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After that I went for a last bit of shopping in Shinjuku (only got little bits, like cat nail stickers and some earrings from Claire´s Accessories), and then… got a new haircut! Looks great, I like, and the hairdresser also gave me a free neck/shoulder and head massage and refreshments. I wish I could have got a bit of colour (blue or purple) done as well, but I didn´t have the time anymore and I had to leave for the airport at 6pm.

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Flying back was not as good as flying out, cause I had a fat bloke sitting next to me who kept “cramping my style” and even after asking him about 5 times he still kept moving into my own personal space and seating space! Grrrr. Hence I didn´t manage to sleep at all on the 13hr flight, and I was (and still am!) in agony with muscle pains all over once I got to Paris. Then on to Madrid, and another flight to Lanzarote, where I finally managed to get some kip stretched out on a whole row to myself…

So now I´m back home with the kitties.  And was I happy to see them, and were they happy to see me!

I will be flying back to Paris, and then on to Madrid and from there back to Lanzarote, at 21:55hrs so I got the whole afternoon still to do stuff. To be honest, I’m all shopped out, so I think I’ll just go and use up the last point I still have on my ticket from Tokyo Dome City and go on the “Thunder Dolphin”, the biggest rollercoaster there, again.

Looking forward to seeing Lugosi, Spider and Ruby again tomorrow, I miss the little rascals so much.

So again, Sayonara and thanks to you all for following/commenting on this blog over the last week.

Now from madness to a little bit of Zen:

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And now immediately back to madness with Ayumi with a temple sticking out of her head:

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And now both of us with a temple sticking out of our heads!

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The street leading up to Sensoji Temple…

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Pretty (but fake!) cherry blossoms and lanterns…

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And then we saw some REAL geishas walking down the street – Ayumi told me that it´s very rare to see Geishas during the day, they normally only come out late at night (“like vampires then”, I said).  Ayumi kindly asked for me in Japanese if I could take a photo…
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Ayumi then went back home and I went on on my own southbound to see the gorgeous “Rainbow Bridge”.  Of course, I wanted to see this bridge because of its name, and say a little “prayer” for all the departed animals out there, but also because the bridge is nicely lit up at night with the skyline of Tokyo behind it.  The photos in small size here do NOT do it justice, so please click on them to see the full, large size photos (800x450px), they are absolutely beautiful…

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It is my last day in Tokyo tomorrow and I am leaving for the airport at 18:00 hrs.  I had a FANTASTIC holiday, and I am grateful that my health held up well enough so I was able to do as much as I did over the last week, and I really want to come back to Tokyo again some time in the future….

I will probably get the chance to do my last blog entry in the airport tomorrow, recording my last day, but will have to see how it goes.  I say “Sayonara” to you all for now and thanks for your comments and for following my shenanighans this last week!

I was like a kid in toy land on Christmas & her birthday together, going shopping in Akihabara, otherwise known as “Electric Town”. This is where all the cheapest electronics shops are all gathered together in one place in Tokyo.  What I didn´t know that this is also the anime/comic/sci-fi memorabilia part of town – it´s like Forbidden Planet but 100x bigger and better. 

I was reminded by the rain and freezing cold why I moved away from London, and because I was already soaked I didn´t go to as many shops as I would have liked.  However, there is just ONE shop I needed anyway: “Yodabashi” (see pic).  This is the HUGEST electronics store you can ever dream of, like the biggest PC World you know, the biggest Dixons you know, the biggest Boots you know, all under one roof.  I didn´t get the Olympus SP800UZ after all because, even though it has fantastic picture quality, 30x optical zoom and weighs hardly anything, I didn´t like the menus and handling at all.  Besides, I have two big cameras already, so why not get a small one?  It´s much more handy to take around with you when you´re just doing snapshots, like I am doing here in Tokyo, so I bought a Fuji Finepix Z300 (in my colour, *purple*, yay!), which is an older model from last year, hence I got it cheap for approx. 80€.  Also got as many computery stuff as I can easily transport in my suitcase (my limit is 20kg!), and some more make up – yes, they do household stuff there too, including perfumes, bath smellies and make-up!!! I didn´t check out all the floors, only the computer and camera floors, but those were big enough and I was in there for a good 2 hours! 

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Besides, I had no more time to look around more cause I had to rush back to my hotel so I could see my cats back at home on webcam when Anneke (my catsitter) called me on Skype at 4pm (we scheduled this call beforehand). It was the best birthday prezzie to see my babies on the webcam and to see that everything is under control back on the home front. Thank you, Anneke (smile when you read this, hehe).

Went out again a couple of hours later to go to the other cat café that is only a few blocks from my hotel.  It was still pissing down with rain and it´s probably only about 5C, and I was frozen stiff with fingers turning numb even through my gloves when I got to the kitty place. I found that they had a Spider and also a Janelle clone!  To cut a long story short though, here are some piccies…

Janelle´s male clone

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This longhaired Scottish Fold looks permanently pissed off because of her tiny ears…

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Gorgeous, big Norwegian Forest Cat and a British Blue

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Cute, sleepy silver tabby

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On the way back to the hotel I came across another Hello Kitty Shop and got some socks and a camera case for new camera.  This one had two floors and oh, I wish I could carry more stuff in my suitcase back with me – the red leather steering wheel cover would have been perfect for my car, but it was sooo heavy! And I would have loved the watch in the center bottom of the pic below, but it cost around 160€.  No watch that *I* buy is worth that.

