Akihabara and Meiji Shrine

Friday started off by hoofing it to my new hotel and dropping my stuff off. It was too early to check in, so I just dropped my stuff off with the concierge and left. Then came right back again, as I realized I left my guidebook and map in my bag >__<

After that, I went to meet up with Parul, a friend from school, and his friend Anmol, who were in town for something like 36 hours. We decided to start off with some sweet, sweet geekery, so we met up at the McDonald’s Akihabara station. We grabbed lunch at an izakaya (pub) around the corner, but they were down to just two options on the menu, neither of which were veggie friendly, which was a problem for Anmol. After we finished there, we went upstairs to an Italian place so he could actually get some food. Parul and I just got dessert there.

After, we headed into Akihabara, which got its start as the used and discount electronics district of Tokyo (hence its nickname ‘Electric Town’). In recent years, it’s turned into a hub of gaming, anime, manga, and general geekery, so the streets are lined with flashy signs advertising gaming parlors and bookstores, along with cute girls attempting to lure the largely male demographic into shops or maid cafes.

We started off at one of Sega’s multi-level arcades and it was a SIGHT. The first two floors were carnie style games where you could attempt to knock a figurine or game or stuffed animal into a collection bin. A couple of the prizes were a little…creepy to be honest. I’ll leave it at that. Above that, things got into more typical arcade stuff: rhythm games, shooters, action hack’n’slashers, the works. A couple highlights we saw included a guy playing a drumming game that was frankly terrifyingly good at it, some games on 30” plasma monitors that were a feast for the eyes, gaming tournaments on multiplayer rigs that probably cost tens of thousands of dollars, and darts players that were absolutely amazing. The last was really cool to watch. Watching a guy fairly consistently get three bullseyes in a row without even breaking a sweat was awesome.

After that, we wandered the duty free stores for a bit and went souvenir hunting, but not much caught our eye. We also accidentally wandered into the Japanese equivalent of a Whole Foods.

Next up, we went to catch the Meiji shrine in Harajuku. The Meiji family has the moderately important task

Ceremonial Sake barrels.

of continuing the longest-running royal dynasty in history, so their shrines a bit of a big deal. It’s nestled in Yoyogi park, set back a ways from the craziness of Tokyo’s fashion district, which was pretty awesome. The trees blocked out both the city’s sounds and its skyscrapers, so you could pretty easily forget you were in the city. The shrine itself was pretty understated—particularly compared to some shrines I’d see later, particularly since it lacked a lot of the bright gold and red that you think of with Shinto shrines. It was still very pretty, though, especially with the ikebana (Japanese flower arrangements) on display.

We were there until the park closed, when the loudspeakers told us (very very politely) that it was time to leave. The announcement never actually said we had to go, just kept dropping hints about the gates being closed, we were welcome to come back tomorrow, etc.

Shibuya

Being that we were smack in the middle of downtown Tokyo at rush hour on a Friday, the metro looked crazy LONG before we could see the tracks. We decided to avoid the crush of humanity, and walk the half mile or so to Shibuya so we could grab dinner. We also got to see Shibuya Crossing at its peak busyness, which was a lot of fun. 

We ran into Japan’s very vegetarian-unfriendly problem again, so Anmol had to go for Italian again. He had pizza while Parul and I split a tiramisu (which was topped by about a quarter inch of cocoa powder for some reason). We tried going for sushi at a proper sushi bar down the street afterwards, but the line was HUGE. That place must be good, as it’s never without a line out the door and around the corner the entire time I’ve been in Shibuya. Instead we wandered out onto the main drag and into another place we passed. It ended up being a conveyor belt sushi place, which Parul and Anmol had never seen before. The sushi was okay, but the atmosphere was really fun. They also had a clever gimmick where there were tea bags on the counter, with hot water spigots at each seat you could push your cup against to make your own tea. The highlight of the night was a pesto/mayo/sardine sushi that was REALLY bizarre and REALLY untraditional, but actually quite tasty.

Tenka Sushi

When dinner finished up, we went our separate ways. Parul and Anmol wanted to check out the nightlife in Shinjuku, I wanted to sleep J