Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Tokyo Weekend 2 - Toukyou no shuumatsu 2 (東京の週末)

This is a backpost. I went to Tokyo for a weekend on May 16-17th.

After Tsukiji, I wanted to check out Akihabara (秋葉原.) The literal translation of the kanji is the "Field of Autumn Leaves" which sounds really nice but hides the sketchy nature of this part of Japan. This is Otaku central full of figurine, anime, video games, manga, electronics, and porn/hentai shops. We saw a lot of maid cafe and shops too. Here we saw a lot of tourists taking pictures. While walking through the streets of Akihabara, I felt that the male to female ratio was reversed. There were so many similar looking guys walking in packs.

(Random shot of Akihabara. )

Basically floors upon floors of shops. Like the one pictured below.
(A few blocks in and...wow)
This is a random sex shop we ran into. The wares were so blatantly obvious with the mannequins in the front and on the first floor. In Akihabara, they don't allow photos in the shops. My boyfriend and I decided to wander into a figurine shop. The further we got up the building the more x rated it was becoming. It wasn't so bad but my boyfriend was clearly uncomfortable. I was started to become uncomfortable because I realized that I was the only girl in the building. I wondering if I was making the other guys on the floor uncomfortable by being there....

I originally wanted to buy a denki jisho in Akihabara but in the end I didn't. For now my DS will suffice and my Japanese friends are human dictionaries anyway:)

The next place we visited was Asakusa (浅草) or "Shallow Grass." We were really lucky because we got to see Sanja Matsuri! My boyfriend and I had no idea what was going on or what Sanja Matsuri is. There was a crowd outside of the gate. People were carring this carriage thing and making a lot of noise.

(Sucks being short)

Inside the gate where all these booths selling food and snacks. It looked a lot of fun even though it looked rainy. All I needed was a yukata. While eating, we were fortunate enough to see another procession. This time a lot closer. There were three of them and I got a video of at least one.
Asakusa is really nice. It is one of the few places in Tokyo I want to come back to. I wish I knew more about matsuri and the cultural significance of it.

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