Akihabara, or maybe not...

Today was Thursday, and my one day off for this week. I thought I'd spend it by going to Akihabara. When I woke up at around 12:00, it was pouring down like mad. So I decided to watch some anime and if it didn't clear up, I'd just stay in the whole day. In around 30 minutes, it cleared up amazingly, and the sun was shining. So I left the house at around 1:00.

I wanted Geoff to come along today, but he had plans to go next week so I will probably go with him next week if I can. When I got to the station at Tsunashima, I suddenly realised I had forgotten to bring along my camera! So stupid of me...so I had to take a couple of shots with my phone, which really look quite sad in comparison to camera shots. Anyway, it took around 20-30 minutes to get there, and around $5 for the train trip. I stopped off at Naka-Meguro station and transferred onto the Hibiya line (only for my information, hehehe :) ) and went on to Akihabara, passing Ginza and Roppongi on the way there. Ginza is the possibly the most expensive place in Japan, and possibly the world, except for New York. Apparently, 1.8mx1.8m costs about 6million yen. That's just land. Then it costs extra to build some stuff on it. So its pretty ridiculous. And Roppongi is the club bar foreigner hang out. Simon likes to go there every now and then, and if you do, you gotta plan to stay the night out; that means not catching the last train back home (coz they stop at around 12:00-1:00) and having to wait until they start up the next day at 6:00am. Since I'm not the clubber type, I don't think I'll be hangig around there too much. Ok, onto Akihabara.

Except, I didn't really see Akihabara. When I got out of the train, there were a couple of exits, namely exit 3, 4 and 5. I went for Exit 4 just randomly but it turned out to be a bad choice. I ended up on one of the main streets with the train tracks running over it. There were many buildings, but most of them were not shopping things, just company buildings or little eating establishments here and there. The photos MAY help explain. Anyway, I walked around a bit to try and find these electronic shops which I'm sure were around somewhere. Look what I stumbled upon: Yodobashi! It could be one of the most extensive Yodobashi's in Japan since it is in the electronic district. I paid a visit and bought a couple of things, including a cool little, trendy mouse pad. Anyway, I spent some time in Yodobashi just because its all electronics. Then I decided to see if I could find more shops. But I couldn't. I tried not to stray too far away from the main road, but at some point I just said to myself "Stuff it. If you get lost, you get lost. You've still got plenty of time." So I just kept walking in one direction and gradually found myself in narrow market streets. I thought, "This is pretty cool...except its not electronics." I kept walking around in amongst the market and suddenly I was out of the market street. As an entrance, there was a huge stand above saying Ameyokocho, meaning Ameyoko market, which my students had told me about a couple of days earlier. They said it was a good place to find a bargain for things. I remembered it was close to Akihabara, but I didn't really know I was there. What was even more uncanny was that when I got out, I suddenly recognised I'd been here before. WHEN I WENT TO UENO!!!! About 2 weeks ago, and we'd actually walked through the market. I was kinda happy because I had found a familiar place, not to mention I was really close to this toy shop that we had visited two weeks ago, but I didn't spend too much time in there exploring. This time I went in and stayed for about 1 and a half hours just browsing. There are quite a few things I wanna buy, but I can't buy all of them at once otherwise I'll go bankrupt. So I figured I will buy one thing each payday (so each month). Today I bought this Berserk figurine of a guy named Gatts. Pictures down there. Don't ask me how much it cost...coz I ...er...can't remember...

Anyway, after that I knew where I was so I headed into Ueno station to make my way back home. Had dinner in Tsunashima at this cool place with crispy noodles and lots of vegies; I don't know whether I've mentioned it before, because a student told me to go there and order katayakisoba, so now I'm hooked. Headed home after that.

Just not long ago, Bruce (teacher at Tsunashima, lives in Bell Wistaria) came over to drop something. He's been to Akihabara, and quickly explained to me that I'd missed the whole electric town. I kinda figured that...except now its confirmed. I really have to make another trip back there. Anyway enjoy the photos, I'm putting up some randoms that I should have posted earlier.


Pictures of Gatts figurine, a kinda huge Stitch toy Jody helped win in an arcade. The entrance to my workplace, right next to some gambling establishments (VERY LOUD!!!). I gotta walk up the pink stairs and take an elevator to the 4th floor.









Some great food at Yokohama station, noodles, meat and capsicum. Then Relakkuma (Or Relax Bear), Doraemon - the gadget cat from the future, and Tristan (teacher in the Nash) on the right, Simon in the middle and a random from the izekaya. Oh, here's another video for you, if you can be bothered: My Apartment