Day 13 - Tokyo - Adelaide Spends All Her Money...

Today was a full on day of shopping, I'm going to be honest. Akihibara is Tokyo's electric town, blocks full of technology and animation stores. It's pretty much mine and Dylan's version of heaven - anime for me, cameras, computers and various gadgets for him. After Akihabara we visited Diver City, called Daiba in Japan, a shopping centre on the wharf, across the rainbow bridge.

We were dissapointed to find a lack of snow when we awoke this morning, as the weather forecast had given us hope of *possible* falls in the early hours, but the universe did not deliver. Getting up at the normal time, we went on down to try the other restaurant annexing the hotel for breakfast. There was an improvement in the offerings, laid out as a little buffet. Dylan chose some eggs, a weird pasta dish and some mini croissants, while I had jam bread. I only realised after I'd finished eating that there was a toaster. Whoops. The coffee was alright too, though Dylan seemed to enjoy it more than I. So, as a breakfast option, that place was not bad.

Breakfast!

We set off soon after, and stepped out into blistering wind. The mild two digit days of Tokyo are over, and the age of cold days accentuated by wind have begun. Luckily I had prepared for this and worn many layers. It was still damn cold though. I got a pizza man to warm myself up as we walked to Shibuya station. The trip to Akihabara is simple, but a bit of a journey. Tokyo is a mind boggling city, and traveling between the major stations of the city can take 15-20 minutes, because the city is just that vast. The Kiwi bartender at Hiroshima had described Tokyo as a whole bunch of cities linked together by the train, and he was right. Akihabara is just past Tokyo on the Yamanote line, and took us about 25-30 minutes to get to. Once we came out of the station, we were re-blasted by the wind, and struck by the amount of stores and advertisements. The district is very colourful, all the buildings advertising their various floors worth of product.We quickly entered our first store, marveling at the wide range of strange LED lights, figurines, and cable...things.

Making our way from shop to shop, trecking up staircase after staircase, I finally found my favourite anime shop, where I had brought two figurines last time. I bought another three. Before you groan Bri and Sophie, two of them are small and are not in a bulky box. So, ha. Each shop offered the same array of the popular anime knick knacks, with their own flairs. It was a lot of fun to wander through each aisle and plainly see what was popular. At a few technology shops we saw second hand phones and iPads, but were unsure about the usability in Australia. It was interesting to see the big market they have for recycling phones. In these days where you can get a new plan every year, it's unsurprising that the iPhones from 4 or 5 years ago are now abundant in these sorts of stores. Dylan also had a great time admiring all the camera lenses, and expressing how much Nathan would absolutely love these stores. Seriously Nathan, you should consider a trip here. You'd spend all day in Akihabara! I picked up an Attack on Titan folder from yet another store, and the lady let us lucky dip a badge, I got one with a cute face on it, and Dylan got one that said 'Beauty'. He loves it.

And there was a whole nother shop behind this, packed from wall to wall..

So tempted to buy one, only 60 bucks

Retail therapy

We reached one particular 'hobby' store that had upwards of 5 levels of just anime stuff, and it was amazing. Dylan stumbled across a foot high Master Chief figure that he was very tempted to buy, despite it being somewhat expensive. His dreams were crushed however when the guy told us it wasn't actually on sale, just on display. Turns out you can buy them online, which we might investigate when we get home. I found even more Attack on Titan stuff on another level and got a pencil case. It's going to be super awkward if I end up not going to uni this year, because I've brought all this cool stationary.

By this point the time had flown by, and it was about 2pm, and we decided to leave for Daiba. The trip to Daiba was about 20-25 minutes, and involved backtracking on the Yamanote line to Shimbashi and switching to the Yurikamome line. The Yurikamome line runs from Shimbashi to Toyosu, and is Tokyo's first fully automated transit line. It goes across the Rainbow bridge to Daiba city, providing excellent views of the city, if you're able to get a clear view. Diver city is a short walk from the station, and is a bit of a tourist attraction for the huge Gundam Robot out the front. We entered the shopping centre and I looked on the store guide to find the Maid Cafe I went to last time with Bri and Sophie. It was still there, on the 6th floor. Maid cafes are like regular cafes, but everything has a kawaii level of over 9000. The waitresses gave us cat ears to wear, and magic spells to make our meals delicious. We ate some curry rice with Ginger ale and Melon soda, and then had some chocolate parfaits shaped like bears. Maid cafes can be an interesting experience, and they're just classic Japan. If you can find a non-creepy one, they're fun to go to.

Nearly had it!

The view of tokyo from the bay was really cool

Centre Security sure is getting high-tech these days

One of Adelaide favourite photos

Kawaii~~!

 Upon leaving we decided to wander the floors of the shopping centre, and spotted one of the huge game stations that are popular in Japan, and they had bowling. We decided to go on in for a round or two. The first game went very well, and I won by only a small margin. To my frustration however, I completely slipped in the next two games and was failing epically. Either way, it was fun, and only 3500 yen for three games.

History is written by the victors... and I call lies! (Dylan)

Once we got back outside it was 5pm, and we considered going on the ferris wheel before the cold of outside convinced us it was probably just time to go home. Dylan stopped for a few pictures of the city before we got back on the train to Shimbashi. The train was packed, as it was rush hour, and our personal space bubbles were very much invaded. We decided to go back to the hotel to drop my purchases and do some urgent sink laundry before heading out again for dinner.

Sunset was quite nice when we came out

Looks like we left at the right time - they were letting in a cruise, 5 people at a time

Some Japanese architecture - pretty impressive

The rainbow bridge with the Japan sky needle

DSLR pano I snapped up (lack of Addy's iPhone), turned out much better than I expected

Every available surface was being used

With laundry completed and most of this post written, we went out for dinner. We'd spied a British Pub but looked a little shady from out the front. After doing a few blocks with no luck, an watching a very drunk lady fall over a few times - we figured we'd give in and go there. The place was actually quite large underneath, and had at least 12 serving staff working. It was well themed, and a Premier League game was being streamed on all the TVs that dotted the place. Dylan ordered a burger, while I got some delicious fish and chips. As both were lacking in size, we followed up with a pizza which hit the spot, both washed down with a pint of draft beer. It was a little late after we'd finished, so we turned in for the night.

Tomorrow, we'll be going to Asakusa and go to the Tokyo Sky Tree. Until then, Goodnight!