As always, pics at the bottom of the post.
Day three we were up bright and early...relatively speaking. We were out the door by about 10AM. By now, I was pretty confident about navigating the Tokyo Metro system, so we made our way down to Tokyo Tower. We did the whole tour, up to the Observation Platforms 1 and 2, and I snapped the requisite pics. Honestly, it was more of a tourist thing, de rigeur as a "tourist". Though the grandparents with all their grandkids in tow made the appropriate oohs and ahhs, Tokyo Tower, a copy of the Eiffel Tower, has nothing on good ol' CN. Still, I got an appreciative chuckle from my elevator mates when the elevator cable went ka-thunk. It's completely normal, or so the helpful recording told us. Oddly enough, when I cried out in mock dismay, "Oh no, we're all gonna die!", it was in English. I guess that "Oh shit!" moment is universal regardless of language.
While at the tower, I had been playing email tag with my cousin. Thanks to an early-ending workday, she volunteered to be a tour-guide for the rest of the day. Noon-time was fast approaching, but we had both decided the day before to head back to Akihabara to search for that mysterious souvenier which would represent our time there. In retrospect, we should have checked out another district of Tokyo. Oh well. There's comfort for me in the familiar, and we were getting pretty cozy with the district.
We lunched at Go Go Curry. Despite the name, the mascot featured a gorilla. Go Go Curry caters to rushed Tokyo salarymen-types, but for the 750 yen I paid, I got a helluva good chicken-cutlet curry. The food-ticket vending machine however said it was econo-sized, so I'm scared to see what a jumbo-size looked like. It's odd, because I remember laughing when Ian told me that his friends had egged him on about how little he would eat here in Japan. If that was true, I'd be a twig by now.
We had about an hour and a half in Akihabara, where I managed to find one of the things I had come to Tokyo to find: a spare mag for my Marushin 1911 TRP. Ian managed to fill out some more of his list of things to find, but soon it was time to meet up with my cousin.
We headed out to Ryogoku Station. There, even from the platform, we were able to spy the gigantic Tokyo Edo Museum. Linking up with my cousin, we toured the museum. Though I had been skeptical about it, the museum was a lot of fun, and it was here that I would take the bulk of my pictures. I think it must have been all the interactive displays, as well as the overall environment, a welcome cry from the more sterile, and hence boring, Kyushu National Museum. We were there for a couple of hours, and in the end we visited the souvenier shop, where I got my omiyage (souveniers I am essentially required by Japanese custom to buy for the staff at school), as well as 3 prints which I would turn into a pseudo-triptych now adorning my wall at home.
With the sun starting its decline, the museum closing up, and us all sort of shopped out, what were we to do? My cousin suggested Ueno Park, to sit amongst the cherry trees, watching the blossoms and drinking some sake. It sounded wonderful to us, so off we went.
Ueno Park was a sort of urban oasis. The cherry blossoms, which down in Fukuoka were only starting to bloom thanks to the messed up weather we've been having (normally, they follow the jetstream and bloom south to north in orderly progression), covered nearly every tree. As the sun began to set the red lanterns came on, and we sat in a rosey-orange sea of cherry-viewing parties, with cups of heated sake to warm our hands.
It was soon dark, and despite this, the park was getting more crowded. We decided to duck out and find a place to eat. The last things on our itinerary were some sort of traditional Japanese dinner, then some karaoke. Having no real idea what that traditional dinner would be, we started to walk through the famous Ameyayakocho Market. I was delighted to find a donair vendor, the closest I think I may come to in Japan for Mediterranean food. Yet we were unable to think of anything to eat otherwise. Leaving the Market, we came out to one of the main roads, where we spied an okonomiyaki restaurant. OK, so it wasn't authentic Tokyo cuisine, but it was Japanese. We were treated to what was honestly a mediochre dining experience, and it wasn't until we were at the karaoke pub that we realized we should have just grabbed food there.
Oh well, on to singing. Karaoke was a mixed bag, mostly because our tastes in music varied so much. My cousin and I were a little closer matched, but she knows songs more popular in recent years, which I am only just beginning to discover. Ian on the other hand seemed to prefer oldies and classic rock, which I have little knowledge of. I stuck to my usual repertoire, so in the end we were just singing our own tunes.
It was a sort of a melancholy way to end the evening, but in the balance it was oddly fitting. Tomorrow we would be leaving busy Tokyo, so for now, it was time to get back to the hotel.
Pics here.
