Adam's Ultra Geeky Travel Journal: Japan 2012

Wednesday, March 14th    
Zack leaves, Michelle's Father arrives
With less than 24 hours before we leave... we bid farewell to our guest and new friend Zach. He is a long time player of our games and the son of Toys”R”Us's President. He came to visit us over the past few days to see the office and meet the team. As I dropped him off at the airport, I picked up Michelle's Father. He is going to Hong Kong & China to visit family he has not seen in 55 years. It is his first time back home since he left and went to live in Trinidad. To celebrate, we went out to dinner at Bonsai Sushi (we ordered cooked food only in anticipation of the oncoming sushi nom-nom-aggedon) where our friend Yoshi now works and were unexpectedly joined by our other friend AJ – who was at my house jamming with me 15 minutes prior – and I did not know he was going to Bonzai sushi afterwards – the whole thing was very funny and worked out perfectly.

 

Thursday, March 15th
16 Hours in the Air to Tokyo
Only three comments on Japan Airlines. 1.) You can recline and watch awesome movies the entire trip. 2.) All of the airline attendants look like models. 3.) The food served in business class is so amazingly good that later in your trip you will find yourself using it as a benchmark to compare the cuisine in fancy restaurants too.


Go little plane go! (This screen aboard the plane shows your progress. The excitement is comparable to watching a rock.)

(Little bowls of Japanese yummyness.)

Friday, March 15th
Return to Akihabara (now with 100% more jet lag!)
We are staying at the Mystays Ochanomizu, which is located next to the Kanda post office (convenient!) across the bridge from the town of Akihabara (aka Electric Town, aka Geek paradise. Most people just call it Akiba... “Ack. Eeeeee. Ba!”). To get there, we had to navigate the GIGANTIC chaotic maze of insanity which is the Japan Rail (JR) Station. By we, I really just mean Michelle. I got to carry the heavy bags up and down the surprisingly large staircases as we went around in a few desperate circles. We finally found the right area to get onto a train for Tokyo, but got onto the wrong one – which fortunately, just made extra stops, making the trip slower but more scenic! 2 hours later we were at the station in Akiba. The rail station was only 3 streets from our hotel, but weary from travel, pulling four bags of luggage and unable to get our bearings, we cheated and took a Taxi :-)

The hotel is really nice and our hotel room is – cozy! Very cozy. It is a single, narrow room with, what we believe to be a stolen bathroom from a nice airplane.  It is perfect for our trip and we really do like it – it is only a 2 minute walk from the best part of Akiba, comes with free breakfast, free wi-fi and costs an insignificant fraction of what we were paying for those crazy fancy-pants places which is a double win because the value of the US dollar is worth 20% less here now (ouch!)

As fast as we could hurl our bags into the room, we were back to exploring the cosplay maid filled streets, shops and restaurants of Akiba. For dinner we stopped at the sushi boat restaurant and had some mediocre discount sushi. Mmmm. Good to be home!

Saturday, March 17th
Return to Akihabara, Gundam Cafe & the Vampire Cafe!
It was raining. It was freezing. I was in heaven. We went to various arcades, shops and ate at a noodle house. We met long time friend and player of our games Tom! (Tom sends us awesome Japanese treats/foods/oddities to the office – I met him in person on the first trip to Japan and was looking forward to seeing him again.) We went to the famous Gundam Cafe. It was a little restaurant themed after the extremely popular giant-robot animated TV series, Gundam. The food portions were tiny, themed after things from the show and pricey! (This is going to be a theme for the trip... I am calling it now.)


(Tom. Noun. Awesome guy.)

Next to the Gundam Cafe, there is a place called AKB48. What I now know is that this is the most popular thing in Japan's pop culture. It is basically an all-girl-band made up of 48 young girls. Think Spice Girls... except not old enough to vote, and cloned a dozen times each. Every store we visited had posters of them all over the place. They have a never ending number of CDs, DVDs, photos, clothing and other merchandise based on the band. This was probably the greatest idea ever conceived – they built a meta band of 48 girls. They swap the girls out all the time, and the most popular ones end up being featured on the covers. It is a band that may quite literally never die or get old. I get the feeling a group of producers saw another group doing this and took it to the next level. The “home base” seems to be the AKB48 cafe/theater/shop in Akiba. Even thought it was freezing with rain, two huge lines formed. One to get into their cafe, the other to get into the shop.

That night, we met our guide/translator Yukiro. He has been on a number of TV shows including Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman, normally alongside his blogger/TV personality friend La Carmina – whom we saw on TV and subsequently contacted leading to this meet up! Yukiro is originally from Sweden and is at least 6.5' (over 7' with his crazy shoes). Speaking fluent Japanese, his trademark is his outrageous outfits and costumes. He knows everything about Japan's gothic and alternative lifestyle. We asked Yukiro to take us to interesting themed restaurants!

Up first, was the Vampire Cafe. Located in Ginza (Japan's version of New York's 5th Avenue) it is a full restaurant pulled straight out of a Castlevania video game. (You know, a non-gamer probably would have said Translyvania.) We were joined by Tom and his wife Chika. The host of the restaurant was an ambivalent gothic vampire lord and all of the waitresses wore French Maid outfits. Most of the people eating there were dressed and wearing makeup to fit the theme. Most tables were behind thin red and black curtains, but there was a giant coffin in the center of the room and the best dressed people were clearly seated in the main dining area. A large group of young girls (who, by their attire had definitely done this before) were sitting at a large table with candles. The dishes were very small in portion size, themed like the restaurant and VERY pricey.


