This is part 1 of a 2 or maybe 3 parter about my recent trip to Japan with my family.
I went on a holiday with my family to the motherland of weeaboos the world over between the 31st of January and 3rd of February this year. Tokyo, Japan is a rocking city that owns on many levels – it’s clean, the people are generally polite, the transport system is terrific (except for the huge, labyrinthine underground stations – thank God for the signs in 4 different languages), and the selection and quality of food is pretty much unrivalled by any other city I’ve been to. That might or might not have something to do with my partiality to Japanese food, but OTORO IS FUCKING GOOD. It is also ridiculously expensive, but I’ll talk about that later.
Shinjuku at night
Quite a lot of photos, so if there’s still any wild 56kers out there, go do something about it already you poor bastard.
I arrived in Tokyo in the afternoon of the 31st, and after dropping off our luggage, we went for a walk around Shinjuku, where our hotel was located. It surprisingly hasn’t changed much from when I last visited 5 years ago. There isn’t much to talk about for the first day, since nothing much was done. We had dinner at Kani Doraku, a restaurant that ONLY sells crabs, cooked in more ways than you can poke a crab leg at. It was delicious, and I don’t think anything else can be said.
The next day we went to Akihabara, a.k.a. Electric Town and more recently, Otaku Heaven. After lunch my parents and my brother went to Ginza so I could freely browse all the otaku and ero-stuff, and look for maid cafes.
The first thing that greeted me out of the station is the above, a sign that (I think) says “The world’s convention center for radio, Akihabara”, and above it a giant billboard for the newly released Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu Nintendo DS game. I could feel my Otaku Power increasing by simply being in Akihabara, and just under the above sign is this:
A FIGURINE SHOP! You cannot believe how excited it made me, since I grew up in Australia, a back-water country as far as anime is concerned. I’ve never seen more than 20 figures in one place at once, let alone a shop that specialises in selling figures. If I must name one advantage of living in Australia for the past 10 years, it’s that I’m easily excitable when it comes to things like this. I’m going to look like I just crawled out of a hole here, to those who live in more advanced nations like Singapore, but in truth Australia is the figurative hole that I just crawled out of. Because by that time I had already regressed back to a little vermin scuttling around the undergrowth of early Jurrasic I haven’t yet developed the power of language to describe what I saw. I’m just going to cast Unlimited Screencap Works and add some captions when appropriate.
One of the front windows.
The other front window. Yes, it’s Masquerade Maid Guy. I don’t want to know either.
Miyazaki, the Walt Disney of Japan.
Half of the display in the back of the shop, which takes up the whole wall.
Some close ups of the figures. That Asuka one is the most awesome, but I’m really not sure why the Haibane Renmei figure next to her has a hole in its butt.
I wonder if this is the first time a mangaka gets her own merchandise.
Poor Arin has been relegated to the top shelf.
There’s so much I want to say about this photo, I don’t know where to start. I bought that Saber hand puppet, for one. On the bottom right is part of a pillow case for some anime character that I don’t recognise. On the other side you can see some anime mugs for sale. And at the top you can see some Gundam prints, going for almost 10,000 yen each. The one on the far right is even going for 15,000 yen, which is $123.824 USD. Damn prints are so damn expensive.
Leaving the Kotobukiya shop, I went browsing around other parts of Akihabara. There were many shops that sell electronic goods, and the mobile phones in Japan look so damn much better than the ones that are sold in the rest of the world. A lot of them have screens that take up the entirety of the top half of the flip now, and so are usually in the wide-screen 16:9 ratio. One new phone even lets you turn the screen sideways so when it’s opened, it can be put on your desk just like a wide screen TV, albeit a very tiny one. No photos because I was too pissed about not being able to buy one. 
Next I went into a 6 stories tall shop for more anime merchandise. What attracted me was this man-size Gundam at the front of the shop.
I wish there was someone with me when I took this photo, it would’ve been nice to have a photo of me next to it.
I was pretty much shocked speechless when I saw this… but there were more surprises in store for me upstairs.
If you know some Japanese, you’ll notice that there’s something very special on the 5th floor. After quickly browsing the other floors and finding nothing interesting, I went up to the 5th floor for the highlight of my trip.
There they are, ladies and gentlemen. LIFE-SIZE, 1:1 Rei and Asuka dolls/figures. I really wish I had someone with me so they could photograph me with the dolls to put things in perspective, since by themselves it’s hard to tell how big they really are. To be honest they’re creepy as hell – anime isn’t meant to be made into 1:1 scale 3D like this. For anyone who is interested, the Rei figure retails for 472,500 yen, which is $3,900.45 USD. The Asuka figure goes for around 375,000 yen. If you can’t shell out that much money all at once, you can pay in seperate installments too, you sick, sick bastard.
After Maid Cookies I discovered Maid Pudding. It looks like Japan, or at least a certain minor demographic of Japan, has been hit really hard with the maid fetish. I failed to find any maid cafes though, and the maids that Bluemist says are everywhere in Akihabara were nowhere to be seen. After seeing some ads in a magazine about a nekomimi-maid cafe, and the quality of their maids, I think it’s no big loss.
Finally I went to some manga shops where tons of ero doujins were for sale. I didn’t buy any, honest to goodness. No photo for obvious reasons.
That was that in Akihabara. My loot for the day: a Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu animation lineart book and a Saber hand puppet. All my loot photos are taken in my room, where the desk is so full of stuff that I must use the bed. Do not make fun of my bunny sheet, it’s not like I go hand-pick my own manchester.
And that is all for part 1. Look forward to part two, where I go to the Studio Ghibli Museum,grab some more anime merchandise and visit a gaming arcade in Japan.
