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dmjewelleEvery morning in Tokyo, we'd walk past a bakery called Vie de France. One regret I have is not taking pics of the pastry I eat every day because OH GOD IT TASTES SO GOOD I FORGET MY CAMERA EXISTS. They'd have savoury stuff like hash browns and onions and pork croquette with other stuff and sweet stuff like cheese & raspberry jam with powdered sugar on top. On my last day there I caved and ate TWO pastries, calories be damned.
Delifrance can go suck a stale baguette.
You know you're in Akihabara when...
1. You see anime girls covering buildings with wanton abandon.
2. You see girls in meido outfits trying to get you to go to their cafe.
3. Your idea of heaven is a 7-storey building of every anime merchandise you can think of.
This was the only instance of halal food we saw - ironically, it's served with BEER.
Now if you kindly ask![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
maxsterism for his photos of Japan, he'll have pictures of people and storefronts and stuff, and then you might be tempted to ask me why I don't have pictures of stuff we really want to see. I must point out that Max went to Shikoku and parts of Kyoto where people from the countryside are probably MUCH more laid-back and are more than happy to have tourists snapping pics of their stuff. Tokyo on the other hand is a place where people do HORRIBLE things to photographs and bend the laws of personal privacy into modern art sculptures, so most of the time the minute they see you whipping out a camera they'll politely ask you to put away your camera (and they won't leave you alone until you do). It is the antithesis of "Pics of it didn't happen" because the chances that you can't take pictures of EVERYTHING weird that happens in Tokyo is astronomical and the only way people can believe you is to go see Tokyo for themselves. The Japanese just won't let you, and you only have your silent Nokia handphone to rely on for guerilla shots of vending machine displays.
Yes, they wouldn't let me take pictures of vending machines.
I don't know WHAT you can do with pics of vending machines, but Tokyo people have discovered it, and it must not have been a pretty sight at ALL. After all my LJ pics are up, I'm just curious if any Japanese people will comment asking me to remove their pic because I've accidentally taken their picture.
So I went into Animate and saw this extremely badass diorama of Revoltech Layton decapitating a berserk Eva-02 with the word bubble "This is what an English gentleman does!", but I can't share it with you because I wasn't allowed to take pictures. Sad. :( Got a Durarara wallscroll (which turned out to be really small),sringangel's G-Fantasy, and other stuff I can't remember now. I wanted to get FF12 Ashe's ring but when I decided to finally buy it it was sold out. Sadface. :(
And no I'm not going to get it online; Someone else can buy that for me. WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE.
Went to Toranoana next to Animate, and got stuff some of you would rather never know of...
And if IzayaxShizuo isn't your thing, they also have:
ShizuoxIzaya (Shizuo is seme)
ShizuoxTom
ShizuoxKasuka
ShizuoxKadota
IzayaxShinra
IzayaxMasaomi
IzayaxMikado
IzayaxEveryoneOnTheFaceOfIkebukuro
I'm SURE they have ShinraxCelty in the mens' Toranoana, no need to feel so squicked; I'd get it too.
While heading for Nakano Broadway, we hopped on the wrong train and headed out of town. Thought it felt a bit strange when we passed by 4 stops....
...with SUBURBAN TRAIN GATE CROSSING!
No I am NOT obsessed.
...Have some schoolgirls heading back from archery!
Foryuhi_homura since I couldn't get him his CD:
It's a good thing trains arrive pretty soon in Japan! We're talking if the estimated time says 4:15 PM, you hear the train coming in at 4:14! Now THAT is punctuality.
And now, Nakano!
Just outside Nakano Broadway is a smoking area: a little area with a white boundary and a huge ashtray so that you don't chuck your cigarette butts everywhere on their little garden and SET IT ON FIRE.
Nakano Broadway is beautiful because it's like the Amcorp Mall of Japan - it's where you find secondhand anything collectible, not just anime and figurines and artbooks and cels. If you had the patience to explore you'd find 2ndhand lolita clothing, baseball jerseys, a steampunk R2D2, movie posters, etc. Saying that, their navigation system is MESSED UP. There's an escalator leading straight to Mandarake and the anime floor, but the escalator is only one-way, so to get back to the entrance you have to find the stairs and WALK all the way back down to the first floor (NOT the 2nd because Mandarake is actually on the 3rd floor and the escalator skips a floor). Not recommended for the easily-disoriented.
