day 58! akihabara, shibuya

My work as a tour guide has begun! I don't really have an idea of what Edwin wants to do here in Tokyo, but since the city is broken down into pretty distinct districts and areas, it's pretty easy to describe where you can do what. Unfortunately I didn't do all that much exploring back when I was in Tokyo, so I really only know the very central areas of the city (like Harajuku or Shibuya...). I gave him a few options of where we could go, and he eventually somewhat picked Akihabara, which is the sector that is famous for anime and electronics.

First things first. Luuuunch!! We were both starving, and figured we could find food to eat here, but the specific part of Akihabara that we exited to was very sparsely populated with restaurants. In the end we picked this sort of fast food lunch place to eat.


You can tell it's fast food by the machine outside the store, that people are paying at? They show the menu there to the right, on that sign, and then you can pay for what you want at the machine, which prints out a ticket. You give the ticket to the restaurant people and they bring you food. It's really nice cuz you can take your time to choose, and also not have to speak Japanese. :) Although, Japanese people usually order really quickly, eat quickly, and leave quickly.


These places tend to have lots of kinds of "set" meals, which is like where you get soup + entree + salad or something, or you could get a ramen set, which is entree + ramen + salad, etc. It's all very convenient and they tend to be really yummy and not too unhealthy, compared to "fast food" in other countries.

The kitchens here are really compact, since they don't have too many things that they make.  It's typically just one counter, and they prepare all the foods where you can see, and it'll just be one or two workers at a time.

I ordered a donburi, which is the generic name that they give to any meal served over rice. Like  they have katsu-don, and since katsu is fried pork cutlet, that just means fried pork cutlet + rice. Or gyuu-don, which is beef (gyuu = cow) over rice. And those are both examples of donburis, which are called ~~don.


I got a piiman-don, and I had no idea what it was but the picture looked pretty good. Also I am in dire need of greens. :( It is gettin' really bad here, guys.


When the food arrived I remembered that piiman is a Japanese green bell pepper. It's similar to the ones from home, but they're quite a bit smaller, more dense, and less sweet. I think I prefer them. :)

Took a picture of Edwin's lunch too, since it was so grand. :) He got a ramen set, which had gyuu-don + ramen + salad. Quite a bit of food for maybe 900yen, which is about $9, although I guess with the shitty exchange rate nowadays it's closer to $11.


The raw egg in that tiny black bowl is for you to mix into the gyuu-don. Not everyone does it, but honestly it tastes really really good! It coats the rice a bit and makes it feel...fuller and somehow a bit more flavorful. I recommend you try it at least once. ^^v

I added an almond tofu to mine, and this is what came out. :o Weird! I guess it's the Japanese take on it. It was way more of pudding than a tofu. And they asked me to pick a flavor, and it ended up being a syrup on top, rather than fruit added inside (I got mango :3).

Akihabara has a pretty high ratio of arcades, and it's kind of interesting cuz the merchandise that they are stocked with are definitely more geared towards anime and anime fans. There are fewer like, Winnie-the-Pooh or Rilakkuma machines, and a lot more of this sort.


This character is actually really famous, I'm sure some of you guys have seen videos of her. :) She is a holograph music idol! Like, she actually performs and puts on concerts, but she's a 100% 3d holograph, so she's not actually real. It's kind of amazing though, technology. To think that they can make anime characters actually come to life.........I can't even imagine how much lotion Akihabara went through that year. :p

Another UFO catcher with cute anime bags. :)

So I mean, there's not much to DO in Akihabara, I guess. It's the same as everywhere else in Tokyo. It's really convenient to find anything you want, you can definitely go somewhere and get it. But it's not like as you're walking down the street, there will be crazy stores and events happening all over. Same as any city right?


So since Edwin is apparently not super into anime, and I don't exactly want to shop for products covered in pictures of half naked underage girls, we didn't go into too many stores.


But still, every sector has its own unique flavor, and it shows, a bit. Even if everywhere is filled with the same convenient stores and chain restaurants, like here in Akihabara, you can see that the billboards are all covered in anime, there's pictures of maids and cute girls everywhere, and it's not like that anywhere else except here. :) It's subtle, I know, but when you live here, those are things that you kind of notice and miss when you go home.

