Walking around Ikebukuro was not planned but rather specifically requested. It is a popular entertainment and commercial district Toshima, Japan. This was a specific request from our youngest child. He was deep into animé and wanted to visit a specific animé store. It was a welcome plan. It brought us from seeing the sacred cultural sites to the contemporary sites.

The train station was near our hotel. There was a short walk but it wasn’t that bad. Besides, we were also needing some more walking exercise. The train ride itself took almost an hour. There was really no need for complains. The train arrived and departed on time. There was no mad rush. The train coach was extremely clean!

The Animate Store in Ikebukuro was along a narrow street. Well, most streets that we saw in Tokyo were narrow. There were more pedestrians along the street than vehicles. We were surprised that we were expertly guided by our child towards the store. He did his own research to get to the store.

Soon, we were standing in front of the big animé store. The store was displaying a giant animé poster plastered on its edifice. There was a constantly flowing traffic of young people going in and out the store. A glow on our child’s face was betraying his excitement. We left him in the store to browse to his heart’s content. We moved on to do more exploring, shopping and sightseeing around Ikebukuro.

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The are other photographs that can be viewed here.