4/01/2007
Akihabara Redux
Links once again to the pics I snapped at the bottom of this post. Pics now sorted by day.
The next morning we were up at the crack of noon. Thanks to a combination of the heat and the down duvet supplied to each bed, I managed to only get about 4 hours of shuteye. Waking up bleary-eyed, we decided to head out to the Imperial Palace, nominally a 10 minute walk from our hotel, but in reality a trip that took us 25 minutes as I searched for a convenient store for a cell-phone recharger that uses standard AAs. With my phone back up and being charged (albeit slowly), we headed into the Palace grounds proper.
The Imperial Palace grounds are huge. While I don't know the exact size, it was certainly enough to be a district of Tokyo in and of its own. A 10x10 city block area might be an exaggeration, but not by much. There wasn't a whole lot to see though, other than your usual tourist trappings. Beautiful trees, interesting looking buildings, the massive walls and ramparts, and the ruins of the old Edo donjon. OK, but only fun in the sense that playing tourist is fun. It was a good wind-down to our previous night, and walking around was a relaxing experience.
Things picked up when Jon and his buddies showed up, as things inevitably do when a bunch of young guys go anywhere. We revisited some of the places Ian and I had gone to, but soon we were off, back to Akihabara.
Despite my initial impressions, I was keen to head back there. After all, there is nary the geek or otaku that can resist the call of such a place, and I qualify under both columns. Our intention was to find one the shrines of otakudom, the maid cafe, and armed with fliers and maps in hand, we set off. The first place we checked (porn-shops not-withstanding), was an over-heated bust. Our next stop seemed more promising, but it was small and we would have needed to break our group up, and still wait for a while for seating. We left our names and decided to check elsewhere. We, or at least 4 out of the 6 of us, ended up at a place call Cos-cha. I enjoyed it on a sort of basic level as an experience in Akihabara, but I as foreigners, the maid/waitresses were a little intimidated. Add to that our complete inexperience with the whole thing, we ultimately were a little disappointed...until the show.
While all we did was sit and have some drinks and oggle a couple of the maids, some of the more experienced Otaku (note the capital "O", for they were very obviously uber-otakus, made up from parts of lesser otaku like myself) decided to partake of the pancake eating game. This attracted the attention of all the cafe. The rules were simple. One of the maids and the customer face off in a pancake eating contest. If the customer can eat 2 pancakes faster than the maid can eat one, then the customer wins and gets something (I missed what the actual prize was), and the other patrons of the cafe can get a picture with the losing maid, a priviledge normally paid for. However, if the maid wins, the customer is punished. Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy, right?
WRONG!
Admittedly, the guy tried hard. He lost by one or two bites, but when he got up, his cheeks were definitely channeling some chipmunk. The maid on the other hand, somehow managed to combine pancake-gorging with dainty elegance. Must be a maid secret power. By this time, we had recieved a call from the other cafe, and we were settling up. Most of us were looking back at the antics going on with the losing customer and the maid with sort of casual interest, mostly because there were making some noise. Suddenly, we were treated to perhaps the funniest sight of my Tokyo experience:
As punishment for losing the pancake game, the maid got to BITCH-SLAP the customer!!!
That got a rise out of the rest of the customers, as well as the gaijin about to leave. I don't know if there was some pent-up aggression behind that slap, but it was loud.
We headed around the corner to the other maid cafe, Mefle. By this time, Jon and crew had to jet, so it was up to Ian and I to troop on. Ian was a bit reluctant, but I was determined to try at least one more place. We made out way to the cafe, and were treated to a much more authentic experience. At the risk of sounding too lecherous, I enjoyed myself and have pics to prove it.
Afterwards, having completed that holiest of rituals, we started to explore Akihabara with renewed vigour. For me, that meant hitting up some of the local hobby stores. While I didn't find what I had come to look for, I ended up with some neat stuff to make my Marui M4 more "tacticool", while Ian managed to flesh out his soundtrack collection even more. As night fell, we headed back to the hotel.
It was not for sleep though, at least not yet. Tired as we were, the night was still young. So after a brief rest at the hotel, we searched out a local izakaya (bar). After 2 jumbo-sized beers, and some good izakaya-chow, we ended the night full and slightly sauced. I'll admit that the otaku in me was still ultimately unsatisfied with my foray in Akihabara, and the beer allowed me to voice my conviction to return there and buy something outstandly geeky, a souveneir par excellence of my time in otaku-Mecca. For now though, we called it a night relativly early, determined to get the most out of our last day...
