Aimless in Ameyoko
I woke up quite early thanks to the handy yet painfully loud bedside alarm. When I was all up, Facebook informed me that Cas was up at 4am due to jetlag, oh dear. We arranged to go out at 10am but Cas needed a bit of extra sleep so I went out in search of these amazing Maple Syrup Sandwiches I had last time. There was a 7 Eleven only a minute from the hotel.
A quick look around the shop, no luck. Thankfully there was a Family Mart only a minute away… this began my hunt for the sandwich which was a total failure. I had no luck at all, the shops were all sold out at 9am! I walked a good 15 minutes down the long road in the blistering heat, checking 4 shops with no luck. In the end I settled for a Honey Waffle, it’s was alright but I ate it in disapointment on my way back to the hotel.
I bought some chocolates on the way back so my long trek wasn’t a total waste. I got two more packs of Lemonade and Cola KitKats and Milky Soft Cream chocolate, I only got this because there is a fat kid on front, they know good food.
By the time I got back to the Hotel, Cas and Penny were ready to go out. We headed to the metro and took a short trip to Ueno. This area has a shopping market, large park and zoo. We first decided to check out the shopping market, it was really hot and the small market lanes would be very shady. 
Our first stop was the large toy shop, Yamashiroya. This multifoored shop is always worth checking out for cool gifts and a browse. We spent quite a while in here, the highlight is the floor with all the puzzle games, lots of interesting things. One thing to keep in mind, this place is expensive compared to other shops but the most fun to browse.
We eventually left the giant toy shop and headed into Ameyoko, the back street market lanes of Ueno. This area has plenty of clothing shops, food stalls and a few of the best arcades in Tokyo.
We first went to a 7 Eleven to get some drinks and I just had to get some sweets, Shaved Ice Flavor Chews, these are SO nice, I love shaved ice with mystery blue topping!!!
Right next door to the 7-11 was an arcade which had a giant banner for the new Drum Mania game, we HAD to go in because I was desperate to try this game!
We spent a long time in here, it’s a nice arcade, cheap and well airconditioned with lots of cool games to play. First me and Cas decided play in the Gundam Pods, it’s basically an FPS where you control a giant Gundam Robot in a giant pod with a 180 view curved screen and ‘authentic’ robot controls. To play this game you have to have Gundam ID cards, the helpful arcade attendant sorted us out with these.
After a few rounds of Pop’n’Music I decided it was time to find the new Drum Mania game. It’s basically Rock Band Drum Mode (predates it by about 10 years) using not 4 pads, but a near full drum set up. 4 toms, two cymbals, hi-hat with pedal and bass pedal, INSANE!! The game was a lot harder than the previous versions but also a lot more fun, the quality of the kit is amazing and if I was a millionare this would be the first thing I buy for my mansion.
We stayed in the arcade longer playing more music games, there were loads here. On the way out we noticed a kid going crazy around a claw machine game. Upon closer inspection, we realised we he was trying to win… live Stag Beetles! Only in Japan! I was VERY tempted but had no idea what to do with the Beetle. 
Eventually something caught my eye, I got very excited and quickly got my money ready and waited in line. It was a shaved ice stall with LOADS of syrup flavors. This is basically what it sounds like, shaved ice in a cup covered in fruit syrup of your choice.
I waited a while in line, the woman before me ordered 10 of these, they’re really good! I got my cup of ice then realised the problem, all the syrup bottles were labled in Japanese, only way to figure out the flavours was to match them up to the posters, took to long, so just went for the blue and it was AMAZING!!!! It quickly melted into a really syrupy ice drink, even better!
We wandered around the market a bit more, this time passing more food stalls where the sellers are trying to flog packaged foods rather than stuff cooked and ready to eat.
I was lucky enough to pass a stall selling KitKats. Not thinking about the effect of carrying chocolate around in the boiling hot sun, I bought a box of Banana Kit Kats.. Thankfully, the stall owner put two ice packs in the bag, shame they melted and sogged up the box.
We decided to go in some more arcades, it was really hot out and we fancied playing some more games because we’re Japanese arcades are the best in the world.In the first arcade we played Border Break, the new robot 3rd person shooter from Sega. It’s basically an online FPS style game with robots. The arcade cabnit has a mouse which is a new thing.
