The Tokyo Chronicles: Akihabara
It's finally time. It's been teased, it's been procrastinated, let's finally talk about my trip to Tokyo. In the interest of not turning this into a super article (If I can write almost 1200 words about a cold this would quickly turn into a novel), I'll be breaking this up into 3 parts. Luckily for me, that's exactly how I planned my trip!
November 23rd, a holiday in Japan, coupled with a booked vacation day, bestowed upon me a four-day weekend – a golden opportunity to explore Tokyo.
The days leading up to my trip were a frenzy of researching the best places to visit, figuring out parking, and looking into train tickets. I was armed with a rough itinerary, a general budget, and an absence of places to stay, about what I expected from myself. This was my first time planning and taking a trip totally solo, abroad no less!
Thursday morning started a tad later than planned, and after a short breakfast, I started packing. I wanted to travel light since I wasn't sure where I might end up crashing.
I took 3 shirts, a sweater, jeans, toiletries, and some makeup stuffed into a backpack. In my messenger bag I had the usual suspects; my wallet, coin purse, chapstick, mints, my phone charger, and my trusty water bottle.
I hoped this survival kit would be enough for 4 days and 3 nights, and I could always bail early if things really went south.
I set out for Moriya station, about 30 minutes away. Parking was my first challenge, it seemed that if I wanted to stay longer than 48 hours, I had to call the parking company. I poked around until I found a big sign with a phone number, probably a good place to start.
Right away I let the person on the phone know I could only speak a little bit of Japanese. I tried to explain that I wanted to park my car until Sunday. This didn't seem to be a problem. I gave him the make and model of my car, and the license plate number. Finding out in the end he spoke some English, probably better than I spoke Japanese. I was just glad parking seemed like it wasn't going to be an issue.
With parking out of the way I walked into the station. Buying tickets was a self-serve affair, thankfully with English options, although deciphering the cost required a little help from Google Maps. I hit the 8$ ticket option, grabbed the tiny slip of paper, and headed up to the platform.
Most of the signs at train stations have English under the Japanese, and an English announcement usually plays after the Japanese ones. Once the Tsukuba Express rapid train pulled in, I cautiously stepped onto the train and looked for a place to stand.
Train etiquette in Japan seems pretty similar to Vancouver Skytrain etiquette. I shrugged off my backpack, placed it between my feet, and moved in towards the center of the train.
It was almost the end of November, but it was 22 degrees out, about as warm as spring back home. Because of how warm it was, I decided to wear a tanktop today. Only now was I starting to wonder if this was the right choice. I'm rather tall at 6'2”, very obviously a foreigner, the only one on the train in a tank top, and my tattoos were showing.
I immediately began feeling self conscious. Everyone else on the train was wearing sweaters and winter coats, I was the only one wearing anything close to spring attire. Though even in just a tank top I was quite warm, with little beads of sweat forming on my back, so how they weren't overheating I'll never know. My current theory is that Japanese people don't sweat.
After a slightly awkward train ride, I arrived at Akihabara station. The excitement finally began to hit me, Akihabara was the heart of Tokyo's gaming and anime scene, two of my favorite things! Akihabara Electric Town beckoned, revealing crowds, towering buildings adorned with screens, and a variety of commercials, anime ads, and music videos.
I was relieved to see other tourists, I felt like I stuck out a lot less, and hearing more English being spoken around me did a lot to help me relax.
The first place on my list was Animate, supposedly a big shop for all things anime related. I found the big sign, and walked into a surprisingly small store. As I would soon learn, Tokyo was full of narrow, multi floor stores. Not a bad idea in theory, but for someone with two bags weighing them down, it would quickly become a sweat inducing hassle.
I began to scale the 7 floor building, stuffed to the gills with anime merch, doing a quick lap on each floor before moving on. I have to say, I wasn't all that impressed. There were many characters I didn't recognize, and the ones I did had merch comparable to that you see at anime conventions back home, without that handcrafted charm. Slightly disappointed, I pressed on.
My next stop was a retro game shop called Super Potato, apparently quite famous. Video games never let me down, and this was no exception. It was yet another multi floor store filled to the brim with small isles stacked with games, stuffies, and various paraphernalia from your favorite video game franchises.
