Climbing up on Roppongi Hills

April 25th - (yesterday)

I got up way too late that day, because I was surfin' too long the night before, so it's my own fault.

I almost wasted the hole day staying in the hotel for the hole day, but I pulled myself together - it was the right decision, you will get it later.

I left the hotel at 12:00 and went to Shirokanedai, which is kinda close to Roppongi, which was the main target of the day.

It was tricky to get there, because the subway must have been changed several times.

In Shirokanedai there is one of the biggest Book Offs in Tokyo, it's known for its more than 40.000 foreign books. There's also a café in there, so you can buy a book and have a cup of coffee, I remembered this store from my trip 3 years ago, first I thought the location changed, but when I was in there it doesn't seem so.

After i went to the game and game guide section, where I found a beautiful artbook of Final Fantasy Type-0 - awesome one with concept arts, areas and so on in a very good shape - I went to foreign books, especially the movie section. I found more than I expected, a Making of Book about Jurassic Park, which I hardly didn't take, then I saw a Godzilla Make of (the western Godzilla) book, not really good, the same as the movie. Then I saw the official FRIENDS Guide Book to all the seasons of the series, which I already saw three years ago, but didn't take it, this year I took it and a FRIENDS Trivia book with questions to all the 10 seasons, it'a awesome and reminds of watching all seasons over and over, some questions are kinda english only jokes, which I don't know because of watching the German version.
This Book Off was awesome+ so I will rate it 5/5 BOOKS instead of STARS.

After Shirokanedai it was time for Roppongi.
I remembered: "Leave the Rolex building behind and walk on to find the THI Friday and the Hard Rock Café.", because I confused Eiji and David last year already, leading them in the wrong direction.
So I left the Rolex building behind me and went on until I reached Roppongi Hills, that was confusing to me, because last year and also 3 years ago I couldn't find it, so I must have been wrong - I was - but now I knew the location of the Roppongi Hills.

After arriving at the Rolex building I took another way and finally got to the THI Friday.

I had baby back rips, with 2.000 Yen (16-18 €) for a half not really cheap, but it was great, I didn't regret anything, for drinking I had a Blue Raspberry Slush, it was raspberry with soda and lemonade.
And almost everywhere you get a water for free, which I didn't drink, I don't like the taste of the tap water, it tastes a bit like chlorid.
The TGIFwas so fantastic, I ate here because 3 years ago and also last year I've already eaten there, last year I refused to take the rips, but this year I took them and it tasted as good as in New York 2 years ago.

Envy is OK, the taste was awesome, I could lick the meat off the bones.

The TGIF was followed by a short visit in the Hard Rock Shop, they offered some new stuff, but a expensive and the arrivals were not as cool as those I already got, so I took 1 stop forward and 2 (actually 3) steps back, took some pictures of the Tokyo Tower, which one could and then went back to Roppongi Hills, am mall with some shops, which didn't catch my attention, but an iron spider outside of the building and the Tokyo Tower in harmony with the moon could.

That's all for this day. On the last picture a ghost was also creeping in.

At the Hotel I was so tired, I just fell asleep.

Book Off Mayhem 2013 Part1

Before I start, here's a picture of my current "working place" on my vacation in Japan, and you can also see the treasure, that I found at Hobby Off, my "Jinouga Head"

Doing the preparations for this trip, some spots were only considered because of the aapearance of a Book Off or a small statue, sight, park, event or something like this, so this targets can be combined very easily on one day, without wasting too much time.

Today was a perfect chance to strike some of this spots out the "LIST OF REMAINING SCHEDULES", because the weather is rainy again, as it also may be tomorrow, so 5 Book Off places almost next to each other were chosen:

Kinshicho, Ikebukuro, Meijiro, Takadanobaba, each of these places with one Book Off (2 in Takadanobaba)

A short explaination for this franchise called Book Off, it was founded in 1990 in Japan, they sell preowned books, CDs, DVDs, games, game guides, Anime, Manga, magazines, almost every published printed material. There are more than 900 stores, only a few outside of Japan, e.g. there's one in New York.

