February 7, 2011
Sunshine city, Ikebukuro
Last Sunday (January 30), my mother and I went to Sunshine City in Ikebukuro which was very fun. To get there, we took the Toden Arakawa Line (Arakawa street car which costs 160 yen for adults and 80 yen for children) near our apartment. It was very fun watching how they operate the Toden, since it was just like a bus but on train tracks, and also investigating the shops we passed by.
After we arrived at the Higashi Ikebukuro station, we walked for about 4 minutes. It was pretty easy to find the building itself, since it is about 60 stories, but it was a little hard to find the entrance to the building.
We arrived there around 3pm and took a quick look at the restaurants and shops (there were many awesome stores I wanted to look in) while we were trying to find our way to the 60th floor. We got lost part of our way since the elevator we took only went up to the 59th floor so we had to change elevators. After we changed and the doors closed, all of a sudden, the elevator room darkened and music played with long with beautiful pictures of star constellations.
We finally reached the top floor which is the observatory. I was able to see all of Tokyo and other famous buildings and mountains. I think I even spotted Seiritsu Gakuen too! After Observing, we took another quick look at the shops and then had our dinner at an organic buffet. It was very delicious but also quite expensive.
We wanted to see more of Sunshine city like the Namuko Nanja Town, Planetarium, Orient museum, and the aquarium but we didn't have enough time.
It was very fun and I hope to go again soon.
Evelyn Stautzenberger