocked, and I grabbed one immediately. Checking the price, I saw it was barely above the tax-free limit, so I got a cute pair of socks and a pack of Pokemon cards to just push it over the threshold. I left very happy. 

Just outside the exit of the Pokemon Center were some gacha games with Pokemon prizes. I am not often tempted by these, but I had more coins than I knew what to do with and hardly any other cash, so I went for one, and got exactly the trinket I was looking for. It felt very lucky.

I then went up to explore the upper floors of the Parco, as I had heard there was a rooftop garden. The elevator I chose only went up to the ninth floor, but this turned out to be a stroke of luck, as the theater occupying that floor was inexplicably playing an indie animated film that I had greatly enjoyed in an American theater a year ago. And better yet: they were selling merch that could not be found anywhere else. I picked up a cassette with the movie soundtrack on it because I knew we had a cassette player at home, and the movie soundtrack featured my favorite artist of all time, Miya Folick. Satisfied with my purchases, I checked out the rooftop garden and headed out.

I had thought about going to the Rainforest Cafe, but it was too far away and I didn’t have time before class. Instead, I wandered a nearby park listening to my audiobook and just enjoyed the time. I got takoyaki from a park stand and a strawberry ice cream from a food truck for lunch.

Losing track of time, I hurried back on the metro to class on the last of my Suika fare. We had a final class that was very emotional, and it was a nice way to say goodbye just as a class. Then, we had a goodbye with the Ochanomizu students, who brought us snacks! Finally, we received our ‘superlatives’ and personalized chopsticks from our professors. I was named “Greenest Bird & Nature Lover,” and anyone who knows me will know this to be quite on brand. 

We had a minute to relax at the hotel before karaoke. I considered sidequesting to get some more kintaro ame, but the internet reassured me that I could buy some at Haneda Airport. (I could not. I tried very hard.) Instead, I hung out in my hotel room, packing up some of my stuff to prepare for the next morning.

Karaoke was lots of fun — we sang plenty of songs, mostly English but with a couple Japanese mixed in. The drink bar had melon Fanta, which is definitely one of my favorite Japanese sodas! It was a really special moment for the whole group, and an awesome final experience to hang out with everyone including the professors. We ended up at an izakaya afterwards, and ate plenty of delicious food to fuel us for the next day of traveling (which of course, will not be in this blog post — but trust me, it was exhausting).