First Day in Tokyo- Part 1 (Akihabara)

Nerd Mecca

Akihabra, also known as Electric Town, is a world famous electronics commercial hub and, coincidentally, is the nerd Mecca. Here, one can find any manner of gadget or gizmo imaginable and beyond, all at a reasonable price, of course. If that isn't enough to catch the attention of any geek or nerd, then the piles upon piles of anime, manga, and scantily clad cartoon figurines is sure to do the trick. For those who are not familiar with anime or manga, please let me enlighten you. Manga, the japanese word for cartoon, refers to the vast library of Japanese comics, ranging in subject matter from cutsie stories about high school romance, to ink intensive, bloody swordsman stories, to page-turning motorcycle adventures, to disturbingly graphic cartoon pornography. Anime, as you may have already guessed, comes from the English word animation, and refers to animated manga, also covering all the aforementioned content. There are many American geeks who are infatuated with Japanese manga and anime, but the population is relatively small in the states. In Japan, industry of anime and manga is a booming one, and any convenience store has a wide selection of popular, pulp manga readily available. Needless to say, hearing about all these wonderfully nerdy things being concentrated into one easy to access place, I decided to make Akihabara my first destination in Japan. (Under the guise of needing a cloth for my new camera lense.)

Tokyo! Oh boy!

So, the day began with an early departure from Omiya. My roomate, Matt, and I packed our bags and left giddily and filled to the brim with excitement. Tokyo! Oh boy! One of the biggest, most fast-paced cities in the world was at our fingertips and we were eager to explore. Matt's Japanese is considerably better than mine, so fortunately, navigating the trains to Tokyo was a painless endeavor, and we were there in no time.

Gamers

We emerged from the Akihabara train station into the sun-baked streets of Tokyo. Filled with anticipation and eager to see if Akihabara lived up to its reputation, I was happily surprised to find, not 50 steps from the station entrance, a huge mob of nerds gathered on the streets. Each was hunkered over a portable game device. Moving in closer to see what all the fuss was about, we soon realized that the congregation was actually a system of network games, with each gamer connected to a few of his nerd brethren via the infrared sensor on their handheld games. I came to find nerds, and nerds I found. Never before have I seen anything like this.

Outside Akihabara Station

Sega

We ventured onward to the technology quarter, or Electric Town. After walking on for a few blocks, I began to start wondering if we had perhaps gone the wrong way. But upon reaching the next major intersection, we discovered a huge, seven story, Sega arcade and knew we must be getting close. Already starting to feel the heat taking its toll on us, we decided a visit to an air conditioned arcade would probably be a good idea. Inside, we found (surprise surprise) countless crane games on the first few floors. Unfortunately, my photographic expedition in the arcade was short-lived, as I was asked to put my camera away (extremely politely, of course) by the arcade staff. This is unfortunate because there were very many interesting game machines up in the higher floors of the arcade. Some games require the gamer to have their own deck of magnetized character cards (think Pokemon or Magic cards), which are placed on a table-like game surface. The gameplay is then controlled by introducing new cards and moving the cards to different positions on the playing area. The coolest one I saw was a soccer version of this, with up to twenty players able to play one game simultaneously. The entire game was displayed on a large screen up in front of all of the machines.

Matt loves crane games

Here is the nice young man who notified me that
photography was not allowed

AHHHHH!

After throwing a few hundred yen away at the arcade, Matt and I decided to move onward, as we had not yet penetrated the heart of Akihabara. A few blocks further, we found ourselves wading through crowds, and began to see more and more manga shops, maid cafes, and electronics outlets. The moment I saw a grown man walk by dressed as a school girl, I knew we had found our destination.

Old School

You can see a maid in the lower left hand corner there

These pictures do not communicate how huge everything is

There were many places to see and visit on the main drag. However, any savvy traveler knows that the real attractions, the authentic locales, are found tucked away in side streets and alleys. In most cases, one must search and seek out the hidden treasures. That is the reward for the earnest traveler. So we ventured into the noisy, crowded, ungodly hot alleys of the electronics quarter, taking a deep breath before diving in. The chatter of voices mixing with the cries of street hawkers in front of every business filled the air and created the soundtrack for the streets. Megaphones and loudspeakers offered every deal and product available. Brightly colored signs, posters, and advertisements covered in kanji and kana attracted they eye at every turn. The excitement permeated from the streets like the heat from the asphalt.

