2 days in Treasure Island

Returning from Japan I needed a bit of a rest and since Treasure Island was so kind to give me a free stay for 2 days, I figured I hang out for a bit.

Arrived at 5:00pm from LAX after a 8 hour flight from Tokyo I took the bus for $9.00 and was dropped off at Treasure Island. Checking in was a breeze and I got the "keys" to a room on the 35th floor.

Above is the view.

Beds were nice and confy although the shower could have used a tad more water pressure. Funny thing happened when I turned on the tv....I could actually understand what people were saying and everything was in English. :-D

I came with about $500 and set aside $250 to play today. The slot gods were nice today. I was putting half back from my winnings and ended up with $260 ahead.

The next day I was on a mission to have a burger at Hubert's place....the Burger Bar.

I ordered the "Kobe" burger with bleu cheese, fries and a pepsi. It came out good, but in the future, don't get the bleu cheese, it took away from the taste of the burger.

The luck I had yesterday was lots of wishy washy, some hits and mostly losses. Over all came home with $100.

Real short trip but it did the trick.

Japan day 5

Here we are at day 5, the last day of the tour. It was a tale of  2 days, one cold and rainy and one sunny. To start, it was the cold and rainy one. Today was the day we were to get dressed up as Mario characters, jump into a go cart and drive around the streets of Tokyo.

The top picture was everybody picking out their costumes before getting to our go karts. The second one was Sebastian (one of our many Aussies on the tour) and I in our costumes.

Here's our Princess Peach. (another one of the Aussie gang, her husband is in the first picture on the bottom left)

We then headed out to the streets of Tokyo.

We drove single file, but at stop lights we went into the double file. I'm on the left side 3rd one back. During our drive, our chase car with the rest of the group had broken down and we had to wait at a indoor Sega theme park.

If you look in the background you will see the rainbow bridge, the one we drove on...twice. The first time the rain was coming down so bad I couldn't see and had to take my glasses off, the return was much better, but colder.

Over all I had fun but if the weather was nicer, I would have had a much better and warmer time. I would recommend the experience if the weather conditions are ok. One interesting tidbit, people were taking photos of us driving down the road. :-) We were out about 3 hours and then made our way back to the hotel via train to warm up and get out of our wet clothes. Yes, I did buy a nice hot coffee in a can from a vending machine at the hotel.

After taking a hot shower I did a bit of shopping at the local Aeon mall store.








The store is 5 stories tall and has a bit of everything. They even have a play area in the toy department for the kids. I picked up a robot (R2D2) for one of the folks at work, some nice candy, and a cookie. I also cheated and stopped the McDonalds in the store food court.

Yes, even the McD's here have animated characters these on the placemats. Oh, I did find something interesting in the store...

Want some cream colllon????

While I was at the store, what did you know, the sun came out! Once I got back to the room and put away all the stuff I bought at the store, it was time to head out to Akihabra. One of the guys had a good command of the train system and wanted to pick up some stuff, Sebastian and I tagged along and picked up a few trinkets.

Akihabra looks better at night. Both Sebastian and Danny picked up bunches of stuff and I couldn't find anything what I was looking for. We stopped for some food at a restaurant where you cooked your food on a stone grill over an open flame. I had the ribeye and it came breaded (panko) and sliced into strips. While the meat was good, I should have tried the kobe beef for 6,000 yen. (that's roughly $55.00). While walking down the sidewalk we saw tons of ladies in maid outfits passing out leaflets for various maid cafes. While the food offerings were not the greatest, the main draw were the girls and their outfits. One of the stores had a maid cafe on one of the floors. We did find an out of the way store that had some of the first generation Transformer figurines and loads of older toys. There were a few arcades and getting the prizes from them was damn near impossible. Although one of the guys from California was the man, scarfing the figurines left and right. I wish I knew about this when we were there I would have asked him scarf a few for me as I ran out of change trying to get those freaking things.

After about 4 hours we made our way back to the train station and back to the hotel. I loaded up the suitcases for the flight back home as tomorrow was the last day in Japan.

