Our Trip to Tokyo

On October 27th, Paul and I journeyed to the capital of Japan to take part in a Tokyo Halloween scavenger hunt hosted by a charity called Pepy-Ride for the JET members. This was to be our first big weekend trip since Paul’s arrival so I took “nenkyu,” Japanese for a vacation day, on Friday so we could extend it a bit. We left Ito at about 10 a.m. and reached Tokyo by noon. It really is so close! The people on the hunt arranged for us to stay at the Sakura Hotel. It is a hostel/discount hotel which is very sparce, but clean, which is all that really matters. We checked in then tightened up our walking shoes and set out to explore.
We first stopped and got some lunch at a supermarket close to the hotel. Supermarkets and convenience stores here all have bentos, or boxed lunches available all the time. It is made daily and ranges from sushi to sandwiches, from onigiri to ramen. It’s pretty cool. We at our lunch on the street corner (really no benches near our hotel), then walked to the Imperial Palace.
My Lonely Planet guide says that the gardens of the Imperial Palace are some of the most beautiful in the world. Unfortunately, it is closed on Fridays! Oh well. With Tokyo being so close, I know we will be able to see the gardens before we head back to the states. This picture is the moat around the Palace grounds.

After being denied at the Palace, we jumped on the Tokyo Metro and headed for Akihabara, a.k.a. “Electronics Town" (see picture below). Before I get into the adventures of Akihabara, let me just say that Tokyo has a fabulous mass transit system. Not only is it EXTREMELY convenient, but for a city of over 8 million, it is unbelievably clean. It is a testament to the respectful culture of Japan.
Anywho, back to Akihabara. We set out looking for a place that sells video games. Our friend Kessler back in Jacksonville had asked Paul to find him a new video game console that was being released in Japan. While Paul was fixated on video games, I was keeping my eyes open for a costume shop for the Halloween Scavenger Hunt the next day. This area is pretty amazing in that it is store after store of electronics. I mean literally, blocks of electronics stores. They all basically sell the same things, but it was still pretty cool. I have to admit though, I thought there would be more weird technology. The stuff we saw in Akihabara was normal, i.e. Cameras, i-pods, video cameras, etc. I had always had an idea in my mind that Tokyo would be filled with amazing gadgets like a toothbrush that plucks your eyebrows or a device that clasps a woman’s bra as it massages her back. But alas, I have seen nothing of the sort.

Here are some shots of Akihabara's video game arcades:

This is a 10 person linked soccer game at the Sega arcade. On the next floor, hey had a 10 person linked Yugioh quest rpg. The table tops in front of the people playing the game are sensitive to the magneticly imbedded Yugioh cards and the players can use them in the video game.

This is a guitar player video game with an actual guitar attached to it. It was featured in the movie "Lost in Translation."