While looking for a figurine I snagged some Layton phone straps (Flora and Jenis were going for 100 yen; Luke sold for SEVEN HUNDRED YEN WTF), Durara and Natsume Yuujinchou trading cards (NY was 50% off!), and a figurine of Drossel which is a PAIN to ASSEMBLE and my CARPET is FULL of BITS. Rage.
At that point me and Nadia split up to look for stuff before going back to the entrance, and in that 15 minutes without guidance I walked STRAIGHT into someone else's FIGURINE. Needless to say he was more worried about his figurine than himself or me, and I didn't want to hang around and get throttled for wrecking a lovely...whatever it might be that he strokes so lovingly....in front of his girlfriend...
So I apologized and THEN fled like a mofo....
....All the way to Shibuya where we met Nadia's friend Nick!
Nick took us to a random nabe place for dinner, located below two flights of stairs. I think we would actually be SAFE in there if an earthquake hit, mind.
Nadia & Nick pondering the menu. Nick, despite his Dutch surname, is apparently very much Indian. I shouldn't be surprised, really.
Tofu salad!
Avocado with soya skin!
Japanese omelette!
Yakitori!
Chicken nabe with a TON of taugeh. Took me ages to sift through for MEAT. The kimchi sauce was delicious but the taugeh prevented me from drinking it.
Something something choco ganache.
Nadia gets excited because it has BALLS.
We then went to a bar for drinks (the restaurant only lets you stay for 2 hours).
It's a really cozy bar - what you see is what you get. They had cartoons of liquor personified, like how Johnnie Walker looked like a fat loud crass man. Oh, and BARTENDERS. BARTENDERS with slicked back hair and ALL THAT.
I had a sore throat though, so lemon juice is all I get...
...with throat-tickling pretzels.
Nick was REALLY nice and paid for the lot! Thanks again! <3
Headed back to the ryokan at about 10ish.
Also, forpiratelicker and futomimii:
I...THINK that's the game you're playing atm?
Tomorrow night I'm working, so let's hope I can update on Saturday! You're gonna enjoy the next one...
It has DIR EN GREY in it.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The hell you mean you don't know who Dir En Grey is?? SCREW YOU! >(
Delifrance can go suck a stale baguette.
You know you're in Akihabara when...
1. You see anime girls covering buildings with wanton abandon.
2. You see girls in meido outfits trying to get you to go to their cafe.
3. Your idea of heaven is a 7-storey building of every anime merchandise you can think of.
This was the only instance of halal food we saw - ironically, it's served with BEER.
Now if you kindly ask
maxsterism for his photos of Japan, he'll have pictures of people and storefronts and stuff, and then you might be tempted to ask me why I don't have pictures of stuff we really want to see. I must point out that Max went to Shikoku and parts of Kyoto where people from the countryside are probably MUCH more laid-back and are more than happy to have tourists snapping pics of their stuff. Tokyo on the other hand is a place where people do HORRIBLE things to photographs and bend the laws of personal privacy into modern art sculptures, so most of the time the minute they see you whipping out a camera they'll politely ask you to put away your camera (and they won't leave you alone until you do). It is the antithesis of "Pics of it didn't happen" because the chances that you can't take pictures of EVERYTHING weird that happens in Tokyo is astronomical and the only way people can believe you is to go see Tokyo for themselves. The Japanese just won't let you, and you only have your silent Nokia handphone to rely on for guerilla shots of vending machine displays.Yes, they wouldn't let me take pictures of vending machines.
I don't know WHAT you can do with pics of vending machines, but Tokyo people have discovered it, and it must not have been a pretty sight at ALL. After all my LJ pics are up, I'm just curious if any Japanese people will comment asking me to remove their pic because I've accidentally taken their picture.
So I went into Animate and saw this extremely badass diorama of Revoltech Layton decapitating a berserk Eva-02 with the word bubble "This is what an English gentleman does!", but I can't share it with you because I wasn't allowed to take pictures. Sad. :( Got a Durarara wallscroll (which turned out to be really small),
sringangel's G-Fantasy, and other stuff I can't remember now. I wanted to get FF12 Ashe's ring but when I decided to finally buy it it was sold out. Sadface. :(And no I'm not going to get it online; Someone else can buy that for me. WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE.
