foolish_m0rtal | Akihabara, Dreams Do Come True

So it's getting better in lab. I think everybody on both sides was just embarrassed to talk, but a few days ago I was having a bit of trouble with abstractly thinking of one of my functions, so I asked them. We ended up pulling out the white board and drawing things out. And Okuda was writing random things. I think everyone in the lab just wanted an excuse not to do work, so we were all gathered around the white board messing around taking the piss out of him. I remember he spelled the word "Select" like "SLECET" or something like that. I wasn't going to bring it up in the slightest, but then someone else in the back started cracking up and was like, "What the hell is that supposed to be? Sleket?" It's a lot more comfortable among us now, which I'm glad of. I'm putting together a presentation about JUnit testing for them, since apparently this is something they haven't been taught. (really?! I thought they were like...CS Gods)

On the train back home, I saw a bunch of schoolgirls gathered around a manga, so I stared at it trying to see if it was one I'd read. Then I looked up and saw they were all staring back at me silently. Uhhh. >.> And then when we had to switch trains, I ended up on the SAME train in the SAME compartment as them, and some of them looked at me suspiciously. (or at least, in my paranoia, it was a suspicious glance) So now I have unsettled a bunch of underage high school girls on the train. My descent into card-carrying creeper is complete. Jeez, on the TRAIN too- what can I say? I'm a traditionalist.

Anyway, On Saturday Zhuo and I went to Akihabara, home of Electric City and anime geeks everywhere. OH MY GODS IT IS BEAUTIFUL. I almost blacked out from sheer geeking, I swear. No harder have I ever wished my really fantastic geeky friend were here with me. But then again, I am half-way sure we would have both just been overwhelmed by Teh Geek and ended up...I don't know, making out in the elevator and getting kicked out of Tokyo forever.

(very nice building view in the plaza)

We went around Electric City, which is basically a couple of blocks jammed with electronic stores. They sell fricking everything! We didn't buy anything, of course, but checked out the televisions with their own high tech 3-D glasses and the sketch pads and poked around the DVDs. People had drawn some really pretty manga on the sketch pads- I was really impressed! Some electronics stores are at least 5-6 stories tall, so we got a lot of exercise, at least. Some have their own escalators!

And then...we checked out the anime stores.

XD Ho god, I thought I was going to faint right there. They have all sorts of merchandise like in the dealer's room at cons, except for EVERYTHING. And the manga is 320Yen. YES, 320! I can't believe it! Apparently it's $9.00 US for shipping and translation, because oh god damn, it's so cheap over here. From what I've seen, Axis Powers Hetalia seems really popular here, as does One Piece, Darker than Black, K-on, and Evangelion Rebuild. Especially Hetalia and Rebuild. I think I saw a life-sized Rei figurine on every street corner (I wish I were exaggerating about this).

I think Zhuo was a bit traumatised by the flagrant sketchy girl figurines and shonen-ai poster displays. XD Poor Zhuo.

It didn't help that he was really tall, so he was the one that kept getting hassled by the girls in the maid outfits. (Yes, Akihabara boasts a lot of maid cafes, and people who work at these cafes stroll around the streets in all their goth Lolita glory and hand out small ads for their cafes. I'll have to ask him to give me his) We also saw this guy dressed as a cow talking to a police officer. We were like...?? But we didn't ask, because really, maybe it's better this way. Augh, what am I thinking?! I'm actually complaining about getting hassled by cute girls in maid outfits?! I didn't take pictures because then they would probably have been like, "Oh, you want to come to our cafe? Yaay!" And I wouldn't have been able to resist the cute. T_T

But don't worry, I don't think the Japanese will ever forget their love affair with giant robots.

Beside this display there was an outdoor video game set up, and there were a few people playing. I was wondering why there were so many people crowded around this figurine but then I realised they were standing around watching the game. And guess what I found right under the train station?

YES, THIS IS REAL! As you can see, the line was very long, so I didn't even bother. Maybe I'll go back to Akihabara early the next time, so I might go in. Or actually go to one of the maid cafes. It was too embarrassing this time. I feel like there are a disproportionate amount of guys in this district, which is weird because I thought women read as much manga/watched as much anime as men. I'm not sure. It was a little nerve-wracking walking into a floor in the anime shops and seeing the room filled with guys and thinking, "Oh jeez, is there hentai in here or something? In which case I need to either avoid this room to save embarrassment or put out Zhuo's eyes."

We went to the Tokyo Anime Museum, which was really underwhelming. Just a room with half anime stuff and half gift shop. It was in the Lonely Planet book, which Gustabo-sempai gave me before he moved out. (T_T Gustabo-sempai, I miss you!) There were some useful guide books and pretty magazines for free there, so we picked some up. (I am totally going to paste those magazines together and make a totally bitching collage.

But then we found the most hilarious thing. It's this supposedly American Bar and Restaurant, which is SO funny. Usually in shops, there is a dispay case with plastic representations of what you can get inside and for how much. (Beware the shops that don't have this. It means the people soliciting these places don't care how much the food is and probably have money to burn)

Apparently this is what Americans eat. XXD This is so Japanese, yet so hysterically American. None of the burger patties had buns, I'd like to point out.

So yeah, that was our first adventure in Akihabara. I hope to go back again either this month or next month. I think we're just vaguely hitting up all the districts right now. But really, Akihabara is definitely one of the places I will go back to, for nothing else than buying my geek friend the small Gurren Lagann Kamina figurine I saw in one of the stores. Among other things for myself, once I have the chance to snoop around and see where things are cheap.

I was so tired from running around and geek-gasming that today I woke up around noon and then went grocery shopping. Strawberries are out of season now, and I can't find them at all. T_T I was able to buy a whole lot of stuff for food this week, which is good. We had dinner with two Chinese professors who live in the same house. One of them is in our Japanese class. They are both in the same Chinese university and I know one of them teaches animation, meaning he watches a lot of anime to keep up with new stuff and new techniques. Sweetest job EVER.

They had brought this bottle of Chinese liquor and were like, "Help us finish it!" XXD They kept telling me to finish mine, but then after it was empty they would say, "Aww, hey you can't just sit around with an empty glass- have some more!" Zhou speaks pretty decent Chinese, so they talked to us with Zhuo translating for them when they were talking to me in Chinese. And we threw in bits from what we were learning in Japanese class, so we kept asking each other what the time was. XXD ("Ima nan-ji des ka?") So among us, we demolished the bottle of liquor and the box of anko-filled dumplings I'd bought from the store.