Akiba

In full, Akihabara. If you like anime, manga or electronics, this place is a must to visit. Myself, I've arrived there from the rear, so to say as I've wanted to see some temples in the area. I seem to have some fixation with temples lately :P.

View from a bridge near the station. It just felt very "Tokyo". It's very cramped, there's lots of buildings, often high and a lot is going on.

I'll just throw a few photos of the 2 temples I've seen in the area. I don't you really want to read about them ;)

Now, back to Akiba. The heart of it is a pretty long street, Chuou Dori. On Sundays it's closed to vehicle traffic and that's when it's the most fun. I have yet to be there on a Sunday but maybe this weekend... Basically, Chuou Dori and nearby streets are full of stores selling mostly electronics or anime & manga goods, restaurants ( like the famous maid cafes ) and game arcades. There are also other types of stores. On the main street, there's a sex shop with 5 floors in total ( top two supposedly "men only" ). As far as I could tell, the underground floor had the more "kinky" stuff. Anyway, if you want to see a shop with several floors dedicated only to figurines, Akihabara is the place to go. I'm certainly buying a few later! On this topic, in one shop I've seen 2 figurines for 70k and 50k yen respectively. That means the more expensive one cost somewhere around 900$. If you're wondering, it was a 1:6 scale Belldandy & Holly Bell from Oh! My Goddess. There was also a floor where you could buy anything you could want for making your own doll ( seemed like a serious hobby from what I could see there ). They had some finished ones on display ( not for sale:/ ) and they were pretty cool. The maid cafes and the girls advertising for them aren't all that common on Chuou Dori but if you take a step off it, into surrounding areas you'll find a whole lot more. Sometimes there may be too many, really :P. There were hardly any cosplayers around but I hear that's something you should look for on Sundays. Other than that, there are 2 huge electronics stores, Laox Electronics and Yodobashi Camera ( the bigger one ). I've only seen the Yodobashi store and, personally, I think it's a case of a shop being too big. It's downright tiring to navigate. Lastly, you can find ( if you look around ) some used electronics shops. Unfortunately, both new and used, the prices aren't really any better than in Poland. Some things are even more expensive.

View of the Chuou Dori from the "rear" end. I guarantee it gets more flashy ( and geeky ) nearer JR Akihabara station.

Like this:P

One of the side streets. You can see a maid or two on this photo. Sometimes they are several of them standing within a few meters of each other.

Ironic to use this as the last photo but oh well... it's cute!

Festival in Kagurazaka

To start with, we almost missed it. On the last day, people at the guest house told us about it and considering it was only one station away, it'd be a shame to not go. When I arrived it was already underway with lots of people milling about. It's impossible to describe the atmosphere, really. You just have to be there to know what's it like. There are people sitting on blankets with all the picnic equipment, stores are open and selling food and drinks, people talk, laugh, photograph and video record the dancers. To put it shortly, you can feel the festive mood all around you. It's also a good chance to see people in traditional wear as there are quite a few.

One thing I've been surprised about is that there were foreigners in the parade. I guess the times are changing after all.

There were many ( and I really mean that ) different groups that sang and danced one after the other. Usually, there's a "banner wielder" at the front, dancers slash singers after him and last are the musicians.

Here's proof that foreigners do, indeed, take part in the festivals nowadays.

Here you can see what kind of instruments were played. It certainly sounded very festive!

Children are a big part of a festival, both as direct participants and spectators. People generally treat matsuri like a picnic occasion ( to some extent that is ) and often come with kids of all ages.

This is how most of the long street looked like during the festival. Minus the policeman as he was part of a team that directed traffic at a nearby intersection.

I shot a blurry photo of these people at the end of the festival when they were heading back. Really made me wish I was there from the very beginning.

One of a few portraits that actually turned out right. It's real hard to get a good photo of moving people in poor lighting conditions without a proper flash.

At the end of the festival dancers ask people that stand the closest to join and dance. It can turn into quite a party:P. I guess people aren't that shy after a few beers ( drinking alcohol was common but didn't really cause any problems ).

Asakusa by night

We'rer getting to the "crazy night" part of the story. Being the sometimes klutz that I am, I managed to buy a 230 yen ticket when recharging my PASMO card ( for use instead of tickets on the metro, you can also pay in some shops with it ). Knowing that a ticket is valid only on the day of purchase I decided to head back to Asakusa in late evening for some nighttime photography. First I headed for Tokyo Sky Tree which turned out to be quite far away ( it's immense size made me think it's closer ). Anyway, here's the effect of my efforts:

Huge, ain't it? Unfortunately it's not quite finished yet.

