No Maps for These Territories

 I went my own way, to nerd out at Akihabara and Nakano Broadway.  It’s nearing the end of the trip, I need more time in my nerd havens!  Much of this has been photographed already, so there’s not as many shots.

I thought this was interesting because it perfectly illustrates the Japanese workday.  Notice what times have the most trains?  The ones where you work at 12 hour day.  Ouch.

They loooove their translation machines in Japan.  Every one of these is for either dictionaries or Japanese-English translations.

Oh so very many Godzilla toys.  Yodobashi Camera is fun.

And boy do they love their collectable cards!

I so very badly wanted to buy a shitload of these, but I knew they’d just sit around my desk forever.  They’re 8-bit colored pegs that you stick to a surface and make your favorite characters.

Bags and bags of different colored pegs.

Outside Yodobashi camera is a massive no smoking section of sidewalk.  However, since there aren’t any OTHER places nearby to smoke, it works exactly the opposite, so you end up with dozens of dudes in suits, gathered around No Smoking signs, smoking like crazy.

No trip to Yodobashi Camera is complete without a stop to my favorite ramen shop in Akihabara!  SOOOO GOOD.  Don’t look away or I’ll…

Eat the whole thing in one swallow.

Here’s the joint if you want to check it out sometime.  8th floor, Yodobashi Camera, Akihabara.  Chabuton, the ramen heaven.  I miss you so!

Beat ass machine selling tickets, dudes slurping soup.  That’s what it’s all about.

Yeay, Akihabara!  I bid you farewell, and head to Nakano, because I want more useless crap to stick on my man bag.

Ah hah, there it is!  Walls of useless crap that makes video game sounds!  Hurray!

The flavors of popcorn available in this machine are “choco, barbecue, and butter”.  I was very tempted to try barbeque.  Only 100 yen!

Nakano Broadway is freaking awesome.  Look at all those shops full of toys.

Later that night we went out for dinner at High Noon Cafe in Ontakesan.  They don’t have an english menu, so I puzzled over the hiragana and katakana for like 10 minutes before we could figure out how to order.  They specialize in “Americana” type food.  This burger was quite delicious and as big as my head.

Today Yuzo and I explore Akihabara, otherwise known as nerd heaven.  It’s full of some insanely weird stuff.  Then we head off to Odaiba with Kevin, which is an entirely man-made island in Tokyo, covered with shops and bizarre amusement parks.  Full album is here.

First things first.  A fat ass bowl of ramen, of course.  I could seriously eat ramen every day for a year and not get tired of it.

A DVD shop selling mostly weird softcore porn, but the outside is all covered with handwritten signs about their wares.

A costume shop in Akihabara.  I wonder if these guys get these for their girlfriends, or just dress up their Realdolls at home in them.

This mousepad is actually pretty awesome.  I think I’d get in trouble for displaying it at work though.

Maid themed cookies that come in extra fancy boxes.  I assume people collect these instead of eating them.

A copy of FINAL FANTASY VII in Super Potato, the retro gaming heaven shop in Akihabara.  Oh, my favorite Final Fantasy.  How I wish they would remake you on PS3.

The manga reading section at Super Potato.

Plus all the retro games you could shake a stick at.

And a big ass Mario.

Wow, the creepy Idol game, where you train young girls to be super stars, is apparently available on Xbox here.  Not in the US!

What in the world would you use this four bladed Klingon knife for?

I found it!  The pervert holy grail, the used panties.  Plus pictures of the girls that theoretically wore them.  Yeah, right.  They had about five security cameras and signs saying “No Pictures”, but I couldn’t resist.

The train station to Odaiba.

Kind of empty tonight!

The Rainbow bridge over the bay.

Aww yeah, it’s Joypolis.  Several stories of completely batshit gaming action.

Trap!  Let’s soend every day happy.

What’s in muscle park, you might ask?   Let me tell you.

Pitching baseballs at numbers!

Sucking up balls with weird ass basket backpacks!

Ninja training!

Battling with sawblades on sticks?

Hell of a view back from Odiaba toward the mainland.

Stop making polar bears cry with your awful pollution, humans!

That’s a UFO machine, where you can win pints of ice cream.  Joypolis is weird.

On this game, you run on a real treadmill, and try to win olympic games like hurdles and long jump.

Pictures don’t do this one justice.  It’s a 30 foot “half pipe” where you strap yourself to huge mechanical skateboards and try to get points by doing the most flips.

Heading back home into the concrete jungle.  Good night.