Travel Journal – Tuesday 15/4 – 08
Well, Lucien will leave today and another guest will come to the apartment instead. Lucien and I decided yesterday evening before we went to bed to go to Akihabara, the electric town, today to buy some CDs or DVDs cause he wants some of my MP3s and due to the fact that his iPod is currently formatted for Macintosh he’s not able to transfer it. If it were Linux or if I had a special program I would have been able to transfer it into the harddrive at least, but even that’s impossible for the moment.
However1, he just bought another iPod instead. We got up around the same time, the day before I pointed out that it’s quite important for me to have breakfast, otherwise I’ll get tired and my attention starts lacking and stuff. However, when we went to Akihabara, by train (it was about 09:30, we didn’t want to experience the rush hour again), we didn’t had time to find anything to eat until it was time for lunch. It took some time to get there due to two train accidents. But we got there about 11 or something.
Well, Akihabara, the Electric Town and the Geek Paradise… I’ve heard so much about Akiba (it’s only called Akiba by the Japanese, you know they’re lazy), so I was very eager to see it. Well, my first impression was that it didn’t seem different from any other district, but god how wrong I was! We had only gone about 500 meters from the train station until we were approached by two Japanese girls dressed like maids from an Anime or something. They were what they in America calls Escort Girls. It’s like girls that are dressed up like cosplay2 and follow you around for the time you pay. You can talk to them, and have a fun time with them and even use them as guide. In the States some of them even are more like “Fake Dates” or expensive whores that you can have sex with if you play your cards right.
Well, now I’m sure a lot of you are thinking if I hired one… but sorry to disappoint you, but I didn’t. They were expensive (like 3000 yen a hour, which equals about 200 SEK an hour) and these were legal ones that only followed you around Akiba holding your arm being nice. We tried to take some photos of them, Lucien went all red and picked up his expensive 2000 dollar camera (yes, dollar). But they turned their backs at him and made it very clear that they didn’t wanted that. I thou, think that I managed to catch them, when my Camera to begin with are quite small and doesn’t even sound so much when taking a picture, and it’s fast.
Yeah, I got the question from my mother how the weather had been so I think I ought to tell you. The first day I arrived it was about 11 degrees Celsius and light rain, so no good weather. Monday had the same weather until about just after noon where it cleared up and the sun came forth so we could sun bathe before going home from the Onsen. This day was all sunny and very warm (I think the signs said that it was about 25 degrees. Wonderful weather if you ask me. Thou I know some don’t like sun and weather that I consider good, but I like it anyway…
Well, I don’t have much to tell about Akiba so I’m going to try to sum it up. We ate lunch at a Curry restaurant. This is one interesting thing in Japan. Many restaurants and bar-like restaurants have the menu outside on a big sign. And inside there is a machine, where you insert your money and get a card. You then sit down at one of the chairs that are around the kitchen like a rectangular horse shoe, and then you leave your card to the waitress and they just take it and soon they’ll come with your food. One other thing that is pretty clever in their restaurants is that water and ice tea always is free, and the first thing they do before anything else is to give you a glass of either and then give you a can with more. In Sweden they seldom do that, but in all the restaurants here they either have it already served or they serve it before anything else.
Well, other than that we were into many smaller electric shops. And we went into some electric markets too. This is like a labyrinth filled with small stands with different parts or used stuff for a cheap price. If you want to build something this is the paradise for a geek, due to the fact they seem to have all kinds of different spare parts to sell for almost nothing at all (like 10-40 yen, which is barely 3 SEK). If you have the time and energy you probably could find anything you wanted in these.
We also entered two electric stores and this is really paradise. I’ve been to London and I don’t know if it were Harrods (Or Harvert or whatever it’s called), where we went to a big department store where they had big electric stores. Well… it’s nothing compared to this. I’ve never seen so much electronics gathered in one house. I think you’ve all been to a store like Elgiganten or OnOff. Well, imagine Elgiganten in Luleå. Then you put about eight Elgiganten ontop of each other… then you have about one of the two stores we went into. And most probably you they don’t even hold more than about ¾th of what these stores hold because these stores have it more compact than in Sweden. And eight floors, EIGHT! Can you even imagine how much it is? It was all from sewing machines to iPods. And you could se the most strange things. Like did you know that Mitsubishi makes Computers, Washing Machines and Escalators? Or that Toshiba actually makes Dishwashers and lamps? It seems like those famous Japanese brands make everything here.
One other this that is very useful here is that we can buy tax free, IN JAPAN! We just need to show our passport and speak a little and you can get it tax free and duty free, which is a service cost of some kind. It’s about 4-10% cheaper, and the prices is already cheaper than in Sweden. Even the things that have about the same price in all countries are cheaper; like iPods, Computers and Consoles. But the PS3 costs about 1-2k less than in Sweden and I’m not sure how much the other consoles costs in Sweden but I think most of them are cheaper here. However, it’s obviously very effective to buy things here, but the risk is only that you get to pay tax when you go trough the customs on your way home, but that may not be a problem if you’re lucky, hehe.
Well, we hanged out at Akiba until about 2, then Lucien needed to head back to Miikos place due to the fact that he was leaving Japan today.
Let me tell you a little about Lucien Wilk.
