Japan 2009: Tokyo Day 3: Asakusa & Akihibara

Today was a bit of a “taking it easy” day. Mary and Steve headed back to Tsukiji to get sushi for breakfast, and I stayed at the hotel to rest my feet and not intrude on carnivore time. I realized after they left that I could’ve just wandered around for a bit on my own and gotten some rice balls or sweet cakes from the booths we passed by on the way out on our first day. But I enjoyed giving my feet a rest, and I met a nice older Japanese lady (she was 86) from California at breakfast in the hotel lobby. She said good morning to me, which was surprising enough, but when I smiled and said good morning back, she struck up conversation. She was surprised that I was eating rice for breakfast, and chatted about her bi-anual trips to Tokyo. She asked me what I thought of Tokyo “It’s a clean city isn’t it? Do you like?” and how I liked traveling in Japan. I told her everything was much cleaner and nicer than it was in NYC. She was really very nice and candid - I love how chatty old people can be, even with total strangers. Eventually she excused herself and I headed back up to the room to catch up on my email and read a bit of news.

Asakusa Temple and Market
Mary and Steve returned from the market full of sushi and bearing gifts - savory apple rolls, YUM! We gathered up our stuff and headed out to the train station to catch the subway to Asakusa, a temple and bazaar-style shopping district. This

 part of Tokyo really does feel more relaxed than the others we visited, but the walk from the subway to the bazaar and temple was short and I didn't get to see much of the actual area. The market itself was awesome - very colorful with a lot of market stalls selling various snacks and trinkets. The freshly made dango was so good! Our progress through the market was slowed thanks to a TV crew progressing through the market with a panda statue or plushie, talking to the different vendors and filming quick bits in their stalls. We tried getting ahead of them and they caught up. We tried letting them get ahead and they lingered. In the end we gave up and just tried to ignore the crowd following them and clumping up in the marketplace.

Most of the booths were a bit touristy, so I didn't buy anything, though some of the ukiyo-e prints were really pretty. I did however pick up some sweet treats to bring home, yum yum! Steve and Mary lured me to Asakusa with the promise of a cake making machine, and sure enough the tale was true! The amazing machine is a conveyor belt of small heated molds that are filled first with a small amount of cake batter, then sweet bean filling, then more cake batter, pressed and cooked, turned out, and wrapped individually. It was glorious! I liked watching the cake machine. I would've taken a short video but the lady was looking at me funny as it was, I guess grown people are not normally so enthralled by the cake machine. Further on in the marketplace was another kiosk selling handmade cakes, and I watched that process for a while as well. It involved long handled molds filled in the same manner as the machine cakes, and cooked briefly on both sides.

We finally made it through the marketplace and were rewarded with a really pretty temple. We went inside, and I got a (good) fortune! It reads: 

No. 93 GOOD FORTUNE

If there is no water in pond, so many fish will die in it.

Throwing them into the water, they will get refreshed again.

As there is a barrier against your wish, good fortune does not seem to be smiling on you yet.

Be patient, if you have trouble and eventually everything will be alright.

*Your wish will come true. *The sick person will take time in getting well. *The lost article will not be found. *The person you are waiting for will come late. *Building a new house and removal are not always good. *It is good to make a trip. *Both marriage and employment are good.

Akihabara

We made a short visit to Akiba on the way back to the hotel for our fancy dinner. It's completely insane. There are shops everywhere selling electronics, computer parts, even wires and cables. We browsed an electronics megastore (seriously MEGA) - entire aisles full of mouses, keyboards, laptop cases, etc. The selection was incredible compared to what you find in a store in the US. We went up to the camera section and I found the perfect camera to replace my aging Nikon. It has a fantastic interface, a nice big screen and even takes HD video. Unfortunately it's only available in Japan and we couldn't find any English menu settings. Damn you, Sony! I'll have to track one down once I get home, since a quick search seems to have shown that it's being sold in the UK. After browsing the shinies, we headed up a few more floors to the toys and the rows and rows of capsule machines! These are common in the US at the doors of grocery stores, but only a few at a time and usually selling candies, stickers, or temporary tattoos. 

These capsule machines sold charms and keychains and little toys from anime and video games. I found a couple different Naruto ones, but failed at getting the Pakkun coin purse (it was SO CUTE). I probably should've tried harder to get Shikamaru (and Urahara from the machine I found outside later) but I didn't want to get duplicates, or more stupid ones (damn you Hidan, why couldn't you be SHARK FACE). Anyway, my best win was definitely getting 3 Fullmetal Alchemist figurines - Roy Mustang, Ed and Al! I kind of regret not getting a couple Phoenix Wright ones, but I was out of 100 yen coins so I stopped. I have learned something (not at all surprising) about myself, though - my love of slot machines as a cheap gamble definitely extends to blind boxes and capsule machines. The funniest machine of all was the Obama "Yes We Can" figurines. I got a pink one, and Mary got a green one. There were about 10 colors, and 1 was an Obama in a suit. The actual figures section was pretty massive, but I managed to leave without buying anything, and we headed back down to the street to explore the smaller shops.

In addition to the electronics shops in Akiba, there are also endless anime, manga, and video game shops. It's basically been transformed into the hobbyist heaven, with all sorts of quirky and fetish shops. Walking around here reminded me that I'm more normal than I realize. Being short on time, we just poked our heads into a couple of well lit ones. I could've spent days here were I able to actually read Japanese, but since I was mostly poking around for a limited range of manga related merchandise, my browsing was pretty quick. I'd also managed to get most of the best capsule charms already (except Shikamaru and Urahara, damnit...), and of all the manga and anime I consume there was little merchandise on display. Yet there was STILL crap out for Neon Genesis Evangelion. Seriously! That shit is so old, I will never understand why people continue to buy stuff from it. Then again, I love my Vash the Stampede bust! I popped into a few more stores and mostly managed to avoid the scary porn sections, but didn't find anything I absolutely had to buy. We decided to head back to the hotel a little early to get ready for our fancy dinner.