Invasion

Luckily, it's only an invasion by cute, humongously-oversized-headed, monsters.
The first one we spotted was in Ikebukuro [池袋] near Sunshine City [サンシャインシティ].

Then, on Saturday, we were strolling around Harajuku [原宿] when we saw another! but this one was walking - well waddling - down the road.

It's okay though, we've found their weakness - small children are able to stop the invasion through aggressive hugging techniques.

Buying Outdoor Gear, Ikebukuro

We were looking for a place to buy outdoor gear in Tokyo, and were hoping that we wouldn't have to trek all the way down to Harajuku [原宿] or Shinjuku [新宿] for ICI (Ishii) Sports, or the big sports shops like Victoria or L-Breath* (which are rather pricey, but there are lots of these; some specialising in golf, or ski...in Jimbocho [神保町] Ochanomizu[お茶の水], and since we had just been to Calafate (nice for climbing gear and some more specialised mountain wear, like packs and clothes) in Mejiro [目白] and not found a very wide selection of stuff we figured that Ikebukuro must be big enough to have a decent outdoors shop in it somewhere...

Anyway, I used my incredible Japanese skills at the 'Toshima [豊島] Tourist office' near the East exit of Ikebukuro JR station, on the off chance they knew of a outdoor shop somewhere nearby. As luck would have it, the lovely lady behind the counter pointed us to TWO! The closest was on the same (East) side of the station that we were on and not very far away! hurrah! The other was an L-Breath...bahhhhhh.... So we headed off in the direction in which she pointed us...we climbed the stars to the 2nd floor et voila! a decent sized outdoor wear shop and it seemed to have a decent enough selection of stuff and even a climbing gear section.

It's here:
2F Inside 'D-Box', 1-43-6 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 170-0013 [〒170-0013, 東京都豊島区,東池袋1-43-6 D-BOX内2F] If you are interested.

*L-Breath seems to be a sister store of Victoria (a sports goods monster) and specialises/focusses on outdoor stuff...mainly being clothes and equipment...well mainly clothes. less of the equipment.

Jazz...

23rd Feb after catching up with Greg and Aaron at the Bunkyo-ku cultural festival (where they were stars of the show and the cameras followed the two male gaijins around for most of the morning) we acquired an Amy, and then spent a good few hours trying to decide what to do for the evening....

To stem Amy's chronic boredom disease, Greg cunningly suggested a Jazz club in Ikebukuro...so we all toodled down to Miles' cafe to have a listen to their Jam session.

It was a little trek from the station, and down in the basement of an unsuspecting building. We pressed the button for B1...and waled out straight into the room where the Jam session was going on. A guy, who looked like he was in charge, seemed a bit confused that we were there...and tried to direct us to B2 (where the proper Jazz musicians play for more money) but we assured him that we were where we wanted to be...and we just wanted to spectate. We paid our 1000yen each (and got our 1000Miles - ie... its worth 1000yen in drinks; there were two prices for drinks: 500miles and 1000miles and a tiny bar at the back of the long Jamming room from whence the drinks were served). We were served our drinks by another customer, who happened to be behind the bar...and kind enough to give the weird foreigners drinks. The guy we paid money to at the beginning spent the rest of the night being very VERY hospitable...giving us snacks and more drinks for free... he also explained how the people currently playing were beginners to Jazz and that more experienced people played later on (including him).

It turned out to be more of a lesson and a place to practice (I doubt many apartments would be too happy with you belting out on your sax whilst you tried to practice your Jazz skills...and the Jam sessions let you practice without upsetting your neighbors...) . The night got better and better, with one guy (a skilled piano player) switching to a kids toy (a rudimentary keyboard thing which he blew into at one end to make a sound) to join in with the music making. He was damned good. It was great fun. we'll have to go back.