Jun 18: Akiba - Phase One
Today I got up to talk to Dad for Father's Day. We had a nice conversation via text, because unfortunately my internet was the worst it has ever been. D: Great timing, eh? I think I will need to get my own internet, as (sort of) missing Father's Day sucked.
After chatting with Dad, I went and hopped on a bus to Yokochuu, bound for an afternoon in Tokyo. Of course it started raining the second I saw the bus coming, so I was without an umbrella for the whole rather remarkably rainy day. I had brought my camera, but due to being umbrella-less (I didn't see any uber-cheap ones) I didn't take any pictures aside from one of Pockets Plus One, which I was sheltered by the train tracks for. Getting to Shinagawa was pretty fast, as usual. I was a little apprehensive at first when I got on a limited express that was not labeled "Shinagawa", but rather the stop directly AFTER it. I was just plucking up the courage after having pre-formed my sentences to ask the guy beside me about it when the train announcer mentioned Shinagawa in his list of stops. Oh well, I'm sure I'll have many other opportunities to speak Japanese. In Japan. ;D
I took the Yamanote to Akihabara, and realized upon arrival that I had again forgotten to research where I actually wanted to go from the station. I proceeded to wander around the streets nearby the station until I found one that looked more populated, which I then made a beeline for. Sure enough, it was Chuuou street, and I was able to hunt down Pockets for a picture.
For lunch I ate at Yoshinoya because, well, why not? I had a gyu-nabe-don, which was pretty good. I was clearly a Yoshinoya noob though, because as I was eating I noticed many people ordering the same thing, but with a raw-egg side that they mixed into the meal. Yummmm... I'll do that next time maybe, if Mom promises not to get ulcers thinking about it.
Since it was raining pretty hard, I didn't really feel like walking around (or at least that's my excuse, OK I know it's a weak one) so I headed straight for the CLUB SEGA arcade beside Pockets, where I got horribly sick and missed most of my vacation in Grade 11. I'm full of great ideas, eh? A new Virtua Fighter game came out recently, which was evident from the fact that the entire basement floor of the arcade was devoted entirely to that single game. They had maybe.... 50 seats? It was incredible. I kept looking around for other games on the bottom floor, because I was having trouble believing that they seriously had an entire floor of Virtua Fighter. I ceased to have trouble believing this when I remembered that I was in fucking AKIHABARA. Derp.
I'm incredibad at 3D fighters so I went up a couple of floors and found Melty Blood. I watched some people play for a bit and then tried my hand against the player that appeared to be the weakest and got ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED. It wasn't pretty. In other news I'm now BFFs with the left hand corner, and I'm going to be having nightmares about White Len and her magic yo-yo OTGs for the rest of my life. It didn't help that I haven't played Melty Blood on a stick since the last time I was in Japan (oh wait we played a game at Rush, didn't we?), but I'm pretty sure I'd be totally outclassed by the players here even if I was comfortable. So, having being totally humiliated, I naturally sat down at the next machine, opposite a player who appeared to be better and tried my luck again. I actually did alright in some of the matches, getting him down to less than half life off of footsies and pseudo-crossups (I can't do real ones, are they even possible in the MB engine?), with a generous dose of random imba EX-Hieros, but it was still 3-0. I felt very good about my progress with comfort on the arcade stick and all, so I put in another coin, and ended up hitting him once in the third match to deny him the triple perfect. D:
I then went upstairs to investigate the promises of Project Diva that posters all over the place had been making, and I wasn't disappointed. They had four machines in a corner and a lineup the same size as Ikebukuro, who only had one machine. I was going to play, but then I reconsidered, as if I started I probably wouldn't stop until I had to leave for Yokochuu. I went back outside, and to the next block where another CLUB SEGA was waiting for me hahahaha. I took this as a sign and went inside and upstairs, and proceeded to get destroyed at Melty Blood again (though not as badly as last time). I also tried out BlazBlue, where I confirmed that Japan has at least one Nu player that's better than Nathaniel (;D), and 3rd Strike, where I actually fared the best. I never actually won, but I didn't really get blown up either. I must admit it's pretty hard to win at Street Fighter when you can't do Z-motions on command. >_< I spotted MvC2 of all things and beat arcade mode because no one ever sat down opposite me. Hooray my first victory of the day! Not really. D: I went upstairs in this CLUB SEGA and found 4 or 5 more Project Divas, but with a rather significant lineup. They've got a bunch of Project Diva stuff hanging around beside the line, including what appeared to be iroha's autograph. O_O Not that surprising, I guess, it IS Akiba... I went back to the other CLUB SEGA to play Project Diva for the next couple of hours.
