half of my stay here is done, and still so much to see. i hope i see at least the most important things i planned for this trip. for today, day 07, there's not much written info here on the bLog, but loads of pictures, since i wanted to have a relaxing day in shops (they all have air-condition). thus i went to "ikebukuro", as my guide says there are loads of shops and malls. after getting of the JR train at "ikebukuro" station i was walking around in malls for about twenty minutes when i entered another "tokyu hands" store. on the ninth floor i found another "cats alive" store and a huge cat store called "nekobukuro"[004-007], having all kind of cat-related stuff. they even had a living cat in the shop[007]. in the next street i saw this "cat cafe"[008] sign. a coffee is always a good idea, so i thought ok, let's find out what a "cat cafe"[009-045] is. it turned out to be the same as comic/manga cafes in tokyo (though i still have to visit one). you pay for each hour you stay at the bar/cafe and then can drink as much as you want and enjoy the cats/comics/etc. it's similar to the "cats alive" store where one would pay for playing with cats. 1000YEN for the first hour (that's about 6EUR). at first i thought one hour is way too long and i will be leaving after 30mins again, but this is somehow addictive. drinking coffee, surrounded by cute cats and girls in school uniforms having fun with the kitten. really cute - all of them. though every additional hour would have been cheaper (300YEN, that's about 1.75EUR) i left the cafe. a few streets away i found a huge manga store[052] (ten floors full of manga stuff) together with several other shops[053-054] in a row. next stop was "sunshine city" with the "sunshine international aquarium"[066-201], which is located on the tenth floor in the "world import mart" building and also includes a little zoo with all kind of small animals. "sunshine city" itself is made up of several skyscrapers. another one of them is the "sunshine60" building, which houses the "sunshine observatory"[203-216], including a "naruto" exhibition (there's a new film that will be in cinemas on second of august, therefore one can see "naruto" stuff everywhere). on my way home[217-220] it seems i hit rush-hour at the train station[221]. so i bought something to drink, waited until the rush was over, and drove home. today's dinner: a collection of various fried things in a box[222]. from left to right, top to bottom: fried fish (tasted exactly like "kaept'n iglos fischstaebchen", rice, then something undefinable, but tasted like strudel. the risolle in front tasted like a spicy vegetable burger, and finally a meatball in the lower right corner. this all was served warm (at the hotel there's a public microwave oven). it tasted very very good. on the left a dessert i tried out. i think it was soya pudding with vanilla flavour and whipped cream and hazelnut cream topping. also very yummi! so all in all really an relaxing day with loads of cats. random facts about tokyo: today i saw drunk japanese people for the first time here in tokyo. as it's friday i guess many start to prepare for weekend. there's a towing service for bikes that are parked where they shouldn't be. japanese love cute characters - they are everywhere and almost used by every company, no matter what they sell or produce (this includes parcel-, telephon-, tv-, and transportation-companies and loads of other companies i do not know what their business is (since i can't read the texts next to the logos).