Day 30: Akihabara

I'm no longer in Tokyo.  I took the overnight bus back to Nagoya, then the train to Yokkaichi.  But let me back up.  Yesterday was a very long day.  Continuing where my last post left off...

After we got cleaned up, we planned our trip to Akihabara in a little more detail, then went and got breakfast at Sukiya (すき家).  It's a common chain restaurant here in Japan.  I had curry rice, because it was cheap, but I soon regretted it, as the hot food was really not agreeing with my stomach at that hour.  It didn't last long, though, so it was okay.

Tokyo Station, shortly after our arrival on Saturday night.  The central station of the biggest city in the world, and it's practically deserted.

My capsule that I slept in.  My friend had the one above mine.

The view out of one of the capsule hotel windows.  The window itself was wide open, and it would have been easy enough to jump or fall out.  This really wasn't a great neighborhood, which was fairly obvious when we got there, but nothing happened, so it was okay.  The hotel itself was also rather unappealing.

The nearby park.  Near the station and the hotel.  It was actually kind of nice.  We spent an hour or more Saturday night wandering around here before going to bed.  My friend was trying to get a group of local people to invite us into a conversation, but it didn't happen.

Another part of the park.

A rocket park.  They really need adult playgrounds.  If there had been fewer people around, I probably would have gone on this one.  When we saw it again in the morning, it was crawling with kids.

Tokyo Sky Tree.  It doesn't look that big in this picture, but we walked closer and closer, and it didn't seem to move much, so that's gotta be pretty far away.

We used the Tokyo rail map we picked up the day before to find how to get to Akihabara, then went to the station and set out.  We arrived probably around 11:00 or so.  The first thing I noticed at the station was that all the ads were anime- or game-based.  That's not common elsewhere.  The second thing was a huge tower labeled SEGA, to which my friend was immediately drawn.  We headed towards it and found ourselves (after a few stops) on the main street of Akihabara.  Both sides were lined with shops featuring gigantic images of anime characters, many of which I recognized (and took pictures of).  The main stretch of the street is probably a little over a mile long, but the shops spread into side streets, too, for roughly a square mile of solid otaku shopping, I'd guess.  Except that the shops had anywhere up to 7 floors each, so multiply that by at least 4.  And I covered ALL of it.  Except the restaurants.  And the technology shops.  But I at least looked in every shop, even if I didn't go in.

Our first open view of the main street.

Looking to the right.

After walking to the right quite a ways, looking across the street.

Persona 4 had a huge ad campaign going here for the newest version, Persona 4 Golden.  There were gigantic posters and murals everywhere.

The stores were divided fairly evenly among anime/manga/related media, PC and console games, and miscellaneous technology (cameras, phones, computers...).  There were also lots of restaurants, including maid cafés.  I didn't stop to eat, though.  I'm not really interested in the maid café thing.  Speaking of maids, almost every street corner had one or more girls in maid costumes or other similar attention-grabbing outfits handing out flyers or other ads for their stores.

I was sorely disappointed at the lack of true cosplayers there.  I think I saw two, plus someone dressed as Saber from Fate/Stay Night to promote the store's upcoming release.  I didn't recognize any but her, though.

The only true cosplay I saw and recognized, and it's part of the store's advertising.  Oh well.

One of the side streets, and there's still this much advertising on the buildings.

They close the main road down on Sundays for a good portion of the day, so people just walk everywhere freely.

Back to the shopping.  The stores had just about anything I could have wanted to buy.  I must have seen thousands each of figures, CDs, video games, mangas, light novels, doujinshi, anime magazines and so on, and hundreds of wall scrolls, visual novels, and miscellaneous other items.  I ended up buying Sister Princess for Playstation, since my friend said he can let me use his Japanese PS2 back in the US since he obviously isn't using it now.  I also tried to buy the Haruhi PS2 roleplaying game, but I found out too late (only after I got home) that the box only had the included figure, and not the game itself.  Very disappointing.  At least it wasn't too expensive.  I also got a White Album Cospa t-shirt for 2/3 off, several music CDs, a Noizi Itou/Zatsuon art collection CD, and a Little Busters! Kud Wafter mini handkerchief.  I planned before even coming to Japan that before I left, I'd have to find an anime handkerchief to buy and bring back.  I'm satisfied with this one.  Surprisingly, the only figure I bought was the one that was supposed to have the Haruhi game.  There were a ton I would have wanted, but the lack of space in my suitcase and the insanely high prices on a lot of them kept me from buying any.  Honestly, I could import a lot of them for the same price or cheaper in the US, if I looked around carefully.

