Day 3 - Akihabara & Harajuku

I just realized, sitting here for the last half hour typing that I'm typing quite a lot. But I'm sure those of you who know me know I can type a LOT when chatting on AIM, so it's something you guys may be used to.

Here's a little character description of some of the people who I'll be spending time with these next several weeks. It's funny & relevant, so pay attention.

Clinton - Also from UH - knows his stuff when I don't.
Bob - Big white guy, maybe 210lbs+. Lol, a good white guy name.
Matt - 6'7" white guy. Hahaha, -insert jokes here-
Daniel - Italian guy from Toronto.

So we're all heading to Akihabara today, so we're meeting up at the station, and by now we kinda figured out our way to get from place to place. It takes some time, but we'll get there none the less.

I brought up these characters because they are just done right funny. Although Bob wasn't there with us, it was enlightening anyway. As Daniel describes it, he feels like people look at him like he's the freakin plague. He's afraid one of these days someone's going to run up to him and say "Godzilla!" lol. Now here's where Matt comes in, he's a freaking giant. So wherever we go, there's always like a half a dozen people staring at him making comments. He's so tall, he has to duck under most signs, and only has a few inches of ceiling space above him as he walks in certain places.

So we can be walking anywhere and we'll see a few people talking to their friends making the neck jerk looking up to tell the other just how tall he is. Or, best yet, they look at him and make hand motions for being tall. Lol, and one better is the fact that they'll say like, 'dege!~' (huge!) or 'takai!' (tall!) when he knows what they're saying.

Anyway, Akihabara is like otaku (nerd) heaven. Right off the train you'll start seeing people cosplaying as maids and school girls handing out flyers. As you walk the streets, you'll find every type of electronic you'd want. We even walked into this HUGE electronic store that just sold everything you could imagine. I would really like a phone from here, but I'm not quite sure how I'd get it to work in the US. Hopefully by the end of this trip I'll get one.

The amounts of anime they have is just glorious. Lol, seriously, otaku heaven. There's not just a small store with models/toys/games/cards. There are towers. I've walked into one or two 7-floor anime stores selling everything an otaku would want. From their favorite manga to the models/figurines based off of them. I just couldn't decide what this otaku wants to buy. =P

So we spent a few hours there and decided to walk around Harajuku too. So we left and headed there over an 18min train ride. Once we left the station there, all we could see was a river of people flowing down a narrow street. It was a sight to see, where people were dressed up as several different things. What they say about Harajuku being the 'fashion district' is no stretch from the truth. There are gothic lolitas everywhere, and people dressed just obscenely. For the most part though, there wasn't much to do or check out there. There were a bunch of shops, but they were mainly geared toward women's fashion. And I didn't see anything from the men's stores that could fit my budget, haha.

Later that night, after some good R&R from walking again for the last several hours, I invited the guys and the girls from the floor above us to my apartment to drink. Lol, I realize, even away I seem to be the host for some reason. So we drank for a bit, and the tall guy Matt got pretty drunk. So we took it to a bar where every dish & drink is 280yen each. It's a pretty sweet deal, and our sempai's who we went with showed us what's good. And so, Matt got even more drunk and started getting upset when we were speaking to each other in Japanese and he wanted to know what we were saying. He was seriously the butt of all jokes that night.

*Side note: There are different toilets here. In washrooms you'll at least have the standard sitting toilet, but a lot of places I go to has the hole in the ground as an option. Although I refuse to use it, if I have no other option I may try it before I leave Japan. And also, I LOVE my toilet. The floor is tiled and for now it's quite cold. So the first time using it I thought the seat would be freezing cold, but in fact, there's a console and it's heated!! HEATED!!! Lol. And not only that, when you're done and you flush, you have two choices. 大and 小. Those meaning (big) and (small) for the job you've done. Haha. And even cooler, there is a SINK on the top of the toilet that turns on when you flush. What it does is it's refilling the toilet water but you can wash your hands before the water goes down. Lol~~