Reid Main

Today was our second last day in Japan and we were going to spend as much time as we could playing video games. But before we could do that we needed to get some grub and on a cold, wet day like today we decided to go with some spicy ramen at Karashibi Miso Ramen Kikanbo. This place put both chili and sichuan peppers into its ramen and you got to select five levels of each. Levels one through four came with the cost of the ramen but it cost an extra ¥100 to get the oni level. Since it was only 11am and I wanted to play video games all day I chose not to risk destroying my stomach and went only with high. After eating my ramen - which was absolutely stellar by the way - I realized that I definitely should have given oni level a shot. Oh well, I guess I gotta come back to Tokyo again.

After lunch we proceeded to scout out all of the arcades in the area to see what games we would want to play. Along the way we found Mario Kart Arcade and put a couple rounds into it but didn't find anything that really grabbed our attention. Well we didn't find any arcade games that grabbed our attention. Elsie found a UFO catcher game that gave out a plush Alphonse as a prize and absolutely had to have it. After about 30 minutes of trying I tagged in and put in 45 more minutes before I finally won the prize. The attendants actually took pity on the foreigners and rearranged the prize so it would be easier to win on TWO separate occasions. I wish I could understand what they were thinking watching these two gaijin pump money into that machine. Regardless Elsie was absolutely ecstatic so it made everything worth it.

After coming down from our UFO catcher high we went and played Chunithm for about an hour before heading back to the Airbnb. Chunithm is easily my favorite rhythm game of all time. Songs like The Concept of Love, Jingle Bells and Your Affection just make me want to play this game for hours and I was only able to get up to the advanced level. There is still expert and master above me.

Back at the Airbnb we finally started doing laundry since our departure date was quickly approaching and we didn't want to use dirty clothing as protection for all the stuff we had bought. After working up an appetite we went to Shake Shack in the Roppongi district. It still amazes me how touristy Roppongi is. We literally ran into five other groups of foreigners having dinner at this Shake Shack. I honestly couldn't remember the last time I had been in a restaurant that had more than two groups of foreigners. I guess that means we've been doing a good job at not picking all of the touristy spots up until now.

Our stomaches full of burgers and shakes we made our way back to the Airbnb and planned out our final full day in Japan. We said we were going to do a day trip outside of Tokyo and this would be our last change so tomorrow we head to Kamakura.