The memorial park and museum were fantastic. Museum was incredible and it was great to see the Japanese actually confront everything frankly and talk openly about events like Nanking (where the Chinese estimate is 300,000 murders by the Japanese army).

More pictures in the flickr set, as usual. Here are some tasters:

So eventually we arrived in Kyoto. That was 26 hours ago and it’s hardly stopped raining since. Apparently the rainy season has just started and today we went to lots of places like Kiyomizu temple, Sanjusangendo, Heian shrine, Kinkakuji, and Nijo castle. It rained non-stop throughout all of them so it was really a shame to miss so many “shutter chances” as the Japanese call them.

Anyway, tomorrow’s Nara and I’m looking forward to that. Let’s just hope it doesn’t rain again!

Myself and my dad went down to Akihabara to see if we could find any robots and some manga I was looking for in the morning. We went straight to Yodobashi, not being able to resist the nine stories of electronic goods. After buying some Coji-coji (as I was instructed to), a book to teach otaku english (with example sentences based on role-playing games and anime) and an omiyage for my sister, we got some more gachagacha (slot machines that drop out toys) and started looking for robots. One accidental entry to a pornoshop later, we came across a few maids on the street asking people to come inside to their shop. So we did, and I ended up buying a Haruhi (bunny version!) figure which changes colour when you touch it. I think the idea is to give fanboys a reason to try to touch every nook and cranny of their most desired character.

Anyway, photos with these meido-san (maids) were from 1000 to 1400¥ so I decided to pass on that and move on. I’d already given them ¥3,800 for the figure so they were pretty happy. They weren’t too cute anyway. I asked where a proper meido-kissa (maid cafe) was and was directed down the street to 「メイドルカフェ」. This is “Meidoru Cafe”. The explanation I got was Meido + Idoru = Meido. That is, Maid + Idol = Maidol. For anyone who doesn’t know, an idol is a celebrity known for appearing on chat-shows, releasing the odd single, opening shops and appearing at various shows. Think Paris Hilton!Anyway, I totally fell in love with Ayame, our waitress. These places are a bit expensive, but to be honest you’d pay the same in any overpriced cafe in Limerick so it wasn’t so bad. I had a cold milk and my dad had hot-cakes (small hot pancake-like things with chocolate syrup and whipped cream) and coffee. I asked about the last page of the menu which listed “services” provided by the maids. These were everything from a picture with the maid (bought), with an extra comment if you like (bought), to a game of Tekken on the PS2 (bought, plus the extra ¥315 to allow me pick her over another staff member) or a game of Popup Pirate. Though her explanation (including sound-effects and hand motions) of how Popup Pirate works was heart-wrenchingly adorable, I decided to stick with Tekken. She won.

I got to talk to her a bit and brought up some various fairly obscure parts of Japanese culture and she really seemed to be enjoying herself. But of course she was, because she was being paid to! A guy down the end of the cafe was showing the figures he bought that day to one of the maids who was doing an excellent job of feigning interest too. At least my one told me she didn’t actually like anime when I asked, which means it’s possible she wasn’t just lying in everything she said!

At one stage she dimmed the lights and went onto a kind of stage at the top of the cafe and addressed the cafe. “Ok everyone! Welcome to Maidol Cafe! Now we’re going to play our special game of Rock-Paper-Scissors and see who wins the special prize! Is everyone ready to learn our dance? Hands up! First raise your left hand in a fist. This is your hopes! Then raise your right fist. This one is your dreams! Now clap them over your head, bring them together and look through them like a telescope… one more time as hopes and dreams and Rock-Paper-Scissors!” She looked around the room and said, “I have paper so anyone with rock put your hands down and we’ll try again! Here we go again!” （あいこでしょっ！） After a couple more rounds, only one guy was left and he had beaten her every time, so she thanked everyone, congratulated him, and gave him a couple of sweets and a note. I would’ve killed to be that guy

It’s a good think Yuki-sensei taught us Japanese rock-paper-scissors (jan-ken-pon) in class or else I would’ve been totally lost! And anime opening theme lyrics really help with words like hopes (kibou) and dreams (yume). Those songs don’t really even have any other lyrics except “blue sky” (aoi sora), “battle” (tatakau) and “destiny” (unmei).

Finally I got a photo with her and she wrote a note on it (that was an extra ¥125 I think). What a babe.

Next we continued our hunt for robots and eventually were directed to a small place called Robotto Oukoku, or “Robot Kingdom”. This is the same place that Patrick Macias went into in the Robots episode of Tokyo Eye. Speaking of Patrick Macias, I also saw the fat guy in the pikachu suit he blogged about. I was with the girls from Gunma and they started shouting, getting excited. I immediately recognised him from the site (how could I not?).

So after looking around Robotto Oukoku for a while, we came back to the hotel. After uploading a few images to flickr I met Daisuke, my friend from Waseda who was studying English in Limerick 2 years ago now. He asked if I wanted to eat Okonomiyaki, which I was very strictly instructed to do by my Japanese friends in Ireland before I left, so I jumped at the chance. We took a train to Yurakucho (有楽町) and went to the top floor in Bic Camera. The restaurant was full until 9 (and this was around 6pm) so we decided to try somewhere else. We went downstairs to a bookshop and looked at some Tokyo food guides and found that Yodobashi in Akiba also has an Okonomiyaki place so we took the Yamanote line from Yurakucho to Akihabara station on my advice ^_^

Okonomiyaki was great. We had one with meat and leeks and other with shrimp. The staff came to our table (which had a big metal sheet with a gas heater under it) and put the ingredients on. They came back every few minute to flip it, then finally put on mayonnaise, “sauce” (I asked what kind of sauce it was and was told it’s just ‘sauce’), and chopped leeks. It was actually edible, to my surprise! After that we had some yaki-soba (roasted noodles) and that wasn’t as edible but still not too bad.After buying some manga and a couple of CDs (YUI’s new one and Daisuke’s recommendation of FUNKY MONKEY BABYS one and only album) we both headed home.