(I did not bother ordering... I brought my own Stake.)


(This must be why they wear those masks everywhere in Japan.. everyone is Coffin.)


(If you think this is spooky... you should have seen the bill.)

Sunday, March 18th
Akiba Geek shopping, Wigs and Harajuku Goth dresses
We were up at the crack of dawn. We explored the empty streets of Akiba and watched as all of the shopkeepers and cosplay maids walked to work. We were fortunate; it had stopped raining. So we went on a mega shopping spree buying gifts for people back home. Figurines of Anime characters are VERY popular in Japan. There is a huge market for it. Stacia asked us to be on the lookout for a very special one from a new series. So we went to 15 figure stories in Akiba looking for the figure for her. I would say “excuse me” in Japanese and then show the store clerks a picture of the figure with the name on my iPhone. ALL 15 stores yielded a sad face and a hand gesture indicating it was sold out.


(It takes a Tough Guy to play with dolls and not get laughed at... to your face.)


(Oh Akiba... imagine 35+ stores like this in a single town. Now, imagine my credit card bill)

Unfortunately, my favorite store, the indie game shop, no longer exists. In fact, PC games in general are gone. Except for the adult games that are typically found behind pink curtains in the back of shops. The PS3 and the new mobile Sony gaming device (PS Vita) are all the rage and there are a lot of good titles. The most heavily promoted is “Shining Blade” which features characters designed by the famous Japanese artist Tony Tanaka. Banners for Shining Blade and the AKB48 girls are plastered EVERYWHERE in every building. Most gaming stores have a promo display in the middle of the store featuring a video screen and an arrangement. My guess is that one company runs all of them and rents the space for promotion. In general, anything being promoted in Japan is promoted MUCH heavier than anything I have ever seen promoted in the U.S. It would have to be. Walking the streets and any store is a continual bombardment of promotional music, sounds, people announcing for your attention and bright flashing things.

We went to Harajuku (No equivalent that I know of for this in the US... but imagine if the stores Forever21 and HotTopic had a child and it grew up to be the size of an entire town.) Yukiro, wearing a head piece that made him even taller, met us in the subway. We went to a wig shop and tried on crazy wigs... bought two and wore them for the rest of the night. Michelle got a red one and I got a white one. Then we went clothing shopping – the stores had things we have definitely never seen before – but they do not allow you to take pictures. Got Michelle a gothic dress (she is officially ready for the next Voltaire concert.) There was an entire store there dedicated to AKB48. We went to eat at another noodle house where we had Nato (fermented beans) – delicious! Then we headed back to Akiba and bought TONS of candy to send back to the office.

 

Monday, March 19th
Tsukiji Market & Alice in Wonderland Fantasy Restaurant
We started the day by doing an exciting round of... laundry! It may sound like I am joking, but in actuality, we were VERY excited about the washing and drying machine here at the hotel. Last year, at the Fancy Pants hotel, the cost of having the hotel do our laundry was actually more than just buying new clothes so spending a total of $4 and having a fresh set of clothes is a WIN!


(She misunderstood when I said she should take a spin class.)

For lunch we went to Tsukiji Market. It is Japan's most famous fish market. Boats bring in the fish and auction it off in the morning. We missed watching the bidding (but did not miss the smell.) Next to the dock is a maze of shops, food stalls and small restaurants. We bought my Mother and Lindsey handmade Japanese knives... in fact, the creator of the knife handed them to us.


(This guy always gets right to the "point")

We ate OMG THE FRESHEST SUSHI EVER at a packed sushi boat place with a long line. Japan is a lot like Disney World – if you are not in some sort of long line, the ride you are about to go on will probably suck.  As for the fresh sushi at this restaurant, I cannot explain or compare it – no Sushi we have ever had in the United States tastes anything like it.


(Hey! What is with the blow torch... I thought you were not supposed to cook sushi! Cheater :-P )


(I am pretty sure this is Sea Monkey Sushi.)


(Clearly the gravity of the situation is misunderstood.)

We went shopping again in Ginza. It is a little sad that all of the mainstream American shops are opening here. (Ex. Forever 21, GAP, Body Shop, Abercrombie & Fitch, H&M, etc.) If you look hard enough in between them you can still find shops dedicated to selling traditional formal wear and authentic samurai weaponry.


("Are you callin' me Chick...." oh wait, they actually use chicken in their chicken over here?)

That night we went to the “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” fantasy themed restaurant with our friend Sonomi (whom we met as a guide last year). The hostess was dressed as a Mad Hatter and all of the waitresses were dressed in Alice-style blue dresses. The walls were completely covered with giant versions of pages from the Alice in Wonderland book. We were taken to a private table hidden behind the pages. Elsewhere there was a GIANT tea cup that a party of 8 sat in, and other customers, all dressed in appropriate fantasy attire, sat at hearts and clubbed themed tables. The food was themed to fit the restaurant and pricey. We ordered Cheshire cat and rabbit themed dishes.


