Kikijouji

Wallet... empty... stomach... rumbling...
But my two fellow friends from SUNY found out something. "Hey. There's an ATM in nearby Kikijouji that uses American International Check cards." That made my day. We were on our way to Kikijouji.
Much better than Shinjuku in my opinion. Less crowds. A little less "city". Temples. Shopping streets. It was nice.
First, we stopped by an ATM, and I stuck in my Soveriegn Bank card. Yay! 20,000 yen! I hope my account back home is ok...
We do a little sightseeing and shopping. I found this store with really cheap manga! You know, stuff you would pay 7.99 for in America? Unused, unopened, 200-300 yen manga. Genious. I picked up a One Piece, Doraemon, Zatchbell, Naruto, a Hunter X Hunter, a Doctor Slump, a Full Metal Alchemist and I bought a Death Note somewhere else. I also found this weird cat Manga called Neko Panchi (Cat Punch) that I'll give to Katie. It looks like a Shonen Jump with cat and human stories similar to 'What's Michael?'.
For lunch, I had vitamin water, a Lipton Lemone with a silly freebie Hello Kitty toy of Hello Kitty in a bunny suit, (for Katie... I guess) and a package of what appeared to be sweet dough balls with a sweet syrupy sauce on them. On a stick. My friends each took a bite and said it was way to sweet for them. I had no idea what they were talking about and continued to devour the rest. Then I started feeling sick and realized what they were talking about after the last dough ball.
We also popped by this game store. Had really expensive new stuff. Had REALLY CHEAP old stuff! We picked up a couple PS1 games for like... 100 yen each. I found a couple Dreamcast games I wanted. (Don't worry... we can play them... just not... fully legally... shh!!!) I was thinking of buying a japanese DS game there, but I already ordered 2 games online and didn't wanna plop down yet another 4000 yen.
We came back and... oh boy! Pasta for dinner. I didn't eat very well today... still hungry. Dining hall won't be open tomorrow... better go see what I can get at the markets nearby.
Good news.... my internet seems ok now. Cheers!
Ok, picture time!










Here are some pics from around the first part of the city we came to.










Capcom Plaza: an arcade with the works: Gundam shooting games, Taiko no Tatsujin (Taiko Drum Master) Dance Dance Revolution, and tons of UFO cathers. (crane games) I played a round of DDR myself. 200 yen a play? 25 games = price of game... ever think of that? People waste TONS of money at the arcades... arcade games should be cheaper.

















Some more shots around the city. I swear, Starbucks are EVERYWHERE. I mean, you can't even sneeze without seeing a Starbucks nearby. Also, dig my first real engrish find and the Hello Kitty guitar in that guitar store!






































There were a couple temples scattered throughout the city... if only Shinjuku did as well. would have been a nice change of pace there...
Strangely, a temple just around the corner feels right somehow. I don't know, I can't explain it. But it gives an air of serenity.
kinda redundant how you can see a skyscraper in the background of one of my temple shots though!
And there's a fire station. Yeah. Totally goes with temples. Yup.






This is Danny's car. Yeah. One can dream. We just saw it in a driveway.








Check out this bookstore! Cheap manga! WOOG!








Also... this is a joke within my family. There is a reason why that game is really cheap. I just saw this and KNEW I had to take a pic.
To everyone clueless, my parents had purchased an anime called Moeyo Ken. It was drawn by Rumiko Takahashi, the creator of Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha... but she obviously didn't write the plot for Meoyo Ken. The anime was horrible! Poor Takahashi had to be blackmailed or something to get her to draw for that wretched series.
This is that anime's game. Must be just as bad.