Our next stop is Akihabara 秋叶原--the world's famous electric Town. Once we came out of the station, it seemed as if we were on a different planet.
There are hundreds of blocks of electronics buildings in this area. You just don't know where to start.
The building in blue is Sofmap, one of the major stores which operate dozens of branches in Akihabara area. Each one has 7 to 8 floors with each floor specialising in different section e.g. computers, camera, TV, appliances etc. Just imagine each floor in every building is about 5 times bigger than your local high street shop (for UK that would be your local Dixons and US will be Bestbuy), and there are hundreds of such buildings in Akihabara. You could spend a whole day in just one building.
We started our journey in Sofmap. Simon was busy checking out the prices of the memory cards. I think it turned out to be more expensive than UK (because of the exchange rate at the time)
Manga mania. You can tell how much the Japanese love their manga by the fact that there are areas in every building devoting to these comic books.
Simon was testing the PS3. Does he understands Japanese?
The toilets in Japan are so technologically advanced with many features rarely seen outside the country that I feel I must talk about them over here. These unique functions include heated seats; water jet with warm water ( The water jet's position can be controlled as well as the spray pattern, on some models there is one button for men and the other button for women); the seat is raised with a button ( the cover of the toilet could rise automatically upon entering the bathroom); butt air dryer after the cleaning; magic button for women which produces the sound of flushing water so that others can't hear any embarrassing sounds ( How considerate!)
These toilets are apparently quite expensive but are commonly used in normal household.
Maid-cafés outnumber standard cafés in Akihabara. That's why you will see loads of manga-style maids standing on the streets to distribute flyers. In maid-cafés, the costumed young ladies serve tea and cakes. They typically shriek 'Welcome home, master!' when customers enter the door and they serve customers as if they are their masters.
We planned to try this one of the most popular maid-cafés in Akihabara-- @home Café-4th-7th floors Mitsuwa bldg. 1-11-4 Sotokanda, Akihabara station exit 3 (http://www.cafe-athome.com/)
We went to possibly 6th floor and decided to give it a miss. We were not too keen at the first place plus we found that there were extra fees per person on top of the already quite expensive tea and cakes, but the place was packed with young school boys (wonder why??)
Instead, we went into the Mister Donuts not far away. That was a good decision.
I can't remember the name of this donut but tastes better than Crispy Creme for sure.
A whole building for panchinko.
A whole building for panchinko.
We went into another major store called Laox with 6 floors. Very similar to Sofmap. We spent probably 1 hour on the floor specialising in appliances to check everything out.
Boots dryer?
Oh, you must try this. They have massagers of all kinds. It feels so good after a day's walking.
We came across this large sex shop of 5 of 6 floors on a side street. They have everything you can or cannot imagine on sales.
Basically photographs are not allowed. But I still managed to take a few secretly. Shhhh! After a careful consideration, the following are the only 2 that can be published here. I don't want my blog to be banned. What are they? Well, loads of sex toys of all sorts and condoms of different variety and flavors. What caught our eyes the most was the blow up sex dolls. They are made to look so realistic and guys who buys these can change the hair wigs and colour nails etc etc etc, the list just go on and on.
This is the biggest shop in this area--Yodobashi Camera, an electronic giant. There are many restaurants on the top floor of this building and we decided to have dinner over here tonight.
We found that in Japan there is such ticket machine in front of most of the Ramen shops. You choose the Ramen you want, press the button and pay at the machine. A ticket is printed out. Take the ticket to the counter to get your Ramen. This is actually a very good idea. I have to try this. But not tonight.
My plan was to try Tonkasu (breaded and deep-fried pork cutlets) tonight in another building in Akihabara. But we started to feel tired and decided to find a Tonkasu restaurant in this building. We found this one. Haha. We joined the queue at once. There was a queue to almost every restaurant in Tokyo both lunch time and dinner time. Why do the Japanese people all dine out at night even at weekdays? They don't cook? The restaurant was quite considerate to have put a bench outside the restaurant for people to wait.
In the mean time, we were handed the menu while waiting and the waitress took the order. By the time our table was ready, our meals were served. How efficient! Just looking at the menu is mouthwatering.
There is a bell on every table. Just press the button to call for service and someone will be with you in seconds. Love Japanese creativity.
Starter: cold tofu. Nice!
Simon's set menu: 1449 yen. They taste crispy and fabulous, perfect with the sesame on the right. In all Tonkasu shops, you get free refill of rice, Miso soup and salads.
There is a bell on every table. Just press the button to call for service and someone will be with you in seconds. Love Japanese creativity.
Starter: cold tofu. Nice!
Simon's set menu: 1449 yen. They taste crispy and fabulous, perfect with the sesame on the right. In all Tonkasu shops, you get free refill of rice, Miso soup and salads.
My set: smaller version but taste equally nice. Same price. The total bill came out exactly 1449x2=2898 yen. There were not any extra charges. The tea was free. Not all Japanese foods are expensive. In Japan, tipping will cause more confusions than appreciations. They will return it to you.
We were so full now and must do some walking in this massive building.
Below are Simon's comments on the screeens. He can go on and on about them.
Here's a picture of the world's largest plasma screen made by Panasonic. A whooping 103 inches and it's setup so nicely that the picture was so crisp and clear. We were also checking out the Pioneer section for the setup of their plasma and home entertainment system, my god am I impressed. Unlike any shops in UK for sure, the plasmas were setup beautifully. Not just the picture, the sound as well. All the big screens in this section were showing BlueRay movies, only the smaller models were showing normal Japanese TV (nevertheless the quality was excellent as they have done digital for many years already).
The closing time was 10pm ish. By this time our feet were so tired. We headed back to the hotel.
It seems that they have recently re-opened Akihabara as a pedestrian paradise.
ReplyDelete