Day 11: Friday, April 18th
The day is finally here! Back in April 2023 Luke and Ryan came to Minooka to live stream Star Wars Celebration London. We made a whole weekend of it! At the end of SWC London they announced they next Celebration would take place in Tokyo and we decided to go!
After TWO years of planning we are finally here!
We got up early and caught the metro and a JR train to the Makuhari Messe Convention Center. We picked up our three day badges and then got in line with everyone else!
At 9:00 AM the doors opened and we made our way into the convention center!
They had all of the large doors open and the convention floor covered 10 HALLS!
We made our way to the Celebration Live stage in the hopes that they would live stream the Mandalorian & Grogu panel there. Unfortunately we were not able to get into the panel and they did not live stream it. Bummer.
That didn't damper our spirits too much! We wandered around the halls, bought some fun stuff (like Grogu cookies!), and saw some awesome cosplayers!
[Hayden Christensen on the LIVE Stage! It was his birthday and we sang to him!]
While we were in the Art Show Hall, Luke commissioned a piece of artwork. The artist will work on it today and Luke will pick it up in a few hours.
I was lucky enough to get a "lightspeed lane" ticket to the Celebration Store. The line was over 6 hours, but I was able to walk in at my designated time (11:00 AM).
The store was completely overrun and out of control! I got in there two hours after they opened and most of the shelves were empty. I did manage to grab the last two XL shirts for Ryan and Luke and I got myself a pin.
The main thing I wanted was a Japanese fan. Of course, they were sold out and there were a bunch of them already on eBay for $300. Dumb.
We went to a panel about upcoming books and comics! There are so many good stories coming out!
Later that afternoon Luke got a text that his drawing was done!
It's Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus!
For dinner that night the guys went to a local place and I went hunting for beef and butter noodles. I took the train to Shibuya and found Udon Shin in a small alley. I got signed up and saw that the wait was 74 minutes. I figured it wasn't too bad since it would give me a chance to get caught up on my podcasts.
But then the hostess told me that it was 74 minutes to wait AND THEN I can get in line. Oh boy, well I'm here and committed, so let's do this!
After an hour I was notified that I can get in line.
I looked through the menu and decided to get the warm Udon noodles, butter, pepper, soft boiled egg, and beef.
After another hour I finally made it to the front of the line. The restaurant was TINY and could only fit a few people at a time.
Was this worth waiting more than two hours for? Absolutely! I don't get it. It seems so simple: fresh, homemade noodles swimming in butter. Why was it SOOOO delicious?! The bowl was large and I almost finished the entire thing! Everything we ate in Japan was amazing, but this was definitely in my top three!
I made it back to my hotel around 11 PM and I have to say, I never felt unsafe. Tokyo is a safe and friendly city and even though I never dropped my guard, I felt safe the entire time I was out wandering the streets alone.
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