Day Two - Part Two: Akihabara "Electric Town"

Click here to see all the photos I took on this day.

After we had rested we decided it was time to try and figure out the subway system.  The ticket kiosk had an English option, so all we had to do was type in the first two letters of the station we wanted to travel to, put in the cash it said we owed, and it spit out the tickets.  Unfortunately, we got on an express train by mistake, which skipped our stop and went on to the next one.  We got off there and put our tickets in the "fare adjustment" kiosk, which told us we didn't owe anything.  However, we still had to buy another ticket and travel back one station to reach Akihabara.  We now realize how the express trains are identified, so that's a lesson pretty painlessly learned.

By the time we got to our intended stop we were starving.  The first thing we saw on the street was a McDonalds, so we thought we'd try their dinner menu. 

Erin noticed they had a Teriyaki McBurger, so she got one of those without mayo (Mayo on teriyaki?  I don't even want to think about that taste).  She thought it was very good, but we couldn't decide if it was a hamburger or a sausage patty with teriyaki sauce on it.  I tried a fried bacon and potato pie.  It was like the old fried pies McDonalds had before they started baking them, but it was filled with mashed potatoes and bacony goodness.  Erin also got iced tea, which they asked her if she wanted lemon or milk for.  She opted for milk, which came in a little creamer-sized container.  They also gave her another container labeled "gum syrup," which turned out to be liquid sugar as far as we could tell.  The tea was much more flavorful and Japanese tasting than you'd get at a US McDonalds.

Leaving McDonalds, we were ready to head for Akihabara, but I couldn't figure out which way was North because of the clouds and the twists and turns of our subway ride.  Soon, though, we found the river we knew we had to cross and got our bearings. 

Akihabara has been known for electronic supplies and gadgetry since the days immediately following World War 2 when shady-types began selling black market radio parts left over from the war underneath the train station here.  In fact, some of the original electronics parts stores still exist, although they are now completely on the up and up.

We got suckered into a duty-free store by a woman standing next to a loud speaker blaring expletive-filled crunk-rap music...I suppose they thought it was great American bait.  The woman followed us around telling us how great all their deals were (they weren't), but we finally managed to slip away. 

Erin spotted an authorized iPod dealer and found a pair of noise isolating earbuds she had been wanting (she envied mine on the plane).  I put 200 Yen in a claw machine and got three tries at grabbing Dragon Ball keychains.  On my third try I actually succeeded.

There were gashapon machines everywhere, and Erin and I bought several.  One entire store was nothing but goshapon machines stacked three high lining all the walls.  Gashapons are those machines filled with plastic capsules containing toys which fall out when you turn a crank.  "Gashapon" is Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound they make falling.  Japanese goshapons are of a much higher quality than any toy you can get out of a similar machine in the US.  If you've been to my house you've noticed the dozens of gashapons I have lined up along our front window.

We ran into Super Potato before I thought we were at the right place.  Luckily, Erin noticed it.  Super Potato is a classic videogame store occupying the top three floors of a tiny five story building.  It is unbelievably packed with every videogame imaginable that is no longer in production.  We spent a long time shopping here, and I filled a basket with goodies to buy.  I ran into more foreigners there than anywhere else we've been so far.  The third floor was PC-Engine (Turbografx in the US), MegaDrive (Genesis), Famicom and Super Famicom (NES and SNES), and actually many other systems I can't remember...even some I had never heard of.  The fourth floor was more recent systems, such as Gameboy Advance and PlayStation One.  The fifth floor housed a small classic arcade, complete with a life sized statue of Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid 3 and a chair made entirely out of old Famicom cartridges.

Once we left here we wandered back towards the train station.  I stopped into a store called Sofmap which carries current videogames.  It didn't seem so big at first, and it only had Nintendo stuff.  Then I realized it had eight floors, the first of which was exclusively Nintendo.  All the other floors specialized in other systems.

Erin wasn't feeling so well, so she sat down outside while I went up to the Playstation floor.  I found a ceramic white Playstation 2 in a new slimmer and even lighter model than is available in the US.  I bought this for three reasons:  It will play Japanese PS2 games, Japanese region DVDs, and Japanese PS1 games.  I also bought a copy of Front Mission 5 for the PS2, which I didn't even know existed.  Michael, you're free to come play it at my house anytime.  ;)

When I came back downstairs, Erin told me she thought she had seen Morgan from the G4TV show "XPlay" (a show about videogames that trys to be funny and hip to an annoying degree).  She's surely in town for the Tokyo Game Show.

Erin wanted to get a dessert at Starbucks, so we stopped in.  The girl working the counter was almost too eager to try her English on us, so before we were even up to the counter or ready to order she asked, "Will you be getting your order to go or to stay?"  Erin bought a cinnamon roll and we sat while she ate it.  Although she didn't tell me at the time, she was feeling really bad and was just trying to get some food on her stomach.

Something I'll mention here:  I don't know what the deal is, but the Japanese do not keep indoor places cool.  Nearly everywhere inside is hot (except our hotel room, since we're in control of the thermostat).

Once we got back to the station we purchased the correct ticket and got off at the correct stop, but then had a little difficulty finding the right exit from the subway.  The Shinjuku subway station is a sprawling network of tunnels that go beneath much of the Shinjuku area.  Eventually we did find our way out, which ended up being in the basement of the Lumine department store.  Erin was still feeling pretty rotten, so we stopped into the AM/PM to find her something to eat.  By the time we found her something (a peanut butter sandwich and some small cheeses...I couldn't find any crackers that weren't rice crackers...) and she started to pay, she was feeling so nauseous that she forgot she had the money in her hand and started looking for it in her purse again.  We paid and got back to the room as quickly as we could.  Erin never ate the food, but went straight to bed.  I stayed up and worked on this blog and some photos, then went to bed at 11.

Comments

[Carrie Carter]

Next time get a Suice card. You load the Suica card up with money and then just tap it at the gates as you go in and out for the subway/train/metro. Really convient and cool as if figures your total for you and simply deducts the cost.