Tokyo 2K1 - episode 4

By Lyndonimus
24th May 04

Well well, time was running short, and so was the hug wad of cash I had started my journey with.
I had so many things I wanted to do, but alas I had neither the time nor the expenses to do and see everything Tokyo had to offer. I'm just glad I did what I did.

Well, after my solo expedition I decided it was time to see Akihabara, a.k.a Electric town. Now I wasn't too excited about visiting this street that apparently had no food or water vendors to see gadgets I could never really want or afford but it was one of those places that just had to be seen, even if only once. So its hot and around noon, the sun is hovering over me like a disowned child and I wanted rid of it.
Being notorious for electric goods I was rather shocked to find such a great anime store. Over 7 floors of pure anime merchandise, from posters to toys to sound tracks. This shop was unbelieveable. Unfortunately I had vowed not to spend any money today on anything that wasn't to be ingested. So sadly I had to walk away, back to the searing heat that was the middle of the day. After another block or two I thought I was halucinating when I saw a poster for Yoshitaka Amano. I stood glaring at it just to be sure I wasn't imagining and sure enough there was a display of his works right here, and to boot they were on sale! Now for some REALLY odd reason I didn't go in, I somehow assumed that you'd have to pay to visit a gallery so I took a photo of the poster and carried on walking. Later that day I was kicking myself, I wanted to see real Amano works. So I planned to take 3000 yen and head back to Akihabara the next day.

So we were back, we had visited the anime shop again [in which I found a cool life size Moogle from FFX as well as some cool Amano books]. After dabbling for an hour or so we had come to the gallery. After an enquiry we had discovered there was no entry fee, but also no photo's allowed.
I was not about to be thwarted so easily. I turned my flash of and when the guard wasn't looking *snap* photo ^^v. Now I must say, some of the photo's came out too blurry to see, but under the circumstances some were very okay. Now I was bust taking sly pics of 100,000,000 Yen's worth of art when Himesh decides to 'sly' a photo with flash photography... needless to say we'd been rumbled and I decided it was time to make a swift exit. On the way out I saw yet another piece of Amano's work, we were in a hurry so I quickly took the pic while the woman behind me was desperately trying to prevent me from such action. Oh well, I had got what I came for, I don't think I'd be hanging around Akihabara for much longer anyhow. It was indeed time to depart.

After a short walk down the road we decided to enter a department store, in which we were treated to a rather cool anime on display on the biggest Mac monitor I've ever seen in my life... this was a cinema experience indeed. Well after getting odd glances from the staff we realised it was best not to hang around. So we played Typing of the Dead and it's Fist of the North Star clone and left.

A long, long walk ensued. All the way to Ginza... Now anyone who knows the geography of Tokyo will know thats too far to walk, in any climate! Once in Ginza we were remarkably tired and very lost, as we had never entered the area before from this direction. Well it had been a long day and every one wanted some rest. So eventually we followed some kind women to the nearest train station for a bloody hot shower and some crazy Japanese game shows.

Now I've not mentioned much about our budget hotel, which equated to 20£ per person per night [a triple room]. Well I thought it was great. The futon was cosy enough, the air con worked 70% of the time and the TV wasn't so bad. I mean in how many countries can you watch a samurai cut down a whole clan then have a laugh at home with his buddies? None. Also their crazy game shows where they hijack a mans car and auction it live on the TV show, then offer him the chance to win it back in a game of table tennis?!
We were also provided with some cool [what I believe to be] male kimono's. I like wearing mine, made me think I was a cool samurai.
Well it was worth every penny and the owner was a very kind man who under charged us [purposely] and delivered us boiled water every day. Now that may sound trivial but without a drinking tap the boiling water was a life line, heh, we cooled it in our fridge to provide us with a full bottle of drinking water every day, cheap or what ^^v.

to be conluded...
next - The finale of my adventures in Tokyo, what I can remember and things I've neglected to tell you.

-- Lyndonimus 24th May 04