Our sleep clocks are a bit off still, so we were both up around 0500. Great. So much for sleeping in today.
We decided to take a walk through the neighborhood, and look for some breakfast. It was just shy of 7am when we did this, and the local street looked way different than last night. Hardly any movement. It was kind of calm - like the calm before the storm. The work day would soon take off, and the streets and sidewalks would be calm no more.
Down the street was a familiar storefront - Tullys. They even advertised some breakfast selections. So we went in for some coffee and pancakes.
We met up with Art by 9am, and headed out. In short, we covered a lot of ground Friday. Donna wanted a dietary supplement, and we tracked down a store that may have stocked it (it didn't).
I mainly wanted to go to the Akihabara area, where the electronics stores were at. So we made our way to Shinjuku station and got to Akihabara on the Metro. It was past rush hour, so the train wasn't crowded.
The Akihabara area is the electronic shopping/animae area - large 8 story stores, and some hole in the wall parts/radio shops. This area is also called "Electric Town".
Right off the train, we found an area of small alleyways that led to lot of obscure shops selling radios, parts, and accessories. These were not the refined department stores - just small shops with a single person trying to sell stuff. There were also multi-story buildings with electronic parts of all kinds in them. This is like Vetco times 1000.
Since this is the Anime area, there were also a bunch of "Maid Cafe's" here. These are seemingly innocent establishments where young girls dress up like french maids, and serve you food and drink. They may also break out in song and take requests (if you pay them, of course). There seems to be a cover charge with most of them, and a minimum food purchase.
Here's a picture of them:
Don't see any? There were three of them on the balcony above, trying to get the attention of passers-by to come up and see them. As soon as I raised my camera and aimed it their way, they dived down and hid. Even the maid at street level handing out coupons used the coupons to hide her face from me, to avoid the possibility of having her photo taken.
Seemed kinda weird....but, they do have a cover charge....
We went into several large stores and just looked around. Art's tactic was to find the elevator and go to the top floor, then work your way down on the escalators. Each floor was dedicated to particular items - computers, peripherials, compuer parts, TV's, phones, sometimes office supplies, cameras (LOTS of cameras and more camera lenses than I've ever seen in one place), gaming consoles and games, anime videos.....it just went on and one. Lots of stores, lots of stuff to sell.
(I didn't get any pics of the large deparment stores....)
After getting lunch at a MOS Burger place (good burger), we started toward Asakusa area to see an area with lots of motorcycle shops, and the Senso-Ji temple. The motorcycle part was a bust - apparently, a lot of the motorcycle shops have gone out of business, so there wasn't much to see. But we did go to the Senso-Ji temple nearby.
According to Art, this is probably the most photographed thing in Japan.
We got on the Metro and started back to Shinjuku area, with a stop in the Ginza shopping district. We had to transfer trains at the Ginza station anyway, so we popped up to look around. This is a high end shopping area, with stuff that's out of my price range. Shoes that cost $1,000. Yea, that kind of area.
We didn't spend much time in Ginza - I can only look at overpriced clothing for so long.
Back in the Shinjuku area, we got some cheap eats at Matsuya, a noodle place where you place your order on a machine, get a ticket, sit down, and get served. The food is real cheap - I got a rice with beef dish and a side bowl of soup for around 380 yen ($3.50). It was pretty good, and certainly enough for me this late in the day.
Day 1 is done. Going to bed early. Tomorrow is the Tokyo Hamfest.
Fun to get to tag along - thanks for blogging:)!
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