Day 5 - Puroland (Take 1)

We were so close yet so far. Tama Centre is where Puroland can be found. For those unaware, Puroland is the home of Sanrio. It's an indoor theme park for Sanrio-crazy fans like ahem, me. My girl too is a fan. We left the hotel a little late that morning as we didn't realize that it would take us almost an hour to get there, what with the switching of trains as we had missed the direct one.

Excitement built up in us as we walked the pathway from the train station all the way to the entrance of Puroland, stopping to take photos along the way, but the closer we got to the entrance, the more we were suspicious. Why was it so quiet? Was everybody inside? Maybe we were too late? I decided to go right up to take a closer look and what was it I saw? A chained barrier? Oh no, my heart sank heavy. My girl was nearly in tears. Puroland was closed for the day. There was a board just outside which showed some dates and it read as Dec 29 16. We knew it was closed for something but did not understand the dates. We thought we'd never see the interior of Puroland this trip to Tokyo. It wasn't till we got back to the hotel that we read the fine print on the literature and saw that they were closed on Dec 2nd, 9th, and 16th. There was hope yet!

A colourful sculpture along the way.

Our travelling there was not in vain as we spent an hour in Daiso right outside Puroland and picked up more stuff. To appease the upset girl, hubby spent some time with her at a games arcade playing Pokemon on the machines.

Not wanting to waste the rest of our day, we went back to Shinjuku and visited Isetan departmental store for a spot of window-shopping. Isetan in Tokyo is very impressive, unlike the Isetan we have in Singapore. There are many annexes and buildings belonging to Isetan. We didn't know where to begin. After leaving the store, we made our way across the road to H&M. This outlet had a kids' section, unlike the flagship store at Shibuya which only carried Men & Ladies' clothes.

Hubby suggested that we walked back to our hotel and I nearly fainted at the suggestion! However, we took a slow stroll and made it back in 45mins if I'm not wrong. I didn't check the time. We stopped off halfway to check out a Sanrio Gift Gate shop, as well as pick up dinner along the way. We had dinner most evenings at the hotel as it was more comfortable eating there. Most times, we would pack food back from wherever food hall we were close to, else it'd be cup noodles from 7-11, or sushi sometimes. I was travelling with 2 boring eaters so it wasn't fun eating and trying stuff on my own.

We ate curry a lot on this trip and that evening, hubby had a curry hamburg cheese rice set. It might not look too good in the photo but it was delicious. The cheese went very well with everything else.

I opted for the chicken. For the girl, I chose a simple bento of curry and rice but the portion was really tiny. Lucky I had some leftover rice in the fridge from another dinner. I also shared some pieces of chicken with her.

The large sized curry hamburg rice cost 730yen, while mine cost 380yen and the miserable kids' portion cost 200yen.