(If these walls could speak... they would complain about not being able to read.)


(They really "decked" out this place.)



(Mmmmm......)


(Sonomi and Michelle playing cards with the coasters.)

 

Tuesday, March 20th
Arcades & Ninjas (#2 Best Life Time Dining Experience)
It cost $73 to ship roughly $80 worth of food and figures to the office. Considering that was the small and light package – we are very curious to find out how much the big package full of figures we are shipping at the end of the week will be O_O

We met with Tom & Chika again for a really good “dipping noodle” lunch.

Then, Tom and I systematically went up and down 4 of the largest, most popular, 5+ story gaming arcades. This section is more for my gaming reference, feel free to skip it and go to the next paragraph if geeky game details do not cause your skin to tingle.

The #2 best, life time eating experience was at a restaurant called: NINJA. It was the best theme restaurant... ever.  Located on the outside of a very fancy shopping complex near....


(/facepalm. Why. Oh... why.)

Ninja was literally just a door with a small sign that said Ninja next to it. Men and women dressed in padded ninja outfits (no full face masks) greeted us and ushered us inside. We were surprised to find ourselves alone in the waiting area – and a Ninja was summoned through the wall and took us through another wall for “Ninja training.” It looked like a cave system under a feudal castle. The ninja girl leading used her magic to lower a bridge over a treasure-filled pit, then taught us magic to close it. Once inside, we were seated in a small, private booth. The menu was on a giant black ninja scroll. We ordered two glasses of a special $15 tea ($90 for the bottle) It tasted like dandelions. We ordered two of the expensive course meals – in fact, I got the most expensive one. Each dish was... for lack of any way to describe it... unbelievable in taste, texture and presentation. In the middle of the meal, a Ninja came and did a private magic show for us. It was actually quite romantic. He was a master of sleight of hand and for the final trick he had me write a love message for Michelle on a card which ultimately appeared inside a sealed envelope, inside a zipped shut wallet.  The main courses were to die for and the desert... O...M...G!!!!!! I feel obligated to  say the food was themed like the restaurant and VERY pricey. But as far as dining experiences go, this was without question the #2 best experience I have ever had – and after all of the things I have seen in my life, it has become very hard to impress me.


(After going through training, we were closed in this small room where we ate, had a magic show performed in front of us, and played with weapons.)


("Now... that is a knife!")


(Shirken shaped crackers and wasabi paste hanging on center piece.... to go with our glasses of tea made from something that resulted in the glasses costing more than our plane tickets.)


(Rule of thumb: Anything blazing with fire... is cool.)


(Will do!)


Wednesday, March 21h
This day has been omitted
We left the hotel today and... <transmission lost.> There is nothing to see here. Please move to the next day.

 

Thursday, March 22nd
AKB48 Cafe, New Computer & the insane guy's restaurant
Our room is now packed so tight that there is no place to walk with games, anime figures and oddities. Mostly gifts for people back home. So we started off the day with... more shopping and we took the “good camera” with us to get higher quality photos of the stores. We bought a reasonably priced Japanese computer with a Japanese keyboard and OS to play all of the games on (not just from this trip, but from the previous one as well.) You can buy a used computer here for about $130.


(Why is this keyboard $30?)

For our daily 2pm “COFFEE OR DIE” hour we went to the AKB48 cafe in Akiba. We went there... and stood in line (on what appeared to be a reasonably empty day) for over an hour. There was a giant video screen playing AKB48's music videos. There was a separate line for the shop and a small pick up window with a girl wearing a bear suit taking orders. Most of the people in line with us were teenage boys and girls. Upon getting in, there was another line.... but on the walls where voice messages and signed drawings by the most popular members of the band.  Inside there were several girls dressed in the outfits the band wears in the videos. It looked like an old silver sided diner from the US, but with everything that could be replaced by a cutsie 14-year-old girl (pink plastic cups, crayon graffiti with hearts, etc.) stuff, replaced. We ordered tea and two pieces of chocolate cake... $25. Overall I would say the food was themed to match the restaurant and it was very pricey. When the drinks were served we got to pick a “mystery” drink coaster with a picture of one of the girls from the band on it. We tried to leave them behind but they ran after us to give them to us. To exit, you had to go through the small, but packed gift shop. We entered... and I could have sworn Michelle was right behind me. I only saw her coat and hair from the back so I followed her around, and eventually tapped her on the shoulder to show her something funny.... but when she turned around it was someone else! Michelle was watching from the other end of the shop, laughing hysterically. For the rest of the day she teased me, saying that “not all Asian people look alike... Adam.”

UPDATE: OMG... we saw the coasters for sale elsewhere for $20 to $90 a piece!

Kagaya!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Madness. Insanity. Hysterical laughter. This is the best way to describe the craziest and most unique dinner.


