Japan 2004: Chapter 7 - Day 5: Lalaport + Farewell

For our last full day in Japan, we decided to go out with a bang, and travel far to visit
the Lalaport Sumika of Dark Prince Michael fame...



*Subtitle : JR Hokkaido Plaza

In the early days of Jun's Japanese language studies, we'd used to joke about Hokkaido as
an extremely farflung and remote part of Japan few people travelled to [while the former is true,
it is actually a beautiful sprawl of nature that serves as a huge tourist attraction].
Now it seemed that the joke's on us.



But we were not going to Hokkaido. We were going to Lalaport. And this was but a mere part
of the sequence of rather expensive tickets we had to purchase to get there. Which gives you
an idea of how far it was.



That is to say, it was very far.



Very very far.



Far.



So far that even the vending machines sold drinks totally alien to us used to the Ikebukurou fare.



At first, when we exited the station, all we saw for miles were residential buildings and bicycles.



Fortunately, we spotted the Lalaport Shuttle Bus just before it pulled out and took off.



So there we were. At the incredibly large supermall of Lalaport.



On the second floor of one the towers of which was the Lalaport SR/Tenshi no Sumika.
We disappeared here for many hours. The Sumika, though relatively small, was lovely and well-stocked,
and had a nice discount rack. XD The Dollfie Dreams here were particularly
adorable, and the garage kit and 1/6 displays were numerous and enjoyable. Despite the
distant location, we would definitely like to visit Lalaport again if we ever get the chance.



It didn't hurt that the supermall Lalaport had a ton of other interesting things...



...though admittedly it doesn't take much to engage our interesting. There are no
gumball machines in Singapore, alright? XD;;;



There are also no fortunetelling parlours in Singapore.



And no ferret shops. Yep, the other highlight of our visit was the uber-cute, to-die-for Ferret World. XD;;



We left for Lalaport early in the morning, and by the time we were done, dusk had fallen.

We interrupt your regular programming to bring you a word from our sponsors...



Once there was a boy who loved soda.



Neechan. Nanda. BB Banana.



These were his most precious companions.

















Japan. Where your dreams come true.

[XD;; We were extremely amused to find the real-world counterparts of our Japanese eraser soda
when we came to Japan.]

We now return you to your regular viewing schedule.



So the last meal has been eaten [a set from our regular haunt, the cheap and palatable Ten-ya]
and our week in Japan has come to an end.



Farewell, view of Animate from our Sunshine Prince Hotel window.



Farewell, Mandarake marker billboard, that first clued us in that we would spend a ton on doujinshi.



Farewell, Mandarake shopfront, where the full TeniPuri outfits taunt M and where we spent
a ton on doujinshi.



Farewell, Mandarake billboard - are we starting to see a trend here? XD;;



Farewell, Japan, farewell to Dolpa, to the various Sumika, to Mandarake -

Farewell, Tokyo, city of dreams. XD

Tokyo Trip . December 2004 . END

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