The Japaning. Akihabara, first glance

It’s been a while desho? Well to be honest, the reason I haven’t posted in a while is because I am a damned baka! It turns out I lost my plug adapter which would alow me to charge my UK camera, so I had no pictures and my posting without pictures would probably make people think I`m not actually in Japan and I don’t want people to think that (instead I will allow you to think I am paranoid, heh). Now, to further complicate matters, I have no intrawebs in my house (well I do, however, the host family makes me belive there is no internet despite the fact they have a laptop and I have seen them use the internet, although more about my daily life later) so I have to tap to the internet from a manga cafe. But fear not true belivers, I am here to grace you with a couple of poorly done pictures and my bizarre ramblings. Hope this entertains you in some way, shape or form. I also hope that someone is reading this, I mean, its been 2 months! Man Alive!

The Japaning is a series of posts I will make to inform the public about my first week in Japan where I was in Tokyo. Its not done in cronological order as Akiba was unfortunatly the last place I went to in Tokyo and it is not consistant at all, but I’m not that consistant of a person heh.

The stairway to heaven. Well its not a stairway and it goes downwards. This is the Tokyo Underground in the evening from the station in Asaka Mitsuke. The artificial stars where a great way for me to bask in the artifical glory of going to the great Akihabara. Unfortunatly, I didn’t get a whole day in Akiba, as the free adventure time me and the other students had was from 5pm to 8pm (although I decided to make this till 10:30 pm as Ｉts not everyday I’m in AKB, although it me be that way in the future.).

The station exit of Akihabara was crowded with men in denim and checkered shirts, also known as Otaku, my fellow people. I was easily assimilated into the crowd (despite my lack of checkered shirts, but I do tend to wear stuff from Uniqlow and thats pretty Otaku).

I recognized a lot of places from the coverage of the Otaku march many months ago. This bridge was one of the many covered places except this time it was not bustling with cosplayers and/or Otaku fundamentalists walking in the main road.  Photo quality I notice is rubbish, but thats what you get for taking pictures when walking fast.

The laox! However, densha otoko was not sitting on his rooftop like in the drama. I felt at home straight away just because of this landmark shop and its 4 letter name. In the afternoon since it was getting dark, you could witness the abundant sea of unnatural illumination in full effect.

Unfortunatly time was limited, if I had a whole day, I would explore every shop. And be asking random people what anime they are currently watching. I’ll be asking random people stuff next time I’m in Akihabara, as my Japanese is improving everyday. I had a chat with an old lady outside the convienience store the otherday.

One of the games on the posters, Arcadia Heart (the one with bishoujo) is actually in my local arcade in Kouchi. Haven’t played it yet in my local arcade. Haven’t played it yet but I will next time im there with 100 yen. The arcade also has  Melty Blood. How cool is that?

Gamers is better than animate. Far Better. From my knowlege of the animate in Kouchi, the shop is made out of fail and is only slightly decent. What I got from gamers you ask? 24 mangas including things like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Highschool of the dead, Getsumen To Heika Mina fanbook lucky star and one of the great manga works of this decade, Doujin Work. Its a shame I had very little suitcase space otherwise Id have bought some figures, but I had to carry like 30 mangas in my hand luggage I wore on my back, itai!! Also got some CDs, the singles for Zetsubou Sensei (im obsessed with the franchise), Doujin work and Lucky Star remix. Its a shame that dvds are so expensive in Japan though, I would have liked to get some special edition Welcome to the NHK dvds.  The “adventure game” section was pretty big and not very well hidden, I need to get some next time I visit Akiba, as they even had some classics like Kannon, it was like an adv game libary.

Lifesize Ayanami Rei cutout, thats something I would definatly buy! Speaking of Evangelion, I still havent got any UCC Coffee, not that I like coffee, but I do like rare cans with anime characters on them. Now, speaking of Coffee, that brings me to the next point, the maid cafe. I nearly got to go to one, despite the massive crowds but then another exchange student from my group decided he had a really bad headache and had to return to the hotel, our entire group nearly returned, but I decided to stay in AKB with my Danish pal Arnas (I’m very sorry if I’ve spelt your name wrong). But unfortunatly, the maid cafe, like all other ones at that time was full up… tales of woe.

Here is Arnas getting aquainted with a well known figure. Unfortunatly there weren’t any maids in the street, cosplayers or Idols. They would have definatly added to the Akiba experience. So if you want to see those kind of people (like I wanted to) the key is to not go on a friday evening. Go on a sunday or something. Ah a friday evening. Go on a sunday or something. Ah well at least I saw…

…This amazing Human Sized Mazinger Z! Sure its not lifesize, but its pretty fantastical. At the moment I am a huge fan of Mazinger Z and the works of Nagai Gou, the man is a fucking genious! I have one more Bunko of Mazinger Z to read before I move onto Great Mazinger. May God bless the super Robot genre. MAJIN GO!

Theres never a shortage of Robots in the Akiba.

Akiba is ever changing, as large construction works are becoming ever so frequent. However, I hear that one of these constructions will be another Mandarake acording to Danny Choo’s site.

I really wish I had more coverage, but I was so much in awe of the place I did ｎｏｔ remember to use the camera too much. I also wish there where cosplayers, maids and other kinds of madness on the day I went, but apart from that I had a brilliant time in the place for the couple of hours I was there. The key is to go with other like minded Otaku people or on your own when you go to Akihabara, as then youd go to all the right places and no one will be reluctant to go to a maid cafe, like some of the people in my group. (What they where so affraid of, I don’t know).

But I apologise for the poor quality of this post, although I won’t be doing Harakiri, I’m well sorry.

More coverage on Japan when I get to it, ill be sure to take a lot of pictures, and I plan on doing a few podcasts (don`t worry , ill make them easy to find and download this time unlike the last one). I`ve recently been documenting a fair amount of events on paper, so Ill always have something to write about. So everyone, have a good eeeevening, despite the fact its only 4 in the afternoon here in Japan.