Tuesday, May 2nd, Nippori Textile Town, Aneme Center, and Japanese Mexican Dinner

     I slept in until 7:30, when my body could lay down no more.  I listened to my Ipod Mini and wrote in my journal until Mary woke up.  We cleaned up, then walked to the Family Market, where I got an apple for breakfast. We walked a short distance from there to the French area where Mary got herself a chocolate-banana crepe for breakfast.  My main frustration is I cannot read Japanese, to insure GF ingredients in things.  I bet they use rice flour in the crepes, but I cannot confirm it and dare not risk getting sick by trying a bite.

We caught the train up to Nippori, and we found the Textile Town and Tomato.  Tomato was more than one store; more like four.  There was a fabric store called Happy.  There was so much fabric it was overwhelming.  I knew I could only get what I could fit in my luggage, so I really did behave!

This was in the first 'Tomato" store we went in.

I wish I had gotten some of those big vegetable prints.  I bought nothing at the first store. I do not remember the name of the second store we entered, but they had some fat quarters and half-yard pre-cuts and a got a few of those and paid cash, since they did not take credit cards. 
     We crossed the street and went into one of the Tomato stores.  It had six floors.  I made sure they accepted VISA before I looked at a single thing.


They had so much cat fabric, I could not choose.

Mary likes zebra fabric.

I started on the first floor, while Mary scouted out upstairs. She came and got me, and we went up to the 4th floor, near the back, where there were more of the Japanese looking fabrics.  I got some lights and darks, and one that was b&w, which will work for more than one project.  I also picked out a couple panels.  The place was crowded.  We stood in line for cutting for 5 to 8 minutes, then in line to pay for about 8 minutes.  The gentleman, who cut my yardage, did that flurry of fabric, arms, and yardstick routine.  I really like that.

Then we left and headed back to the train station. Mary could not get a signal on her phone. We went into a café and had smoothies, and there was no signal in there, either. We rested, then caught the train back to Akihabara.
     I couple helpful young people showed us which machine to buy tickets from, and how to choose the number of tickets you need, so we didn't have to go through all the motions twice.  They saw we looked confused and just asked us if we needed help. How nice that was. We returned to our hotel and I left my fabric and sweater there, then we proceeded across the river and did some exploring.    

We found the Cha Cha Building, a Mexican Restaurant, and the Post Office. We decided to come for Mexican dinner, then I mailed Pete and Mom's post cards at the PO.  We found the way to the shrine, which we can see across the river from our room, and visited it briefly.  We, then, crossed the blue walking bridge and turned left to go toward the Anime Center.  The first building we entered had three floors of gaming. We found a couple interesting stores on the fifth floor, one had nearly every kind of figure, including Peanuts characters, but most Science-fiction. The other had all the fun stuff,
but I resisted and purchase nothing.  We explored some more, and crossed the street into this market alley that had lots of vendors with electronic gadgets, electronic parts, antennas, tools, cables, etc.  When we came out the other side, we found (YOU GUESSED IT!), more bags! 

Mary at the blue bridge

 Mary bought a Hello Kitty take-with-you shopping bag.  The young man was very patient as we counted the coins into his hand.  They also had zippered bags shaped like toast. Boy, was that tough to resist!

We walked around another block, then went into a 'tax free' store. Mary found me a fish wind sock that was $11.00. We found a couple more things, but found out they only accept credit cards if you spend $50.00 or more.  So, we got the fish and left.  We walked back and crossed the river to go have dinner at the Mexican restaurant.
     We walked back and crossed the river on the blue bridge and went to dinner at the Mexican Restaurant.  We had a communication problem here.  Mary showed her what we wanted, on the menu, then said, "two Cokes".  The gal misunderstood and made two orders of each thing we ordered, but she served them up with my plate and Mary's plate having each of the things we both ordered.  We got no Cokes, but some water.  The food was delicious and there were no leftovers.  While we waited for the food to cook, we watched the news and they were showing some flower festival at Mt. Fuji. Well, tomorrow was Wednesday, so why not look into going?  It was when we got the bill, and it looked like she had charged us double, that we figured out what the problem had been.  We were both fat, dumb, and happy, and Mary said the gal running the place thinks we are American pigs. Smiley face! Of all the food I took photos of on this trip, I missed taking a photo of this food, which was not really Mexican, but beautifully presented and wonderful to taste.
    We moseyed back past the shrine and across our blue walking bridge to our hotel.  Mary went out into the hall, with the wifi on her computer, to try and determine information about our Mt Fuji trip tomorrow.  We have it all figured out, or Mary has it all figured out.  It should take two hours to get there by train, then another 45 minutes by bus, from the train station.  We will leave here around 7 a.m., go the 7Eleven to get more yen, then head out on the JR Line.  Good night!