Namjatown

Continuing on from my previous post, we still had a lot of remaining daytime that Sunday afternoon, so we set off for an indoor amusement park a handful of train stations away.

I was a kid in front of the TV watching some Japan tourism show when I found out about Ikebukuro's Sunshine 60 building and its Namjatown. It was something that went to my To-Do list and I'm glad to finally have the chance to do so.

Of course, since we were already tired after going around the high school festival, it was a harrowing success getting everyone to even consider the idea of going on another trip on the same day. By the time we were at the train station, we had already made up our minds and compromised to do some napping while on the train... an act which proved to be very risky indeed. We almost missed our stop if not for my friend who woke up just in the nick of time (we got off the train all red-eyed and drowsy).

Clambering out of the labyrinth subway station, we realized we had no map and that no one bothered to memorize the GoogleMap entry I sent off to everyone's e-mails. A couple of seconds later, we found that there was no need; Sunshine 60 was Japan's tallest building up till the 1980's and you could easily see it towering high above the other buildings in the area.

Pretty soon we found Namjatown's entrance inside the mammot structure, but with time and money as our constraints, we had no choice but to buy the Entrance Passes only. But no problem, Namjatown has more than a lot to offer even to those not willing to spend much. At 300円 we were able to tour the whole place and visit each of the simulated towns inside.

First stop: Horror Town. It was designed as a haunted post-war Japan at night with creepy houses, singing tombstones, and cashier ladies screaming upside-down inside their booths. Because we weren't able to buy the Play-All-You-Can ticket, we haven't the chance to try most of the attractions, but we did give the Black Meowing Neko (or whatever it's called) a go.

You're given a black cat doll and instructed to explore the eerie town looking for the monsters that hold the spirit of a poor cat in captivity. Solving riddles and trivia questions along the way, you'll eventually earn the respect of a glowing Buddha sculpture, thus directing you to a final showdown with the big boss. But with none of us able to read Kanji, let alone answer Japanese trivia questions (the heck?), the poor kitty died and our seat fell... literally. Me and my friend were startled and we both shrieked.

We spent hours in that horror town, so we made up for it by running along till the exit and looking for which town to attack next.

I forgot which was which, but I can remember seeing my friends in the opera town (it has a balcony, velvet curtains and spotlights perfect for a Romeo and Juliet play) taking photos of each other, so we posed along with them then ran upstairs to the next floor. There was a military town, an ice cream town, an adventure town, and a China town. But we did most of our exploring in the angel/romance/christmas town. It was such a complete opposite of horror town, which made it comparably awesome as well. You could dub it as the 'How Lovely! Town'.

There were white caverns that has a chapel inside where you and your partner can put your hands on the altar (there are indentions of two right hands so you couldn't cheat with using your own) and then the whole cave would light up. Not sure if there was an accompanying music, it was too noisy to notice. But the dancing angels, as well as the singing Christmas trees and Italian ambiance, was the perfect place for romance that not matter how noisy the place gets, it seems to exclude a private and cozy atmosphere. The dozens of couples sharing cups of ice cream and cuddling under the fake trees were too much for us, and we hurried out of there (actually we panicked a little because we got lost, it seemed to us that the makers of this place made the How Lovely! town the biggest of them all for some kind of profitable reason).

By the time we have gathered in the 'opera place' once again, we were terribly tired and ready to go home. We took a couple more of shots and headed for the exit.

All in all, I think the 300円 was not enough to pay for the fun we had in there. I highly recommend going here if you have a tight-budget and want to have the most fun out of your Yen coins. We're thinking of going back next time, but with thicker wallets and lots of time.