We started with a breakfast of eggs, salad, big toast and coffee/tea. We headed to the Tama Region which is about 40 miles to the West of Tokyo. It took about 40 minutes by subway/trains. Purloand is a big park in Tama City Center — all the signs there say it’s “Hello Kitty’s Town!”. Purloand is all inside a huge building with 4 stories. 
It’s much like Disney World: anamatronics, dancing characters accosting children, attendants with smile holders, and LOTS of gift shops all through it.
We saw a show in a theater that held about 200 very quiet adults
and children. The show involved some plot about HK being sad and going off to a magical land with fairies. The sets were ornate and the stage revolved. The costumes were either people in fluffy HK gear or people in fairy suits. It was the best singing, dancing, people in costumes show I ever saw. [Chris adds: it was deafening — children were crying; I think they had it so loud both to stun the kids into silence and to drown out the ones who’d snapped].
There is a boat ride that goes through and around the entire building. This is a picture of the monitor where they take your picture as you pass by a camera. We didn’t know this or we would have been acting like fools.
I must say the gift shops were overwhelming, even for me. I saw HK computers, dehumidifiers, ipods, food, clothes, and I’m now content. OH, and I got plenty of loot. Uncle Chris got Bridget some really cute clothes. While I was in the gift shop Chris was figuring out where to go next (as is the case during much of this trip).
We took a monorail from Tama a couple towns over to a Buddhist temple (Takahata Fudoson). At this point we were in the hills that rim the Tokyo sprawl, but still it was completely urbanized — just with some green hills poking out of the asphalt soup.
Then we went even further out, to the edge of the Tama mountain region. We took a cable car halfway up Mt. Takao and then walked up trails with temple and Buddist images all along. It was dusk and cool and at the top of the trail was a large shrine with more carvings.
When we got home (after multiple trains) we stopped at an Italian restaurant in Shinjuku — some franchise chain not unlike a Denny’s, except for the weird remote control button at your table that you pushed to hail the waitress (in about 2.5 seconds, not kidding). It was packed with kids doing their homework together and had feel like a maltshop; very sweet.
Here’s a pic of Shinjuku at night.
The night before, we went to Golden Gai, a strip of tiny bars in alleyways about 4 feet wide. There were probably about 8 alleyways, each with maybe 20 bars on each side. The bars are literally tiny; about 10 feet x 5 feet including a bar the owner stands behind and a bathroom. Only 4-5 people can be in one at a time. Each bar identifies itself by posting different pictures or “types” of images on the front door. We passed by one with a Ramones poster and went into one that was run by a young girl. It was pale blue inside and had an Audrey Hepburn picture on the front. We each had a Guinness and it cost $18. A piece. Here’s a section of Golden Gai. Note the calico cat asleep on the boxes in front. It was the pet of the owner of that bar, I guess; it had a collar.
