A trip outside of Tokyo today…

Navigated our way to Washinomiya… it seems to be a really tiny place, lol, walked up the road using the carefully detailed maps at the station left by other people. Got to the place, took a photo, and decided to check out the restaurant (the building to the right of the gate) as it’s menu was full of Lucky Star stuff. At which point a nice old guy came out of the building and started talking to us and invited us in for coffee, asked us where we were from etc. and started telling us some sort of story about how not many people came to visit before Lucky Star, and now they have people coming from Australia, Malasia, and all over Japan on a daily basis, saying that Lucky Star was wonderful. I think we were the first people that had arrived from England (at least as far as i could gather), and the 2 girls on the other table seemed impressed we’d come all this way, lol… something about Lucky Star being truly worldwide.

Oh, as for the restaurant itself, it was one of those ‘take your shoes off and sit on a cushion on the floor with a low down table in front of you’ things… really hurts your legs, lol. But the whole building on the inside was literally covered with various Lucky Star shrine related things, and signed things from the cast all over. And when we came to leave the old guy said he’d pay for our food and drink… nice one! They’re obviously rolling in the money with all these daily visitors that they can offer free food to travellers, lol.

On the way out there was a brief conversation with a young girl about England and English bands, lol… she seemed somewhat excitable, lol…. “AH ENGLAND!! THE BEATLES!!! …OASIS… NOEL GALLACHER!!.

As for the shrine itself… well it was a shrine, lol, only difference being hundreds of anime related wooden blocks with wishes on hung up instead of normal ones, lol.

Oh, and not to mention seeing this in the car park:

There seemed to be a fair few anime fans around during the daytime on a weekday, lol… i wonder how many people turn up at weekends. ^_^