Day 7: Akihabara (November 17th)

We took the train to Akihabara. After World War II, Akihabara gained the nick name of "electric town;" however these days Akiba features a lot of new technology, video games, manga, anime, and some rather unorthodox things that I won't mention (I think my mom reads this blog). Akiba is more like the "breeding grounds" for the Otaku. As we walked out of the train station, it became immediately clear that I was out of place (despite years of watching anime, reading mountains of manga, and watching Densha Otoko). We decided to grab some lunch in Akiba.

Gundam Cafe

The perfect restaurant

Mapo Tofu Chicken Katsudon
(no one else wanted curry)

After lunch we browsed a few stores. Mandarake was the first store; apparently its name means "covered in manga," which was completely appropriate as it had an entire floor dedicated to manga. There were a few more floors, and I won't mention the bulk of what I saw. Troy showed some self-restraint and only purchased five body pillows. Next we went to super potato, a video game store. I browsed their selection of video games and bought a few souvenirs for friends (which obviously won't be pictured, as I'm very tempted to keep them for myself).

Megaman: My favorite video game series of all time

Troy was the one that introduced me to this series, roughly 20 years ago

Chrono Trigger (Mint in Box)

This game, I just rather recently beat it (Completely in Japanese)... it only took 5 years and 3 computers

Woot!

And of course Pocket Monsters

After hours of browsing and walking, we headed back to the train station and found a small tech fair. In Japan all the technology companies have mascots and some every have their own "action figures." The weirdest was seeing Apple's woman mascot, her attire was very Steve Jobs-like.

After browsing the booths, that didn't actually have working models (computers, 3d-printers, etc.), we took the train back to Shinjuku and then back to Chofu. Matt had more manga chapters to translate, so Troy and I grabbed dinner at the local Freshness Burger. On the way back to the apartment, I grabbed a wonda coffee. The coffee came with a small collectible, from the game Puzzle and Dragons. I downloaded the game to my phone, and shamefully played it until I went to bed.