Pictures Here.
The next morning we were up at the crack of noon. Thanks to a combination of the heat and the down duvet supplied to each bed, I managed to only get about 4 hours of shuteye. Waking up bleary-eyed, we decided to head out to the Imperial Palace, nominally a 10 minute walk from our hotel, but in reality a trip that took us 25 minutes as I searched for a convenient store for a cell-phone recharger that uses standard AAs. With my phone back up and being charged (albeit slowly), we headed into the Palace grounds proper.
The Imperial Palace grounds are huge. While I don't know the exact size, it was certainly enough to be a district of Tokyo in and of its own. A 10x10 city block area might be an exaggeration, but not by much. There wasn't a whole lot to see though, other than your usual tourist trappings. Beautiful trees, interesting looking buildings, the massive walls and ramparts, and the ruins of the old Edo donjon. OK, but only fun in the sense that playing tourist is fun. It was a good wind-down to our previous night, and walking around was a relaxing experience.
Things picked up when Jon and his buddies showed up, as things inevitably do when a bunch of young guys go anywhere. We revisited some of the places Ian and I had gone to, but soon we were off, back to Akihabara.
Despite my initial impressions, I was keen to head back there. After all, there is nary the geek or otaku that can resist the call of such a place, and I qualify under both columns. Our intention was to find one the shrines of otakudom, the maid cafe, and armed with fliers and maps in hand, we set off. The first place we checked (porn-shops not-withstanding), was an over-heated bust. Our next stop seemed more promising, but it was small and we would have needed to break our group up, and still wait for a while for seating. We left our names and decided to check elsewhere. We, or at least 4 out of the 6 of us, ended up at a place call Cos-cha. I enjoyed it on a sort of basic level as an experience in Akihabara, but I as foreigners, the maid/waitresses were a little intimidated. Add to that our complete inexperience with the whole thing, we ultimately were a little disappointed...until the show.
While all we did was sit and have some drinks and oggle a couple of the maids, some of the more experienced Otaku (note the capital "O", for they were very obviously uber-otakus, made up from parts of lesser otaku like myself) decided to partake of the pancake eating game. This attracted the attention of all the cafe. The rules were simple. One of the maids and the customer face off in a pancake eating contest. If the customer can eat 2 pancakes faster than the maid can eat one, then the customer wins and gets something (I missed what the actual prize was), and the other patrons of the cafe can get a picture with the losing maid, a priviledge normally paid for. However, if the maid wins, the customer is punished. Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy, right?
WRONG!
Admittedly, the guy tried hard. He lost by one or two bites, but when he got up, his cheeks were definitely channeling some chipmunk. The maid on the other hand, somehow managed to combine pancake-gorging with dainty elegance. Must be a maid secret power. By this time, we had recieved a call from the other cafe, and we were settling up. Most of us were looking back at the antics going on with the losing customer and the maid with sort of casual interest, mostly because there were making some noise. Suddenly, we were treated to perhaps the funniest sight of my Tokyo experience:
As punishment for losing the pancake game, the maid got to BITCH-SLAP the customer!!!
That got a rise out of the rest of the customers, as well as the gaijin about to leave. I don't know if there was some pent-up aggression behind that slap, but it was loud.
We headed around the corner to the other maid cafe, Mefle. By this time, Jon and crew had to jet, so it was up to Ian and I to troop on. Ian was a bit reluctant, but I was determined to try at least one more place. We made out way to the cafe, and were treated to a much more authentic experience. At the risk of sounding too lecherous, I enjoyed myself and have pics to prove it.
Afterwards, having completed that holiest of rituals, we started to explore Akihabara with renewed vigour. For me, that meant hitting up some of the local hobby stores. While I didn't find what I had come to look for, I ended up with some neat stuff to make my Marui M4 more "tacticool", while Ian managed to flesh out his soundtrack collection even more. As night fell, we headed back to the hotel.
It was not for sleep though, at least not yet. Tired as we were, the night was still young. So after a brief rest at the hotel, we searched out a local izakaya (bar). After 2 jumbo-sized beers, and some good izakaya-chow, we ended the night full and slightly sauced. I'll admit that the otaku in me was still ultimately unsatisfied with my foray in Akihabara, and the beer allowed me to voice my conviction to return there and buy something outstandly geeky, a souveneir par excellence of my time in otaku-Mecca. For now though, we called it a night relativly early, determined to get the most out of our last day...
Pictures Here.
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