Day 5 pt. 2 -- adventure

*1 day later*

I am officially awake again! I had a rather hectic day, but most of it happened all at once. It feels like it happened a week ago honestly.

So for starters, I stayed up all night of day 4 to write and upload some of this stuff (that's how much I love you guys). So to start everyone in my group was going to Kyoto. For a number of reasons, I wanted to visit an area more like Akihabara, none the least of which was I felt like we somewhat rushed through Den Den Town. I also wanted to see if I could buy some cool games, anime or manga merchandise, and electronic parts. If I had time, I was going to go to the arcade, but I definitely didn't have time. But more on that later.

For starters, I had started the trip along with everyone else. I had decided in advance that I was going to Den Den Town instead of Kyoto. I have been to Kyoto before and, while it is very interesting and culturally rich, I spent a good portion of a trip I took in high school studying culture alongside visiting many shrines, temples, etc.

Now, I'm rather fond of computers and, since my high school tour kind of hurried me through Akihabara when we went, I figured this time I would spend more time in Den Den Town. Well, on the bus, a Japanese student who was going to Kyoto said it would take only 3 hours to get Akihabara, leaving me with a good 5 hours of time before I had to return to go to a farewell party they were throwing for us. So, I figured that 5 hours would be more than enough time, and I'd probably just come back early. So with that in mind I set off to Akihabara.

Akihabara!

The most recognizable building for me

If any of you are familiar with literary foreshadowing, you know that this story isn't going to end with me spending 5 hours in Tokyo and getting back in time for the party. Nope.

So the train ride actually takes 4 hours, which shaved off an hour each way. So now I had about 3 hours to do stuff if I wanted to get back in time for the party. It didn't sound like enough time, but I ended up doing most of the things I wanted to do. I visited several shops, including several electronic components and became even more familiar with the area. Unfortunately, there weren't really any sets of components to pick up, so it seemed like you had to know pretty well what you wanted before hand, whereas I was hoping for a box o' capacitors (Japanese capacitors are the best). I also looked at several measurement devices that are good and fairly uncommon, but they were all very expensive  on my budget, so I figured I'd just pass for now.

Electronics alleyways

I visited several anime, manga, and game paraphernalia shops, and bought a TON of merchandise. It was all less than $100 (give or take), but in the states it definitely would be $200+ before shipping.  I got some good N64 games (Mario Party 2, F zero, and Kirby 64), a ps3 game (can't remember the name , but involves a lot of mechs from a lot of different anime), and a DS game (Gyakuten Kenji 2). I'm pretty happy about everything!

I had to pass up going to the arcades, but they didn't seem well populated when I went anyway. While I was walking around, trying to find a Book Off! (used bookstore + more), a woman tried to give me a flyer. When I took it, she seemed surprised and said, in English, "Um… Art… Mueseum." I responded in Japanese, which surprised her, and she asked me where I was from. When I said North Carolina in America, she lit up and said she "knows that one!"

Some kind of promotion going on

I then basically took the train back. It doesn't sound very exciting I suppose, but I was very happy with what happened, and I navigated and spoke only Japanese, so it was a lot of fun. The problem was, the train leaving at 2 had gotten cancelled for some reason, so I had to take the 3 o'clock.

This is a bad picture, but I wanted ask what it meant. I seems like kita--------------! Is some kind of meme in Japan. That was on a billboard with Asuka. I was wondering what it meant, other than the obvious literal translation.

 So basically, I got home about 7. I asked a local if the bus to the university was still running. 30 minutes later, I realize it's not, and I simply take a cab home. I BARELY had enough cash for the ride. I looked around a little for the restaurant we were meeting  at for the farewell party, but in vain. Slightly defeated, but happy at my successful adventure, I went back to my room to write this. After which I promptly fell asleep. And the next day too. Sorry guys o.o

My train ride:

Some mountains...

Some houses....

Some tracks (playing around with the camera settings here)

A Cool looking building

My amazing picture of Mt. Fuji!

So good that the stations all framed it

This is a half second after a different bullet train passed. The fuzzy part is  the dust shockwave

When we entered a tunnel and all light outside turned off. I was pretty bored!

Stuff mountain!