A smile quickly returned to my face as I began to browse the aisles, the first floor was full of things a little before my time, so I recognized very little, but still very cool to see gaming history preserved. The next floor was N64 through PS2, my golden age of gaming. It was wave after wave of nostalgia as I looked through all the games, delighted everytime I found a Japanese game I'd never even heard of. The penultimate floor was from PS3 to modern gaming.
Topping it off was a small arcade with a life sized statue of Snake; solid, naked, or liquid, I couldn't tell you, but Snake Eater started playing in my head as soon as I saw it ;P
After a delightful lunch at a tempura restaurant, and a brief stop at a smoker's café (I’ll never get used to smoking indoors), I secured a hotel for the night.
The lady at reception had impeccable English, and I was able to smoothly get a room for the night for about $130. As soon as I got to the room I dropped my backpack, pried off my boots, and settled in for a nap. As fun as this day had been, I was exhausted. Once I woke up from my nap, I grabbed a quick bowl of ramen, and was ready for round 2.
Round 2 started by visiting the GiGO arcade centers, what used to be the SEGA arcades before they rebranded. I’ve never been a huge arcade fan, and I’d hoped arcades in Japan might be able to change my mind. Sadly, that didn’t seem to be the case.
The first 2 floors were full of crane games. I spent a few hundred yen trying to grab an Anya statue, but quickly gave up. I moved up through each floor, doing a quick lap then moving on.
The only other game I played was a Mario Kart cabinet, which was fun, but a lot more fun with my friends back home. One floor was full of cabinets with a flat playing area where people were laying down cards as they played. These games seemed the most interesting, but with no idea how to play or what cards we required, I didn’t hover too long.
As the night wore on, I turned my attention to Akihabara's nightlife. I’d found an interesting looking place called MORGA, described as a DJ service. It sounded pretty cool, I think you can take a turn playing your own DJ set.
Unfortunately, despite their online hours saying they were open, I found the shop closed. Spinning some fire tunes would have to wait till my next Akihabara trip. I was a little dejected, and more than a little tired, but I had one last place on my list, a bar called the A-Button. Figuring I should see this though I walked on.
When I found the A-Button, I was convinced I had the wrong place. It was a small little building in an out of the way area, pretty far from the train station and bright lights of Akihabara.
When I ducked inside (literally, I’m too tall for almost every door here in Japan), I saw a tiny, but jam packed bar that made me smile right away. This bar could probably only hold 15 or 20 patrons, but almost every inch of space was taken up by controllers, posters, books about games, and video game accouterments.
I was directed to a stool at the bar, and ordered a lemon sour, my new go-to drink apparently. When the staff returned they brought me a gameboy and a tray of game boy games to pursue. Now this was the bar for me. Happy as a clam I flipped through the array of games before me and started slowly sipping my drink.
I was mainly looking for titles we never got in the west, or that I at least didn’t recognize. I played a level of a Kirby game that seemed to be missing copy abilities, small wonder I’d never played it before. I then switched to a Dragon Quest Monsters title, something I was pretty sure we wouldn’t have gotten in the west. While I knew I’d never get far in an RPG in a language I could hardly read, it was still exciting.
Content, I turned my attention to the things around me, finding a guest book with messages from past visitors. I flipped through the book for a while, delighted at how many other people had similarly great experiences with this small little treasure.
When I got my second drink I found a book of 1000 must play games. I flipped through the book, mainly looking for games I recognized to bring a nostalgic smile to my face and think, you know that really was a great game.
While I was still riding high, I figured it was time to head back to the hotel. Most magical things tend to wear off the longer you’re there, especially when you’re alone.
While Akihabara didn't fully meet my sky-high expectations, it's filled with enough hidden treasures that I’m already looking forward to going back to see what else I can find tucked away. Now that I know a little more about what to expect, I think I’ll grow to like it more and more. Very little can live up to the grand ideas in your head. Though, I’m ecstatic to say, Shibuya did. Stay tuned for the next entry in The Tokyo Chronicles!