Myself and my dad watched a dubbed episode of Monk before going to sleep.

So, from the start. My friends from Gunma were coming down the Yamanote line from the north (Ueno direction) and me from the south and were both heading for Akihabara. I got there on the early side and found them eventually. I think I fell in love 8 times (I was counting) while waiting at the station. What an incredible place. Second only to Ginza for falling in love. This was Sunday so all the younger people (and freaks) were out in the sunshine. Check out the Flickr stream for pictures of said freaks.

We were fairly hungry so we went to a Japanese restaurant and I did my best with a bowl of Oyakodon (chicken, an egg, rice, onions, leeks, and various other bits and pieces). When the rain had lifted we headed towards the first exciting thing I had seen from the window: Yodobashi. This is a 9-story electronics store and we had lots of fun with massage chairs, “exercise” electrical mechanical bulls (I exercised my “hippu” — ‘hip’ (???)). I bought the latest Aiko CD and we looked around the DVD and CD floor for a while, playing with the disc jocky mixing desks. I had a look inside the dirty video section to see if anyone would be surprised to have a foreigner wander around… but they weren’t. In fact, it wasn’t really that dirty at all. I’m not sure if that’s disappointing or not, but it’s the truth. Most of it was anime characters anyway, as opposed to live actors. There were these machines which drop out small figures and toys in capsules for 200 or 300 yen. I got 2 characters from Suzumiya Haruhi and a keychain from a “moe” (the burning feeling you get when you see a really cute girl, or indeed, anything that you desire a lot, but not in a sexual sense) machine that says “oniiiiichan!” (big brother!! — this was “imouto” (younger sister) moe) when you press it. You can buy these from jbox.com.

When we left Yodobashi there was lots of commotion outside. First of all, we saw a big red robot getting ready to fight a big black robot (and here I thought that only happened in anime). It turned out there was a crowd of about 20 or 30 people all in cosplay (people dressing up in costumes and playing…), mostly cosplaying characters from The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, and dancing to the well-know ending theme. There was also a guy dressed in an ouendan (male cheersquad — actually much cooler than you just imagined) outfit, possibly imitating Kishidan from a song like One Night Carnival. You can find a video yourself because the official one has been DMCA’d off the face of the internet.

Just beside us, a girl set up a stereo and started dancing and singing karaoke-style into it. I guess she’s some singer from an anime or wants to be but not one really cared. Across the street, there was a semi-circle of otaku (guys who spend all their money, time, and lives on anime and manga — kinda like me) dancing around a girl dressed as a nurse with a large soft syringe. They’d dance, say “sei-no!” (here we go!) and then she’d hit them with it while singing. Beside her were four really pretty young girls singing and then giving a speech to fawning onlookers. One guy was using a still camera and a video camera at the same time with an overjoyed grin all the time I was there.

Next we decided to go to Yoyogi park to check out all the cosplayers. On the way we met a guy called Jonathan working in McDonald’s. His Japanese was incredible and he said he had taught it to himself over 3 years then come to Japan in September. But when he started making jokes at my harem of 5 girls he was getting a little too cool so I hurried us on to the Yamanote line before they realised how much better his Japanese is than mine.

We walked past a purikura (think photobooth where you can edit photos with a stylus and print them in tiny form, just like everything else in Japan, to stick your phone) place and went into the booth for the photo. In the booth, you select the background colour and pose, then you have a certain amount of time to select the photos you like. After you leave, you go to a kiosk where you add writing and special effect like hearts, stars, frames, etc, to the photos. Then they’re printed, you cut them, and stick ‘em to your phone!

We walked through the very crowded Harajuku to get to Yoyogi park and there was the famous bridge full of all the weirdos. Words just can’t describe them… you have to see the pictures. There were some white people doing it too but it really didn’t suit them. That being said, it didn’t suit a lot of the Japanese either but some of them looked absolutely adorable. There was one huge girl with a sign that said “FREE HUGS” and that wasn’t adorable. But there are some cute girls I got in the photos.

We were all fairly tired afterwards so we went to a cafe and afterwards Saharu and Hitomi had to leave to catch their train home. Myself and Ayumi and Kaori and Miho went to a karaoke-kan! I sang One Night Carnival to get something in Japanese, an Eminem song to get something fast, in English, which I knew (believe me, it’s cool to know Eminem songs in Japan), and Mack the Knife by Bobby Darren, which wasn’t as cool as Eminem sigh Ayumi sang some Ayumi Hamasaki songs and it turns out she’s more than a name. She actually hit all the notes perfectly and really sounded similar to my beloved Ayu!! My jaw actually dropped at every chorus.

They had to go home soon, so we went to a small street stall and all bought the same type of ring before parting at the Harajuku station. What a day!