EPT
Day 4
I'm sure many of you have heard of Akihabara, the geek-culture mecca of Japan. The streets here are lined with arcades, electronics stores, maid cafes, and stores selling all sorts of anime-related wares.
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Anime related.
I've seen arcades and manga/doujin stores at places outside of Akihabara, but it was the first time I've seen such a high concentration of them. There were two 'Club Sega' arcades (many of them Eva-themed) located on the same city block, with only two or three other small stores in between them, and I think I counted five 'Club Sega's on the same street on a map.
The arcades were more spacious (and smoky) inside than I would have expected. They were also packed with people. Especially popular were these Gundam EXTREME VS games, which people were lining up to play. The game even had a neat little replay system: replay data would be stored on personal cards that players insert into the arcade machine when they play, and then they can insert the card into a separate replay-viewing machine to watch in between games.
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Guy analyzing his replay.
Some of the arcades even had machines for IdolMaster RPGs, (what looked like) VNs, and quiz games. To attract the females, most arcades had a floor dedicated for those photo-booth things, and they were surprisingly popular. The first floor (and sometimes second) is always those damnable UFO Catchers. Prizes ranged from candy to mugs to full-blown figurines. I loitered for a bit on these floors, hoping to see a local get lucky, but I didn't get to see anyone win anything.
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UFO Catcher prize bag. Don't give up and keep on whoring those 100yen coins!
Beyond the arcades were the countless manga, doujin, figurine and hobby shops. Popular series seemed to be Infinite Stratos, Shinryaku! Ika Musume and Puella Magi Madoka Magica, judging from the number of posters, signs, and displays. I also saw AnoHana, Nichijou, Hanasaku Iroha, Yuru Yuri, and Black Rock Shooter being advertised a lot. Of the mediums, I enjoy manga the most, so it was a bit disappointing to see all of the mangas being sold be shrink-wrapped. Then again, even if I could open them they'd be useless to me since I can't read Japanese... Regardless, I walked through all the levels of the stores I did enter, even stumbling into some hentai/yaoi floors (enter the floor of a manga store that has only women patrons? Expect BL). The only thing I bought was a Reitaisai SP2 catalog for Sunday, then headed back home for dinner.
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I bought my Reitaisai catalog here, on the top floor, which was filled to the fucking brim with R18 material
For dinner I headed to a restaurant called Red Book, which an english-speaking local recommended to me. When I got to the restaurant I thought the local pulled a fast one on me because the place was devoid of customers. This being the only recommendation I could get after 10-15 minutes of asking around, however, I decided to go with it. It ended up being a good recommendation; the food (I got chicken curry) was good, and the chef, Ryo, was a really friendly guy.
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Ryo.
Hailing from Yamanashi, Ryo was an interesting guy who I felt had a lot of things he wanted to say. English was not his strong suit, but thankfully he was armed with his smartphone (with a case that made it look like a cassette). He spoke of how Tokyo-ites became 'dim' because they only lived in the city and lamented about how kids didn't recognize what a cassette was anymore. I was excited to find out that he was the guitarist of the post-rock band Qii. I mentioned bands like Mono, té, Toe, and Ryo told me his favorites 54-71 and downy, as well as his friend's bands, Lite, mouse on the keys, and COMBOPIANO. Ryo felt that while post-rock is big in Japan, it's not as big and financially viable as it is in America. He had actually planned a trip to New York last year, which was cancelled abruptly due to the earthquake. We talked for a bit more after I finished my meal, and then we parted ways, wishing each other luck.
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