Ikebukuro

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Over the weekend Ben and I went to Ikebukuro. Ikebukuro is the second most trafficked train station in the world, (second to Shinjuku also in Tokyo). 2.71 million passengers come through here everyday.
The area around Ikebukuro is very exciting, there are many pubs, karaoke bars, and shops around the station. It is also an Otaku district, and in my opinion a better place to go shopping for anime, manga, or cutesy stuff, especially if you are a girl.
Ben and I spent most of our time at Sunshine 60, a complex of sky scrappers the tallest of which is 60 stories high. We decided to go up to the observatory, to look out over the city, unfortunately a giant dust cloud hit Japan this weekend, we could barely see the bottom of the building, the cityscape was lost to us in the cloud.

There was also an aquarium in the complex. I hate aquariums, because they scare me, but this one was really cool. I liked the jelly fish habitats, and the overhead seal pool. It was really crowded in the aquarium, and Ben and I were almost the only ones that didn't have kids with us, but this was one of the coolest aquariums I have ever been to. If you are bringing kids with you to Japan, I highly recommend the Sunshine 60 complex the aquarium is amazing, there is a planetarium, a museum, and an observatory. It's a great place for families.

Sunshine 60 complex:


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