Today felt much less jetlaggy and I’ve finally and officially lost track of what time/day it is in Toronto which feels both relaxing and alienating at the same time.

We started our day with only 3 planned items in mind, deciding that everything else will be discovered– and it worked! What a productive and hilarious/fun day we had. Our 3 goals were: Eat at a top recommended food place, find out what this cat cafe hype was all about, and find the infamous Shibuya Crossing.

We headed out to find our way to Fuunji, a ramen restaurant I had heard a lot about in my preliminary research and through watching some of my favourite vloggers visit Japan. On the way there, we got distracted of course. So…. It only takes about 1 hour in Tokyo to realize the place is dominated by Pachinko and claw drop style UFO games.. yeah, you know, the ones where your futile attempts to pick up cute toys with mechanical claws eats all of your money and you’re left with nothing but sadness. We had to admit this but we will. These games are kind of our thing to do to empty our pockets of pesky change here in Tokyo. Also vending machines are exactly everything you’ve heard about them. They’re convenient and so much fun for two foreigners who have no idea what half of the stuff tastes like. I’m sure we’ll get sick of Pokka Sapporo’s “GREEN SHOWER” by the time we leave… no, no, a brand of sparkling water, you sicko.

Where was I – okay, so we have had our eye on trying to win these really cute fat hamster plushies and fat shiba inu plushes so we stopped and played a few games. More on that later. Kept following signs to try to get to where we were supposed to find Fuunji and ended up getting lost in Shinjuku subway station which actually spans about 4-5 blocks and has endless corridors to not just trains but also restaurants and shops inside of it. We found ourselves in the basement of the Lumine 1 which is a department store, and as we were desperately trying to find a way outside, we end up in an area filled with food.. but not quite a food court. I did the embarrassing tourist thing and yelled in english breaking Alex’s full asian camouflage and my half-asian-blend-in-ness: “HOLY CRAP WE’RE IN A DEPACHIKA”. A depachika is what they call the lower level floors of department stores here as they’re usually filled with very carefully manicured (fancy) food kept behind glass. I had only read about and watched vlogs (of course) about them but I was THRILLED that we stumbled upon one. We made a note of its location and decided we’d be back soon.

After lots more walking and Google Maps navigating (Pocket Wifi is the best it’s the best it’s the very very bestest thing ahh~) we finally find Fuunji and it is everything that we heard about and more. Seriously, please go there if you have a chance. Like may ramen shops in Tokyo you have to purchase a ticket at the door corresponding to the menu item you’d like (~helps overcome that awkward language barrier too!). I had their famous Tsukemen (dipping) ramen and Alex had the regular one. I wrote a huge review but I just closed the tab by accident and lost all of it 😦 ugh. BLOGGING AMIRITE? anyway, I hope my pictures speak for themselves.

Next we made our way to Shibuya (oh yeah, I lost this part too in my tab closing frenzy…sorry, here goes the short version) and experienced the Shibuya Crossing. It was everything you’ve seen in movies and on TV and in games but better because it’s huge (bigger than Times Square in my opinion…. Alex is saying no….wait now he’s saying I’m right. Good!). Exit out of the Hachiko exit from the subway station and BAM you’re there.

Our next order of business was the find a cat cafe but upon looking it up one more time to put it on our Google Maps app, we noticed the reviews were HORRIBLE. Seriously, I haven’t been so astonished by negative reviews before. The place is called ハピ猫 Hapineko Shibuya and we ended up not even looking for it at all after reading about 7 bad reviews in a row. Something about a rude owner and sad cats that you can’t touch for a 2000 yen entry charge.

After exploring the crazy amount of shopping outlets in the area, we decided on Genki Sushi for dinner – a train sushi restaurant. I’m not sure if that is the official name for them but that’s what I’m calling it because the sushi arrives at your table on a little train on a track. We realized that conveyor belt sushi is probably not a thing anymore since it’s not as fresh as this method where your sushi is made when you order it and it comes right to you from the chef…. wherever he is. Oh yeah that’s the other great thing about “train sushi” – barely no human-interaction-leading-to-foreigner-who-doesn’t-speak-Japanese-guilt. Once you’re seated, everything you need is at the table, including an iPad with the full menu so you can order anything you want (4 orders at a time) . The sushi comes vroom vrooming (it almost makes that sound) out from somewhere and stops right in front of you. You grab the plate off of the train and press a button so it vrooms back to the chef. Why the heck we don’t have this technology in Toronto yet I’m not sure but it is great.

Next we head back to Shinjuku which is disgustingly close on the subway line if you end up taking the right line (which for us, since we haven’t figured subways out yet, is basically a straw pull). We decide we need to unload some change so we head straight for the UFO catcher games. Mom, dad, I’m sorry, I know I know, we should save our money for better, but… you need to see these ADORABLE HAMSTER TOYS. I have a problem. So we walk up to a machine with one of these said cute hamsters and on the FIRST TRY I manage to win one. Uh oh. Now we’re on a winning high. We walk over the machine with the keychain sized same adorable hamsters. We win another one within 6 tries. Okay, great you’d think we’d say. Let’s go home you’d think we’d say. Nope. We stop at another one on the way to the hotel and who can blame us? these machines are everywhere. We say “oh what the heck” and drop a 500 yen coin into a machine which gives us 6 tries. On the second try, we land yet another hamster. And that’s how we got addicted to UFO games everybody. See below for all of my new friends whom I’m not sure how we’re going to bring back with us.