The Japan trip resource thread 2.

[randombs]

At the risk of sounding like a contrary Mary, I quite enjoy visiting Akihabara these days!

As you say, it's basically maid cafes as well as duty-free shops but, veering off from the noisy main street full of people I want to slap, I find much to love about it. I went walkies with a mate of mine a few months back and we found a really nice temple, an open garden space full of families relaxing for lunch, a cat cafe, a climbing wall, some little retro/junk shops and, heading back to the main road, a huge plastic model shop which we spent a few hours in gawping at little convenience stores



Not to mention the groovy electronics corridor bit full of radio parts and other such paraphernalia.

It also has some quite funky places to eat. On the restaurant floor of Yodobashi is a cave-style restaurant serving this chickeny delight:



They have an actual-sized model of it at the entrance. You eat in your own private booth and you get fresh popcorn to eat while you wait.

I also went to a restaurant where each table/section has a tablet as well as the regular menu. You can browse and order whatever you want from the app and they bring it. I think it had different languages as well.

[kryss]

I've still never been drinking in Roppongi or similar, I could never see the allure. Plus to get home I would have had to have left at 11pm, or have to pay for a hotel.
The wife and I are more than likely going to be living in Ibaraki when we finally move over there. I will be quite content commuting for an hour or more to get to work (if I end up with a job in Tokyo) if I have to considering how peaceful it will be at home.

I think falling out of love with a place happens. Once the game shops started disappearing and everyone snapped up the rare stuff to flip on ebay Akihabara lost it's draw. I still like the walk along the Yamanote from Tokyo station to Ueno, and look forward to finding more hidden stuff much into the future.

[Yakumo]

I've still never been drinking in Roppongi or similar, I could never see the allure. Plus to get home I would have had to have left at 11pm, or have to pay for a hotel.

What? Do what I do every other Saturday. I hit the bar about 9pm and don't leave until 5am. Then I take the first train home. That's the real way to drink in Japan.

[randombs]

I could never do that. I get horny after a few hours of drinking and want to run back home.

[Darwock]

Yakumo, you're either an expert at nursing drinks or you have a bottomless wallet! Time is almost literally money.

[Asura]

I have to say that anywhere the Americans gather to drink is going to be a **** hole mainly due to the army types. Not always but most of the time. The bar I go to is run by a half Japanese American and even he has banned 80% of his American customers for being arse holes. The bar is fantastic now. No dicks at all. There are still many none Japanese including Americans but these are all cool people. I love going there. In fact one of my favourite drinking buddies is American yet he also agrees that most of the Americas he sees in Japan are right pricks from a Military background.

Just want to say, as my prior post might be misconstrued, I have nothing against Americans.

I think the issues I've observed are more to do with the other two aspects; military personnel off-duty (which is the same everywhere in the world) and that if you're a foreigner in Japan, you're the sort of person who has made that move halfway across the world, and there is a reasonable chance that you're not the kind of person who could be termed "normal".

This isn't meant to be insulting. It's just that I'm not really a "normal" person, and whilst over there I met a higher-than-average number of people that would also be described in similar terms. Some of them were people I could get along with, some were people who I saw as having genuine social problems.

I think falling out of love with a place happens. Once the game shops started disappearing and everyone snapped up the rare stuff to flip on ebay Akihabara lost it's draw.

I really worry sometimes that the Japan I loved is now just a memory, and if I go back, I'll be disappointed. Maybe I shouldn't.

[Ghost]

The wife and I are more than likely going to be living in Ibaraki when we finally move over there. I will be quite content commuting for an hour or more to get to work (if I end up with a job in Tokyo) if I have to considering how peaceful it will be at home.

Im living in Tsukuba, if you move to Ibaraki give me a shout if you want to meet up for some drinks

[Ghost]

At the risk of sounding like a contrary Mary, I quite enjoy visiting Akihabara these days!

As you say, it's basically maid cafes as well as duty-free shops but, veering off from the noisy main street full of people I want to slap, I find much to love about it. I went walkies with a mate of mine a few months back and we found a really nice temple, an open garden space full of families relaxing for lunch, a cat cafe, a climbing wall, some little retro/junk shops and, heading back to the main road, a huge plastic model shop which we spent a few hours in gawping at little convenience stores



Not to mention the groovy electronics corridor bit full of radio parts and other such paraphernalia.

It also has some quite funky places to eat. On the restaurant floor of Yodobashi is a cave-style restaurant serving this chickeny delight:



They have an actual-sized model of it at the entrance. You eat in your own private booth and you get fresh popcorn to eat while you wait.

I also went to a restaurant where each table/section has a tablet as well as the regular menu. You can browse and order whatever you want from the app and they bring it. I think it had different languages as well.