An interesting thing to note is that the CLUB SEGA one block away from Pockets has slightly chic, beautifully clean and freshly scented bathrooms, while the one beside Pockets is rife with perplexing, noisome odours (can you tell I'm missing native English speakers a little?), complete with what I really hope was vomit next to the squatter. D:
For dinner I went to the curry place near the station that's called "It's time for Homemade Curry" or something like that. It sounds bizarrely like an indie band's name, but I badly needed to remedy the fact that I'd only had curry once in Japan prior to tonight. I decided to try the kurobuta-katsu curry, and proceeded to try to purchase a ticket for it from the vending machine. For some reason it wouldn't take my money, so I had to beep my Pasmo to pay. >_> It's now under 10,000円 again; I must correct this (Pasmo builds interest right? XD) Speaking of my Pasmo, I think it's levelling up. Bus trips seem to be a little cheaper than they used to, and it definitely couldn't have anything to do with the fact that I take a different line almost every time I go anywhere. Nope, it's probably levelling up...
The curry was decent. It didn't stand out much from places that don't claim to be homemade, so I'm a touch suspicious. The katsu, however, was DELICIOUS. I may or may not have been incredibly hungry at that point, so I will have to verify my findings as soon as possible. In fact, maybe I should get enough data points to do regression and make the deliciousness statistically significant. ;D
After dinner I went back to Shinagawa by Yamanote and then back to Yokochuu by limited express on the Keikyuu line. On the train I saw an ad that abbreviated the line's name as "kq" in a URL. Also on the train, I sat between a black woman with the most amazing hair (it looked like a colourful woven bag perched upside-down on her head) and a Japanese girl who was trying with all her might not to fall asleep against me. It was quite humourous watching her fall farther and farther into sleep as her head drifted closer and closer to my arm, until it would finally touch me and then she'd jerk back up for all of 5 seconds before the scene repeated itself. Eventually after like 4 cycles she got fed up with it and fell asleep ALL OVER the rather older guy on the other side of her who was trying very hard to look like there wasn't a 20-something year old girl probably drooling on him. I really hope she knew him, for his sake.
I got off at Yokochuu much earlier than I expected (I forgot that my 2 hour trip time includes the bus ride to Ikkidzuka), so I wandered around for a bit. I found lots of net/manga cafes, whose counter attendants all looked at me as if I were some sort of alien when I asked if they had StarCraft. Some were advertising online games so I thought I'd try, but apparently no. D: I really am going to have to get my own internet. I also think I may have found Yokochuu's red-light street, either that or the lady that appeared as if on cue when I turned around after seeing how sketchy and dim the bars on the street looked was asking me if I wanted an ACTUAL massage. O_O No thanks. I had to ask her to repeat herself at first because she really really did not look at all like an "adult recreation engineer" and I thought she might be asking a legitimate question. I scurried back onto the main drag and asked around a bit more about StarCraft. I'll have to sashay more as I walk to avoid such encounters in the future.
I went back to my dorm and accidentally pigged out on senbei before writing up this blog. D: I'm going to have to stop buying it because I can't stop myself from eating it. It's too delicious! And the harder kinds destroy the roof of my mouth, ouchie.
Anyways, I'd best get to bed so I can get up to chat with Mom and Jiuna in the morning. Ciao!
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