Akihabara

Yesterday I went to Akihabara, the largest electronics shopping district in Tokyo (and probably the world).  It was an easy train ride and I am getting the hang of using the system.  It was also very crowded and very, very noisy.  In Japan everything talks, ATMs, gas pumps, video games, vending machines.  If it has room to put a speaker on it, it talks.  Top that off with vendors trying to lure in customers and girls trying to get you to come to a "Maid Cafe", plus the chatter of 100,000 people and music blaring from every shop and well you get the idea, it's loud.

I mentioned Maid Cafes, so I guess I should explain this.  It's not quite what it might sound like.  Lots of Japanese people kinda suck at the whole boy/girl human interaction thing, they don't have time for it because they work so much.  Maid Cafes are a way to have that without the pitfalls of actually going on a date.  You go to one of these and a very pretty girl makes you something to eat, it could be as simple as instant ramen noodles, but usually it's a burger or something, then she sits and talks with you while you eat.  She may sing a song, play some silly game with you or what ever.  It's just company for men that are too busy to actually go find a girl to have dinner with.  Come to think of it, it's actually the modern version of the Geisha.  Needless to say I didn't waste money on having some girl make me instant noodles then pretend to be interested in talking to me.

I started my visit by going to what is billed as the biggest electronics store in the world.

Yodabashi Akiba, the foot print is about the size of a small Wal Mart and it is 8 stories tall.  Each floor is dedicated to a different sort of electronic.  Ground floor is all cell phones, imagine a giant walmart sized store with nothing but cell phones and cell phone accessories.  I was going to shoot some pictures inside but couldn't find a vantage that truly gave you an idea of what it was like.  Each floor was like that, and the only thing I bought was the adapter I needed for my tablet keyboard, cost me $6.50.

It's an electronics store but they had bikes, so I browsed around that being very happy.  Mostly it was the typical Japanese bikes, which are very much like my rain bike, the old ladies Fuji with full fenders I ride when it's nasty out.  All of the upright bikes I see are like that, a ladies frame and everyone rides them.  Many bikes here are electric assist, although I rarely see anyone using it.

These are electric assist mommy mobiles complete with kiddie seats front and rear, they run about $1200 which isn't bad at all.

Better shot of the electric assist.

I so wanted to bring this bad boy home with me.  Pretty blue anodized framed mini-velo.

BLEH! YUCK!  Yikes, sorry to interupt but I just tasted the "tea" I ran down and got while I was doing this post.  If you are ever in Japan, do not get this:

It literally taste like burnt seaweed.  I wanted some tea so I ran down to the vending machine, they had green tea and this one, I'm tired of green tea so I picked this.  First thing that I have had so far that I absolutely did not like.   Be warned, this is Bad Tea.

The rest of my trip to Akihabara was wandering around the smaller shops just looking.  The advertisements on the sides of the buildings are amazing and many are as large as the whole building.

I did find some little souvenir shops and picked up a few things.  Then about dark I grabbed my train back to Koto and had dinner at a place I had picked out earlier.  It was one of my Japan bucket list items, eat at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.  I didn't shoot any pictures because I'm self concious about shooting in a restaurant and my assigned seat wasn't in a good spot to do it.

At these places you can either grab stuff off the conveyor, or use a touch screen to order from the kitchen and a trolley will bring you your order.  I did a bit of both.  The nice thing about them is that they are cheap.  I had four plates of sushi, it was as good as any I have had in the states, it cost less than $5.  I could not have gotten one plate for $5 in the states.  The salmon that I had two plates of would have cost me $8 for one plate at Fuji Sushi back home.  Here it was 95 yen or about $1.

I finished the night off with something I hadn't done yet, I went out for a beer.  I first went to an Izakaya, these are the small bars frequented by Japanese business men when they get off of work.  I was a little early and the place was pretty dead.  So I had my beer and headed back to my hotel.  I then checked out the small place directly across the street from my hotel.  I didn't know what it was none of his signs are in english, but I had seen businessmen having lunch there so I figured he would have beer.  Turns out it was a sushi restaurant! but he did have beer, so I sat down and ordered.  The owner didn't have a word of english, but there was a young couple there and the young man had better english than my japanese.  Pretty soon we were chatting and he was translating for the owner, who decided he would have a beer and join us.  We were the only folk in there and I found out he does a great lunch business but it pretty dead at dinner.  The young couple insisted I try some sushi I had not had before, it put what I had for dinner to shame, easily the best I have ever had.

I had a couple of beers and the owner's family sat off to the side and had their own meal, they had two little girls who were curious about the gaijin (foreigner) and I made faces at them and they ended up laughing at me and I had the best evening yet In Tokyo.  The owner kept on bringing me little dishes from the kitchen to try, which is typical in Japan, you don't drink without some nibbles on the side, all of it was excellent and they were amazed that I could actually wield a pair of chopsticks as well as one of them (this was after I picked up a completely round boiled potato that came with some boiled chicken they gave).  I had a good evening and will be going back there for dinner before I leave.

It's sunny and low 50's today and I am off to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden.  I'll have lots of pictures I'm sure.