26 Comments
rawr you! i want to have a midori hand puppet too…a saber one works…everything is good T_T
I can tell you that almost every shop in Akihabara had a hentai section somewhere in them hahaha
Did you visit Animate and Mandarake there? It’s impossible to miss Animate since it’s the only wholly blue building there but Mandarake is in some obscure back-alley shop. Ikebukuro has some pretty good anime shops as well.
Mandarake is awesome. Sells figures for REALLY cheap.
And yeah, when I went to Akiba, it seemed that every shop had a “basement” section. However, Tora No Ana has a section full of h-doujin at the TOP which I went into by accident =X
I saw Tama-nee and Nanaka-chan there. Woah…
Well the hentai sections are either on the top floor or in the basement. If not, then the whole shop is for hentai
Sweet stuff
cud u maybe scan or describe the innards of that suzumiya haruhi lineart book? im interested in ordering 1 and i wana kno if its worth it..
Did you visit Gamers? 10+ floors of anime goodness!
You’re an awfully tamed shopper eh? Lol.
Just as meganeshounen pointed out, the anime pillow case is of Nanaka from Da Capo 2. Good stuff.
Impz: I could sell the puppet to you, if you want
Just pay shipping and the price of the thing and I’ll gladly mail it to you.
Alkan: I only really went into Asobitcity and Kotobukiya. I spent a lot of time in both shops, and since I only really checked out these shops when my parents were gone, there wasn’t much time for me to see that many shops.
Crayola: I did not see this Mandarake =( Well, I’m not a figurine collector anyway, so I doubt there would’ve been much I wanted to buy there.
Aesir: When I return to my precious scanner, I’ll scan some of the images inside. I’d do the whole lot but it’s over 100 pages. I’ll do around 20% to give a good idea of what it’s like. I’d say it’s worth buying though – this one covers the second half of the series where the most memorable moments were.
Chichiwomoge: Nope, Kotobukiya and Asobitcity were the only two large stores that I browsed thoroughly. My time there was really quite limited, so I didn’t get to see a lot of stores.
Tsubaki: Yeah. I really don’t like to spend money… except on manga. I spend a ridiculous amount of money on that. I only bought around 10,000 of stuff all up this trip, which I understand is nothing compared to what you or TJ spends on figures (even if that is already quite a large sum of money for me… orz)
Moyism: Nanaka form Da Capo? I’ve never seen Da Capo, but she must be popular to have a pillow case.
Hmmm if you liked manga you should have really hit Tora No Ana. It is a manga heaven in there.
…
I need lists of all these stores, and a plane ticket. Also, now that you’ve tasted Otoro, you’re probably officially envied by Haruhi Fujioka…
Alkan: Okay let me rephrase that.
I like that manga that I can understand. Must. Learn. Moonspeak.
Haesslich: I was going to make a Ouran reference when I got to that part… now it won’t be funny anymore =(
Mandarake Akihabara isn’t all the impressive, really… it’s mostly doujinshi. The main store across town in Nakano, however, will bring tears to your eyes.
I am somewhat surprised you took photos inside the shops. As far as I know you are not allowed to take photos and they have signs posted up around the entrance and around the store. Or did you use your camera phone?
Also with the 1:1 Rei and Asuka, did you also see the 1:1 Chii? Plus you should have went up one more level as that is the COSPA store where you could see all the cosplay items for sale.
Jeff: A lot of you sound like you’re very familiar with Akihabara and/or Tokyo. Where was the community when I needed it most?!
Adun: If there are signs I didn’t see any. All of the photos here, except for the first, were taken on a Canon Digital Ixus 65. I did go up to the top level, that’s where I found Maid Pudding. But the cosplay stuff only took up a small corner, and I would look really strange taking photos of cosplay dresses for girls. Not that I wasn’t looking strange anyway, but that would be strange and creepy.
Lupus: Then make a Tamaki-style reference. Or refer to Volume 6′s extra story for some lines to use… like that about tuna with soy sauce and mayo.
MOAR pictures! I wanna go the first store simply because of the potential it has for Hachikuro goods that your pictures seem to imply. And hey, I’m already on my 51st installment for my Asuka lifesize. Only 200 more.
Yeah I know what you mean Lupus, I would get the kind of stuff that you can’t get elsewhere, like artbooks or special edition manga where it’s much cheaper in Japan than when you buy it overseas imported. I saw the kanzenban version of Bastard!! in there and I know it will take forever for Tong Li to publish it
Jeff: You’re right about the Mandarake in Akihabara, it is almost all hentai doujin. Should have visited the Nakano main store.
Oh, good. A study guide on when I take my trip in a few months. I’ll look over this when I have more time. =P
it looks soo funnn =(
OMG
(((((((((((((
SO MUCH TOTOROS I SPYYYY. D:
I WANNA WANNA WANNA GO TOO. u_u
-pokes lupus-
you hadddd to make me soo envious that night. ;_; hahaha
buttt it looks like alot of fun! i’m glad you had fun. hehe.
and those life-sized dolls are scary. >_>;;
YOU DIDN’T BUY THE IRIYA NO SORA DS GAME?
I’ll cure you, you disease, you.
*unzips pants and gets out the antibiotics.
…if I were you. I would have blown my entire savings in one single day if I were you lupus. OMG @ THE 1/1 figurines! I WANT!!!
elohir… words fail me.
anyway, Lupus, that’s awesome =D hopefully i get to go visit someday as well ^^
Great posting Lupus.
Was over in Tokyo myself for the World Cup. Brought back a lot of memories.