”While we other was sleeping Lucien worked.” (Quote from Fight Club)
Well, Lucien have been to many countries. He’s from Britain but he’s been working in Sweden (in Malmö) and Germany (in Berlin) and some other countries. He started to travel a copule of moths ago when he came back from Finland, where he had worked for about six months. Well, I don’t really remember all the countries he had worked/visited. But right now he’s on a trip. Japan was his second last stop his final destination before he move back to Britain is Australia. So he was going to Sidney today. And he would live in Australia for eleven months.
Well enough about that, when we got back we met the new inmate (hehe, or whatever to call it). She, yes it’s a female, is from America and her name is Danielle. I greeted her briefly, because I was helping Lucien with his luggage to the train station. So he bid Miiko farewell and then I helped him and thanked him for everything. It had been nice to hang out with him and the trip to the Onsen had been great.
”And then… Tyler was gone.” (Yet another quote from Fight Club)
Well, when I got back I greeted Danielle again in the apartment where she was settling down in Lucien’s bed. I asked a little about this and that to get to know why she was here and so on. Well, I got a little surprise her. She’s here to watch concerts and she have already been here for about twelve days. She had been in Kyoto watching the temples and hanging out with people she had gotten in contact with trough CS3.
Well, we talked a lot and she told me that she needed headphones for her iPod, so I suggested Akiba, since I’ve already been there and seen lots of headphones. She agreed and we were soon on our way to Akiba, again. During the transportation I got to know that she actually knew a little about anime, manga, J-rock, J-pop and visual kei. The band she was here to watch just happened to be Visual Kei too. She invited me to come to a concert with five bands on this Saturday, and well… I agreed to do this so I’m going. This cost about 4000 yen, which is about 270 SEK. But in total to get there and such I think it will be about 300 SEK.
Well, we wondered around Akiba talking and searching for headphones the whole evening. This is when I noticed one thing; Tokyo is so much better by night. Actually Tokyo is a little ugly during the day. It’s all narrow streets and much of signs (but no order really, it’s a hell to find an address here) and lots and even more of wires. But during the night the wires aren’t visible and it’s full of beautiful lights and every thing looks so small nice and cozy. It’s really, really nice actually and it looks more friendly too. The only thing that is annoying is that during the day Tokyo is filled by sounds. Sounds from the traffic, from merchants, from people waving their fliers and the melodies from the trains and the traffic lights and from the busses etc. And during the night it’s the same but worse. The traffic is a little calmer, but now you hear music from every store (at least in Akiba) and there is a lot more of people shouting and waving with fliers. And some can be very persistent. Not that I’ve actually experienced that, but I’ve seen and heard, which is quite enough for me.
Well, after the night we just went back home where we after a while met Oliver and we all greeted and talked for quite a while. We had very fun too. We laughed quite much to all the jokes and all things we said. I don’t remember any specific subject other than we had very fun. We didn’t even managed to go to bed until about 1-2 am. Not that I slept, I watched some movies and then I turned off Linsuss. And speaking of which, I’m sleeping a little more here. One reason is that I almost only have managed to eat about two to three times a day so far, and that I run around all the day not to mention that all the transportation on train really makes one tired.
Other than this I’ve managed to become pretty good friends with Danielle, due to the fact that we actually have so much in common. This is one other thing that I find weird. The only women I get along well with share these things (with Ichigo as the exception that confirms the rule) ; They are all vegeterain, they are considered strange and they are into asian stuff. Due to the fact that I’ve only have four friends that are girls it’s not that strange maybe but well…
Camilla and Signe all applies to this, in their own ways but all the points are filled up. Elin thou, a former classmate of mine at the university, don’t fill up any of these. Instead she’s like me, a little radical thinker than philosophies much and are a little strange in her own subtle way. Well, one thing these girl also have in common is that all have said that they tend to have many geek friends, this include Danielle, by the way.
Just a last note, I’m not able to use internet all the time due to the fact I tend to be busy quite often. Since I’ve gotten here I haven’t relaxed or done nothing. Just run around doing stuff all the time and almost instantly when it seems like the next day will be empty something appears. Right now I have Saturday planned for the Concert (which will take all evening) and Sunday noon (from about morning to dinner) I’ll be at Harajuku and Shibuya. And when I don’t have internet here in the apartment I need to go down to Miikos office and borrow hers or go down to the cyber café to log on into the free wireless that’s around that place.4 and the second time before we go up to our room about 22:00-23:00 (before Miiko goes to her apartment) which is about 15:00 for you. But if we stays around home5, I may appear around 19:00-23:006. If you want to chat with my on MSN, otherwise mail is a good way of contacting me when I see it as soon as I log in and answer as fast as I can.
Well, that’s it boys and girls, hope you’re enjoying my travel journey.
Best regards,
Herid Fel
Tsukashii, I think it’s spelled in Japanese ↩
Which for those who don’t know, is when you are dressed like an Anime character ↩
CouchSurfing, the internet service I used to get a hold of Miiko, our host ↩
Yes it’s free, the name of the net is Wireless, you just need to buy coffee but I don’t do that but they don’t seem to mind either.
But I’ll be online about twice a day. First time before we go out, around 09:00 which is 02:00 for you ((Yes just 2, even thou Japan is 8 hours away. This is because Sweden have summer time and Japan doesn’t ↩
Which is Kita-Urawa ↩
If you haven’t figured it out right now it’s just to subtract 7 hours from my time to get your time in Sweden ↩
Recent Comments