Stuff in Tokyo

I covered off where we were in the last post, time for a bit more of what we did and since I already did a sweeping generalization of the temples and castles last post so what's left is... theme parks? Haha - something like that.

My wife is a big Hello Kitty fan so in Tokyo we visited Sanrio Puroland which looks great on the outside but is less impressive on the inside, simply having one big (but nicely decorated) main hall with little offshoots and a very small shop. The cafeteria gets crowded quick too, especially since the Japanese use the "if something is on the table it is reserved" methodology. As such I've seen people leave hand bags, phones, purses unattended which is very alien to my defensive "look out for thieves" brain.

The Sanrio character shaped foods are ok but nothing to write home about. You can get more desert type stuff of that at Sanrio Cafe Ikebukuro which is closer to Tokyo. Expect to wait in a long digital queue for a table there though. You know what else has long queues? Disneyland and Disneysea! Yes we went to both and while we didn't go for the rides, the old Disneyland just edges out Disneysea in terms of awesomeness. Both parks do sell large Mickey Macarons which were our favorite food item there. I think we ended up having five or six each!

The last in this set is Teamlabs Borderless. This digital art gallery is really cool and is staged in a labyrinthine set of rooms and corridors which encourages visitors to go exploring. There are many exceptional rooms here and its a good place to spend a few hours, but it definitely won't eat up your whole day (2 hours is plenty). Probably not recommended for people that get dizzy easily though as the displays on the walls are almost constantly moving.  

As an aside the food offered at the convenience stores like Lawson, 7 Eleven and Familymart are super affordable and pretty tasty (I miss Famichiki). We didn't worry about eating healthy there as we were racking up 20,000 steps a day!