The concept works pretty good, because the quality of the articles is really very good, very often the game guides or the artbooks, which are my prefered medium, don't look like used, some seem to be freshly printed, even the games don't have any scratches or so and the workers are awesomely polite and try to satisfy all your needs. The combination off a low price and a good quality of the preowned articles is just big PLUS, so the the articles almost sell theirselves.

Now you know, what a Book Off is.

In the following I will only show you some pictures of the Book Offs I've been to and will tell, what I bought there and rate the Book Offs.

BTW, I always carry my 2 Nintendo 3DS with me, for Streetpass and Spotspass, it's very easy to get 30-50  Streetpass Meetings, because almost everywhere your 3DS meets someone, in Germany there are events needed to get such a high counter. The only thing difficult is to get a counter of 50-100 or even more.
In your Mii Plaza there's only space for 10 people and to meet some new, you have to "welcome" the "waiting" ones first.

If you "empty" your waiting people every 2 hours and 4 times a day you will have your 50 people, for more you need the right spot, just like in front of Yodobashi Akiba or so, because as your own "waiting hall" has a maximum of 10 the halls of other persons have it, too. So you might have met more than 500 people, who's 3DS wanted to connect with yours, but only 50+ in your Plaza because even if you welcome every waiting person, you also need to meet someone, who has not yet met 10 people, since his last welcoming procedure, so he's able to meet you, too.

That's why you need place like Yodobashi Akiba, where many people take a seat at any time, resting a bit, playing a bit and also welcome there met Miis, so your Mii can instantly jump into this freshly empty Mii Plaza, as your partner Mii can do the same with your Mii Plaza - I met around 30 today, because I didn't welcome my Miis regularly.

That's for the Mii Plaza.

I started the Book Off Mayhem (Part 1) with Kinshicho, which is very close to Suitengumae only a few stops away with the Hanzomon Line.

It's on the second floor, they have a good selection of all goods, I bought a CD of TWO-MIX, one of my favorite J-POP Bands, who are famous for many songs for the Gundam Series and also Detective Conan. I also bought a CD of T.M. Revolution, when I started reading Manga and listening to japanese music I loved the Kenshin Manga and the Song Heart of Sword, it very often made my day.

I give this Book Off 3 of 5 STARS, it's good, but there are better ones.

With the Hanzomon Line I went to Otemachi then and changed for the Morunouchi Line to get to Ikebukuro. When you exit the station you can already see a huge sign pointing you to the right direction of the Book Off.

Here it is:

It's a pretty big one with 2 floors, an enormour selection, I needed almost an hour for the game guide and artbook section. They also offered YugiOh cards, years ago I played this Trading Card Game, too, so some good memories returned, when I saw some cards, that I already played.

And right before I was going to leave I noticed many Cosmodes (Cosplay Magazine) and some other similar stuff, like old Super Nintendo and GBA games. This was one of the best Book Offs I've ever seen, I will definitely return again, so it 5/5 STARS, even if I didn't buy anything, just because I already got it.

After that I went to UNIQLO, a shop like H&M or GAP, the cloths are not too expensive, but are not in bad quality, they are good average cloths.

From there I went to the store in Meijiro by foot. I looked at my map app and started walking, I walked for a while not noticing that I went to far, so I asked a police man and he told me my position on my app, so I turned and finally found the third Book Off.

It's a small one, I bought 2 guides for Dragon Quest Monsters 3D, nothing to add, 2 of 5 STARS.

Small one, it smelled kinda strange in there, many books were packed in plastic, to I had to ask someone to open it, to have a look in there, the books also smelled wrong, like they had a water damage. 1/5 STARS

1 Book Off left, I also went there by foot, a very, very small one 1/5 STARS.

After that I went back to the Takadanobaba Metro station to get back to the hotel.
I was weighting all the stuff I already bought to be safe at the airport when I will get back to avoid baggage overweight. Round about 12 kg, so everything is OK.

That's all for now, tomorrow it's time for Roppongi, Roppongi Hills, THI Friday and Hard Rock Café.