We popped into one bookstore, just to see what it was like. All of the books were sealed so you can't just stand around in the bookstore and read (you can in a lot of them, and it's common to see people do so). It was awesome to see all the different artwork though, and kind of amazing that there's soooooo much anime here. Like none of these books are even famous series or anything, they're just random stories/artwork, and they're all really beautiful and detailed.

And then and then! :D We dropped by an arcade to take purikura, and I watched this older gentleman playing a UFO catcher for these adorable kitties. He had put in a bunch of money (if you put in 500yen you get 1 extra free play) and he won this kitty so easily on the first try!! :D We watched him play the rest but for some reason they didn't go in.


As he was finishing, we turned to leave, but then he asked me "do you want this?" and I was like "eh?? Nono I can't take this" (in Japanese) and he was like "no it's ok go ahead". :) And he had such a kind smile! He was very grandfatherly. I guess he likes to play the game, but doesn't necessarily want to keep the toys. But still...it's so very uncommon in Tokyo, at least in my experience, for people to approach other people, even if it is for a kind gesture such as this one, that I was even more touched. :) :) I wish I had thanked him a little better, but all I could do was stammer and bob my head up and down (like when Japanese people say thanks, not like I was on a pogo stick).


Anyway I have a cute kitty burger patty plushie thing now, and a nice memory of a nice old gentleman. :)

Then it was funfun purikura tiiiiimes. I don't think Edwin enjoyed them as much as I did. :3 BUT! He got the pretty anime eyes!!! No fair, I don't ever get em thanks to my beady lil eyes. ><

Another store, near the station, full of anime merchandise. If I could have come here when I was in high school.....oh my god. It would have been like dying and going to heaven.


I don't know why but I really like cute cups. :x

They also have omiyage/snacks that are anime themed. :) Like remember those Gundam cookies/biscuits that Kurt and I saw in Odaiba? Same idea but these are anime. Every place has its own distinct theme.....

Oooo and here are the now world-famous body pillows. They do look quite soft don't they. X3


The pink words at the bottom say "sawatte mitemo iindayo?" which means something like "It's ok to touch it and see?" D: 

But Akiba (the shortened nickname form of Akihabara) isn't ALL anime and young boobs, it's a utopia filled with veritably every nerdy hobby out there. Here is a case full of rare and holographic Yugi-Oh cards.

aaaand we're back to anime and young boobs. They do look cute when the whole collection is lined together like this, don't they. :)

Heading back to the station, we saw this cafe and I face-palmed. I'm not sure if I've mentioned AKB48 before, so I might be repeating myself. So AKB48 is short for Akihabara 48, and they're this huge girls group (music) which used to be composed of 48 members. All of the girls are quite young, I think they range from about 16 to maybe 23. They have a cute-cute image though, and used to always have very maid-like outfits, which is why they were formed and were popular here in Akihabara. They don't usually perform with all 48 members, they have some rotating in and out for different concerts and songs I think.


Anyway I don't know a whole lot about them, just that I'd heard of them 4 years ago, and coming back this time, they are freaking EVERYWHERE.


Also they are no longer just cute-cute, but tend to be used in a more and more perverted fashion. :/ Like they're in a ton of advertisements, and recently I keep seeing them in swimsuits everywhere, hugging each other in a big group. That is a lot of young booty and boobies all squished into one billboard. Mark and them also showed me a commercial they did for some candy, which was just them standing in a line, giggling, and passing candy from one mouth to another mouth to another mouth, no hands. It was kinda like...... D:::::: They're quite popular but from what I hear from my friends, the consensus is that it feels kind of wrong (at least for Westerners) to really be into them. Because of the underage factor.


Interestingly enough, a bunch of other groups have since formed and are fashioned after AKB48, probably chasing that same success. I've seen SKE48, and Kurt and I heard from his friend David that there's one that is famous for all of their members having big boobs (and have some corresponding acronym).


Anyway back on topic! Didn't go into the cafe but they were selling snacks in boxes covered with pictures of the girls, as well as albums and posters and the like.

Right next to the AKB48 cafe, there was another Gundam cafe, like the one Kurt and I saw in Odaiba. How appropriate, eye candy + anime cafes right next to each other, in Akiba.

Since there wasn't a whole ton for us to do in Akihabara, we had time to visit another area. Akihabara is on the other side of Yamanote-sen, from where we're staying, so we could pretty much go anywhere we wanted. So I said let's go to Shibuya!