We met Yukiro and his friend from Sweden, Stefan, and went down into a small, cramped basement. The total size of this place was smaller than the war-room at the office by about ½. There was an older woman (the owner and host's mom) in the back cooking and watching on with a disapproving, serious face. The host, who looked upset that we were there, invited us to sit down and learned everyone's names. There were three small tables in the room – traditional Japanese, requiring you to kneel. A group of businessmen were celebrating a birthday at one table and a small group of Japanese businessmen were talking loudly at the other. We were pretty much sitting on top of each other. Our grumpy host disappeared into a closet, then re-appeared, making high pitch noises, doing a dance, and guided a robot to deliver our towels. Then he made the robot fly away. Moments later he returned to our table using our menu to re-enact an adult movie... with the menu. The menu itself was written in crayon. There was no food listed on it. Only messages like “Master. Hey man, I just got out of work and I'm real hungry like, so gimme some food and drinks. 2500 yen” Additionally there was a special page which had something about alien underground people for about $1,500,000 USD and a special secret drink which “price depends on person.” When the table orders a drink, you pick a country. The host disappears into the closet and comes out in a surprise costume and does an act, or a puppet show, or, in the case of France, comes out with an easel and pen and starts drawing people. He is surprisingly talented at traditional Japanese dance, and drawing – he takes everything he does very seriously. At some point he brought a game to our table where everyone holds a handle and tries to be first to click the button, and the two slowest people get shocked. (Note: Michelle and I, who do not drink, did not get shocked.... go reflexes! ;-) During his shows, he and his puppets talk to you, addressing you by name. A lot of what happened is not appropriate to re-tell here, but at one part.. LOL, he jumps out in a crazy costume and starts attacking people. Audience participation turns out to be... non-optional. When ordering the meal, you need to sing your menu choice back to him. Stefan ordered our meal in the style of Heavy Metal. Towards the end of our meal he asked, “Adam, do you want to be like me?” – and had me put on a green frog suit. Michelle followed in putting on a bear suit, then we went and interacted with the other customers in the small room. We NEED to send things to this man – we got his card and address. Oh, I nearly forgot – when you go to the bathroom, it is filled with plushies... and the ones near the commode are motion activated and start laughing at you, LOUDLY and continuously when you are close enough to use the bathroom.  


(What is that sound coming from the other room?)


(This was the menu. No joke.)


("Do you want to look like me?")


(He drew the two girls in the room... started drawing a guy, and ripped it up in a mad artist rage and hurled at the floor and stomped on it.)

On the way back, several blocks away from the restaurant full of customers... the owner jumped out from behind some cars and attacked us. Reflecting on the craziest night of our lives, we took the train back and stopped at a spicy noodle house for a midnight snack. Mmmmm.

 

Friday, March 23rd
Tokyo Anime Fair
It was business day (suits!) at the Tokyo Anime Fair. We went with Yukiro and Stefan. On the way there, we saw that they put the giant Gundam back up near where it was on our last trip! The anime fair was a lot smaller than I expected... only filling one of BigPoint's (Tokyo's major convention center) hanger-sized rooms. Sellers and buyers were meeting – but it was clear that there are only a few major animation producers left. Highlights from the visit included: 1.) Yes, there is going to be an AKB48 anime series. 2.) An AWESOME looking show called Garo which features live action heroes with awesome special effects. 3.) We met with a couple 3D outsourcing companies in China. 4.) We played with an action figure that made a 3D character on the screen move. 5.) We used some sort of new fancy 3D tool that lets you draw, paint, and sculpt in 3D space using 3D glasses. It was pretty interesting – but those 3D glasses never seem to work right with my eyes. 6.) MellonBear – OMG, cutest/evil/disturbing thing ever... a person dressed in a MellonBear costume ran around biting people outside their stall. They had a LARGE array of MellonBear merchandise from photos, books, key chains, plushies, costumes, pillows, and more. Voltaire should do this with Deady.


(Garo -- I became an instant fan.)


(Mellon Bear - Michelle was almost eaten... and became an instant fan.)


(Optimus is cool everywhere.)


(Anpanman is the most popular character with children in Japan. It looks like his friend is punching me in an unconfortable spot.)


(They would not let us keep this suit.)


(Kawaiiiiii!!!!!!!)

We went back to Akiba and immediately hunted down two Garo movie DVDs. For dinner, we had Indian/Pakistani food. Michelle ordered the “Women only” dish. The portions of Nan were surprisingly large! It was tasty. Mmm. Although it was Friday, the long day combined with the little sleep we had from the previous night brought the sandman's fury down on us hard. We watched some Garo in the hotel room until we Zzzzz :-)

 

Saturday, March 24th
Vampires, Kidnapping, and more Vampires
Sonomi picked us up in her car (our first time riding in a car in Tokyo!) and took us to see her home town. I mentioned wanting to find some young Japanese gamers to ask questions to – and she happened to help three boys move into new apartment who just started working at her company. So she took us to meet them and helped me ask them lots of questions. We took them out for Unagi – and we seemed to bond on anime. However, I got shunned when I brought up Baby Metal, LOL. Sonomi took us to a Buddhist temple, and told us the legend of a Dragon that lives in the pond behind it. We stopped at a Tea house and had a little snack... we noticed a girl feeding cats outside (actually feeding them what appeared to be a 3 course meal on plates.) Sonomi and I went out and talked to the girl. We learned that she was running a blog and working for an organization that helps stray cats. We made an unsolicited donation to help her cause. (Update: Somoni read the blog and told me the girl had posted a comment on her blog about it, calling me Mr. A) Sonomi really went out of her way to be kind and hospitable. We are still amazed that she drove us an hour, out of her way, through rush hour traffic to drop Michelle and I off at the concert!