Here's one store that had things that would be nigh-impossible to find in the US.  The entire store was packed with retro games and consoles.  These are original Famicom cartridges.

And here we have Super Famicom.  Including Chrono Trigger over there, for a whopping 680 yen.  That's pretty cheap.  The store also had a guarantee that all the games and hardware worked.

A portion of the Gameboy collection.

Many of the stores had these sorts of labels on each floor, saying what was for sale where.  This isn't the best example.

There were quite a few anime card games around too (the green and yellow sign in the middle is advertising that).  You could buy cards and play in a lot of the shops.

In addition to the labels outside, most stores had the steps show you what was coming up on the next floor.

The stairwell wall posters also gave you a hint of what to expect.

The biggest find and purchase for me, though, was the one thing I had really hoped to be able to get in Japan: The Key 10th Anniversary Memorial Box, which includes all of their Visual Novels through Little Busters! Ecstasy (Planetarian, AIR, Kanon, CLANNAD, Tomoyo After, and LB! Ex).  The reason I wanted this so bad is it's the only version available of AIR, Tomoyo After, and LB! Ex that doesn't have the adult content, and it's a collector's item besides.  I'm pretty sure it has more than just the games inside, but I haven't opened it yet.  I had previously found the box for sale, used, on eBay, but it was over $400!  This one was 8800 yen (about $110), although it's also used.  I actually asked the guy at the counter if he had the game, and he looked it up and said no, but I decided to go ahead and browse anyway, and sure enough, there it was.  It was the only copy I found in all the stores I went to, so I don't think any more of them exist.  I really lucked out.

My spoils.  In the top left, the Haruhi figma (minus game :( ).  The top right has music: Kyon's Sister image CD, Genesis of Aquarion opening CD, Deep Blue Sky and Pure White Wings vocal CD, Bamboo Blade OP/ED CD, Fate/Stay Night: This Illusion, and the Rewrite OST.  I haven't listened to any music from Rewrite, but it's Key, and from my experience they can do no wrong when it comes to that sort of thing.  On the bottom left is my t-shirt, in the middle is Sister Princess, and to the right is the Noizi Itou art collection.  On the bottom is my Kud handkerchief.

The big find.  I can hardly believe it was actually there, but it certainly took some searching to find it.  Also, this thing is HEAVY.  I had to lug it around the rest of the day, and I'll have to figure out the best way to bring it back to the US.

A note if you're planning a trip to Akihabara.  Akihabara is NOT KID-FRIENDLY.  About 3 in 4 stores have adult products.  Of those, I'd say about 20% have them in visually concealed areas or on separate floors.  The rest are right out in the open, usually (but not always) mixed in with all the good products.  You really can't avoid it here.  And, as with everything else in Japan, they never actually check IDs or anything for age, even if you buy it.

Oh, so my friend had to leave around 4:00 to make it home in time to go to work the next day.  I stayed by myself to finish exploring.  The shops seemed to start closing up around 7:00 or 7:30, and by 9, it was basically shut down except for the big ones.  That really surprised me.  I had kind of figured everything would be open until midnight or later.

Akihabara in the evening, as things start to wind down.

One of the two station entrances right there by the main street.  I took this one in, but not back out.

