Sanrio and Salsa

Tuesday we wanted to take it easy as we were tired from Monday and planned on going to the Ghibli Museum on Wednesday.

So we thought we would go look at some shops, and Sanrio World at Ginza was our destination. Sanrio is the brand that makes Hello Kitty among others, but I wasn’t as impressed with Sanrio World as I hoped to be. It was the Flagship store and They had a lot of Hello Kitty and Twin Stars branded key chains and but a lot of this stuff I didn’t have room to take back home, so it was a bit of a let down.

There was cool things like ceramic dinnerware and electric fans etc. We did buy a few small things though, and I got myself a Hello Kitty in a peach mobile phone decoration.

We had lunch as Mos Cafe, which is like Mos Burger if you have ever had that. I was pretty tasty.

Next we popped into Muji. It is a very cool store. Mingaling says it is a bit like Ikea in that it had a whole range of lifestyle goods, but the style is more simple and/or minimalist.

I liked a room they had which showcased a whole bunch of their stuff and how you could use and store it for disaster preparedness. They had a bunch of vacuum packed food and other efficient style goods.

Mingaling bought some glasses there too. They were only 15,000 yen, and they were ready with her correct lenses included within 30mins! That is super cheap (for glasses) and super efficient!

At Dinner time we met up with Marichan’s friend Ya-chan back at our local train station and she took us to a large Toyshop. Argh the Sylvanian Families! I want to buy them all! But instead I bought…none! *weep*

We met her friend Hollychan there and off we went for dinner at a yummy Okonomiyaki place where we tried traditional and non-traditional Okonomiyaki. We had a great time. They had both stayed in NZ for a year as teenagers in Lower Hutt. They said they really miss Cookie Time biscuits, and when I was in Thailand one of my friends said the same thing! So all you NZers reading this, better enjoy your cookie time biscuits, cos you can’t get them overseas, and if you travel abroad, maybe bring a pack for your hosts!

While chatting away, we found out that Hollychan did Salsa dancing too! So after dinner she took us to a Salsa club and we had some great dances! I wish I had worn better shoes, cos I felt like a Clumpy McClumperson with my walking shoes on. You just can’t do the fast spins in them! Also, it was ladies night, so we didn’t have to pay the usual entry fee (about 1,500 yen) and all the guys seem to have been dancing for about 10 years, and a lot of them spoke very good English, but that doesn’t really matter when you are dancing.

If you are thinking of Salsa dancing in Tokyo then head to Las Risas!