Time for another tale of awesomeness from my life, and i'm gonna tell you all about the time I went to the street of Tokyo know as the electric city; Akihabara.
Now I'm a big Japan-Fan. I love the country, the culture, the food and Especially the Anime. I have been to Japan twice in my whole life, the second time was back in May 2011. On this trip I had a chance to spend the day in the Anime capital of the Universe; that's right Akihabara. It became the home of Anime in the last 30/40 years, its the best place to go for DVDs, games, models, books and general Anime paraphernalia. My first thoughts on arriving = 'I'm Home'.
After manoeuvring my way across Tokyo to reach the nearby street of Ochanomizu (one stop away from Akihabara on several rail lines) I started my day with a trip to a couple of nearby temples, another must do if you're in japan. One was quite old and the other shiny and fancy, but both were equally interesting because...well it was something new and fun. I then had to use my smart phone to help me navigate to the appropriate street - now using a smart phone in a big city is not a great plan because tall buildings tend to screw up the signal, but I managed somehow and eventually reached one end of the famous street.
Now rather than drone on and on about the numerous shops and buildings I went into, I thought i'd just give a couple of important points based around my highlights -
1) Plan ahead - I had bought a special book all about Akihabara telling me the best places to visit and the shops to go into. This would have been very useful had I not arrived and discovered that the book was 7 years out of date, a major bummer.
2) Maid cafes - these are a big part of the Anime culture and there are dozens in Akihabara to be eat at. A lot of people say these are reserved for old men and perverts; not true. The one I discovered was actually quite a polite, fancy sort of place. Yes there were maids, but i went for the experience, not as a pervert. A delicacy usually found in all maid cafes is Omu-rice = omlette rice. A very delicious dish that i really want to have again, but will probably not get the chance in this country.
3) Kanji - This is one part of the Written language from Japanese. Its the most commonly used form of writing and is used for everything. I recommend learning some important ones to do with shops. Not going into details, but lets just say that if i could read Kanji better, I wouldn't have walked into the wrong area of the shops.
4) Arcades - Japan is the leading country in gaming technology and entertainment. If you ever get the chance, go into a Japanese arcade and try out any five of the games around. I found an awesome fighting game which has recently turned into an Xbox version (its called Blaze Blue) and a similar game for the famous Gundam franchise which was awesome fun.
5) Learn the lingo - I've learned enough Japanese to be able to get around Tokyo on my own fine and the Japanese are very kind and helpful. They're always willing to help and they love a gaijin (foreigner) who can talk the talk.
The last note of importance, for all those other Japan fans out there who ever get the chance to go to Akihabara, bring plenty of money. There is tons of stuff to buy and do and if you have plenty of cash then you can do all of it.
