OTAKU~

Woke up bright and early at FIVE AM! That never happens. Guess jetlag really does mess you up – although mine isn’t so bad considering how I slept for half the trip here. But yeah, woke up at 5 am to use the bathroom. Then went straight back to sleep. Sleeping on a Japanese futon is…weird. And rather not comfortable. That’ll take some getting used to.

But today consisted of going to Akihabara, from now on referred to Akiba. For those who are not familiar with Akiba, this is a prefecture in Tokyo that is pretty much a shopping district for otaku of all kind. They have stores like Book-Off that sell HORDES of manga for dirt cheap [there’s even a 100￥ - almost $1 – section], Japanese and Western music CDs and movie DVDs, and video games. Then there’s Animate, a multi-level store that sells all kinds of merchandise for currently popular anime and manga and video games, sometimes doujinshi (fan comics). And lastly, Mandarake, the ultimate paradise for ANY otaku. The top 2 floors sell figures of just about anything that has ever been popular, from Star Wars to Dragonball Z to Disney, and also collector’s items (trading card et al.). Next is the floor aimed at female otaku, typically BL and yaoi doujin, original works, and idol and popstar pictures. Afterwards is the floor for male otaku, which includes porn-ish items involving females, yuri, I assume. We didn’t even stop on this floor, so I really don’t know what’s on the floor. I just know half the guys in the elevator got off there when we were going up. Haha. The bottom floors I’m not sure what was there since we left after the female otaku floor. One of the floors did have video game stuff there, I read on the sign.

Needless to say, I was satisfied with what all I saw but disappointed with what I restrained myself from buying. Kristina and my slogan the entire time was, “I wish I had $1 million to spend.” Haha!

This reminds me so much of New York City.

A store full of vending machines that sell you little balls with little trinkets in it. Never bought one, so I don't really understand the obsession with them. I saw some program in America where Americans save up money and go to Akiba just to buy those little things. :-\

Multi-level chain stores.

It really is a normal city. Even if it's otaku land.

Lunch was at McDonald’s – Japanese cheeseburgers are no different American cheeseburgers; but I can’t speak for the rest of the Japanese menu. I mean, Teriyaki burger – WHAT?!

For dinner, we went to Roppongi for tonkatsu. It was rather good, kinda like pork chop. After, we looked for the view of Tokyo tower.

You know when jetlag is kicking your butt when you’re tired at 9pm when you’ve been going to bed at 2am or later every night before.