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.

Shinjuku added 4kg to my baggage..

Today I went to Shinjuku.

I took the Hanzomon Line until Aoyama-itchome, then I changed for the Toei Oedo Line until Shinjuku.
The Toei Oedo doesn't belong to the Metro, so I had 100 Yen extra to change the lines.

I left the train at Yoyogi station to get to the Book Off which is near the station, a very small Book Off with only 1 floor and a small product range, but never the less I found something.

Then I went up some stairs to the Tokyo Time Square Plaza, went into the Eddie Bauer store, but left it very soon, because the prices were a bit too high.

Then I went streight to the Kinokuniya after taking some pictures.

There I bought some guide books from Fire Emblem and Last Story I also asked for the Fire Emblem Awakening artbook and a Guide book for Tokyo Jungle, they didn't have it there but at the Main Store in the eastern part of Shinjuku, so they preserved these items for me.


At the Book Off I saw a sign of 2 other Book Offs in Shinjuku, one I already knew, but not the second, so I began to search for it, it should have been close to the JR station and almost next to the Yodobashi Camera store, maybe it was but I didn't find it so I went back to the JR area and headed for the eastern Book Off and Kinokuniya.
I also passed a huge place, where many people meet and which seems to be the border between the skyscraper district in the west and the amusement district in the east.

Around 150 m from there was the Book Off, on the lower floor there were stores where they offered clothes and accesoires, like the Suit Company and others.
On the 5th floor Book Off started, they had an enormous range of products, many game guides, games DVDs, CDs and so on, I got kinda stuck at the game guide section and couldn't decide which to take, finally after I guess 1 hour I took a guide for Decidia Final Fantasy 012.


The Book Off was followed by an empty stomach and the will to fill it, so I went to restaurant area under the Kinokuniya, which was only a few seconds away, I had great curry, it was the stamina curry, very very tasty.
As fast as it was served it was eaten for 700 Yen, very awesome one.

There were 2 things left on my list, visiting the Kinokuniya and there shop called Forest, where the artbook was already waiting for me and the Artnia Square Enix shop, which I forget after the Forest but that's OK, so I have one more reason to get to Shinjuku again.

I headed back to the hotel very early today to ensure enough sleep and to relax a bit.

I guess that's all for now.

Tomorrow it's time for rest of Akiba and maybe the Artnia Square Enix Shop.

It's been a rainy day

After 7 hours of sleep I woke up at 8:30, felt pretty good, not as exhausted as the before.
But when I looked out of the window I noticed rain, rain, and even more rain, so the plans for this day were already gone down the drain.

After the breakfast at the hotel I got an umbrella at the reception and headed to Shibuya, Suitengumae until Shibuya with the Hanzomon Line from Z10 to Z01, approx 20 min.

The rain hasn't really stopped, so still motivation up, at least it was not as cold as the day before, this time I've been wearing enough, so it was only wet, thanks to the rain, but not that cold anymore.

The first aim was the Book Off, but it was hard to find the right direction, and also to see, where one got out of the Metro, there were 16 exits...

On the way to the Book Off I went into a small book store, in front of almost every store plastic bags for one's umbrellas were provided to ensure that the umbrella's water can't harm any item in the shops, great idea, should be done in Germany, too.

When I finally arrived at the Book Off, after visiting some other stores to kill some time, because they opened at 11:00AM, I pulled a plastic bag over my umbrella for the 4th or fifth time that day and went in.

I guess some positions were different compared to the last time I've been there, but the location of the game guides was the same, so evereything was allright, I've searching over and over, but finally found something that caught my interest, a guide for Yoshis Island DS, were a guide is really helpful, because in Germany there is no and some maps are really kinda tricky.
I also bought the japanese version of Fire Emblem Awakening. After looking at the 2nd - were I saw some DragonBall manga and had a small flashback to my beginnings of reading manga, I also noticed the different covers compared to the western versions, which I only knew from a DragonBall Artbook - and 3rd floor, where there was nothing of interest.

