Parcly Taxel: Nearly every city, town and corporation in Japan has a mascot, serving the dual purposes of self-promotion and self-representation, the latter tantamount to giving something "with a soul" for the public to relate with. Kumamoto has its black bear; Matsumoto's is Arukuma, another bear with an apple bonnet.

Yet on national level there is no clear candidate for a mascot, especially after anime, manga, video games and tons of Japanese culture were exported all over the world. Doraemon and Pikachu seem to be the front-runners though.

Spindle: There was no time to debate things, as we had to finish our hotel breakfast (with a lot of cooked food, including deep-fried bite-sized treats!) and hurry to the train station to reserve tickets to Tokyo – Shinano #5 as the first leg to Nagano, whereupon the Hokuriku Shinkansen (Hakutaka #560) carried us the rest of the way.

Princess Luna: So what is Tokyo? Is it...

• the Great Wen of Japan, sprawling in all directions?
• the gallery of a thousand stereotypes shown to tourists?
• the Electric City with trains and great neon lights all over?
• yet another place that Pipp Petals fawns over?

Three years after her last visit to the country, Parcly would have to find the present truth again.

Parcly: Apart from boarding the Shinkansen at the wrong car and having to scramble to the correct seat while moving at high-speed, that ride was pleasant with the fragrances of bento box food filling the air (including the pork chop one I bought for myself). It was also onboard where I learned that Pelé had died.

Straight after alighting into Tokyo's natural chaos, where I bumped on or was bumped by the next pony every 20 seconds or so if not in a well-defined stream, I bought Tokyo subway tickets and went to Oshiage (押上) to deposit my luggage at the small apartment of a kind kirin. This apartment had three oddities: it was very near the Tokyo Skytree, almost level with an overhead power cable and on the fourth floor.

Rarity: What to do with a 3-day ticket? Why, just ride to wherever your heart wishes!

The first place Parcly and Spindle visited was Shibuya, on the other end of the Hanzōmon line they initially used to reach their apartment. After crossing the legendary scramble without hesitation (through repeated visits Parcly had grown tired of the place's flanking, flashing screens and incessant pressure to move) the pair encountered a renovated Miyashita Park (宮下公園), still surrounded by some graffiti on the nearby connectors but itself roomier and trendier.

Parcly: Luna asked me through telepathy to find some vinyl records for Vinyl, both inside Miyashita and at the nearby Tower Records shop. I couldn't find anything fitting the groovy unicorn's tastes – the lion's share of records were, naturally, made for locals – so I rode the metro again to Kagurazaka (神楽坂), a street that once ran to the Imperial Palace and has since been preserved in an "antiquated" form with lanterns and loudspeakers playing traditional music.

From the FamilyMart convenience store (should I just be calling them kombinis from now on?) on said street I bought what seemed like a cross between a cheese-and-bacon pizza and a taco, as well as a Vitamin C drink, just to refresh myself.

Rainbow Dash: Dear me, these Japanese are hot on Vitamin C!

Parcly: Isn't that expected when the traditional diet of these ponies could have very little of that?

Rainbow: Oh, right.

Nevertheless the alicorn needed a meal to match her metabolism, and found it at the also-nearby Uokushi (魚串) serving mainly skewered meats and vegetables as the second character implies. Torn over what kind of sake to order, Spindle prodded her to just take beer instead, which she drank down, albeit reluctantly.

Luna: Thus Parcly found Tokyo, at least on the first day, to be the last option: an Instagram magnet that Pipp would get addicted to if given opportunities. The alicorn wouldn't succumb to that temptation, instead just riding the metro back to her run-down apartment amid a swelling commuter throng. She knew the reason too well. The New Year was around the corner.