Day 3 - Say Hello to Hello Kitty!

Once again, we are ready for another adventurous day. Today's adventure includes a trip to Sanrio Pearland, in Tama. This will be one of the furthest distances we've traveled today. With a bit of luck, we should be able to navigate all of the means of transportation that our disposal. We will have a mix of subway, light rail, and longer distance train. The JR Rail pass should come in handy today, as long as I can find the trains that line up at the right time to make this work. After getting up in the morning, we headed down to breakfast. I continue to be impressed at the quality breakfast we received. 

Not long after we ate, Kylee joined the breakfast line, and got her food. After eating, we gathered our belongings and headed out. It has become old hat to take the Tsukaba Express train, to get us where we're going. The goal is to take the Tsukuba Express to Shinjuku station and from there pick up a train which will take us all the way to Sanrio Puroland.  Heading into the subway station, we found it was much more crowded and we have gotten used to. 

We pressed on towards our train, and just as we approached, the doors signaled (the infectious tones have become sealed in my memory!). Kylee and I jumped on, but Mona was stuck on the platform! She looked on as we pulled away... Fortunately, she messaged me via WhatsApp, so we waited at the next stop to meet her. Each subway car is labeled to a matching gate, so if someone is riding in Car 8 Door 2, you can wait at the gate number that matches. 

Sure enough, she was in the next train, at the right door.  Reunited, we stood on the crowded train, packed with rush hour travelers. It wasn't long before many passengers spilled out to transfer to other rail lines and such. Before long, we reached Shinjuku station to switch to the Odakyu line. This was a longer-distance rail line, so we climbed a few sets of stairs to get to the platform. Sadly, I discovered it used the Suica card, not our JR rail passes, so the trip would cost us a few dollars, instead of being "free" on our pre-paid pass. No biggie - it was only 400 yen or so ($2.81) for the ride. 

The train eased past stop after stop. As we continued west, we gradually left tall skyscrapers and shopping malls behind, easing into forested hills and flat towns. Nearly an hour later, we approached Tama Center, the stop for Sanrio Puroland. Exiting the train, we were greeted by numerous Hello Kitty signs that clearly signified were we in the right place.

We paused to take Kylee's picture in front of a sign, then hugged or goodbyes. The ladies would enjoy their day away from me, and I was headed east to Chofu, and the National Astronomical Observatory!

Getting to the observatory it turned out to be a little more challenging than I thought. Buses clearly had arrival and departure times, along with numbers and routes. However, I discovered that with my clock being just a few minutes off, it became difficult to get the right bus. I found the right number bus, but it was headed in the wrong direction, because I jumped on the right number bus too soon. After my first misdirection, I got off the bus and opted to walk in the appropriate direction. I then found the right bus, going in the right direction and boarded. In my haste, however, I failed to swipe my card when I got off the bus. This caused the bus driver to honk and gesture to me. I sheepishly headed back and tapped my card to pay my fare.  I then walked uphill to The Observatory and came to the guard shack. The guard was a little confused that I was there to sightsee, but he soon figured out my intent and I was in the park. The park features several folder astronomical observatories, old telescopes that have contributed greatly to science. I'm meandered around and took several pictures.

 After taking a brief break, I decided it was time to press on to my next destination. So, I walked back down the hill to get bus. Just as before, I was confused by the timing of the bus and miss the one I was looking for. However, there was another bus headed in the appropriate direction just a moment later. Boarding that bus, I wrote it to my next stop the Sugunami Animation Museum. 

At the museum, there were numerous exhibits highlighting many, famous animation directors, artists and studios from the last century. Yes, I said "century"!  As the first Japanese animated feature was created as far back as 1917. I was intrigued by this notion, because I was under the impression that anime originated in the 1950s, with Astro Boy.  There were multiple attempts before this, which weren't nearly as popular as Astro Boy. After sampling the exhibits, I walked through their DVD library. There were numerous DVDs on multiple corners and several viewing stations. I passed a young man who was actually watching Macross: Do You Remember Love?. This was the first feature length anime I ever watched, way back in 1990. On my way out, I found a secluded corner with power, and plugged in my phone (Dead battery...Grrrr!) for a bit and planned out my next stop. I wanted to stay along the JR Rail line, so it would be easier to catch up with Mona and Kylie on their way back from Sanrio Puroland. With a new destination in mind, I headed back to catch the bus. This time, I was sure to get the right bus in the right direction. Not! Once again, I misjudged the side of the street I needed to be on and the direction of the bus. I waited for a bus that was not coming, so I sprinted across the street, as I saw another bus approaching. Unfortunately, I didn't make it in time to catch it and also discovered it was not the right bus. Turning back across the street to where I should have been, I saw the bus speed by, because there was no one at the station at the stop. Sigh. In case you are keeping score, I was two out of six for buses today. Not a great batting average. With no time like the present, I chose to use my feet. It was under a kilometer to the station so why the heck not? I walked through a quiet residential neighborhood, where the streets were barely wider than a car-width, and the houses built right up to the small fences that separated them from the street. Before long, I was back at the train station, and used my JR Rail Pass to enter. I made it to the appropriate platform just a few minutes before the train, and easily found a seat. 

Several stops later, I hopped off the train in Nakano.  A nearby park was only a few blocks from the station so I opted to take a look. As it was late enough in the afternoon, there were throngs of school children everywhere. Two large groups passed me on the street, and when I sat down on a bench in the park I saw two more. The afternoon had suddenly become overcast, which was a nice relief from the Sun that had been peaking out. On my long walk to the station, I tried to walk in the shade, and was only able to do it for a small portion of the walk.  Still, it was certainly nice outside and getting around wasn't too tough.The last thing on my agenda was to stop in Akihabara and get a power bank to replace the one that failed early in the trip.  I also checked the gashapon (capsule toy) machine we looked in yesterday, but it was still empty.  Pointed towards the station, I could see substantially more people than yesterday, probably because the work day was coming to an end.

Mona messaged that she and Kylee were headed back, so I left to meet them at the station. The day was long and we were hungry, so we tried to find a place to eat ramen. As tomorrow was actually a holiday, the restaurants we chose were all closed, even though there were plenty of them open. Our fallback plan was a take-away bento counter that quickly served up two plates of pork cutlets. We brought dinner back to the hotel, then opted to stroll along the bank of the Sumida river. The Tokyo Skytree was beautifully illuminated and made a nice back drop. A visit to the “100 yen" store rounded out our evening. It was off to bed, to prepare for another day!