(I learned a lot about Japanese games from these awesome boys.)


(Sonomi and Michelle)

 


(Obligatory "touristy" photo!)

We went to a concert for the Goth band, Moi Dix Mois. The band has 5 members, each dressed like a romantic Vampire lord, and their music is heavy metal played on top of Castlevania game music. (I am pretty sure it really is the Castlevania game music with a few notes changed.) The venue was medium in size and filled with Japanese gothic Lolitas in proper attire. The people here know how to dress for the occasion! The girl in front of us was wearing a black and white lace outfit, with black lace gloves, silver accessories and her hair was in pigtails, topped by a tiny black Victorian hat. She went from moving her hands like they were treading water to the music to vigorously head-banging, but never lost her elegant charm. The rest of the room was pretty similar! We bought two of the band's albums and asked a few of the other attendees to take pictures. We were surprised when one of them spoke English (from Anime!?) So we decided to try to make more friends today.


(The one on the right reminds me of my friends Grandmother.)


(She spoke English!)

Yukiro was to perform at a Vampire Themed Party event in Shinjuku – so, even though we did not have directions, we decided to head there and rely on pure luck. (We are very lucky.) On the way we made a pit stop in Ropongi and saw a little bit of an art show. Displays we observed included multi color spinning alligators, weird laser light beam configurations, and three sets of interlocking chains on a motor. It was... um... art!


(Crazy spinning Alligators)


(This is art.)

Upon arriving in Shinjuku, we luckily met up with Stefan, two of his American female friends, and a Japanese friend. We were a powerful force of GOTH to be reckoned with... and people parted like it was the red sea when they saw us coming. (Not really... but that is how we felt.) We arrived at the restaurant/club which was a VERY large, ornately decorated, vampire-themed establishment. Red curtains, flickering chandeliers, and... ok, the whole thing looked like my living room, just make the furniture coffin white instead of black. People were dining on the inside, and the party was taking place upstairs. The cover charge was hefty ($30.)  Again, EVERYONE was dressed for the occasion – dark goth leather, frilly lacy dresses, and hair styles that take you right back to the 1980s Cure videos. The party mostly took part in a small room where people danced and got drinks from the bar. We met the organizer of the event, Mai, who runs a fair share of these events – although we were told she is moving out of Japan to Germany by the end of the year. As you walked into the party, in the hall leading to the coat check room, there was a dentist making custom vampire fangs ($50 each – very high, custom quality) and a girl doing hair and makeup. Yukiro and Stefan had their's done, so we decided to get into the theme of the party too. Michelle went first... WOW! 1.) I had no idea she had that much hair... it was amazing what the stylist did with it. 2.) Her vampire makeup looked incredible! We met a lot of people during the wait including a US Navy guy (K) who goes to A LOT of these parties and knows everyone... the guy who runs the front door (John) who also knows everyone... and a few more random new friends, including the bartender who made us some custom, non-alcoholic drinks. Periodically, special shows would take place – everyone performing was in Drag. The first performer had an amazing opera voice. The second was Yukiro who lip-synced and did a crazy French-style cabaret dance... ending with him falling and getting a mouth full of blood. Michelle videotaped the entire performance. We had a good time! The train station was closed so we were forced to take a cab ride home – of course we scared the heck out of the driver with our face paint.


(We did not stick out at all walking down the street.)


(They call makeup... "Make")


(We met so many people from PA!)


Sunday, March 25th
Mihye in Ginza, Tom & Chika in Akiba... STACIA'S FIGURE FOUND!!!
We woke up late and rushed to go meet our friend (and former translator from the previous trip) Mihye. Lunch was at the Ginza Nenohi Kurod-Kuriya. This restaurant is owned by the family of the man who founded Sony. I felt sort of bad taking the pictures there with a Cannon camera. Mihye had not spoken English in a really long time and was really rusty – however she was totally up to date on the tech-going-ons in Japan. She told us about social networks that were popular in Japan and cell phone games. Mihye's phone was a “Prada” (LG phone rebranded.) For lunch we had fish served in every way possible! Mmmmmm..... delicious. I get the same feeling walking around Ginza as I do at the International Mall. That is, that I am a geek and do not fit in with this crowd... back to Akiba!



(This would have been a great shot of Ginza... if I pointed the camera out the window behind me instead.)


(The tastiest things can be found at the bottom of pretty much any department store!)

At this point, I have asked roughly 35 different stores if they had the figure that Stacia requested. I think most people would have given up a long time ago. Michelle said I looked like the owner of a missing dog running around showing pictures to strangers on my cell phone.


(Like a detective with a photo of my suspect... this is all I had to go on.)

As this was our last full day in Akiba, I was shocked when I showed a shop keeper and instead of making a X with his arms and saying something that clearly meant “sold out” he picked up the phone then gave me a map with a store circled on it!!!!! We got a call from Tom and Chika who were doing some shopping at the big electronics store in Akiba. We met up with them, grabbed a coffee and went treasure hunting with our map! The store we went to exclusively sold out of print toys. I showed the shop keeper the picture... and HE STARTED LEADING US TO THE BACK OF THE STORE! Figure obtained. Quest Complete. It was pretty pricey at $110, but honestly... I would have paid anything for it at this point. The four of us spent the next few hours exploring shops. The other item we were looking for during the trip was a Black Rock Shooter costume for Michelle – and found one in a used costume costume shop in a relatively new building. Double win! We also found a Totoro backpack for Michelle to use instead of her purse. Then, we all went for Dim Sum at a Chinese restaurant and took silly pictures. It was a great night!


