V in Japan - Day 4

Day 4: Akihabara

• Date: October 16
• Weather: sunny
• Mood: Energetic

Going to Akihabara

We decided that (as anime fans) we had to spend at least 1 full day in Akihabara, and that day was today. We got up early, took the subway to the nearest JR station and then hopped on the train to Akihabara.

Yaaaawn... Okay, maybe it was a little too early...

When we got out of the train station, we were welcomed by this famous girl.

We decided to eat breakfast at the curry place just next to the station. It’s always risky to order a meal via tiny pictures on a vending machine, but we tried our luck anyway. I had rice-curry with hamburger. It was amazing; I really, really love rice-curry. Steven ended up having a spicy rice-curry that ended up being a bit too strong for his stomach.

Believe it or not, this was GOOD!

The Sega Store

After breakfast, we entered the Sega building from the second picture. We got some toys (One Piece stuff) from the Capsule Toy vending machines (edit: they're called gashapon according to Chris), tried the games and had lots of fun.

We experienced a rhythm/drumming game (don’t mind the weird name: “kiss kiss bang bang”) and one of the many music games. Several games had a waiting line (the Project Diva games and the new Initial D race game, for example), so we skipped those.

And yes, we did spend a few hours in here. It was six floors of pure fun!

Apparently Francis filmed Steven and me playing Kis Kiss Bang Bang. I haven't seen the result yet (:-P)

Visiting the Rest of Akihabara

After finishing the Sega store, we walked around and visited many stores of anime/manga stuff, card games, electronic gadgets and everything an anime fan could dream of.

We even walked through a street with electronic parts… I mean real electronic components. Resistors, conductors, wires, tools, analyzers, everything an electronics techie could dream of. I know a few friends who could get their own kind of nerdgasm in here.

We also spotted maids. Girls, dressed up as maids, trying to get some customers to their maid café. The voice in which they do it is nearly begging (but mostly annoyingly high pitched). When you try to take pictures of them, they quickly turn around and ensure they're not on camera. But Francis did manage to film one of them (didn't get any of his films yet, sadly enough). We didn’t visit any maid café ourselves, since we heard/read many negative comments about it (the general reaction was: not worth the time/money).

After sunset (around 6 PM or so), the number of screaming maids increased (a serious pain in the ear), our wallets got emptier and we wanted to go back during rush hour (to experience the rush hour in the trains). It was very crowded, but still not impossible.

If you believe Akihabara ads, the Project Diva games and Persona 4 are the hottest things right now!

 

Results of the shopping spree

Once back at K’s House, we took out what we bought. I got myself a wine glass of Fate Zero, several figurines of varied sizes, including: Gin (Gintama), Dracule Mihawk, Usopp, Camie and a mini-Roronoa Zoro (One Piece), Lelouch Lamperouge and Suzaku (Code Geass), Haruhi Suzumiya (of the named series), Claus F. lester (Tales of Phantasia), a mini-Erza Scarlett (Fairy Tail), a mini-Kurapika (Hunter X Hunter) and a mini Black Snow Princess (Accel World). I also got a statue of Majestic Star Dragon, some H.C. Excalibur sleeves (Yu-Gi-Oh!) and a deck box from Accel World.

Steven didn't buy much (he's not really that much of an anime fan). Francis found a few glasses as well, a poster or two, a few doujins, some other stuff and a pillow of Shirahoshi, while being in Megalo the Shark (from One Piece). I thought it was hilarious.

Dinner and drinks

For dinner, we originally intended to go to some Udon restaurant on the map, but during the walk we decided to enter a random (family-run) Japanese Restaurant.

Due to the random entry, we obviously had some trouble to make ourselves understandable, but it was okay in the end. They only had a limited card, but we had Rice with a Roast Beef and some veggies.

We then bought some drinks at the 7/11, drank them at K’s House (with Miya-chan, again) and went to bed.

Tips for visiting Japan - Akihabara

Akihabara is big and thé place to be for all things manga/anime-related. If you know of, or have heard of certain shops in Akihabara, get the address and note it down, together with Google maps directions. If you don't, you won't find it. Akihabara is big enough to spend the entire day without noticing the shop/location YOU wanted to visit.

For example, I knew there was an arcade that has the infamous "Flip the Table" game, but I was unable to find it due to forgetting to print out the Google-maps directions. Kind of regret that in retrospect.

Also, as previously mentioned, don't visit maid cafés. They're tourist/nerd traps. They cost a lot and (according to the opinion of many people who did went there) it's so not worth the money.