Our old friend Joe from the Cleveland Game Dev group just happened to be in Tokyo at the same time as us, so we made plans to meet up. It ended up being just Jackson and I since the rest were tired from Kyoto.
But first, a bit of breakfast at Jonathans. I finally got to try the legendary hamburg steak. It was pretty good.
After breakfast, Jackson and I made our way to Yoyogi station to meet up with Joe.
It was good catching up, and while we had planned to go to a capybara cafe, it turned out a reservation was needed. So instead, we stopped at a random Thai place that had swings for seats we had passed earlier.
While we ate, Joe talked about how he had just gotten a job working at Toyota. Big congrats to him! He is planning on buying a house once things settle down, which is great for us since now the place we'll be staying for our next visit has been secured.
Also, I thought we were placing 2 orders of lamb skewers but it was just 2 total.
The the skewers and the manga juice were very good.
After catching up, we started walking to Meiji Jingu, a big shrine that was nearby.
On the path to the shrine there was a side area you had to pay a small fee to enter. We did so, and it turned out to be for a beautiful lakeside teahouse, presumably used my some important person in the past.
There was a natural well that had been discovered in the past, and this whole area had been built around it as a garden / leisure area.
There was a side area with a side path that led to a nice little secret base.
Back on the main path, we followed the path towards the well, which led to an irrigated garden.
Finally, we arrived at the well. In the time it was discovered, it was quite well known for having especially good quality water.
Despite this, there was a sign that specifically said not to drink it, which was a bit unfortunate as I was feeling a bit thirsty.
We continued on, through a nice orchard with an impressive big tree. There was also a bird, but I failed to capture the aesthetic, much to Jacksons disappointment.
We returned to the main path and continued on to the temple proper.
Selfie Time!
If you so desired, you could purchase various arrow related goods, leading me to think this is some kind of training area for archery.
As we began to make our way out, a ghostly voice from the forest started to inform us that the park would be closing soon, and to please make our way towards the exit. It said this both in Japanese and English, and the English voice was very smooth.
Also, on the way out there was a poignant juxtaposition of old and new.
We paused for a bit under the Ginko trees to look up what we wanted to do next. We found an owl cafe that was within walking distance, and while we could not find any info about requiring a reservation, it did say that they would accept walk-ins when there was space.
So we decided to gamble on it and began the short* walk to Harajkuku, where it was located.
Harajkuku is a pretty trendy area, and there were certainly a lot of interesting shops. The Owl cafe turned out to be in the fourth floor of a side building. The elevator to get to it was tiny, and completely covered in felt carpeting for some reason. Definitely the weirdest elevator experience of my life.
Thankfully, there was a spot available, so we were able to get in right away. And as I was standing off to the side while Joe made the arrangements, I realized I had been standing next to an actual real owl the entire time, and i hadn't noticed.
They are so unnaturally still that it just completely bypasses your awareness.
It was a pretty small cafe with only 2 tables, but there were tons of different kinds of owls.
They served us some tea in cute owl mugs (the only cafe part of the experience), and we got to pet some of the owls.
Later, another room that had been shut while the owls were resting was opened, and we got to go in to pet and feed them. One of the owls was being playful, so we got to play with a big rhinoceros beetle plushie.
We then took turns feeding them, with the falconry glove and everything.
Owls are so cute when they aren't doing murder. 10/10 would pet owls again.
It was a real hoot.
To cap off the night, we stopped by a cookie bar, to get our serious cookie muncher certification. I wouldn't want anyone thinking that my cookie munching was not 100% serious, after all.
This place was pretty trippy, They were playing a bunch of western pop songs on the radio, and the person at the counter was some kind of American goth girl.
I got to keep the bottle as though, and the cookies were pretty good.
Thankfully, there was a train station right across the street, so we said our goodbyes to Joe, and made our way back to the rest of the boys who were waiting at home base.
After we got back and compared our collective anime merch collections (they won), we headed out again to have dinner at the Izekaya we went to before. This time, we had brought some anime goods to gift to Akane-chan and Master-san (the cook).
With good food and good friends, I couldn't have asked for a better send off for the 1 week crew, who would be leaving in the next few days.