Ikebukuro -- I know where my money is going...

Yesterday was Sunday, my day off. I had originally planned on going into Akihabara with side trips to Harajuku/Shinjuku/Shibuya, but I should know better by now. Jamie can only handle one place a day (same goes for Jamie's wallet :P). My adult class on Saturday was telling me to be careful in Akihabara because its 'dangerous' -- the story they told put it maybe on par with my high school. Oh, Japan.

In any case, I think I've gotten pretty good at guessing on the train lines. I completely forgot to check what exact route I'd need to go to the above places, but decided to get off at Otemachi instead of Nihombashi (where I've gone before, to transfer to Odaiba and the like). Score one for me! Transferred to another line that went straight to Ikebukuro, so tada!

On the other hand, I have a hard time finding anything in big cities -- luckily, I had a map on how to find Mandarake, a manga/doujinshi shop, and so was able to get there and explore the other manga/music/fan shops in the area. Whee!

Outside the station:


Outside the manga shop, Mandarake; a butler hands out flyers for a butler cafe in the area:

Posting this for now, but will update with the rest of my adventures when I'm not getting ready for work.