Since I'd seen basically everything at least once already, and run out of money to buy anything else, I decided to call it a night and go to the station.  But actually, I didn't even have enough money on me to make it back to Yokkaichi anymore.  I could afford the bus to Nagoya, but probably not the trains, so I needed to find an international ATM.  I was also on no schedule of when I needed to be back, so rather than take the train from Akihabara to the Tokyo station (where the buses would be), I decided to walk.  It took about an hour, maybe a bit more, counting stops to rest and look at maps.  I didn't actually have a map besides the train system one (and I still don't), and those aren't exactly drawn with complete accuracy in mind, so I just knew I needed to go southish.  The maps you see on the street in Tokyo don't put North on top, though.  Generally they orient it to the direction you're facing.  This is a problem when they forget to put on any indication of which way actually is North.  Anyway, it was a nice little adventure, and I was fortunate that I found maps every couple blocks to help guide me.  I also found an ATM that worked, after three that didn't, so I managed to get the money to make it back.

Even after leaving Akihabara a good 10-minute walk behind me, I still ran into these Evangelion "Keep out" cones.

A cool bridge I passed under on my walk.

Another view of the two layers of bridges.

These were decorations on the bridge.  Pretty impressive.

Oh, I missed one thing.  In Akihabara, on my way towards Tokyo station, I encountered someone from my home college!  He was one of my friends back in my first Japanese class, but he didn't come on the school trip.  Talk about a small world.  We met each other on the opposite side of the planet completely by chance in a fairly densely-packed area of the largest city in the world.  I mean, really, what are the chances?  So we talked for a while, reveling in the unlikeliness of the situation before parting ways.  I'll probably see him back in the US sometime.

So yeah, eventually I made it to the station, and took the 11:20 overnight bus to Nagoya.  I arrived around 5:45am, after little if any sleep, and I worked my way back through the train system to my friend's house.  I've gotten pretty good at navigating Japan by myself, it seems.  Which is a good thing, because I still don't have a cell phone.

Day 8: Universal Studios Japan and Nanba

Yesterday was the trip to Nanba (AKA Namba).  My friends and I met up around 1:00 at Izumichuo station, and we all rode it first to Universal Studios, then to Nanba.  The Universal Studios here is a theme park, but the only price for admission is the cost of train fare.  We just went to the shopping area and looked around.  The first store we went to was nothing but anime.  Unfortunately, it was all shonen anime stuff, largely One Piece with a bit of Naruto, Bleach, and Ao no Exorcist, and there wasn't anything there I was interested in.

Jump Shop's entrance

Waiting for everyone to arrive, outside Jump Shop.

Afterwards we went upstairs, some of the others had lunch (I ate before I left), and we looked around at more shops.  I didn't buy anything, but I saw some interesting stuff for sale, such as this giant Roadrunner and Wile E Coyote.

Only 168,000 Yen!

We had to see what Japan's version of the USA was.

The shop called "FUNNY" had a bunch of cowboy-themed clothing (very expensive).  A couple of us went in and looked at a t-shirt they had with Engrish text.  We read it, but it didn't make any sense.  There are a lot of things here with pretty good Engrish:

I'll do that.

Yes! Let's!!

Do signs that shape exist in California?

It is a theme park, so of course there's a roller coaster (jet coaster in Japan).  We didn't ride anything though.

Then on to Nanba.  This is Japan:

The main thing of note here is that the crosswalk is roughly 100 feet wide, and curves around the station along with the road.

The first stop in Nanba was karaoke.  That is expensive!  I wasn't happy when I saw how much it was.  Oh well.  To help make up for it, they had unlimited drinks during your stay (I had two cups of ginger ale), and a HUGE selection of songs.  I sang the opening of Clannad After Story (Toki wo Kizamu Uta), the ending of Angel Beats! (Brave Song), and a couple others, and I attempted (very poorly) Cirno's Perfect Math Class.

One of the first songs.

Filling up the queue.  The room wasn't actually anywhere near this bright.

Cha-La Head-Cha-La.  Of course.

After time ran out, everyone else was hungry and decided to go to a fancy buffet thingy.  All you can eat or drink within the time limit of two hours.  I didn't really want to go, especially because the cost was 3,000 yen.  I ended up going anyway because it was better than wandering around outside and getting lost for two hours.  That meal is probably the most expensive food I've ever eaten.

Near the start of the meal.

