Destination: Sunshine City-in Ikebukuro

Well yesterday was quite the adventure! Carly found this cool looking aquarium online and we decided to try to find it. We left around noon and headed towards Ikebukuro-an area in Northwest Tokyo. The train system here is very easy, so it wasn't very hard at all to find the right trains to take. We actually only had to change trains one time. After we got out of the train station we weren't sure which way to head so we asked an officer that was standing around. He didn't speak English, but understood "Sunshine City" and pointed us in the right direction. After a few blocks we actually found some signs that further showed us the right way. It's weird because Sunshine City is obviously not Japanese, but it was everywhere on the signs. You'd be surprised at how many English words you see on buildings and signs. It always looks out of place because there will be all these Japanese characters and then right in the middle have a word in English. ANYWAYS, we found the aquarium. It was actually on the top floor of this shopping center. It was a little high priced, I thought, at 1800 yen (about 18 dollars) but decided to give it a try. We arrived right in the middle of a little show involving penguins and a walrus. It was cute. We stood around and watched that for a little while and then wandered around the aquarium. It was a really good and they had a lot of things translated (although not very well) into English on some of the signs that told information about some of the sea life. I got some pretty good pictures. The only downside was that it really wasn't very long and took only maybe 20 minutes to go through. At the end of the aquarium we got some ice cream. I had mango flavored, and it was SO good. It actually reminded me of the mango ice cream I had in Florida last year. After our treat we walked around outside the aquarium where they had a tiny zoo with penguins and pelicans. It was cute!

After our excursion at the aquarium we did some browsing at the shopping area there in Ikebukuro. It was actually really impressive. They had a lot of high fashion shops that were cool. I bought a few buttons to put on my bag and a little patch to sew on my jeans that have a hole in them. Now all I need is some needle and thread! haha...After our busy day we were tired and hungry so Carly and I had a bite to eat at Wendys! I was pretty happy that they have them here. Interesting enough Burger King is also in Japan.

OH I ALMOST FORGOT! In the shopping center there was this woman and a performing money. He did some pretty cool tricks, like jumping across these platforms. He was cute!

Here are a bunch of pictures from the day. I think you're appreciate some of the aquarium pictures Tasha! Enjoy!

Performing monkey

Performing walrus

Me at the aquarium

Beautiful coral

Pretty fish-looks like Dory!

Mmmm, mango ice cream

Cutest kid ever