(Akiba Costume shops)


("Tom Foolery" at the Dim Sum restraurant)

Monday, March 26th
New hotel day! (Shibuya)
Farewell Akiba.... we will miss you. Of course, before we could leave we had to find some way of packing ALL THE GIFTS AND STUFF we bought into our bags. Error: Bag Overflow We gave the maid taking care of our room a gift bag full of US chocolates and treats – but honestly, it probably does not make up for the dumpster full of garbage we left for her to clean in our extremely “cozy” room. <_<  (We took everything out of the boxes to conserve space: ex. Computer Game CDs) We shipped a big box of gifts to the office in Florida and then took the subway in search of our new hotel in Shinjuku (near Shibuya).

WOW!  The view from our new (and comparably HUUUUUGE) room on the 25th floor of the Century Southern Tower is amazing! The hotel receptionist told us, lol, no room service, but you can order massages to your room. The room also gets more TV channels, so we were able to watch anime before conking out later this night.

We left the hotel and took the JR rail line 3 stops to Shibuya (where Japan's version of Time Square is.) Just a little past the busy part, there is a red road filled with themed “Love Hotels.”   In Japan, most people live with their family, or far away... so if you are looking for a little privacy with a loved one after a night of partying, this is where you would go. You can rent the room for a few hours or for the night. It is very discrete – the shop keeper is concealed behind no-way glass (as in, they cannot see you and you cannot see them) and you select the room from a picture menu located at the front of each hotel. Each room is themed (not as much as we were expecting) and it seems in some they lock you in for a certain amount of time, and open the door at a certain time, so you can never run into another guest. There were other adult-themed places in this area with the red brick road but most of them had signs which indicated “Japanese only.” One of the things we wanted to see during this trip was the dark and seedy underbelly of Tokyo – Quest Complete!


(Hatchiko - the famous statue, build after a dog who waited in this very spot his entire life for his master to return.)

We went down another road and found a girl or couple-only photo booth arcade. These are really common in Japan. They look like those photo booths in the US, but much larger, and there are tons of different kinds, packed closely together. For $4 you go into a booth and stand in front of a green screen, surrounded with photo lights. You choose options including: How big to make your eyes or what backgrounds you want, then pose for a series of pictures. Once done, the computer tells you to go to the next area where you use pens on a screen to customize your pictures with graphics, text, color changes, cute little props. The menu system was quite sophisticated... I guess it was EXTREME Photoshop for people who do not know how to use Photoshop? At the end it spit out the photos which were quite small. My eyes are so huge!

After, we got a Green Tea Bobba Tea and visited the pet shops. Pet shops always make me sad – but it seems the animals are better cared for in these shops than their US equivalents. The selection of animals, however, were specifically tiny and ultra cute. Tiny dogs and cats ranging in price from $100 to $1,500. We had dinner at a Thai restaurant (delicious) and then got VERY lost going back to the hotel. The rail stations here are bigger than our airports. The exits, in my opinion, are 4th-dimentional trans-planar portal puzzles requiring a degree in quantum physics to navigate. 


(Chooo chooooo! We spent most of our time down here.)

Tuesday, March 27th
Alcatraz+ER
Do not attempt to adjust your TV lunch set.  We control the horizontal. We control the vertical. Michelle has entered... “The Unagi Zone.” Once Michelle gets her first taste of Unagi, it is like a powerful mind-altering drug that turns her into a raging Unagi fiend. Such has been our last few meals. I fear that if we do not do something soon, she will end up on the street corner, turning magic tricks in exchange for another “hit” of eel. You know it is pretty bad when we eat at the same Unagi restaurant twice. There are more restaurants in this town than people in our home town!


(She even thinks this fake Ice Cream is Eel.... it is pretty bad.)

We headed back to Harajuku where we at long last found presents for Tony and Julia. (Victory!) We also saw a boutique for small dogs. Inside, a small dog was being mercilessly tortured by two Japanese girls dressing it in absurd dresses.  The sign on the front of the store stating the rules of what your dog is not allowed to do was priceless. “You see that sign Sparky? No farting is aloud... I know we just had beens, but hold it, ok?” It was easy walking around in the daylight when it was far less crowded. The shops were mostly for Teens, ranging from gothic clothing to club-wear and onto hip trendy clothes. Other than us, there was only one person who was not “dressed to impressed” and wearing at least 10lbs of makeup (referred to as “make” here). Oh wait, we are metric here. We found a green tea frappachino at a chocolate store. Not sure if I mentioned this, but we realized we need a 2pm coffee each day to avoid inverted sleep schedule rage. Talking about rage, the “Kiddy World” shop (Michelle's favorite from the last trip) was gone! So we decided to go to Shibuya.... BUT... seeing on the map that it was only one train station away, we decided to walk! (Achievement unlocked: Keeping the train tracks to our left, we did not get lost.)


(My view for the rest of the trip.)