Japan day 4

Today was a cold and rainy day. At least we had a bus to take us around town. Our first stop of the day was the Ghibli (pronounced gibli) museum.(http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/ ) The museum had loads of exhibits showing how animation was done before the advent of computers. On the first floor, they had an exhibit where each of animated pictures were spun around while a strobe flashed giving the feeling of movement. For a geek and one who always looks at the wheels in car commercials, this was a perfect exhibit. Also on the first floor is a movie theater where they showed Mr, Dough and the Egg Princess. There was a witch, that resembled Yubaba in Spirited Away, one of the Aussies remarked "I just now saw the scariest anime character in my life." The characters studio Ghibli animate are done in such a way that they come to life, much like watching old Disney cartoon movies. The Ghibli museum has 3 floors (4 if you count the climb to the metal statue) and 2 Metal spiral staircases. They are best for kids to climb as it was a tight fit for me with my small backpack on.The museum has a little food stand where they served hot dogs, soup, soft drinks and the most awesome apple ice cream known to mankind. The sweetness of the apple just shown through and was very refreshing on a cold spring day. (I would love to get a few gallons of this back to the states)

The first picture is the outside of the museum, the second near the food stand, and the third at the top of the building.  If your into cartoons or a fan of Studio Ghibli, this is an excellent place to learn about animation.

Next, off to Nakano Broadway, it's an indoor shopping mall located in Nakano. There are loads of shops (about 100) that sell magna, figurines, and bunches of  Otaku stuff. Mandrake is one of the main stores here and they have thousands of figurines at low prices. From the first gen Transformers to the latest Sword Art, they have it. You can spend days here and still not see all the shops and everything they have to offer. If I can ever get back to visit, I need a good day here and a bucket or 3 of cash to pick up what I want.

We had a bit more than an hour and a half and it was lunch time, so we were in search of ramen.. Ko san led the way, more like going in circles until he found the right noodle shop,

On the left, you can just barely see the vending machine where you pay for your meal, They had 2 types of ramen dishes and a small and a large for each. After paying for your lunch and getting the ticket, you head inside.

They have several bar stools surrounding the counter, you place your ticket on the counter and the man picks it up and then the chef prepares the ramen for you. The chef is cutting some pieces of cured ham/pork to put into the ramen. Here sitting back eating food slowly is a no no. You sit down and start packing the noodles down as there are folks ready to sit down and eat. This had to be the simplest food I had all trip, but damn it was freaking great!

After finishing the best meal I've had in a while, I needed to pickup a suitcase to bring back all the stuff I had gotten. There was a store a few blocks away (Don Quijote)

This chain virtually has just about everything in a rather small store (well each of the 6 floors are small). I picked up a suitcase for 5900 yen and yes, I found the same one 1500 yen cheaper in Akihabra the next day. If your in a hurry in Japan and need something, look for Don Quijote. You'll liable to find it.

Next we were off to Tokyo Tower AKA One Piece Tower.

Here's another picture showing the Mari Karts we drove around the next day...
Tokyo tower was the tallest building in Tokyo, however that was eclipsed by the Tokyo Sky tree.

Inside Tokyo Tower is the One Piece indoor theme park.

Once inside, there is a display that is playing the theme song for One Piece, One of the members of our group remarked "nothing like a good musical number to brighten the day".

It was funny to hear all the people singing the One Piece theme song. The "park" covers about 7 floors and there are exhibits and even a cafe. You could take the elevator all the way to the observation area and see the city. I don't do heights well so that was a big no for me. Once we got on the bus Komico san told us about the Robot Restaurant and where it was located. Once I heard the word Kabukicho, I knew one thing I had to get....

You got it, the tourist Ambassador himself, Godzilla. During my research of places to visit while I was in Japan, I found that there was a Godzilla statue built on a hotel and they have rooms where you get a great view of him. (https://www.shinjukustation.com/hotel-gracery-shinjuku/) Sorry, all those Godzilla flicks growing up and they have a statue in the red light district, I'm there!

I took a picture of the famous beast from the street on route to the Robot Restaurant. The Robot Restaurant is a rather unique place.. It has a upper and lower level, the upper houses the bar and a lounge where customers wait for the next show, or just hang out drinking and listening to the band.

Komico san said alot of expats go to the Robot Restaurant so this was the only place during the trip where I saw more Americans than Japanese. While we waited they asked for folks you wanted a shot of sake, a couple of folks in the group went up and they had a little music.

After buying our refreshments we were then taken to the lowest floor for the show. Last time I saw lights on the floor and painted women on the walls, was while I was stationed in Korea, so I was wondering what was next. We were seated and served our dinner (sushi) and ate while the show was going on. Btw, the sushi melted in your mouth and even a small amount of wasabi was very spicy.

There were 3 different "shows" and an introduction to all of the ladies that performed in the show. The first show was of the troupe playing the drums and the dancers doing their thing.

The next show was more on the line of a Power Rangers type setting, robots vs animals. The robots were operated by wifi.

The guy on the left is about to have a bad day...

Our bad girl about to get a beating.

The third show was the robots dancing.

Lastly, the ladies for the finale

This was the end to our evening.