The Last EPIC Journey Pt 2: Arcades, Anime and Cameras OH MY!

The Last EPIC Journey Part 2: Arcades, Anime and Cameras OH MY!

Fri Feb 5/10

Akihabara: Electric City & Anime/Hobby Store Craziness
As I mentioned before we woke up late. It's only fair since we slept at 8am! We got ready and made our way to Akihabara which is known for electronic stores and anime/hobby shops. The two things I was really looking for were Animate (a 7 FLOOR anime/manga store!) and a fuji instax mini camera (mini-polaroid camera). Akihabara is quite an experience and even though I have been to Tokyo three times before this, I have never made it there.

Animate
Holy anime/manga craziness. When we found the Animate shop it was crazy!! 7 floors of craziness! I only bought three things: an art book and two mangas. Chris tried out the 200 yen machines to get some stuff for her friends. At the store, there was a cashier at every floor so you had to pay on each level. I guess it's a blessing in disguise that I'm not AS CRAZY as I used to be, otherwise I would have dropped some serious cash...and paper is heavy...my luggage would have been so heavy!

Softmap
We went to Softmap's flagship store which sells a buttload of electronics. I finally found my Fuji Mini Instax. I have been so obsessed with this camera recently. I love min-polaroids!! I bought the camera and 100 film. We've already started using it and it's so awesome :)

It Was Going to Happen Sooner or Later...
I stumbled across another arcade..actually a few...and yes, I was tempted to try my luck and so I did...I won a number of stuffed animal things and also some bento (lunch boxes). Chris are kind of strange in that we like winning things more than keeping the prizes. I guess we're just supercompetitive and enjoy winning...

Akihabara Yummies
We grabbed some fruity dessert crepes as we walked around. I had cheesecake and mixed fruits and Chris had strawberry chocolate. We also ordered some star shaped potato fritters. They were really good. Chris was annoyed by the crazy cosplay girls who were advertising various things. We were also given free tissue with an advertisement. We walked around for a bit longer and considered eating in the area. In the end we decided to check out Ikebukuro.

Too Late to Ikebukuro
We got to Ikebukuro but the department stores had closed. We managed to shop in the station though. Chris consdiered buying some stuff at LUSH, as some of their products might differ from home, but then decided not to. We bought some clothes from UNIQLO which was preparing to close. We sped shopped. Though we would like to shop here too, I don't know if we'll have time with all the things will be doing.

Dinnnerrrr
Wanting to explore our dinner options in our neighbourhood, we returned to Koenji. After browsing some of the places, we ended up at a cheap but decent restaurant. Chris was pretty exhausted and increasingly affected by jet lag. I ordered breaded shrimp & tonkatsu (breaded pork), while Chris had tonkatsu and curry on rice. There was a very large thermos of tea which we practically finished.

More Snacks
Considering we are in the land of packaged snacks, you can't blame me for wanting to try almost everything. I initially bought things I already love here like Crunky (chocolate with crispy rice), like Crispy Crunch and is made by LOTTE which is a Korean company. We also got those superawesome chocolate biscuits - I'll have to get the name again, since I don't have it in front of me at the moment.

We headed back at home at fell asleep pretty quickly!

I am quite behind writing these journals because we get home really late are on dead tired and in the mornings we wake up and leave right away.

I hope you are all doing well. By the way, it's hella windy cold here. Thank goodness we brought long sleeved shirts, mittens and hats with us! When you see pictures, you can see our hair blowing in the wind...kinda sorta but not really (b/c Chris wears my hat all the time and my hair isn't long enough to whip in the wind keke), but you can tell.

Oh and a few of the stores situated near our guest house are a little mcshady with animated pictures of well-endowed female characters. We aren't terribly bothered by it, but I suppose other people might be. I would still recommend this place to people as it is so cheap and it is clean. We pay 3500 yen a night for the room. We don't have a curfew either.

Good night everyone!

-Sam ^___^