We got there somewhere around rush hour time, and Edwin was dutifully impressed by the famed Shibuya crossing. (Thank God, since Akiba was a failure hehe). I said we could take pictures of it from the 2nd floor Starbucks across the street, but it's always packed full of people. Maybe in an hour or so, there'd be less people there, after rush hour is over, and we could try again.

So we went to this standing bar that I knew of, really close to my old restaurant. It's apparently called Tasu Ichi. It's really popular/well-known among foreigners for some reason. Possibly because the beer is really cheap; before 8pm it's 300 or 400yen.

So we went for two beers. Since Edwin drinks now. Kekeke. >) My first time seeing him drink!

Does he look scared? Maybe he looks a little scared. I am very pleased though. :)


It's a standing bar, so there are no seats anywhere, just some tall tables and a counter running along the wall. We picked the counter, which has a mirror over it (and that explains the mirror pic).

Mmmmmmm....!!

beer suki~~~~! Actually no, apparently Edwin is not a huge fan of beer. I told him that me and Janet definitely felt the same about it at first....well, even now I'm not in love with it but it's ok.

We were done after 1 beer though, and went back to check out the crossing. Passed by a flower shop I used to love, and am really glad it's not gone and replaced by 1-800-flowers or something. They have these adorable little chia pet -like flowers. I remember how every time I came here I would wish that I could sneak some of these home to bring to my mom...

Aside from those they also have the usual assortment of flowers. I love Japanese flower arrangements though, cuz they have super cute tiny ones. Like these mini flower bouquets here! I would much rather get that than a huge tall one that you have to put in a vase.

For some reason we didn't end up going to Starbucks, it was probably too crowded. So I took Edwin to Shibuya 109 instead. I actually hadn't been here yet since coming to Tokyo. It's a really well known department store in Tokyo, renowned for its trendiness and its typical Shibuya fashion.


And how fitting that as I took this shot, a stylish fashionista happened to be walking through, right under the Shibuya 109 sign. I mean seriously, look at her legs. -_- That is just sick (in an envious way, not in a bad way).


People come from all over Tokyo, and even outside of Tokyo, to shop at 109. They call it "ichi-maru-kyuu" here, which means "one - circle (or zero) - nine". The clothes can be pricey, but it's not any more so than any other department store here I guess.

Shoe store! As I've mentioned, I don't even like shoes that much but these are just.... :o gorgeous! And I do want them all. I guess I just like tall shoes.

It's not uncommon at all to see Tokyo girls walking around in these shoes normally. I guess at home, these would mostly be worn for...clubbing? Going out? But here it would just be for a Monday morning. :p Not all girls, but not just a few, either. And people here don't drive everywhere like at home, they walk a LOT. Crazy?? I think so.


These shoes were 8000yen = $90. :( Boo.

Another ichi maru kyuu store, this one happens to be a girlier style. There's girly styles, there's hip hop, there's bohemian gypsy style, there's all kinds of fashions here in Tokyo.

I didn't really shop around cuz I'd feel bad for boring Edwin, but we peeked in a couple floors just to get a feel. Then we walked across to Shibuya 109-2, which is about 5 minutes away. Due to the popularity of Shibuya 109, they opened Shibuya 109-2, which was meant for guys, since Shibuya 109 is literally all girls' stores.


Poor guys though, they don't get a guys-only store, they still have to have a first floor Hello Kitty store that spans the whole floor. There are bags, mirrors, suitcases, headphones...jewelry, clothes, and all in a very sparkly glamorous Shibuya style.

Aha, finally, guys clothes. So fashionable! I like the striped vest + blue shirt combo on the right. The pirate outfit all the way to the left isn't bad, either. What do you think?

This store's clothes had fewer statement pieces, but I liked the outfits they had here too. I really like how the decor fits the style here, too.


Again, didn't shop at all cuz it was getting late and guys clothes are way more expensive than girls' for some reason, but it's always nice to window shop in Shibuya.


So that was Shibuya. It was getting late, so we headed back to Takadanobaba for the day. All in all, surprisingly, Edwin said he preferred Shibuya to Akihabara. I guess I just wouldn't have thought so because Shibuya is all about like fashion, nightlife, and the like, but I suppose it's true that there's a lot more people watching and attitude here to enjoy. :) I agree though, I like hanging around Shibuya more, but it could also be that Akihabara wasn't on my route back in the day, so I'd only been there a few times.


Welp, my score as tour guide is 1 for 1. We'll see how tomorrow goes!