Diary Entry #6 - Sky Town, Kominka and Christmas in November

Hello hello~

It has been a while since my diary entry but I have been up to some fun stuff lately, so I would like to share a little about it. It is November now - the autumn is nearly over and Tokyo suddenly got really cold. I did not even get to see much of the autumn foliage this year, as I have been quite busy with work :(

But something really exciting happened last weekend - one of my dearest friends from study abroad times visited Japan. We met when we were both exchange students at Kansai Gaidai back in 2013. I actually can't recall the first time we talked, but we got really close and stayed in touch ever since. She lives in the US and is the sweetest, kindest person I have ever met. Even though we only get to meet in person every few years, it always feels as if no time has passed.

We wanted to meet up for lunch and then figure out what to do next. Cat cafe? Karaoke? Tea ceremony? The options were endless so we wanted to see that we would be in the mood for after we finish eating (spoiler alert - none of the above happened :D)

We met up at the Oshiage station and headed straight to Solamachi (Or Soramachi? I have seen it written both ways). The name Soramachi/Solamachi translates to ”Sky town” and it is a shopping, dining, entertainment complex with more than 300 stores located right next to the Skytree - the second tallest structure in the world.

On the upper floors you can find a number of restaurants with wonderful views of Tokyo. The weather was not the best on the day and the top of the Skytree was hidden in the clouds.

For lunch, this special occasion called for a special place. We both really like Yakiniku (Grilled meat), so the Jojoen in Solamachi was quite an obvious choice. I did not make a reservation, so we had to take a ticket at the entrance and wait for about 40 minutes before we could get in.

The ticket had a QR core which we could scan and see how many more groups were ahead of us and when our number was being called. I think this system is great, as you can walk around and do some window shopping rather than just stand in line in front of the restaurant.

By the time we sat down at the restaurant, the sky cleared up a bit and we were able to enjoy the delicious yakiniku with an amazing view. A note about Jojoen - it is a high quality yakiniku place (restaurants where you are served raw meat and vegetables which you grill yourself). and has branches all over Tokyo. It can get a bit pricey, but the lunch courses are reasonabl.

Once we finished our delicious lunch, we wanted to head out to Asakusa but decided to look around the shopping area for a little bit. Big mistake :D

We first passed by a Harry Potter store. Here I found out that I don't really know my Harry Potter house - how un-millenial of me. So, of course, I had to take a sorting hat quiz on the spot and after finding out that I am Ravenclaw, I had to buy something to commemorate this occasion.

Right next door was the Kirby store and since my friend loves Kirby, we spent some time looking around. And then right around the corner we found the Pokemon Center. All the staff were carrying a Christmas version of a Pikachu plushie, which was super cure. To be honest, I only know the original Pokemon, and have no idea about the new ones.. how many are there now?

Walking through the shopping floor we passed many more interesting stores, such as ones selling the famous plastic food replicas, including bananas in various levels of ripeness (please see picture below). There was also a store selling coasters with famous Japanese historical figures but they were..cats. And speaking of cats, they also had plushies of looong stretching cats, miniatures of Japanese houses and stores..with little cats. Honestly if you like cats, Japan is a good place to be.

I could go on and on about all the other stores here - Sanrio store, accessory stores, clothes, home goods, the list is endless..let me just say if you are looking for a nice place to shop for souvenirs and things to bring back from Japan, the Solamachi is it. By the time we left it was already dark outside, so we just took a quick picture of the lit up Skytree, resisted the urge to visit the Ghibli store, and headed to Asakusa.

The Asakusa area is a historical part of Tokyo most famous for its huge red temple and the long shopping street leading up to it. It does get quite crowded during the day, especially during the weekend, but in the evening as the stores start to close, the crowds turn down a little bit and it is much easier to walk around. Although most of the street stalls were closed, you could still get some warm snacks. After walking around for a little bit it was now time to say goodbye. I do hope I get to meet my friend again soon and I will actually be back with another diary entry in the next few days!