Pampering At Takadanobaba To Playing Around At Ikebukuro

It’s summer in Japan and my long hair had become a nuisance. In the middle of the week last week, I decided to let it go so I searched for a hair salon nearby. I couldn’t find one around my place because I’m a bit picky and some prices for cutting hair are just insanely expensive. I found a nice place in Takadanobaba, still in Shinjuku but on the quieter side. It would take about 30mins by train (2 trains) or 15min by car from where I live. Still near. Booked it and on Saturday, here’s me ready to let go..of my long hair.

The hair salon is called Silk Lei and they have less than 5 branches in Japan as far as I can recall. This branch I went to in Takadanobaba just opened this spring so it’s really new. The staff were all men, and they’re all good looking young guys. They’re very considerate too. I like it there because they’re being polite and they work fast. I didn’t specify any haircut and left it to the stylist to do its wonders on my hair but I told him I want it on the medium length. He added little bangs and told me how to make my face look smaller with this hairstyle. We exchanged only a few talks and that’s how I liked it. I’m so shy so I can’t really talk a lot. He even changed the music so I could relate to the songs playing while I was there. They served good tea too!

Good pampering done. And it’s been a while. The stylist was surprised I only go to hair salons once every year, I think I’m being too not caring for myself. Maybe I should go every six months. How about you? How frequent do you go to hair salons?

My appointment was at 1pm and I thought I’d finish at 4pm because I added color to the package. But before 3pm I was already done. My friends and I were meeting at Ikebukuro at 5pm. Too early, right? I thought of walking from Takadanobaba to Ikebukuro, that’s 30mins walk but I received a message from a friend saying he’s on his way to Ikebukuro. So I ditched walking and took the train. In less than 10mins, I was already in Ikebukuro looking for him.

Saw these ads while waiting for the train. These are ongoing anime tv shows it seems. I’ve been watching a few and will probably watch more because of this list. Are you watching these shows? Maybe you’re looking for an anime to watch, these ads sure come in handy.

My friend told me to meet up at Tokyo Metropolitan Theater so that was my exit. I didn’t know he was on the other exit and not inside this building. 😅

We met in this area. It’s called Global Ring in Ikebukuro West Park. Have you watched Ikebukuro West Gate Park anime? It was aired around 2020 and I think it even had a live action. I haven’t finished it but I think I’ll rewatch it again now that I’ve been here. I think this was the setting of the anime, this park. So cool, right?

It seems there’s some event that’s going to happen around this area. Many people were waiting, and buying merch. They had formed into groups and having chitchats here and there.

Found my friend finally so we’re off to get some needed late lunch. Turns out he also had a haircut and finished early and went to Ikebukuro before our meetup time. It was my first time to come to the West side of Ikebukuro so I let him be the guide to where we’d be eating. After walking around, we reached ABC Kitchen.

It’s a small shop in the west side, and there’s another branch on the other side that’s full of people. Luckily it was late so we got ourselves a seat right away. Been craving omu-rice lately so I ordered that. My friend ordered a set meal of chicken namban and pork strips. ABC Kitchen serves like homemade Japanese dishes.

We were so full after so we decided to kill time by walking around. Then @ohlnwwlknat messaged he arrived in Ikebukuro so we’re off to meet him. It seems like a quest finding him because he only sent photos of where he was and it’s up to our deduction skills to find out the exact location. It was funny but my competitive skills got triggered. 😂

Found this cute pokemon vending machine around the basement area. Looks so cute, right?! They sell some pokemon merch. I wonder what the sizes of these merch are. I saw some prices like around 1k yen.

The basement level is like a maze in Ikebukuro. It’s home to a lot of train stations so there are many people going in all kinds of directions. You’ll be lost here if you don’t know where to exit. But my friends have me so fear not 😂

We went to Bic Camera, a mall to go if you need electronics or appliances. We’re looking for the camera section but it wasn’t on this branch. The camera section is located on the building across the street. Since we’re here, we checked out earphones and ipads.

This is Bic Camera across the street where the cameras are. Roamed around to kill time waiting for @appleeatingapple and @itz.inno to show up. As for the camera, the Ricoh cam we’re looking for isn’t here.

After we’ve gathered, we roamed around a bit in Ikebukuro’s east side. Earlier we were on the west side, this time we’re on the other side. If we go to Ikebukuro, we usually hang out on this side.

After dinner, we decided to play darts. After becoming acquainted to the game, it seems it has now become a hobby. Went to Round 1, and entertainment hub but waiting time for darts was 90mins. That’s a bit.. it’s a no.

Found a darts bar a few minutes walk and when we entered, we were a bit hesitant as there was only 1 customer. And oh my, this place looks so expensive. Drinks here may be expensive and my wallet’s shaking.

Look how crazy looking this sofa is! Did we just enter a host club?!

The manager and the only staff at that time came to us and explained how things work. It seems like any other darts bar but just small and a bit on the classier side. We’re here to play and we’re lucky not a lot of people came yet.

We spent the entire night playing 01 game, as usual. I couldn’t remember how many times I won but I got 0 3 times. The goal was to get a zero, and I was overjoyed I completed that goal not just one time but 3 times! Yay!

We noticed the group beside us had cards so I researched on it and found out you can only get cards by participating in competitions or when there are campaigns. That’s for the physical card. Luckily there’s a virtual card for beginners! It can be done by downloading the app and registering. We didn’t waste any minute - we registered and made accounts right away.

Now that we have a virtual card, we’re now careful of our scores. The app records our history and we don’t want to have a bad one. 😅

We had a lot of drinks that night. I only got a little tipsy. Playing darts and being so competitive made me swea and erased my tipsiness. 😅

At midnight, we’re undecided if we wanted to go home or stay up til morning. We ended with the latter, but one friend went home taking the last train. He was tired and wanted to sleep comfortably. The four of us ended up playing darts the entire night. It was funny we only had an hour of break to have deep conversations. 😂 The rest of the time, we’re throwing darts.

There were missions in the darts app so we had to play to complete them. That’s how competitive we were. We cleared the missions, luckily! And we got acquainted with cricket and count up game styles.

I won the first cricket game. I didn’t really know how to play it until I played the 2nd game. 😂

We entered the darts bar before 8pm and left there before 5am. How long did we play? You can count. 😅

Got too hungry so I ended up taking home mcdonalds. The morning train took so long to arrive, I was so tired already and wanted badly to be at home.

I found this ad of Oshi No Ko, my favorite anime of last year. It says here there’s a movie for 2 weeks, a limited edition movie! It’s only available in Dolby Cinemas. I can’t find a dolby theater in Shinjuku but I found one in Ikebukuro. uwu I might watch. 😂

That’s all for fun facts of anime and how my Saturday went. Lots of walking, no? 😅

Thanks for reading!
See you around! じゃあ、またね！

_{All photos are taken using my phone unless stated otherwise.}

This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io

Walking