Journal no. 3

 it was famous for having a number of cats and cat-related items. the shop above sells cat-tail shaped snacks - cute!
 very colorful shop-front decorations :D

 a map of the area, where a large number of historic and important shrines / temples stood. we only covered a small area.
 2013 is the year of the snake!



 S recommended the sweet potato, so we bought a small "red angel" one for ~200 yen. it was the most delicious sweet potato i have ever eaten! not fibrous at all, and the natural honeyed sweetness was very intense :9
my mom and aunt ate the sweet potato as i quickly explored the Yanaka cemetery.

then we visited Akihabara for a while, planning to return Yanaka at 11am.
we just walked around.
right beside the station were 2 cafes - for AKB48 and Gundam. the above is for AKB48.

we moved on to Yodobashi Camera.

then we returned to Yanaka by noon and the crowds had appeared.
the gate marking the front of the shopping street.

there were some foreigners visiting the shopping street, and quite a number of photography enthusiasts.
 S said that we should definitely try the menchi-katsu there (grounded meat breaded and fried), so i joined the 7 person long queue and bought 3 (200 yen each?) - it was really fresh out of the fryer, with intense beef fat aroma and very juicy.

nearby was a soba shop - we decided on that for lunch. the above is their lunch special - hot soba with katsu egg don.

other than the special, we also got a kitsune soba and duck meat soba, all with hot soba. 

 next was dessert - we returned to one of the shops that caught our eye on our walk earlier - they had huge strawberries in their cakes.
the cake above is extremely cute - they stamped 3 cats onto the surface of the matcha grain cake!
we also had a strawberry cream puff and matcha cream puff.

when i visit Tokyo again, i want to explore "YA-NE-SEN" - Yanaka, Nezu and Sendagi further for their cat cafes and cute shop