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Weather: Sunny and warm!

Last night, upon arriving at Ikebukuro station, we went into the Tobu department store that is annexed to the subway station. “Depa-chika” is the word that describe the Japanese department store basement, where all different kinds of food, from high quality organic vegetable and meats to the prefabricated food by famous restaurant; It is a very dangerous place to go when you are hungry, because you want to buy a whole basement, but is a place I often dreamed of going while recovering from the cancer.

There are so many dishes and food to choose from, and I am going to have a lot of fun for the coming weeks, trying out many different dishes. It was almost dazzling this time right after getting out of the airplane, however, just like an impoverished peasant girl fined herself stepped out into a king’s expansive kitchen unexpectedly. Almost in shocked state, I bought a small box of Sushi and egg custard for dinner.

The apartment room was about 10 minutes walk from the station, and fairly spacious even by American standard.

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In the morning, in order to get a bearing of the area, we walked around the house and the station for the most of the day. Mark took me to a small park that houses “Sekichoen”, which was used by the literary group that published “Akaitori” (children’s story book magazine in 1910~30s) in the Mejiro ward that is adjacent to Toshima ward where Ikebukuro is located.

The small park has a beautiful pond surrounded by nicely landscaped hills, and the spring was breathing there. Small green leaves were out on the tree branches and bushes, and the cherry blossoms that started having soft green leaves and the azaleas that were about to start blooming were framing the pond nicely. It will be a nice routine to come here every morning with my watercolor kit.

In the evening Mark and I met with a couple of friends at Tofu specialty restaurant.