 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
| The new smaller PS2 | ||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Some shots of various mascots and the Sega Rally girl. | |||||
 |
 |
 |
||
| Some shots of a car and an unrelated Final Fantasy VII poster. | ||||
Again we left TGS pretty early in the afternoon, it got really busy and we'd seen most of what was worthwhile seeing. Before catching the bus back to the station I got some quick snaps of the buildings which surround the Makuhari Messe.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Some buildings in Makuhari around the Nippon Convention Centre | ||||
Once we got back to Shinjuku, I spied a packet of crisps with an amazing demonic pepper on the front, I had to buy them. At first they were disappointingly like Beef Hula Hoops, but the more you ate the more it burned.
 |
| Beware the demonic Chili of Death. |
After a quick sort through all our TGS booty, we went to explore Shinjuku some more and headed off towards Takashimaya Times Square. Situated near the South exit of Shinjuku station, the square is home to Tokyu hands a massive shops which sells everything you could ever think off, think John Lewis meets B&Q. Takashimaya Times square has a big Empire State Building like structure looking over it and the square itself looks down onto the tracks and platforms of Shinjuku station. While wandering around, we discovered a couple of games stores. It's amazing how cheap lots of limited edition stuff you would pay a fortune on eBay for is in Japan.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Takashimaya Times Square and the area around Shinjuku Station South Exit as seen at night. | ||||||
 |
| The shops around Shinjuku Station West Exit at night. |
While looking for somewhere to eat, we found this shopping centre which had hardly any shops, the bottom floor was completely open all the way up to the top of the 30 story or so building, looking up made you dizzy. After getting a Subway for tea, we headed up to the bar on the 47th floor of the Keio Plaza Hotel. While the view from the top was amazing, the prices were absolutely ridiculous with a half pint costing me 5 pounds; needless to say we only had one and then left in search of a cheaper pub.
The best thing we found was the Rose & Crown, a Victorian theme bar in the shopping centre across the road. Although I'm not convinced with the authenticity of some of their food, the beer was good and cheap (in comparison to other places) and the bar manager was very friendly, giving us free snacks.
After a couple of pints we headed to what was to become our friendly neighbourhood convienence store, the Cico-Mart. There I was introduced to the wonderment that is a Coolish. Ice Cream in a pouch, it is one of the best things I've ever found to eat when your drunk and something I'm going to miss back here.
 |
 |
 |
||
| The Shopping Centre from inside, some buildings in Shinjuku and a Vanilla Coolish in the flesh. | ||||