Before I forget, here's the Asahi HQ by night:

Some of those lights in the central building didn't go off the whole night. That's some serious overtime!

Interesting stuff I stumbled upon along the way:

One of those cool rotating parkings.

Asakusa temple by night:

Here's the funny part. Somehow, I've been thinking all this time that there's no trains between 2 and 5 AM. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at my metro entrance at 1.30 only to see it closed. It gets worse... the last train left at  midnight and the first will be here at... 5 AM! What is one supposed to do with 4 hrs wait time in the middle of the night?  I could try walking back but I had no map ( would have to rely on area maps near stations ) and Asakusa is rather far from Waseda. I decided to check out a nearby capsule hotel but 2000 yen for 4 hours of sleep didn't sound like such a great deal. I wasn't all that sleepy either and had some warm clothes with me, so it wasn't cold outside. A shower was quite tempting, though. Long story short I ended up walking a lot around the area. Learned a few things, too. First of all, 24h McDonald serves only take outs during the night ( ate like a bum, sitting on stairs near the Asahi building:P ). Secondly, there's a hostel there that offers 30 mins of internet use for 100 yen. A good deal if you have a few hours to burn. Third, between 3 and 4 in the morning, there's almost no one on the streets ( homeless generally stick to parks - they're a problem that seems to be ignored by everyone ). Lastly, metro till 6 o'clock is almost empty.

Staying up all night allowed me to see and photograph the sunrise. I've also seen a few drunks, one almost hit a lamp post on the bridge. Another talked with me for a while with limited success as we couldn't really understand each other much. Seemed fascinated by the Sky Tree, though. All in all, I missed the first train by 2 minutes and had to wait 20 for the next one.

 
Stay tuned, next on Hot In Tokyo, O-matsuri!

Tsugi wa Asakusa, Asakusa desu.

If you ever take the metro to Asakusa, that's what you'll hear. For the curious, it means "next is Asakusa, Asakusa". Actually, there's a lot of announcements you're likely to hear when traveling in Tokyo. From information to hold on if there's any chance of a "jerky" behaviour of the train - I kid you not, to which side the platform will be or just thanks for using the train.

Asakusa became quite an adventure for me but I'll get to that in a moment. In Asakusa the one thing everyone wants to see is the Senso-ji temple. Other than, there's the Asahi HQ with it's famous "golden turd". Senso-ji was quite crowded, even though it was almost closing time ( when I was walking into the temple they were already closing the side doors ). Actually, there were people milling about till about one hour later. There's lots of tourists there but many Japanese come to pray, too. One other thing about the place is that you can buy a lot of things by the road leading to the temple.

Myself I went for some kind of snack cookie or something. I've probably grossly overpaid but whatever ;). Being a little undecided on which kind I wanted, the guy asked me if I'd like 2 of each ( 8 in total ). Goes without saying that I agreed :P. The temple complex itself is great, the most impressive I've seen here so far ( Kyoto will take care of that, I bet ). There was this Japanese guy who started talking with me near the main temple. Pretty cool older gentleman, name's Kazumi ( can't shake the feeling that it sounds female somehow ), even knew of Warsaw when I said I'm from Poland ( didn't mistake it for Holland, too! ). Here's a photo of yours truly thanks to him:

Coolest day of the summer! The only day my whole legs have been covered so far.

A few more shots of the place:

Entrance gate to the main area.

This was one tall building!

Inside of the main temple.

It just wouldn't do for there to be no garden ;)

Now, this here is where you burn special sticks and then move the smoke with your hands over whichever part of your body that isn't fine. It's supposed to heal you which I can't comment on as I haven't tried this myself :P.

One of the streets near the temple. They're also full of shops and restaurants.

Traditional wear is not so easy to come by but every now and again one can spot someone dressed.

Trying to not make this post overly long, here's a random trio:

Starbucks in Japan!

AKB48 advertising coffee. They're a girl's band that's become very popular in Japan in recent months.

Rikshas!

P.S.

A few photos of a very nice, serene temple near some park in Asakusa.

Shibuya

Famous Shibuya, it's crowded, it's expensive and not all that great if you aren't going there to shop or / and meet with someone. Myself, I didn't know that the statue of Hachiko was that small. I blame this on all the manga I've read:P. Actually, there was something more interesting very close by.

I still don't know what's in it, though if I had to guess, I'd say it's some kind of bar / restaurant. It was at least as popular as Hachiko in terms of meeting places.

Shibuya alone puts Warsaw to shame. I felt like I'm from some small town, first time arriving in the big city.

That's one of the main streets but the smaller ones aren't much different.

