Japan Day 5 - Akihabara : The Electronics 'Heaven'

Come friends, let's go to Akihabara today (at least virtually).

Akihabara, the place is famous with lots of electronic gadgets and hobby shops. Its will drive someone like me crazy. If you want to find some newly release product (in Japan at least), go to Akihabara. Its located near Tokyo but you still need to take a train to go there. From our place, it takes more than an hour for me to go there. When you exit the train station, among the first that will greet you are the tall buildings and of course, girls. Wearing lots of costume, whether its a company costume or anime costume. Most of them will give you pamphlets but some of them are just waiting for their friends.

The first costume girl that I met is a Dell girl (see her picture in my fotopages). I asked her whether its okay for me to take her picture. She agreed on one condition, I must take her pamphlet. That okay for me. So, there she was, posing for me in the middle of busy street. Lot of shops there at Akihabara. The only thing that is really hard to find is a toilet. Maybe I don't know its true location but the toilet that I used was located inside 100 yen shop.

The price at Akihabara for some items are more cheaper than Malaysia. And the nice thing is that you can bargain for the price (some shops are not allowing it during our 'visit' there). I really like Sony new camera. I'm not sure what the brand name, but its the latest from Sony. At Malaysia, the price is RM1699 while at Akihabara, I can buy it for RM1200++ and that is not the bargain price. Bargain price is cheaper but I'm not going to tell you in this blog. Its a secret between customer and shopkeeper.

We also went to hobby shop (or some people call it as a collector shop or etc - call it whatever you like) and the 'scenery' is fascinating. We saw lots of goodies there. Trains, cars, PSP, PS2, Wii, Gundam. Lots of things. Its lucky because I didn't brought a lot of money there. If not, I will not have any money left for foods. :)

Talk about food, I remembered one thing. Its really hard to find 'halal' food there. Its really hard. So, if you can survived without rice, so, you can eat bread or fish burger. But one thing, don't ask how the cook the food. Never ever. Or if you are really don't want to eat at Akihabara, you need to plan. The nearest 'halal' restaurant is at Tokyo and the nearest Malaysian restaurant is at Shinjuku.

After lunch, my friends and I agreed to meet again at the station in 30 minutes. They went to survey the price of goods while I walked near the station. During the 'tour', I saw some street performance there. I'm not sure what they talked about because its in Nihongo but the songs were nice. They also had CDs in front of them. So, I guess they also sold the CDs.

30 minutes had passed, and my friends wanted to go to Tokyo. I'm too tired to continue, so, I decided to go back while they went to Tokyo. The 'adventure' journey begun. Without a map, I bought a ticket (I remembered the price, but didn't remembered Shin-Sugita name in Hiragana) and I waited. The train came. Before I board that train, I asked a Japanese guy "Kore wa Yokohama desu ka?". Heh, my Nihongo suck but at least he understand. He told me its not. He asked me to follow him because he also want to go to Yokohama. There I was, waiting for my train to come. After 10 - 15 minutes, the train came and the guy remembered me. He called me and asked me to follow him.

Nothing happened in the train. Only more people board it at Tokyo and Yokohama. Maybe people wanted to go back home after long day of activities. The train stopped several times on the track, waited another train to use the track first. The journey home took longer because the train stop at each station. I think almost 2 hours, I in the train from Akihabara to Sangyoshinko station. At least, I survived the trip without looked at a map (I'm kidding, I looked at a map but on the train. A map with all Hiragana on it. And I only guess the station). But what I didn't tell you is that, the train will display its next destination in Romanji (Roman). So, thats why I survived the trip.

I think, the trip really made me more independent. At least I'm not shy anymore to speak Nihongo although the language that I use is broken. So, minna-san, ja ne.

No comments: