Akihabara, Shinjuku and my humble abode.

Hi, it's me again. Here to update you on the events on my weekend. :)

Yesterday I decided to go for a good old fashioned explore around Tokyo city. I decided to start in Akihabara, known here as 'Electric town' as it is home to various gadjets and giszmos a plenty. My first thought when I step off the train, is to question whether I actually took the two trains I needed to get there, or did I accidently step into a time machine and come out in another world. It's that surreal! It also took me so long to get there by the time I figured out where I needed to go. (I'll post a picture of the Tokyo Metro and then you'll understand why...) Everything is garishly colourful, the streets are packed loud from various staff members trying to outdo each other in the game of who can advertise their products the loudest. Some of them even do karaoke!

Akiba also house the most impressive assortment of manga, video games and overall general cuteness!

I wanted to buy an electronic dictionary in Akihabara (Akiba for short) so off I went to attempt a poor Japanese conversation which resulted in success. Score! An electronic dictionary is very useful for learning Japanese, especially to help with that pesky Kanji!

It was here I also encountered my first maid cafes! I then saw my second, my third and by the end of my stroll I must have spotted at least fifteen. Maid cafes employ women to dress up in cute costume, and to entertain their male customers by chatting to them, playing games with them and basically, treating them like kings! I have no idea why either man or women would want to get involved in such an experience, but whatever floats your boat I say.

Maids attempting to lure in customers;

Some other sights in Akiba.

Japanese 7-UP;

Me attempting to win something cute in one of the arcades;

A Karaoke bar;

A trip in the bubble dome escalator;

Shortbread!

A cool old dude!

Manga shop;

I decided to leave Akiba to find out what Shinjuku had to offer.

And behold, the first thing I saw when I stepped out of the station filled me with excitement! For standing tall and mighty above the rest of the shops and building of Shinjuku, stood;

But I held myself back, for now ;)

Some more normal tourist snaps;

A shop window sign that made me giggle. Someone ought to tell them that's not a good thing!

I had only planned on staying in Shinjuku to go to a bookstore which I read was one of the largest in Tokyo and one of my classmates advised me it housed an impressive number of Japanese language books as well as many books in English. Although it took me about 2 hours to find the place, I enjoyed walking around Shinjuku alot so I didn't mind not having time to visit anywhere else. The bookstore (Kinokuniya) stocks some of my favourite magazines as well as The Guardian newspaper. I bought some books to help me revise, a compedium of basic Japanese grammar and a funny book about Japanese culture called A Geek in Japan.

So with books bought nd feeling tired and weary after walking around in the sun for a few hours, a stop for lunch was well deserved. The kanji on the menu was difficult! But no fear as lately i'm favouring the point at the nearest and nicest looking picture on the menu, point, and say 'this please.' It's worked in my favour so far and everything i've had has been oishii (yummy!), including lunch.

I headed home later than expected due to my getting lost a few times, and getting on a wrong train at one point but all in all it was an interesting day.

And Sunday morning brought torrential rain, but luckily it didn't last long and soon Tokyo returned to it's normal hot, sticky state that i'm beginning to grow accustomed too (and the straighteners are enjoying their time off!)

I went to meet up with a friend from Edinburgh Uni who is also living in Tokyo. Deciding Shinjuku was about the cloest to where we both lived, we met there and spent another day catching up, looking around and getting lunch. 

Lunch at a sushi bar;

A street rock concert that was taking place;

Went to use the shopping mall toilets and encountered this!

A protest was also taking place in Shinjuku today, which we agreed was very unusual for Japanese people, who are normally so reserved and don't like to draw attention to themselves. From what I could understand from their placards and chants (one of which was the english, 'no nukes!') I believe it was a protest against the Japanese government wanting to keep Japan's nuclear power stations running. After what happened in Fukushima, it understandable that they might not want to have nuclear sites anymore.

 Last but not least, we took a stroll up to the Skyscraper district, which is one to some of the tallest buildings i've ever seen! I felt like an ant! In fact I felt even smaller! It's impossible to believe building as mighty as this can be earthquake proof. The most impressive of all was the Tokyo Metropolitan Government headquarters. My friend said it was designed by a very famous architect, although she didn't remember the name. This building even towered above all the other skyscrapers, it was so impressive.

Then we headed back to the station after a good day, via the drugstore for some mosquito cream as they'd had a feast on my legs last night. I eventually managed to find a tube with a picture of a mosqiuto biting someone so I assume I got the right stuff. Saw this in the drugstore which made us laugh and grimace at the same time. I wonder what on earth it's for!!

Picked up some donburi on the way home for dinner, which is chicken and rice cooked with sake. It was spicy and yummy.

Some other pictures from the weekend -

The Tokyo Metro system, otherwise known as 'the electricity powered hell' to your average tourist!

Look Dad! There are KFC in Japan! And I checked, they definitely have chicken!

To give you an idea as to quite how many people there are in Tokyo!

I know i've rambled on for a while now, but hang in there! I have one more thing to show you and that's a quick tour of my room.

My bedroom;

Wardrobe over there, and door into the hall which contains the kitchenette;

Kitchenette. Small but just about everything I need, and small also means less to clean! Front door at the back there. Note the shoes, which cannot be worn past that point, where there is a step up into the room. Japanese don't wear shoes indoors, and this rule is not broken even for foreigners! Make sure not to bring your holey socks if you visit!

Washer/Dryer, some cooking equipment and the door to the right also has shelves for storing things.

Bathroom. Again small and compact but it does the job. Shower could be better, it's really weak but again it does the job. Just realised that for the 3 years i've been at Uni i've never had a bathroom with a window so next year I think I would like to find a place which has bathroom windows!

 The mighty air con! A loyal partner in the fight against humidity, except for when you're sleeping because it's really noisy!



So that's all for now folks. I hope you enjoyed the latest update. This week i'm bac at Uni alot so probably no more exploring Tokyo until later on in the week. I'll keep you updated on what's going on at Uni though.

Ps. If you want to leave a comment, the easiest was for you to do it is to select 'anonymous' from the drop down menu, but remember to sign your name at the moment of your comment text so I know who you are!

Sayounara for now,

Natasha xxx