Day 3: Akihabara to Yokohama

Has almost given up (BUT NOT QUITE) getting Yisha’s share of the photos (those not on facebook -gimme photos!) I desperately want to blog about the korean hottie and disneyland, but all good things have to come last =D

Day 3! Akihabara for the inner geeks!

Big, Spacious and CLEAN

Maid Cafe advertisment

THE Akihabara!

First Stop!

We arrived early and waited almost 1/2 hour for the Tokyo Anime Center to open, on an EMPTY STOMACH. And I wonder why I lost so much weight in Japan…

What better way to kill time? Playing with toilets ^^

They have even more choices here at high tech akihabara. Loved the “flushing sound” option =D

Lots of pervy looking guys queuing up for some sort of sexy girl’s autograph/merchandise

Awesome full length Soul Eater posters =D

Finally the store opens! -rushes in-

Funky Stuff. Animation film roll I think

Storyboards

LOL?

Reborn’s all the rage!

Pikachuuu

Off to lunch after Tokyo Anime Center! I still think we were rather stingy on food, but that leaves us with more money for other stuff like SHOPPING.

All the way to Japan to eat…

Cosy place, smart layout. Chef has access to every customer

Can’t say for sure if Yoshinoya Japan has better food than Singapore. We were so hungry that everything tasted incredible.

Vampire Knight, the next rage.

All inhabitants of Akihabara must possess the Akiba factor

An entire building of arcade games! We played the real Taiko no Tatsujin here ^^ Epic!

It’s not Japan without any of these =D

These are the reasons why Japan is made of win ^_^ I must have spent a fortune on vending machines

Udon in a cup!

Lol~

Penguins living in the middle of a busy street. Nothing’s too absurd in Japan.

Off to Animate to hunt for Jing’s (hentai) doujins!

No photography allowed so no piccies =(

Animate’s overrated, honestly. It’s cramped and rather small. But it has all the latest rage’s merchandise…(and Jing’s hentai doujins) prepare for…

Reborn pasta!

Reborn cookies!

More Reborn Cookies!

And some Evangelion curry. Eat it and be a wussy emo!

I must say it was incredibly fun spending Jing’s money. You don’t feel your heart aching with every note used =D I just grabbed all the Toho and Rozen Maiden doujins that I saw and paid for them, with male otakus staring at Yisha and I like we were crazy.
Japanese otakus : Gasp girls! Real girls! I’ve never seen real girls! -hyperventilates-

We wanted to go down to the “18 and above only” basement (guess what’s in there) but we chickened out =(

We then spent the whole day hunting for headphones. -falls in love with akihabara- Headphones paradise! They have at least 30 different models for you to test. I bought the Buttons series from Audio Technica. Design > Sound anytime! Sold for 70+ SGD in Singapore and I bought it for 40 SGD in Japan ^^

Bought my friends some funky souvenirs (including the humping dog usb for my brother) and we left for Yokohama

Goodbye for now Akihabara!

Gorgeous sunset. It rained shortly after

Evening, we left Tokyo for Yokohama via the subway that took us 45 minutes. Chizuru-san was so kind to offer us a night’s accommodation at her house. One main reason why free and easy rocks, you get to stay with the locals ^^ She picked us up at Yokohama (the name of which station eludes me to this day) and we dumped our luggage in one of their lockers. And then off we go to visit the much anticipated Ramen Musuem!! (aka ramen amusement park)

A must visit for anyone travelling to Yokohama. Heck…Yokohama’s a must visit for anyone travelling to Tokyo. The whole museum is designed to look as if it’s a sunset evening in the 1960s. Stepping into the museum brings a wave of nostalgia (from where I have no idea since I can’t possibly have any memories of 1960s Japan. lol) Gorgeous old school paintings, beautifully crafted architecture and props, beautiful lighting. The entrance fee was only $5 sgd.

Another attractive feature of the Ramen Museum is the ramen stalls. Famous stalls from all over Japan come here to sell. They’ve all gone through stringent quality checks! Our aim was to try all the ramen from the different stalls. Each stalls sell different types of Ramen. We started off at…

And ended there…lol. The ramen was awesome, albeit really oily, but we couldn’t eat another bowl of ramen after that, unfortunately.

The awesome ticketing machines.

and hey! you actually get what you see on the pictures!

Stores selling ice cream

Lighting is kinda odd here, but this is an example of the small alleys you see in the museum. Incredibly well themed!

Old school candy shop!! We stayed here for at least an hour and bought lots of fun candy =D

After dinner we were almost done for the day so back to Chizuru’s house. No pictures of Chizuru’s apartment ^^ But it’s very quaint and cosy, and you can see the Yokohama ferris wheel from her balcony. And something that I’ve always wanted to see for myself. The typical Japanese bathroom!

Chatted with her parents, who were such kind and friendly folks -hearts- And then we went to sleep ^^ That night, I became a futon convert. -worships futons-

-End of Day 3-