Unfortunately I don't really have anything to talk about this week... or pictures... so enjoy these Tommy Lee Jones commercials for Boss coffee:
There are a whole series of these, these are just the ones I saw on TV.
7/19 Saturday:
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| From Japan: Day 110 |
This is Akihabara: Anime, Manga (comics), and Video Games (as well as computers and electronics, and maid cafes)
Today one of my co-workers took me on a sorta tour of Akihabara. Akihabara is THE electronics district of Japan. It's located in Tokyo. First picture is from just outside the Akihabara station; it is the Fujisoft Akihabara office (also, notice the escelators in the front are spraying a little mist, thought that was interesting). Sofmap = another electronics store like Bic Camera and Yodobashi. Pictures are pretty self explanatory. I was also taken to a maid cafe, but they don't let you take pictures inside. It's not all that exciting anyway, just girls dressed up in maid costumes serve you food. I took a picture of some that were handing out fliers later on. Akihabara is very busy, and today was apparently not as busy as other days. I also took some pictures inside Yodobashi-Akiba (Akiba = short for Akihabara). You will also find lots of HUGE signs for the newest anime/manga/music/game releases. There is a lot to see here and I never really feel comfortable taking pictures, but I tried anyway. I spent most of the rest of the day walking around, buying a few things here and there, and making plans on what to buy later. I'll definately be going back again tomorrow to do more looking/buying/planning.
7/20 Sunday:
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| From Japan: Day 121 |
"TAMAYA!!!"
Ok, so noone really shouts that out anymore (at least noone I saw). Anyways, lots happened today, where to begin... First: spent the morning in Akihabara, did some looking around and stuff. It was definitely a lot busier today than it was yesterday. I didn't spend too much time here, I had more plans. Second: Headed off to explore more of Yokohama. I started off visiting the Akarenga storehouses that I saw before that are kinda near World Porters. Akarenga, World Porters, The Landmark Tower and that area is all part of Minato Mirai 21. Walking around Akarenga, I noticed that there were a lot of orange cones out and some food stands. A festival perhaps? Walking closer to the water I noticed that there were tarps laid out on the ground, this meant only one thing... Fireworks! Since it was still early, I had more exploring to do. Next to Akarenga is the Osanbashi Pier where a really huge cruise ship was stationed (the Asuka II). I also noticed some neat structures that poured water down the sides of it... I'm not sure if they qualify as fountains or not. Anyways, I headed toward my third destination: Yokohama Chinatown. The largest Chinatown in Asia (outside of... um... China...) and one of the largest in the world. I spent most of the rest of the afternoon walking around here. If Yokohama Chinatown had a theme, I would say it is Pandas. There are a lot of Panda stuff here, including someone in a Panda suit. There are apparently over 200 restaurants, and boy would I believe that. Being hungry, I decided to find a good place to eat. China Museum (Food Entertainment) sounded promising. Plus the outside of the building looked amazing (plus there was a Hello Kitty statue that was wearing a Panda suit). The inside of the museum was also amazing. The spiral staircase with the dragon attached to it and the lanterns everywhere were beautiful. I then spent about 20 minutes trying to decide what I was actually going to eat/figuring out how to order something. I eventually decided/figured out how to order the Panda-face meat-filled dumplings (so cute...) and some other regular meat-filled dumplings (well, I thought they were normal when I ordered them, but I never had something like this before, they had liquid inside them). Neither were quite what I expected, not necessarily bad, but not that good either. After resting a bit (it was pretty hot today) I decided to visit "Panda World" (a Panda museum in the same building, I couldn't resist). First thing you see as you enter the museum are the largest stuffed Pandas I've ever seen. And huge pictures of Pandas and baby Pandas (awwwwwww....). There were a LOT of Panda pictures here, including pictures of Panda themed things in Japan (or the World?). Plus, sooo many of the cutest Panda pictures I've ever seen. On the next floor down, there was a collection of Panda-themed items from around the world. My personal favorite is the "Too Cute!" warning sign. After the Panda museum I decided to buy a shaved-ice-like Strawberry dessert (the line was pretty long, so it took a while to actually get it). Yummy! After doing a little more wandering in Chinatown, I headed toward my fourth destination: The Yokohama Marine Tower. Which (unfortunately), like many places I have tried to go see, was under repair, so I couldn't actually go inside. So I took the long way back to Chinatown, noticing that there were a LOT of people now getting ready to view the fireworks (but there was still a fair amount of time before it would be dark). There was still a lot of Chinatown to see, so I spent the next 45 minutes walking around Chinatown, taking pictures (sorry, some didn't come out that well, and some are repeats, I haven't really gone through these).
Fifth stop: Fireworks! I headed to the place I thought would be best to view the fireworks from; the place I started, Akarenga (plus, earlier I bought a ticket for a movie at World Porters to watch later on). There were sooo many people everywhere to view the fireworks. I apologize for the strange pictures, I was trying to get some clear pictures, but it was hard to do while it was getting dark. Once I got back to Akarenga, I tried to find someplace good to view the fireworks, not easy to do, plus trying to sit so you don't block people from walking through or from viewing the fireworks is hard, and holding the camera up trying to take pictures... kinda painful... but totally worth it. The fireworks were amazing! The view with the cruise ship and the bridge in the background with the fireworks was beautiful. The fireworks themselves didn't come out too clear half the time while I took pictures, but the videos looked better. I ended up moving when the police started telling people to not block people by sitting in the walkways (police are everywhere, trying to direct people and make everything go smoothly). There were some neat things with the fireworks, like shapes such as smiley faces, planets, cat faces, squids, and huge ones that would explode and look like they were 3D (kinda hard to describe). Once the fireworks finished, I headed toward World Porters. The lights on the Ferris wheel are pretty fun to watch at night (it even does fireworks), so I took some pictures and a video. Finally, 6th and final stop: World Porters to watch "Gake no Ue no Ponyo" (or Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea), the newest Studio Ghibli movie. This was probably the cutest movie I have ever seen. Definitely worth the $50 cab ride I had to take from a subway station on the way back home. Apparently the subway stops going all the way to Shonandai (where I usually get off) after 10:30pm on the weekend (although the sign says there is a transfer at the stop I got off of to get there, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out where the transfer actually was, and the guy at the train station said there wasn't anything going to Shonandai... stupid language barrier).
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