After exploring Shibuya some more, we found tonight's theme restaurant early: Alcatraz+ER. It is a prison hospital filled with insane nurses, doctors and dead bodies. You eat in a jail cell and bang the cell bars with a rod to call the nurse to order food. The cells were very cramped – and stacked. So there might be people eating in the cell above you. While we were in a pretty standard room, other rooms had specialty themes like blood transfusion, surgery, and morgue. We ordered non-alcoholic versions of their drinks (which still tasted insanely bitter!) which came in vials, freshly squeezed from a blood bag, and a straw coming out of a human head. The food was themed like the restaurant and pricey :-) But the food was a little more raunchy than most... delving into the college level humor of severed private parts (hotdogs, etc.) We ordered the “Russian Roulette” which were 6 octopus balls. They are to be eaten in one bite. However... one of them is loaded with wasabi and wasabi extract. Michelle and I each ate one at the same time... until one of us (Ug, me) got the LOADED one. I actually had to spit it out! It was at least 5 times as nasty as the #6 wasabi that Yoshi gave us when he did his death wasabi topiko back in Tampa. So far, this was the best atmosphere of the theme restaurants we have been to.

We went to an arcade where I lost $7 trying to win Michelle a prize from one of those claw machines. (I was so close!) Then we called it an early night, went back to the hotel and watched the Karo movie on my Japanese laptop which I now call “Otakuputer.”

 

Wednesday, March 28th
Maid Cafe Day
Today was like living a re-run. We woke up, took the train to Tsukiji (fishy fish market town) and ate sushi at the conveyor belt place again. Mmmmmmm! Then we went back to Akiba (electronic town) and tried to find a store we had not been in yet. (Quest Failed.) There was one thing we had not done yet... onward, to the Maid Cafe!

All over Akiba, there are girls dressed in maid outfits and cosplay (costume) handing out colorful flyers for cafes. (The flyer we chose said the Backstreet boys had been there – so you KNOW that is where we needed to go!) I guess you could call these places “theme cafes” or think of them as Hooter's much more talented little sister. Instead of skimpy outfits, the girls wear ultra cute costumes and try to be more adorable than sexy. When you enter, you are greeted with “Welcome home, Master!” The food is themed like the restaurant (CUTE) and pricey. All food and drink orders come with a little show of adorable singing and smiling. “Now, I say these cute things in Japanese that you will have trouble pronouncing, and you repeat them each time I stir and we will all giggle because you are too mesmerized by the cuteness to know how much you just paid for this!” For $5 you can have a (very little) photo with the maid of your choice, and for $25 you can dress up and voice act a short scene in an anime DVD with the maids. Some cafe's have little stages where the girls will occasionally sing or hold talent-type shows. Each cafe has its own blog where you can keep up to date on your favorite maid... because the big difference between Hooters and Maid Cafes, is that the Cosplay Maids are mini-celebrities, each with their own following of lonely, geeky stalkers! Which explains the EXTREMELY long lines to get into the cafes with the most popular girls. It also explains why they can charge $5 to play a short table-top game (like hungry hungry hippo) with the Maid of your choice for a few minutes. While most of the maid cafes are indie – there are a few major chains (Maid Dream'n & @Home) which we saw elsewhere on our Japan Travels.  Michelle and I got our picture taken with the girl who was serving us and she drew little hearts all over the photo. I would continue writing this, but I need to go stalk the maids web blog now!


(No photos allowed. You need to be FAST!)

Less than an hour later we were in Shinjuku (where our hotel is); looking tough; so the creepy people in 18+ club filled back alleys would not realize we were lost. One glance at my bright yellow shopping bags and giant DSLR camera was probably a sufficient giveaway that we were easy pickings. Shinjuku's pink district is also filled with Love hotels – and notably, lots of black cars with tinted windows and a driver waiting for their boss to return from whatever he was doing in said hotels. Shinjuku's main crosswalk also very similar to NY Time Square. Exactly how big is Tokyo!? The sheer volume of skyscrapers and luxury shops is hard to wrap my head around. They space Gucci stores here as closely as Walmarts back home. We went for dinner at a random Okonomiyaki (Japanese Meat/Egg Pancake Dinner) place, down some stairs on the side of a building. Finding restaurants in Japan is a little different than the U.S., you need to either go to a floor of a building or somehow find a sign. Since we are illiterate here, we look for pictures (no matter how small.) Not quite filled by our meal (we had trouble communicating to our waiter that both of us wanted to eat for some reason) I splurged and took Michelle to a McDonalds were we ordered the “BIG AMERICA” burger. A Teriyaki burger, with an egg on it, and wasabi mayo. Bleh. The fries were good though.


(Nothing but the best for my gal.)

Thursday, March 29th
Namahage – Demons to scare kids into being good!
We woke up early to go a train-themed restaurant in  the semi-distant town of Yutengi called Naragara. But it was closed! So instead, we went to a creepy antique shop where I bought a cursed silver skull ring. I know it is cursed… because it is turning my finger green. We had Indian food again...


(Hanging out with one of the waiters at the Indian food restaurant... he said people called him "Mario")


(Scary skull ring from a haunted antique shop.)