What one can find there, then? There's Starbucks ( it's quite popular here, actually ), a game center with 4 levels, a karaoke place with La Bamba subtitled in katakana and a shop that looks much smaller on the outside than it really is. It also stocks pretty much everything - from female panties with a fake penis, schoolgirl or catholic nun ( and a lot more! ) cosplay sex outfits to hygiene products and fake eyelashes. Food too, if you want to know. The game center was an eye opener as to the real state of the arcade industry. While it's almost gone in Poland, here it's going strong. Newest Tekken? Not a problem. A game based on Neon Genesis Evangelion? Here, have a full experience sitting in a cockpit with an angled screen from side to side. First floor contained mostly photo machines ( purikuri ) and we tried one in a group of five. It's fun in a way, though these really weren't meant to be used by guys ;).

There was also a Disney Store which you can see a part of. When you enter, you feel like Alice in Wonderland. It's really like stepping into another world. Prices are in a different league, too, though. A reasonably nice Pirates of the Carribean t-shirt will set you back 3,240 yen ( 41$ ).

Here's a shot of a karaoke room. We went in for only 30 mins and wasted it mostly on learning that it's very hard to find songs with English subtitles ( duh! ). Good thing that kanji have furigana written above them! On the screen, the only song that we more or less "did" - Ai Nante ( it's not too bad, actually ).

Lastly, something to show that the Japanese aren't always law-respecting ( certainly a sense of humor ) ;)

Right, the famous street crossing in Shibuya. It's not all that impressive, really.

Sightseeing in Tokyo - Harajuku

Yesterday we've started sightseeing for real and headed for Harajuku. Supposedly known for cosplayers, cheap shops and if you're more interested in traditional Japan, there's a big temple dedicated to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken. We didn't see many cosplayers, probably due to our late arrival there ( near noon ) or high temperatures. They ( temperatures ) didn't stop people from shopping along the main roads near the train station, though.

 The above is a photo of Takeshita street. Shops everywhere, lots of shop employees yelling special offers, trying to garner attention toward their store. Lots of people of all ages and appearances, too.

Myself, I haven't been all that impressed with modern attractions. Fact is, prices are generally higher than in Poland, sometimes by quite a bit. Another thing is how much Japanese people love baubles and the like. There are tons of useless things you can buy and they often aren't all that cheap. One thing the shops are good for is AC. Every 15-30 mins you go into one to cool down a little. It's funny how they're supposedly conserving electricity right now due to shortages when all shops inside of buildings run AC at such levels that it's actually comfortably cool in them ( and that's often with open doors ). Can't say I'm complaining, though. Talking about survivng the heat, some restaurants offer free cold water when you order something ( the one we've been to had unlimited refills, too ). 

Interesting fact:

While smoking generally isn't very restricted in Japan, there are areas where you aren't allowed to smoke in public ( transportation is also smoke-free ). That means it's allowed only in buildings ( as in restaurants and such ) or in special areas:

Photo of a "Smoking Area" near Harajuku station.

Meiji Shrine is a rather big place that you enter through a huge torii.

Unfortunately it's been destroyed during WWII and then rebuilt in 1953 so it's the same but not the same. Reminded me how much was lost to that man-made disaster. Walking towards the temple we've had our first taste on how generally left-sided traffic can change due to lack of shadow on one side, etc. The shrine itself is kind of a tourist trap. If you want to buy any gifts, be prepared to spend a good deal more than they're worth. There's also a lot of situations where you're expected to give an offering. Doesn't change the fact that it was pretty great. I've had a chance to see two weddings there, too. One more thing about temples in Japan is that before entering the grounds you should cleanse yourself. You do that by cleaning your hands and mouth with water ( there is a special place for this ).

I've also had a chance to pray. It was somewhat hard to figure out the right way of  doing it. People prayed in several different ways. In the end, I went with bowing twice then clapping twice. I sure hope I haven't angered any gods!

Lastly, toilets in Japan are, indeed, complicated at times. If you don't know some kanji you're in even more trouble:P.

Here are some more photos from yesterday:

 
Tokyo metro, I'm still very impressed by their transportation. Doesn't change the fact that navigating metro / train lines in Tokyo is quite intimidating, especially without knowing the language well.

Some people from our group invading a vending machine which are found in abundance in Tokyo. They're great in summer as the drinks are kept very cool. I can also agree that the famous Pocari Sweat is tasty.

Inside of a train, no it's not rush hour ;)

Prayer tablets, 500 yen and you can add one of your own.

One of the weddings. You can see the wedding procession, official photographers and some temple guards keeping tourists at bay ;).

Here's a not so small temple near our hostel.