Sunday, September 5, 2010

Official WTFJapan number one! AKA Akihabara.

So this is my first WTFJapan post! And of course, it'll probably be the biggest of all, because I went to a part of Tokyo for the first time today, and not just any part of Tokyo... I went to Akihabara. Home of the following:

Yeah you read that right. It says 'So ronery'. Yeah, I went there. And yeah, that IS a pillow with a cartoon girl's face on it. It's actually a body pillow with her whole cartoon body on it. Those were for sale there. But no, I didn't take this picture, this is thanks to Google.

Anyway, let's move on to some pictures I *did* take...
First of all, my breakfast!

I'm kidding. I had Calorie Mate again this morning, but I did buy those to eat for some other breakfast. Check that artsy shot.

Exiting the train station, we walked right into Akihabara (Akiba for short):

I'm not going to say this district of Tokyo is pretty, because it's not. But it was overall... very interesting. Yeah, interesting. Let's go with that.

Looking the other way, we see:

Exciting Adult Mega Store! I didn't get to go in, but I suppose if I did I would have ran away screaming. An American adult shop is fine, but a Japanese adult shop? Terrifying I'm sure. Filled with tentacles, probably.

We walked into some store, which had a billion floors with different things on each one, but on the first floor I found...

A Mario hat!! Doesn't it look awesome on me? I should have bought that. Ho hum.

HERE is questionable-photograph-number-one. Viewer discretion is advised. But as a bit of a description, it's a mouse pad, and there's a special place to wrest your wrist. Definitely a WTF Japan moment.

And HERE is questionable-photograph-number-two. It's pudding.

Linked to the photographs because I'd rather not have that all up on my blog, thank you very much.

On another floor they had a ton of figurines, ranging from creepy to awesome (Star Wars!) to creepy again. I wasn't sure if pictures were ok, but I managed to sneak one of Godzilla:


And also this... drippy-looking monster:


More weird figures:


These are decals that you put on your car:

Click here for the full-size image.

More of these weird figures:


The reason why I'm showing you all these pictures of figures, is because... they look like toys, right? They're toys, and yet...

The average age range of shoppers was older than me.
I'd post the other picture I took, but I do have some people reading this blog who might be offended.

Some store front:




This was a light bulb shop. They had some cool ones, but it was still an entire shop dedicated to light bulbs.


And for lunch... I can't believe this happened... we went to a Maid Cafe. As in something like this:

I didn't take that picture, this is thanks to Google again. This place... I'll sum it up for you: Girls dressed in maid costumes serving men who will never get girlfriends. There were tons of said men there. I ordered omurice, and the waitress drew Rilakkuma on it for me:

Thanks, girl! I bet her job sucks, since she actually has to interact with her customers. Like praise them, and what not.

Here's another picture:


Now for some awesome engrish! The following was in a cosplay store:

"You can not be wear to try." == "You may not try items on."


The store rules! Thank goodness I didn't buy anything, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to returnded it!

At one of the train stops on the way back to the dorm, I found this Arashi poster:

Too bad they're advertising beer!

Upon returning, Yinzhou had a special present for me...

An uchiwa (fan) from the Arashi concert she went to! Thanks, Yinzhou!!!♥

So anyway, that was my trip to Akiba in a nutshell. It was interesting! But to be honest, it's really not something I'm into. I call it 「見たくない日本」 or "The Japan I don't want to see". But overall, it was an experience! And I did have fun.

Well I just finished my homework, so I'm off to bed! I have a kanji quiz and a presentation tomorrow, so wish me luck! Preferably good luck.

Goodnight!

8 comments:

  1. Looks like Fun!!! You took that picture in the had just to make me jealous...

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  2. If will be an experience you will never forget, looks like you are starting to tan. You didn't get any lightbulbs? LOL Study hard, but still have some fun and GOOD LUCK!!!!!

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  3. I want a lightbulb please??? and not just any light bulb, I want a sprecial light bulb....Nice tan by the way

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  4. I want a light bulb tooooo!! And I was gonna say, looks like you're getting tan! I hate you!!
    I hope you weren't traumatized by this trip. I want to see more inappropriate pictures of the crazy Japanese culture!
    Anyway, I hope you did awful on your test and all that. :D

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  5. Ha ha again looks like the pictures I took in Akiba. Honestly Akiba totally weirded me out but some stores had good deals on games ^^ man I miss Japan so much bring me back a cute Japanese girl! Also, I skipped the maid cafe I would have felt super awkward :/

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  6. Ahahaha the streets and nerdy figurines look straight from a drama I watched one timeXD
    Well, if I'm in Tokyo and need a lightbulb, I know where to go.^^ Can't believe you went to a maid cafe! Wild.
    Yay for O-chan!! He's my favorite^^

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  7. Uhm. . . what the heck is "omurice"??? It looks like rubber toy food, or a dog toy.

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  8. @David: Bring back a cute girl? Dude I thought you already had a girlfriend!

    @Leah: Somehow we just ended up in the cafe haha. Yay O-chan!!

    @April: Omurice is an egg made omelette-style over rice and sometimes meat! Although it does kind of look like a dog toy...

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