On a side note, every time we pass this Krispy Kreme donught place, it is PACKED with a long line. We have come home twice now seeing people actually holding their heads, raging that it is closed in front of the store. CRAZY!

Dinner was at Namahage (which pretty much means Demon in Japanese) with Tom and Chika. It was a very traditional restaurant serving sukiyaki flavored from a local region that I will not even begin to try to spell. Every hour the lights flicker and suddenly go out… then the Namahage (men wearing Demon masks) storm out into the restaurant to symbolically “scare all of the bad kids into being good.” Which, naturally resulted in a lot of laughing and good fun. The masks were awesome looking and the sukiyaki broth was amazing, brought out on individual burners – although we sorta ordered it wrong, and followed up that mistake by putting the ingredients in the incorrect bowls. To end off the night, Tom and I had a “drinking contest” with the remaining soup. Tom won both times. Overall the food was… AUTHENTIC… and AWESOME… and priced perfectly!


(Mmmmm...... would you like some more soup Tom?)


(Must be a fire demon.. because he is about to get, toasty!)

Upon exiting the restaurant back into the district of Ropongi, we saw a car elevator garage! Things are so packed in Tokyo, they try to store tons of cars in the space of one of their tiny, yet tall building. Which is very tricky considering that a building is just slightly more than two car lengths long. So, they created a vertical conveyer belt. Yup, it looked like a car sized version of those things that hold the bullets for Nerf Machine Guns. Because there is no room to 3-point turn your car around.. you drive onto a circular disk that spins your car around for you. Then you drive into one of the “bullet holders” and the elevator rotates, taking your car up and putting the next empty “bullet holder” in place for the next car. It must be pretty scary seeing your car basically dangle up inside there.


(This has nothing to do with the story)

The walk back to the train station was… with great caution. In stark contrast to the pretty and happy Cosplay maids on every corner in Akiba, there were large, intimidating non-Japanese bouncers literally everywhere. Prior to our trip, Michelle had read a lot about this. Ropongi, which is filled with foreigners visiting Japan, is not a safe place. We did want to see it with our own eyes, and had an interesting experience when person  tried to lure Tom into a club with a budd-buddy promise of a free drink. Drugging foreigners with this free drink tactic and getting them to spend all their money in the bar is a common. (Note: None of us drink – immunity bonus!)

Friday, March 30th
The last trip to Akiba…. And LOCKUP!
So sad… our final day in Japan. We went to Niagara to eat at a train themed restaurant. The owner of the place is obsessed with trains! The food is delivered to you by a model train that goes around the restaurant. Michelle ordered a special $3 SUPER SPICY add on for her curry. But one bite into our meals it became apparent it was in mine O_O. YOWWWWWW!!!!!


(We got to wear the hats!)


(A train whistle blew every hour on the hour.)

Michelle, being the wonderful and amazing girl she is, took me back to Akiba so I could breath in the fresh fragrance of ultimate geekness one last time before we went home. While we were there for 5 hours, the only thing we bought was some bread – which we shared with one of Japan’s very rare homeless. My favorite artist, Tony Taka, had a gallery of his work featured in Akiba. So we checked that out and then said…. our goodbyes to Electronic Town.  Because, if what happened in the US is any indication… with the death of the DVD, Music CD, PC games, and arcades – then Akiba’s life expectancy is probably 2 years or less.  I really enjoy walking around, looking at games, DVDs, Music CDs – it is nice that Japan is still the way the US used to be. While I, of all people, should be embracing the oncoming technology… it feels like this was my last stroll through “how things were in the good old days.” Sayonara Akiba. (UPDATE: We should have been keeping an eye on Danny Choo's blog -- he was at GAMERS, which we passed by a dozen times as it must have been happening, shooting a TV spot and asked for extras!)


(Is it just me or did my pupils get bigger on this trip?)


(I feel Michelle is 2.45% more geeky now!)

Dinner was at the final theme restaurant – LOCK UP! It was a strictly prison themed restaurant. You go through a mini haunted house to reach the door. The girl ahead of us was screaming a lot! To seat you, a warden handcuffs one member of your party and leads you by chain to your tiny, cramped prison cell and the prison bars seal you in. You only have “2 hours to escape” which really means you need to finish eating by that time or they kick you out. There was a $5 cover charge per person. These places are definitely for a younger audience – Teens to 20s.  The food was nothing to write home about (Hah! I am writing home about it though…) The English version of the menu really cracked us up though! Bad “ENGRISH” combined with random horror monster references was the best part of the night. The food was… um…. (catching on the trend here?) themed like the restaurant and very pricey. We finished eating pretty fast and went on one last photo-shoot….

 


(I did not do it officer... I swear!)


(Bluff roll fail.)

Sitting in the Starbucks overlooking the super crowded Shibuya cross walk (Same angle they used to shoot that scene in Lost in Translation), we took a video of the hordes of people swarming the streets while enjoying our green tea coffees. It was the perfect end to our trip. We stayed there for quite a while.


(Sayonara Japan.... thank you for not kicking me out and banning me from the country.)

Saturday, March 31st
Travel Home Day.. aka Time Travel Day!
We left at 11am and landed in the U.S. at 9am. We should just keep flying around the Earth backwards. I could get so much done with an infinitely long day! Truth be told we saw the sun rise twice... it was beautiful.

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