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I hope that it will stop raining tomorrow (must check weather forecast).  If not… well, I´ll see about that tomorrow.

Anyways, on to the Imperial Palace, which wasn´t very exciting really, but walking around the Imperial Palace Gardens was quite nice and it got so hot, I ended up wearing just my t-shirt (must have been way above 20C), and I even got a slight sunburn on the back of my neck! The Tokyo Marathon was on this weekend too and a lot of the runners must have got really annoyed trying to struggle their way past the tourists.

Here are some pics of the Imperial Palace Gardens (nice, Zen ones):

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Me and the big bad city!

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Next stop was Tokyo Dome City.  There are some of the best rollercoasters in the World, and I got a 5-ride ticket, which I thought would just do the trick really. The “Thunder Dolphin” (that´s the big one you can see in the pics, and video below) was fantastic, oh did I scream, or what, hehe.  The “Tower Hacker” was a nice rush too – this one drops you from a height of 80m.  The third one was a 4D ride called “Tokyo Panic Cruise”, and the fourth one (and last one, because I lost my ticket after that!) I went on was the “Linear Gale”, where you got your feet dangling, and go
off at high speed up into the sky and then get dropped backwards… oh
it´s hard to explain…. but that one was excellent too. Like I said, I lost my ticket – I found it again at the bottom of my bag when I got home, so I might go back on the “Thunder Dolphin” again tomorrow (and will try and sneak my mobile phone in so I can video the ride), as I am going shopping in around that area anyway. 

Ok, some more pics now and then I´m gonna lie down (aching all over again with the fibro/RA pain, as usual, but I´m glad I am able to do *some* things at least).

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Oh, and this *giggles* – some of the translations here are hilarious.

Unlike what my US friends are used to, you can NOT pay everything with your credit/Visa card here.  So I was going to try my luck and see if any of the ATMs would work. Of course, my luck was zero.

My luck changed though when I asked someone regarding a bank, and she didn´t speak much English, until a couple of young girls (very posh looking – I could be wrong though, hehe!) joined the conversation and we spent about 15 mins standing in the cold debating what I could do.  Then the idea was born that I could get a “Pasamo” season ticket for 500 yen with my Visa card – this is not only a season ticket, but I can use it at some of the convenient stores, so at least tomorrow I won´t starve!

We walked back to Ikebukuro station together and they were asking one of the station staff about this – it turned out that it would take 2 days before I get the season pass, so that idea was out the window too. 

So the two of them got their iPhones (with identical pastel pink covers) out and checked what the exchange rate was and they then asked me how much I needed…. I said 40€ would be ok, so that´s 5000Yen, and one of them went to the cash point and got me the money!!! This happened in the middle of a busy metro station – surely, for an exchange such as this in other cities, we would all have been arrested?! Also, if this *had* been another city, I wouldn´t have gone with total strangers, showed them my Visa card when they asked to see it (to see if I can use it at any ATMs), etc.  Before leaving for Tokyo, I have read and heard from other people (including my mum) that crimes like thieving and pickpocketing are virtually unheard of, so I guess it was alright with these two gals… or maybe I was just lucky that they weren´t Yakuza molls and luring me into some web of intrigue, rape and murder? LOL.  I leave the rest to the imagination.  Or not.

Here in Tokyo they let you try cameras out in the shops – rest of World, please LEARN something from that – so I was playing with it for a while, and the photo quality is as good as Olympus gets (just as good as my Panasonic and Nikon cameras, that is) and my main concern is always the weight, which is why I shun detachable lens cameras, they weigh a ton – this Olympus camera weighs simply *nothing*.  I thought my other 2 cameras are light, but this one…. it must be around 400g including battery.  A-farkin-mazing.

Click here to read a quick review here, my camera geek friends (even if you prefer “real” cameras with detachable lenses etc.).  Everybody else can just skip this entry.

UPDATE: HRRRUMPFFF!  I just found that in the US this camera sells for only 350USD/260€!!! How is this possible?  How DARE they?!  I bet it´s gonna be a different story in Europe if and when this camera comes out…. but…. *cries* why why why would it be so much more expensive HERE in Japan when it´s a Japanese company?!

After this I was off to SANRIOLAND to meet HELLO KITTY!

So I got myself some food (see pic) and went back to the hotel.  This is the sort of thing I have been eating for the last few days, yummy.  When I bought it, I was told that the rice was “feeesh”, and I said “yeah ok”. On closer inspection back at the hotel I realised what the vendor had meant…. there were tiny little fishies in the rice!  LOOOK!  OMG! LOL.  They were so small (see arrows in pic below) I didn´t taste them really, but I´m sure they give an overall special flavour to the rice.

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I am aiming to do the Tokyo Dome Amusement Park tomorrow (Rollercoasters and rides, yay!), but will have to see how I feel.  Right now it´s 19:43 hours and I am staying in for the rest of the evening, can´t move a muscle anymore….

UPDATE: F*ck it.  I´m off out again, pain or not, I just can´t *shut down*, argh!