the unthinkable happened today. and now that i think of it, i do not know how this could have happened. usually i charge the battery over night, put it into my cam the next morning, turn on my camera, check for the CF card to be inserted, add a new folder each new day, and check the time offset to my gps tracker. but this morning i did none of these things, simply because i... forgot. i guess. i forgot if i forgot. while not creating a new folder and not checking the time synchronicity is a not so severe thing to omit, not putting in the battery pack is. and so i ended up in ikebukuro with a huge, heavy, and dead camera. my bad, so sad - buhuuu... well, there has to be a first time for everything i guess. also i did not like to go back to the ryokan again to get it, so i thought let's try something totally new this day: a day on my japan trip with- out my beloved camera. crazy, ha? turns out you look at things more relaxed, as you do not have to worry about moments you did not capture in a picture. so i left this job to nina. but, for you to participate in this day trip to huge shopping malls, i will put it into words only what we did today. since a lot happened, this means a lot of words. just for you. and don't do the TLDR thingie here, it would make me really sad. really. so, here's the day... first thing in the morning was to extend our stay at the wonderful edo sakura hotel. while we asked a few days ago if we could stay longer, the owner told us there's no free room for this weekend. but while browsing the site at booking.com today for a new hotel, we found the edo sakura to be vacant for the last two days of our stay, which surprised us. so i decided to go downstairs and book right away. but lucky us, it turned out that there actually is a room for all the days we stay here in tokyo. yay, so we booked again. but this time a western room for two days, and a japanese style room for the last two nights. puh, we were really happy. after that we took the metro to ikebukuro, a district full of little shops and huge shopping malls, like "seibu" and "tobu", both very famous in japan, and both operating their own railway line (seems this is a nice add-on to have for huge companies?). starting with "seibu" we got a multi-storey mall full of shops with edible stuff. all kind of known and unknown dead animals, products of, or by them, tons of variations of sweets in all kind of flavours, colours, shapes and consistencies. overwhelmed by the variety, we bought a thing from time to time, because it looked so delicious, and we could not resist - we simply just had to buy a sample to try. and every time we did so, it was all nomnom and delicious, and sometimes strange and new. those shopping malls are really impressive, and sometimes they seem to me like a little town in this huge town of tokyo. but there was a reason we came here, besides all the things one can do in malls. and the reason is called "din tai fung". yes, that excellent dumpling cooking company we got to know in taiwan. they had some branches here too, and ninsti wanted to relive the experience of having those little hot and steamy dainties, which she was craving for so much, on her palate again. the restaurant is in the other big mall called "tobu". but hey, for some unknown reason the entire mall was closed on this day. poor nina, so close, but closed. being very depressed we had to find something for cheering up. and what would do a better job than petting a cat? right, nothing. so we went to the next huge mall called "tokyo hands", because on the eighth floor they have the "nekobukuro", a cat house in ikebukuro, with a little shop outside, where i have already been back on my last tokyo trip. so we entered the playground, found loads of cats, and also loads of people - this place seems to be very popular. the place is not a classic cat cafe, but more a playground for cats. also there is no time limit, you pay only for the entrance. there are between 20 and 30 cats (we think), all kind of races, colours, sizes, and shapes (like the sweets in "seibu") - from grumpy cat, hoover cat (yes, they have a glass top under the ceiling which seems to be the favourite spot of one particular white long-hair cat) to looong cat. from the popular scottish fold, and main coon, persian and siamese, to norwegian forest, and crossbreed cats. all so cute, most of them sleeping (of course), but also curious once awoken. while we lost track of time in there, the hunger built up in nina. so we went back to "seibu", as nina's guide book said that you can get cheap food when it gets close to closing time of the food court. market criers shouted, people were busy finding the best pieces, and this place was crowded. we joined, and grabbed loads of stuff[1-6], from sushi to sashimi plates, and some deep fried stuff for me. all looking so good. it was hard to decide what to take. and the longer we stayed, the more hungry the both of us got. and it was really very very cheap. we hurried back home to the hotel and had a feast - nomnom. oh, and by the way, it's not much of use if you know some phrases in japanese like "what is that?". i used that on a lady selling me the deep fried stuff, and there were four different kinds of them. so i asked her in perfect japanese "kore wa nan desu ka?" and she answered in japanese. so after a while i replied "wakarimasen", which means that i did not understand a word you just said. asking her coworker to help out, i got to know that it was different meat flavours inside. but, at least i know that my pronunciation is excellent. hehe. in the meantime it had started to heavily rain outside. so one more reason to hurry home and eat all the wonderful stuff we just acquired. later we did the laundry at the hotel. and while i loaded the machines, it was nina who fetched the things from the dryer later. the machines were on the ground floor, and the heavy rain had flooded the basement in the meantime. although, according to nina, it looked pretty bad, the owner refused all offers for help from nina. either he was too proud, conscientious (guests do not need to work), or he was used to that - we do not know. we hope the rain does not get worse. poor owner. and i really hope i do not forget my battery pack ever again.