Ikebukuro Train Station & Don Quijote

Today’s tour schedule is a whole day excursion to the Tokyo Disney Resort, a theme park and vacation resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, east of Tokyo. It has three main entertainment secions namely Tokyo Disneyland, tokyo DisneySea and Ikspiari, where the Downtown Disney shopping is located including the dining areas similar to those found in Disney resorts in Florida and California.

Edmund and I didn’t join today’s whole day visit to Tokyo Disneyland. Standing in line for an hour every time we would take a 5 minute ride in 3 degrees temperature is not our idea of vacation at our age now.

But Oyen and Nyke joined the tour group and had so much fun.

E & A just spent a slow morning, waking up a little bit later and enjoying the morning view from our window.
And oh, Edmund discovered, yes indeed, there really is an English channel in the hotel. We watched CNN and some golf trivia.

Our tour includes daily buffet breakfasts.

The grilled salmon and mackerel were fresh and delicious

We went back to the room and doubled and tripled our clothes.

We doubled up on warm clothes for fear of the zero degree forcast but when we went out, the cold was bearable. Having too many clothes irritate me, especially when I tried on a cute dress, I had to take off everything, several layers of clothing, only to find out the dress doesn’t fit, it’s too small for my waistline. I have to put back on 5 layers of clothing again, it’s too tiring.

Metropolitan Hotel is centrally located in Nishi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo. It’s walking distance to the Seibu and Tabu department stores, the Ikebukuro Metro train station, across the stree from Metropolitan Plaza. It’s 4 kilometers from the more high-end Ginza but this area is not bad at all. Shopping is less expensive here because this is a “locals” residential area. The hotel is steps away from
big department stores like Seibu, Tabu, Lumine, other smaller shops, family mart, etc. rahmen street,

A friend of mine suggested that we go to Don Quijote, so we asked the concierge for direction. He gave us a map, it’s very near the hotel pala.

Italian Tomato Cafe serves cakes and coffee. This is where Oyen, Nyke and Edmund went for coffee last night.

We should imitate this. They enclosed a small portion of the sidewalk for smokers. No one walks around with a stick between his fingers or in his mouth.

It’s so cold.

Nomura, the mall that connects to the Ikebukuro Metro train station

Vendors are selling New Year lanterns or door wreaths

The vendor doesn’t speak English. I wanted to ask sana what the symbolism of this tambo is. My guess is to “walis” away the previous year’s malas or negativities.

The underground metro station is a world in itself. There are more people down there than you will find in the streets.
It’s actually dizzying to watch thousands and thousands of people wearing black coats walk by. If you don’t have a sense of direction, it’s very easy to get lost down here.

We followed the direction in the map and mostly relied on our instincts. We just walked straight and followed one direction. When we got out on the next street, we felt lost. We are looking for Don Quijote store and we don’t know whether to go left or to the right.
Edmund——– Kaliwa or kanan, nalito na ako. Kaliwa tayo
Me————- Magtanong tayo, mahirap maglakad, maginaw
Edmund——— yan ang problema, saan, dapat sa official
Me———— Maghahanap ako ng mukhang marunong mag Inglis
I spotted two Japanese women
Me———— Hi, do you speak English?
They looked bewildered, obviously not. But it did not deter me from asking for direction.
Me———– Don Quijote?
The women looked up and around and laughed, they pointed at the building exactly opposite where we are standing.
We all laughed. Thank you. Arigatou Gozaimasu

There it is, this building, wala naman kasing malaking name that says Don Quijote