On the morning of the third full day, I visited the combini downstairs and bought yogurt to tide me over until my husband was ready to go out for breakfast. I love Japanese yogurt. I also found Spam flavored chips and bought a few to bring home. I didn’t find them in any grocery stores so if you are in Japan and want some, head to the combini. I found these at Family Mart. When my husband was ready for breakfast, I convinced him to walk with me to Matsuya in Shimbashi. We have tried Yoshinoya in Japan for affordable breakfasts and this was my first time to Matsuya. I ordered a salmon breakfast and in addition to salmon, I got rice, natto, miso soup, and tsukemono–all for less than $5. After breakfast, we headed to Toshimaen station to check out the Harry Potter-themed renovations. The Toshimaen station is kind of like the Hogsmeade train station with lots of red features. From, Toshimaen, we headed to Ikebukuro station which also had Potter decorations.

If you’re into Harry Potter, you’ll enjoy this visit. In Ikebukuro, we walked to Sunshine City and spent some time in the aquarium. It was very crowded but the exhibits were great. In the Sunshine City mall, there was a floor with lots of Pokemon stores. At the main store, the line to pay for purchases must have been several hundred people long! Since I had no idea if anything was special and worth standing in line for, we didn’t get anything and headed to Tonkatsu Wako for lunch. At least this line was only around 20 people long. As far as the Ikebukuro neighborhood itself — it was so busy and crowded and I didn’t care much to stay there for very long. If you like all that bustle, you’ll love it. Since our tonkatsu lunch was on the latter side and I wasn’t starving for dinner, we stayed near the hotel and had pizza and wine. Living Hilo Style in Tokyo.