Akiba 3.33

Today it was the third visit of Akihabara, because the first was only a half one, due to the lack of sleep and the second was only a half, too, after visiting another district.

It started with the exit of the Metro in Akiba, where I shot some pictures. It's close to the Shosen Book Tower, you can also see it in the background.

The first place I went to was the Book Off above you have a picture of the crossing.

On this day I went from one hobby store to the next, searching for some MonHun Gashapon or other interesting stuff, I also went to the Mandarake (there are 3 in Tokyo, in Shibuya, Akiba and Nakano (still there?)). On the homepage of Mandarake it's said, that the Mandarake in Nakano closed in February, but when I asked one of the workers at the Akiba Mandarake he said 12:00-20:00, maybe he understood, when does it close or when does this shop close, we'll see, maybe I'll do my own research, when I'm in Nakano.

A list of some of the stores with no comments but just some pictures.

The last 3 pictures where about doll kits, bodies dresses and so on, in this shop you buy a doll body and a head and customize everything on your own, even the eyes can be changed, they also sell tights.

Well for every need there's a shop to satisfy that need.

Wouldn't it be nice if it were like that... decide for yourself

Which Akiba Ranger are YOU? I think RED suits me.

The next picture is about a restaurant, it's called Japanese King Noodle, look at the picture and the "Noodle King" yourself and think... I would never eat there.

The Next picture is about a gashapon figure, it's from the Dragon Quest series which I like very much the funny thing about this shield and boomerang is what you can read at the bottom "wearable", I guess it's a great accessory for a tuxedo, a suit or so, gives you Strenghth +5 and Stamina +3 but Coolness -10.

And if this doesn't work you should maybe shave yourself, what I will do later, too, but that's not the point, the point is the next picture - SHAVE YOURSELF WITH THE HELP OF ASUKA AND REI OF EVANGELION

On almost every screen in Akiba I saw a trailer of Evangelion 3.33 today, maybe because it was released on Blu-Ray and DVD today, in front of the Yodobashi Akiba a man was yelling something about this and they came and bought it like being hypnotized, I hardly could resist.

Just before I got there I went to the Hobby Off, just like Book Off but for Hobby, Figure and Game stuff, I bought a figure of a Jinouga there for only 1050 Yen, this figure could only be won in a prize game so this was a real treasure.

I'll go to bed now, but shave my beard first and play some Fire Emblem Awakening - in Japanese this game is pretty hard to understand, but if one has learned the Kanji for the different Status Values you can get it, because Fire Emblem is still Fire Emblem and that's good and awesome!

See You tomorrow, maybe tomorrow it's time for a Book Off Tour or it's time to visit the Gozilla Statues in Hibiya Chanter and in front of the Toho Studios, we'll see, stay tuned.

Planning and not doing it, but therefor something completely different

Tuesday, September 18^th

ODAIBA...Hurraaayiiooooo, well not. The weather kicked my something something, I woke up at 1:00PM so no Odaiba today, alternatives could have been Asakusa and the fish market, but for this one had to get up even earlier.

So I decided for... Tadadadadadadaaaaaa..AKIBA again.

I got up at 1:00PM and decided very spontaniously where to go. I chose the electric town exit of the JR station again. I went to AsoBit Hobby City to see, what else they got not just the MonHun stuff at the ground floor, a lot, many other floors with hobby stuff e.g. Gundam, Kamen Rider, miniature trains and military things like softairs and so on. I also used to go into the other two hobby shops, it's kinda hard differ this shops, because the name is shown in japanese and then the word hobby.

Then I went on to find the Rajio Kaikan and I somehow found it I guess, it seems that store locations change here very often, because the K-Books store, which should be in the Rajio Kaikan was somewhere else, where I've already been and the other shops, which were in the building moved next to the Sega Gigo store, confusing but I figured this out, when I saw the sign oy Yellow Submarine (Hobby Shop) and the life-sized Rei Ayanami and EVA-01-Prototype, both from the Anime/Manga Neon Genesis Evangelion.

I went in some other hobby shops, that were left on the list like Animate and Comic Toranoana (shop for doujinshis), just like 2 years ago, these 2 shops are not worthy to be visited, I also went to Kotobukiya again, the same reason like ABC. After that only one shop was left, that I remembered (need to remember the shop locations, because no map was in my pocket), it was a retro game shop, very small but created awesome memories of the 90s playing Super Mario on SNES or Secret of Mana, the shop also got wigs in the second floor, what I think was a bit weird, because it was so different than ol' Famicom/NES or Super Famicom/SNES, but OK, that seems to be normal here.

The Chuo Dori is very long, so I wanted to just walk on and see, what else to find there nothing big to tell about, so my next target was the Yodobashi Akiba to eat something and afterwards to play some Monster Hunter 3G finally with some other guys, which wasn't possible in Germany, because finding someone, who has also imported this game in my hometown is just a bit difficult.

I couldn't find a restaurant that both would have been able to offer tasty food and not being to expensive to fill my tummy, because only had 500Yen in cash in my purse... so I sat in front of the building using a preserved bench and played some Monhun on my own, trieing not to think about food – worked pretty well – but finding someone to play with was difficult, because since Dragon Quest Monsters 3DS was released, they're playing less Monster Hunter and more DQ, which is a great game, too. So I asked some of them and felt myself like some who asked for money - U play MonHun? - it felt like asking: U have some money? - Maybe I should have made a paper WILL GIVE MONSTER HUNTER AID/QUEST FOR MONEY/FOOD. After asking variously, I started to scan the peoples 3DS, those who use a Circle Pad Pro play MH3G, I found one, asked him, he accepted, although he canceled his own quest, what made me feel bad, but at this point there was no return, so we had a quest and finished it, he maybe only wanted to be polite playing with me, instead of rushing away in a rude way or telling me to back off, btw he left after this quest.

I was funny, I had a key quest cleared but now my tummy started to show up again.

A good way to fill it was to go right over the streetv to McDonald's – I went over but before going into MCD I recognized a Store called Hobby Off and I think u can guess what they offered – boiled cow heads with sliced cheese on it... - not really, but as the name already tells it, hobby stuff, figure and some other things. The shop was ok, but not that amazing. When entering I heard my tummy say: Nooooo, it was sooooo close..., but I left the store I think it maybe was: Yes, fill me fill me, but couldn't you maybe find something better than MCD?

After the first bite into 1 of my 3 cheeseburgers I was happy, not just because of my quiet and not any more roaring tummy, but also because of the taste, it seems like it's only pepper, they put on the meat, but it tastes so much better than in Germany, can't describe or understand it. After finishing my first burger I notices many guys sitting there without eating anything, they either had their mobile phones or.... a Nintendo 3DS in their hands and most of them had a peripheral item, the slide pad pro connected to their handhelds, they played Monster Hunter, so I got mine out before starting the next burger and this time no searching or asking was needed, I just opened up a quest and somebody joined in – AWESOME. I had about 5 quests there before leaving, I also saw someone well known, the polite guy, that already helped my sat there with his face to the window, luckily being concentrated on his game, so he couldn't notice me, I don't know would have been, if he noticed me, maybe he would have blamed himself, I don't know how japanese brains work like.

At round about 9:00PM I went back home, using the Soba Line until Mitaka, because at this hour the Chuo Line is always crowded and so I didn't need to change at Tokyo Central or Kanda, but at Mitaka, therefor I will have a higher chance for an almost empty train and a seat – had one I think.

In the hostel I prepared for the next day, because this time I was really wanting to get up early enough and go to Odaiba, the artificial island., so just hang on for the next episode of „Planning and not doing it, but therefor something completely different“ here on this blog.