The game was a lot of fun but expensive, I decided to stop playing but Cas stayed on to play a bit more. Me and Pen went to explore downstairs and saw a young gambler on the slot machines, he was about 4 and loading that thing with coins!
In the next arcade there were more interesting games to play. We first played the new Bishi Bashi game, it’s basically a bunch of mini games for 3 players where you bash the 3 giant buttons as quick as possible. Lots of fun!
Next Cas had a go of the strange ‘Only in Japan’ table flipping game. You play it by slapping the table to get attention then litreally flipping it over to cause as much damage as possible! Cas managed to get the high score, I have no idea how this happened but it was impressive even to the locals.
We had a look upstairs and it was mostly light gun games, nothing too interesting but then we saw Elevator Action Death Parade, the cabnit had an elevator door installed that opened and closed during the game. Neat idea but the game was quite boring.
After all that gaming we were hungry and I knew the perfect play to eat, C&C Curry Shop, specialises in really tasty Chicken Katsu Curry! 
This is a fast service shop, one of many in Japan. You go in and purchase a food ticket from the vending machine then hand it to the waiter behind the bar who gets your food, saves a lot of hassle and even has Westerner friendly pictures on the buttons.
The Curry was hands down, the best Katsu I’ve had, EVER. It was perfect and this isn’t even the best of the curry places in Japan. Just incase you don’t know, Chicken Katsu Curry is one of my favourite foods.
Randomly, I saw giant octopus tentacles on a stall. They were much bigger than our arms and it scared me to think of the battle that was fought to get these things into the market, surely a boat was destroyed in the epic battle that must have taken place..
It was getting quite late, the sun was going down so we decided to have a stroll around Ueno Park. There isn’t too much grass here for sitting down and chilling out which is a shame, it’s mostly one for walking around but still nice.
There is a Zoo in the park but it was closed on Monday, we’re going to go there another time, if you go, make sure you check the opening dates and times. Becuase Cas didn’t have any Curry, he decided to get some Pizza from a stall in the Park. I can’t comment but Cas and Penny both said it was really good. I don’t think so, it was like 90% cheese, I hate cheese. Oh and Penny got Almond Ice Cream. 
On the way I stopped into First Kitchen, a Fast Food place like Mc Donnalds but specialises in Flavored Chips and does an awesome Melon Soda Float, which I bought.
We eventually ended up in a Coffee Shop I forgot to take a picture of, We all got drinks and played Dragon Quest IX on the DS, really good game!
By the time we left it was night time, we spent 3 hours in a Coffee Shop, in Tokyo, playing DS… how cool are we! It was a lot of fun though, nice to chill out and especially because of the aircon. I had Iced Tea which tasted too much like tea for my liking.
We decided to head back and get another early night but not before me and Penny got a quick snack from Mc Donnalds. I decided to try a McPork and Penny got the McEbi (prawn)
The McPork was really good, it tasted like Sausage but more burger like. It had a weird Pork BBQ sort of sauce, not sure what it was but it was good. Penny seemed happy with her McEbi.
We eventually arrived back in the area of our hotel, walking down the road we passed the 7-Eleven again. We went in to get some more snacks for the evening. 
I managed to find my Sandwiches, well, the Peanut Butter ones. We all went for the sweets aisle, can you blame us, look how good EVERYTHING looks!! Makes me feel like a fat rich kid in a candy store, I just want to buy it all to try.
I highly reccomend visiting Ameyoko and Ueno for a whole day. You can spend the morning browsing the market, get some lunch from a local food stall and then head into Ueno Park. It’s worth going to the Zoo aswell and then getting dinner in a near by restuarant in the evening, could finish the night up with Karaoke! Just make sure you choose a day when the Zoo is open.
Despite some of us being a bit tired and jetlagged, today was very chilled. It was nice just wandering around and not having to rush to be tourists, also killing time in the arcade and coffee shop playing games was a lot of fun, we are gamers after all. We’ll be back again to get gifts from the toyshop and check out the Zoo. 