Akiba is ok and probably nice for people who are going there for the first time, but because I remember what it was like 12 years ago before the whole AKB/Maid cafe craze it just seems a lot worse now. Before there were way more game stores, prices were dirt cheap and gaming arcades were plentiful, now its overrun with tourists, young girls in school uniforms or maid outfits everywhere handing out flyers to maid cafes and everything is completely overpriced. To give you an example to get a used PSone console in Akiba it costs about 10,000 yen in Trader, in Book-Off in Tsukuba you can pick one up for 3,000 or 4,000 yen. Super Potato is great for looking but their prices are crazy, A boxed copy of Chrono Trigger is about 4,000 yen when you can pick up copy for about 900 yen everywhere else.

[randombs]

Agreed! I first went there in 2007 which wasn't as long ago and it was still miles better than it is now.

But I don't think there are many gamers who aren't aware of Akiba's decline over the years and I'm sure they don't head there to snap up bargains but rather to soak up the atmosphere(well, what's left of it!).

Anyway, I think maid cafes have more general appeal than game shops. Most of my friends who visit Japan don't even like games or anime but will usually want to go to a maid cafe, whereas a game shop is pretty boring if you're not interested in that sort of thing.

[teddymeow]

The last couple of days have been better.

Still not bought anything!!

Met up with a guy who used to work for me at Gamestation who is now a producer at DMM Futureworks! Went for dinner and drinks in Ebisu which was cool.

Currently in Shinjuku for lunch. Gonna have a wander this afternoon.

Tomorrow is mop up day. The 20th Pokemon anniversary starts tomorrow at the Pok?mon Center in Ikebukuro so we're going to go see what special products they have.

[Anpanman]

Akiba is ok and probably nice for people who are going there for the first time, but because I remember what it was like 12 years ago before the whole AKB/Maid cafe craze it just seems a lot worse now. Before there were way more game stores, prices were dirt cheap and gaming arcades were plentiful, now its overrun with tourists, young girls in school uniforms or maid outfits everywhere handing out flyers to maid cafes and everything is completely overpriced. To give you an example to get a used PSone console in Akiba it costs about 10,000 yen in Trader, in Book-Off in Tsukuba you can pick one up for 3,000 or 4,000 yen. Super Potato is great for looking but their prices are crazy, A boxed copy of Chrono Trigger is about 4,000 yen when you can pick up copy for about 900 yen everywhere else.

Aye, I first went in 1994 and when I next went in 2001 it had gone downhill badly, shudder to think what it's like now.

Thankfully we're about an hour and a half flight from Tokyo, think it's overrated. No decent temples or even a castle.

[Asura]

Agreed! I first went there in 2007 which wasn't as long ago and it was still miles better than it is now.

This is such a shame. I was there at a similar time, and I have some great memories.

Even so, back then, people were complaining that it didn't compare to the heyday of the place in the 90s.

The main thing when I was there that people complained about was... (nsfw words in the spoiler)

->Open Spoiler<-

... the prolific amount of porn, and how it had taken a significant foothold in the shops there. The term "akiba-kei" arose around the time, which was something of a combination of both the traditional game otaku stereotype (already very negative in Japan) and someone who spends large amounts of money on both porn and those naked girl statues that they sell for daft amounts.

Certainly, while I was there, many of the multi-floor game shops (or those weird multi-floor buildings with different shops in each floor) would have a "porn floor", selling those body pillows and aformentioned figures.

I distinctly remember a weird experience where, near Christmas one year, I walked out of trader and past the frontage of one of these shops, with the magazines etc. facing out into the street, and they were playing Christmas carols - like very Christian ones. It was surreal.

That being said, there was still Club Sega, the huge Taito and Namco arcades, and probably 2-3 other quite large ones. Interestingly, all of them still had quite reasonable areas devoted to both rhythm action games (like Guitar Freaks) and dancing stage games, both of which were usually dead (there was this sense that they very much missed that craze).

[DeathAdder]

No decent temples in Tokyo?

What about Asakusa?

[Arashikage]

The last time I went to Tokyo was in 2009 and even by then it had lost it's allure. The maid cafe's had started to take over, game shops had started to decline and arcades had started to close down, it was beginning to resemble something else than what I was accustomed to. Since I started to go in 2001 I think I burnt myself out on the place, I remember being there and actually looking forward to going home. While I will cherish the memories of going there I'm not in any great rush to go back.

I do miss the awesomeness of the trains though, I guess my Yamanote Line train money box will have to do.

[Anpanman]

No decent temples in Tokyo?

What about Asakusa?

Not what I'd call decent at any rate, plus I meant templeS as in the plural, Asakusa is almost in a minority of one unless you want to bung in Meiji Shrine - which I'd much rather visit than Asakusa any day.

Tokyo for me is sadly lacking in any decent heritage or cultural sites, much better things to see in Osaka (at least it has a castle) Kyoto and Nara of course or even on Shikoku, the list goes on.