Hey, look, I'm in a picture!  My drink there is Calpis Water (or maybe Calpis Soda.  I had both, but the water was better).  I ended up having I think 5 cups of that stuff.  It's a slightly sweetened water.  I don't know what's in it, but it's really good.

I ate a ton while I was there.  Probably at least 5 or 6 plates of various foods:

Meatballs in some sort of sauce.  I wasn't particularly adventurous.  Still, it was really good.

The steak was amazing.  If there weren't so many other things to try, I probably would have had three or four of these.

I also ended up having some good fried chicken, different from the USA's; french fries (they came before anyone had a chance to order anything, so we all had some); two takoyaki balls, which were surprisingly good - octopus just tastes better in Japan; tamagoyaki (lit. fried egg, basically scrambled eggs, solidified); and I think a couple other things I'm forgetting.

As the meal wore on (and after many dishes had already been carried away empty).

Exploring the shopping district of Nanba at night.

More Nanba shopping

Eventually it was time to go home, and after another long ride back, I walked to my bike with my friend, then rode home.

I cross this road on my way to school every day.  It's never this empty during daylight hours.

Travel is prohibitively expensive in Japan.  Everything is.  I spent significantly more on this trip than I had throughout the entire rest of the week.  Even so, it was pretty fun.  I probably won't ever go to karaoke again though.  Better to just sing my own songs when I want to.

Day 2: Introductions and learning my way around

I still don't really have access to the internet, except via the family's computer, but it should work out.  It just means I can't post pictures or respond to messages easily until I'm at school, which starts tomorrow.

I woke up tired a little before 5:00 am, but forced myself to stay in bed until about 9:30, because I knew I'd need the sleep.  Still, adjusting to the time difference has been surprisingly easy.

The first event of the day, after breakfast, was Ranmaru's softball game.  He's 6, and was playing in his first match ever today.  I met his grandparents, and we all went to a nearby middle school, which seemed to be having a sports day of some sort.  There were lots of different teams for different games from different schools.  I've never really been into sports, but it was fun to watch him play.  His team won, but Ranmaru himself didn't really help.  He did manage to hit the ball once, though, which is more than some of the other young children.  I got a few curious looks at the game from some of the students, but not as much as I'd anticipated.  At least, not that I saw.

After that, we had lunch and my host parents took me to the local church, where I met the bishop and arranged a ride with one of the members for the next three weeks.  I had been writing down directions, but apparently I won't need them.  We also went by bike to the school, so I've learned that route (I hope).  It was probably about 20 minutes getting there, but they were riding pretty slowly.  I'll probably do it in 10 or 12.  Speaking of riding the bike, there are a lot of streets here that don't have any sidewalks or anything, and barely enough space for two (very small) cars to pass each other.  It's kind of unnerving, riding my bike on the wrong side of the road, with traffic behind me curving just a few feet out of the way to not hit me.  The main roads have sidewalks, though.  It's just the smaller residential ones that are problematic.

I spent the evening playing piano and talking to my host family.  The mom, Yukie, speaks English to some extent, but the dad, Hiroto, doesn't really speak much English at all.  So far, we've managed to communicate the most important things, and we usually find some way to say what we want to.  Almost all in Japanese, unless I can't understand something they say and they look up the English word online.

As for the piano, I started off with an American piece, then Korean, then basically all anime and games after that.  Hiroto requested Final Fantasy music, particularly from 6, which I am fortunate enough to be able to play and have with me.  They all liked my playing, and said I can play whenever I want, so I plan to do it frequently.

I should probably be heading to bed soon.  Oh, before that, about the food: So far, everything has been pretty good.  I'm eating everything they serve me, which is usually enough to push me well into "full" territory.  I've had fairly normal meals, but something new each time.  I've also managed to eat everything with the chopsticks so far, except for a little bit of the very first dinner last night, where they gave me a fork.  I'm going to try to keep that up.  Actually, they gave me my very own chopsticks before we ate.  They have my name embossed in them near the top: セイン.  It's kind of cool.  I wasn't expecting that.

Alright, that's enough for today.  I'm sure I'll have more tomorrow.  Oyasuminasai.