Went to Toranoana next to Animate, and got stuff some of you would rather never know of...
And if IzayaxShizuo isn't your thing, they also have:
ShizuoxIzaya (Shizuo is seme)
ShizuoxTom
ShizuoxKasuka
ShizuoxKadota
IzayaxShinra
IzayaxMasaomi
IzayaxMikado
IzayaxEveryoneOnTheFaceOfIkebukuro
I'm SURE they have ShinraxCelty in the mens' Toranoana, no need to feel so squicked; I'd get it too.
While heading for Nakano Broadway, we hopped on the wrong train and headed out of town. Thought it felt a bit strange when we passed by 4 stops....
...with SUBURBAN TRAIN GATE CROSSING!
No I am NOT obsessed.
...Have some schoolgirls heading back from archery!
For
yuhi_homura since I couldn't get him his CD:It's a good thing trains arrive pretty soon in Japan! We're talking if the estimated time says 4:15 PM, you hear the train coming in at 4:14! Now THAT is punctuality.
And now, Nakano!
Just outside Nakano Broadway is a smoking area: a little area with a white boundary and a huge ashtray so that you don't chuck your cigarette butts everywhere on their little garden and SET IT ON FIRE.
Nakano Broadway is beautiful because it's like the Amcorp Mall of Japan - it's where you find secondhand anything collectible, not just anime and figurines and artbooks and cels. If you had the patience to explore you'd find 2ndhand lolita clothing, baseball jerseys, a steampunk R2D2, movie posters, etc. Saying that, their navigation system is MESSED UP. There's an escalator leading straight to Mandarake and the anime floor, but the escalator is only one-way, so to get back to the entrance you have to find the stairs and WALK all the way back down to the first floor (NOT the 2nd because Mandarake is actually on the 3rd floor and the escalator skips a floor). Not recommended for the easily-disoriented.
While looking for a figurine I snagged some Layton phone straps (Flora and Jenis were going for 100 yen; Luke sold for SEVEN HUNDRED YEN WTF), Durara and Natsume Yuujinchou trading cards (NY was 50% off!), and a figurine of Drossel which is a PAIN to ASSEMBLE and my CARPET is FULL of BITS. Rage.
At that point me and Nadia split up to look for stuff before going back to the entrance, and in that 15 minutes without guidance I walked STRAIGHT into someone else's FIGURINE. Needless to say he was more worried about his figurine than himself or me, and I didn't want to hang around and get throttled for wrecking a lovely...whatever it might be that he strokes so lovingly....in front of his girlfriend...
So I apologized and THEN fled like a mofo....
....All the way to Shibuya where we met Nadia's friend Nick!
Nick took us to a random nabe place for dinner, located below two flights of stairs. I think we would actually be SAFE in there if an earthquake hit, mind.
Nadia & Nick pondering the menu. Nick, despite his Dutch surname, is apparently very much Indian. I shouldn't be surprised, really.
Tofu salad!
Avocado with soya skin!
Japanese omelette!
Yakitori!
Chicken nabe with a TON of taugeh. Took me ages to sift through for MEAT. The kimchi sauce was delicious but the taugeh prevented me from drinking it.
Something something choco ganache.
Nadia gets excited because it has BALLS.
We then went to a bar for drinks (the restaurant only lets you stay for 2 hours).
It's a really cozy bar - what you see is what you get. They had cartoons of liquor personified, like how Johnnie Walker looked like a fat loud crass man. Oh, and BARTENDERS. BARTENDERS with slicked back hair and ALL THAT.
I had a sore throat though, so lemon juice is all I get...
...with throat-tickling pretzels.
Nick was REALLY nice and paid for the lot! Thanks again! <3
Headed back to the ryokan at about 10ish.
Also, for
piratelicker and futomimii:I...THINK that's the game you're playing atm?
Tomorrow night I'm working, so let's hope I can update on Saturday! You're gonna enjoy the next one...
It has DIR EN GREY in it.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The hell you mean you don't know who Dir En Grey is?? SCREW YOU! >(
