Today was supposed to be a rainy day (another Typhoon is on its way) and I really wanted to just sit in my room. My cough is mostly gone but it comes back at inopportune times, like when I’m trying to sleep. I had to get up and sleep sitting up on the couch for a while again. I had to drag myself out of bed again.

But it’s Wednesday and even thought I’d really like to spend a day sitting on my ass, it was time to get out of the room and let the cleaning crew do their weekly thing. So I decided to go to a neighborhood that looked a bit boring in the “Welcome to Tokyo Handy Guide” and that my mom told me was kind of in the middle of nowhere, at least historically. Since the Japanese tend to do things in a group, maybe everyone thinks Ikebukuro is boring. Even the guy at the front desk had a funny look on his face when I asked about Ikebukuro. But the aquarium is new and he did think it looked better than the one in Shinagawa, at least when he checked on the intarwebs. There’s a building complex called Sunshine City with theaters and shops and the newly rebuilt aquarium.

When I first got there I noticed Ikebukuro was full of tall buildings but wasn’t very crowded.

I figured I’d try heading away front the station and Sunshine City and should try finding the Zohshigaya Kishimojindo temple while it wasn’t raining. Getting off the main roads got me away from the big buildings and it was temple time again.

First there was the usual construction. There’s always a guard on the sidewalk keeping things safe. There’s one on the other side as well.

This temple was on the other side of the construction and I’m not even sure which one this is.

But just around the corder was Zohshigaya Kinshimojindo and it was giant compared to all the rest of the temples I’ve seen the past two days.

On the grounds of the temple is also a shrine with lots of gates.

Looking from the shrine itself, you can see how many gates there are.

The shrine itself was small compared to the temple and I didn’t take a picture. Oddly enough, the Tokyo Government listed this tree as a Natural Monument and the sign mentions this without saying much about the temple or shrine.

Here’s the temple that is said to bring luck for fertility and childbearing. I could swear I had a better picture than this. I try not to take pictures of the insides of temples, just because.

Walking back towards Sunshine City, I saw this shrine just around the corner.

And right next to it, another temple.

And, the Tokyo College of Music.

And while it looks far away, Sunshine City isn’t that far away. That smaller looking building to the left with the funny top is the Toyota showroom.

The tram line from yesterday runs right through this area.

 

Not real sure why I took this picture. I just liked the huge sign.

I wandered around Sunshine City and saw something called Namco Namjatown, but it didn’t look that interesting from the outside. There was also a planetarium that I didn’t go to next to the aquarium.

I only spent an hour in the aquarium but I really enjoyed myself. All sorts of things I’ve never seen. They had a sunfish and tiny jellyfish and all sorts of fish from large sharks to tiny transparent fish and weird ghost/angel-like jellyfish. I didn’t take any pictures because there are much better pictures on the intarwebs. But I did take a picture of a very Japanese looking set of sea anemones and corals that looked like underwater bonsai.

I definitely think the aquarium was worth ¥1,800 and if I liked sea lions and otters more I would have stayed for the show.

I was finally able to get soba because I found a restaurant at the bottom of Sunshine City that actually let you pay for things without having to buy tickets.

Afterwards I went to the post office to see if I could get money from my US account. Turns out I just got a slip of paper that says YOU HAVE EXCEED YOUR WITHDRAWAL LIMITS and the post office guy said that meant I didn’t have enough money in my account. I’ll have to figure out what the hell that’s about.

It was rainy and it’s Wednesday so I figured I’d let my intarweb friend bully me into trying Steak House Sato. Turns out it wasn’t that hard to find. The stairs were narrow and steep and sure enough, the tables only seat ten and there’s a counter with six more seats. But it turns out it isn’t that busy during the week. I think they get a lot of foreigners because the menu is in Japanese and English.

When I got there there was only one other couple. Then another single came in, and afterwards three women on vacation from the Philippines.

They show you the meat before they cook it and he asked if I wanted to take a picture. There is no connective tissue in that cut. There was nothing that wasn’t easy to chew.

The kitchen is tiny, and sometimes there are four chefs working back there.

See? Four. My steak is cooking under the copper lid.

I wish I could have taken a better picture of the steak, but I was just ready to try it. OH MY GOD IT WAS WORTH EVERY BIT OF THE ¥10,000 I PAID FOR IT. Like I said, there was no connective tissue so there was nothing that got stuck in my teeth. That must have been one lazy-ass cow to have all that fat and boy it was tasty. Every piece had a little chewiness at the same time was almost creamy in its texture.

The carrot looks woody but it wasn’t woody nor overcooked. The little brown things to the left were fried garlic and were perfectly crisp. Seriously, there was a lot of attention paid to all parts of my steak dinner which also came with miso soup and rice.

So, my intarweb bully friend, thanks for making me go. Man was that tasty. There’s no way that there’s anything like this in the States. The fake US wagyu can’t compare.