The time has passed by so it was 12:20 and I went to Mandarake, which I tried to visit before, but discovered they open at 12:00.

I made a small film there and needed 3 takes - ist one didn't record - 2nd one has been recording, but with a swithced off microphone - but the 3rd try worked perfectly, after that I went in and found some very strange things, an action figure of Steve Jobbs, with an iPad.



I stayed in there for a while and went out using elevator, which many people don't know it exists and even when they know don't find.

With the elevator I went up until the 3rd floor to enter the Animate+, it had a weird smell in there, just like apes or so. In the game section there were some artworks, but nothing new, btw. there are 3 Artbooks from Final Fantasy for the 25th anniversary, they got greats artworks, CG, concept and others for approx 30 € per artbook.

Lunch Time... at Mc Donald's, 2 Chicken Crisps filled my stomach.

Next place was the Maruzen book store on the 7th floor of the Tokyu Department Store Building, which was very close to an H&M store.
The Maruzen was an enormous book store, many books and only a few game guides, I bought a MonHun Ecology Figure Artbook of the Deviljho, a mixture "set" of an artbook (small one with 16(?) pages) and a Deviljho figure, a very difficult and strong monster of the Monster Hunter series.

Then it was time for the next film, I took one of the Shibuya crossing and of the Hachiko statue, I had to wait a while until it was my time, but then i used my gap and talked about Hachiko, the people around were a bit surprised about the camera and my microphone, there was a huge circle around me, waiting for me finishing my video so they can go on taking pictures of Hachiko.

Then I used the JR Yamanote Line to get to Akiba and fulfill my plans from the day before, because of the rain Harajuku was no option anymore.

The following shops were visited, Hobby Figure and Hobby Figure, two shops which didn't belong together although the had the same name articles and were next to each other...(?) - Aso Bit City where an awesome and epic music was played, someone told me it was from Space Battleship YAMATO - not yet checked, so I have no proof.

Kotobukiya - almost the same stuff as last year, for MonHun they have updated products offered and something to drink in cooperation with Asahi - THE HUNTER COLA - maybe it will increase my hunting skills..., maybe not, its taste is OK, just like Cola with something added that I can't define.

I also discovered a small shrine which looked like it was added by a program, it was so different compared to the rest of Akiba, like it didn't belong there.

The Bukiya, which I searched last year, too, was finally found... my expectations were pretty high and were not satisfied, in addition I was not allowed to take pictures, the items are awesome but not as high as the price was, thousands of Yen for sword replica which looked very artificial, so I didn't stay in there for long.

After leaving this I saw the shop of the day, although they sold items that have already seen many days, I talking about SUPER POTATO, a shop for retro games, retro merchandise, old game guides, consoles and for sure current stuff and its merchandise.

I can describe this shop with one word awesomenesstasticboombastic, when I walked trough the rows I saw so many old games from the Super Famicom (SNES) or other consoles, I had the old days of my childhood with these games instantly in mind, great flashback, great memories.


There was also a first Virtual Boy, I've seen many behind glass before, but never touched one or even played it, today I did both, it was like a GameBoy game with red and black and a 3D effect instead of yellow and green and that's all, except for the pain in the eyes because of this (only played 3 min.).

I bought the two guides of Zelda no Densetsu *rest of japanese title unknown*... - The Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past, one of my all-time-favorites, it must be played at least once per year with no defeat and all 20 hearts - I think the last time it was under 5 hours. The second thing I bought was the guide for Seiken Densetsu 2 - formally known as Secret of Mana.

After leaving this shop it was already getting dark.
My last stop before getting back to the hotel was the Yodobashi Akiba, where I got a set of MonHun Figures - Monster Hunter Figure Builder Vol. 6, on my way there I saw small show case with Akiba Ranger and also there fullsize costumes.



I was back in the hotel at 8:00PM and played some Fire Emblem, ate some McD food and strted to write this entry, yeah.

C U tomorrow

(Tomorrow it's time for Shinjuku with its Kinokunyas, Book Offs, the Square Enix Artnia Store and other stuff.)