Welcome to Asia

We ran into another American

How was I to find something as simple as a lense cloth in all of this frenzied chaos? "Well we could check in there," Matt said, pointing at a small corner shop with a picture of a camera the size of a car posted out front. The shop was like a clown car of merchandise. The size of a foot locker, it was filled with several rows of shelves and glass cases, all chock full of every kind of photographing device you could shake a stick at. Lenses that see far, lenses that see close, x-ray lenses, lenses that do nothing at all. I was astounded at the collection as I squeezed through the narrow aisles, past sweaty bargain seekers, and around blind corners. After circling around the store twice and finding every camera accessory but the simple lense cloth, I opted to attempt communicating with the staff over taking another lap around the shop. After feebly attempting to ask for a lense cloth in Japanese and recieving a "Jeez this guy is hopeless" look from the store clerk, I pulled out my camera and performed the universal sign for "clean the camera lense" with an invisible cloth in my hand. I've been getting by so well on these "universal" signs that I've actually been considering throwing out my Japanese phrase book and dictionary.

Yes this is real

My attempt at communication was successful, and within minutes I was happily on my way, the proud new owner of a lense cloth. Back on the street and wandering to our next destination, my attention was suddenly captivated by a loud, high pitched squealing overhead. Bewildered, I looked up and was greeted with a most unexpected sight; a Japanese french kitten maid with a megaphone, backed by two mannequin maids. What could I do but frantically struggle with my camera bag, rip my camera out of its case, and start snapping pictures of such a sight. She was calling out, in the hyper cute, dog whistle pitch cry used by Japanese women to attract mates. She was calling all nerds. "Come drink over priced coffee and ogle your french maid waitress you desperate nerds!" she cried. Being a professional, however, she was kind enough to to pose for me and make a very cute little heart shape symbol with her hands. Realizing that this was, in fact, a secret message to me, and me alone, that she was hopelessly in love with me, having seen me approach on the street, I decided that we were going to visit a maid cafe. "Dude we gotta go, man!" I told Matt. After convincing him that visiting a maid cafe is one of those quintessential Japanese experiences, and that I was feeling faint from the heat, we strolled right into the dark entryway of the building, where a Japanese french maid ushered us into an elevator and punched the button for the 2nd floor.

Oh, Japan

Sadly, maid cafes, which abound in Akihabara, make their money off of these innocent girls, and I was not allowed to take any pictures, for free, in the establishment. Honestly though, I don't think it is much of a loss for you, reader. The cafe was remarkably unremarkable, the decor aspiring to give the customers a "classic, brick garden cafe" ambiance, but failing to do so. It came off as a cheap, bare bones set up that hinted the owner of the establishment knows such an establishment can't last too long, so it's probably not worth investing too much money in. Customers can pay 500 yen for a thumbnail sized photo of themselves with a maid, or can pay 1500 yen for a short DVD of themselves reading a script alongside a maid in a staged conversation. It was incredibly touristy and super cheesy. Either way, I bought my seven dollar glass of ice coffee without complaint, and enjoyed the performance given by our maid waitress, in which she used her powers of cuteness to perform maid magic on our drinks, rendering them more delicious. It was fun, and I'm glad I checked it out, but I couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed that the whole atmosphere was a little more "cute" and a little less, how would you put it.. "scandalous." (Those of you who have ever visited a Hooters may reserve your judgement now.) Although, maybe I'm better off for it.

The highlight of the day was when Matt, upon noticing our server's Pokeball attached to her bag, challenged her to a Pokebattle (yes, he owns one too), right there in the middle of the cafe. We had a good laugh over the incident later on, realizing that nowhere else on earth, could we have had an impromptu Pokebattle with our Japanese french maid waitress over a cup of coffee. I love Japan.


Stay tuned for Part 2... Shibuya