Japan 2019 Day 14 - The Final Day

Mar 11, 2019 5 min read

Ah… My last day in Tokyo…
Today I pretend to be a extrovert before finishing up Akihabara.

Ikebukuro

Toshima Incineration Plant

Today for lunch, I’m meeting up with Pedro, a Sploon friend studying in Japan.
We tried to meet the last time I was in Japan but we lacked the time/money to cross cities.

It’s still morning so I got off the train halfway to walk around Ikebukuro for a bit.
Though, I ended up picking a direction that didn’t have much going on.
_{(Which also happened to be the same wrong direction we walked in when we were trying to find Sunshine City back in 2014.)}

Cute one-use emergency mouthwash packs.

Shibuya~

Wew busy. I thought I’d never be able to get through that crowd and off that train.
It’s surprisingly easy to spot someone at the Hachiko statue despite it being surrounded by like 200 people. I was going to try and sneak a candid photo of Pedro but we both saw each other almost immediately.

Gusto

We decided on getting lunch at a family restaurant since we thought we might be able to chill there.
Turns out 2pm is pretty much peak lunch time here. It was packed and we had to queue for a bit before we could get a table. They must get a lot of traffic here in Shibuya since they even had a waiting area with chairs.

We both got the beef omurice set. Oishii 🤤 Might have even edged out Denny’s omurice.
It was uncanny to see a Brazilian guy order in fluent Japanese.

MEGA Don Quijote

Can you believe Nintendo still doesn’t have their own store in Japan?
Would have been cool to look at Splatoon stuff but anyway, MEGA Donki time instead.
Pointing stuff out to each other in a big store is my go-to when meeting people.

Handy, or rather, hands-free.

Cute, they still make disposable cameras. These are what I used to use on holidays as a kid.

Cuteee but, looking up some reviews online, the photos are basically unusable.

Mt Buttmore

Hey, they have this charity dog mascot here too.

TENGA

…

Hello darkness, my old friend…

Cute.

Shibuya Crossing

Pedro has classes so I’m off to finish Akiba.

Never did get round to finishing this show.

2022 update: I finished it. It was ok.

Sun’s setting.

By chance I came across the internet-famous train-platform-milk-stand. Lucky day.

All the milk you could want.

Akihabara

Finishing up the East side today.

Akihabara Station

I’m feeling healed up by the environment already.

3 trips in a row now that I’ve forgotten to check this place out.

Miku bias

She’s done with your weeb shit.

Radio Kaikan

Hey, it’s Aoi Fuji, one of the first-wave vtubers. Cool to see she’s still going in 2022.

In hindsight, this would have been the perfect souvenir for Rokodo.

Remember your waifu. Do it for her.

Nee-sama, Nee-sama…
Look at all the weebs flocking in just because there’s a picture of an anime girl on the slot machine.

It’s a real estate agent ad. Devilish contracts.

👾

Where can I get Akiba-tan merch?

Liberty Used Figure Store

I do like me some

BEAUTIFUL GIRL FIGURE

Hey, it’s the Lemon Sxaro I wanted…but at double what I was expecting to pay for it…
I should have picked up the one back in Osaka…

Such a cutie~

Rin’s cute too.

>¥580000
Now that is to go further beyond.

Rin!

Aww, there used to be a lil Touhou shop at the top of that building.

A bar with an airsoft shooting range.
Adding this to the list of things I’d want to do if I had friends.

The glory of Ainz Ooal Gown on full display.

Photo borrowed from Google Maps Streetview

Oh, Eternal Amusement Tower was the arcade Noe recommended.
It supposedly had a ton of rhythm games including the old generations but I walked right past it.
Anyway, it died after Covid.

Animate

There was a Non Non Biyori event going on.

Chiisai

I miss this show. Happy times.

Nyanpasu~

Wall of rabbits.

Omg they killed Tippy.

Wow, same hat.

Clever cover design for this yuri romance manga.

Yancha Gal, one of the manga riding off the wave of the new teasing girl genre.
Surprised it doesn’t have an anime yet.

Nikujo no Susume

A manga about office ladies eating large amounts of meat.
Nobody ever translated past the first volume though.

Literally me.

It’s my Life

A cute fantasy slice-of-life about a masked retired soldier who just wants to spend the rest of his days building his dream house, occasionally going on side quests while reluctantly taking care of some kid with magical powers that fell into his lap one day.

…That sounds a lot like that new 2020 Star Wars Mandalorian show now that I think about it.

Misleading cover, it’s just a slice-of-life manga about a guy living in his apartment in modern Japan with his fox-wife.
Just like that book next to it, Senko-san, which is also a slice-of-life manga about a guy living in his apartment with his fox-wife.

Blessed to have taken a picture of next year’s AOTY.

MIKU BIAS

Did you know the quintuplets names are based on the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5?
Japan has a lot of names based on numbers. Like “Hifumi” literally meaning “1 2 3”.

Oh yeah, Harukana Receive was a thing. AOTY.

I LOVE MY STATION.

This game looks super interesting.

Pretty much done here in Akiba, the East isn’t as big as the Western side.
Now back to the station to meet up with A-san who should just be finishing up his salaryman life.

NO FIGURE

Except for that stall right there.

Oh, yeah, they finally took down that glitched AKB48 billboard screen that used to be above the Donki.

Oh, this looks cool, except it ended yesterday…

Answering the question of whether Pokemon are friends or food.

Denny’s with A-san

My 2nd family restaurant of the day. The karaage set meal was okay.

I’ve met A-san 4 times now somehow and I don’t even know the guy.
I only met him the first time because I was with Rokodo, who only started talking to A-san in the first place because he had a cute avatar on Osu. Then again, Rokodo also started talking to me because I was wearing an anime t-shirt so that’s’ pretty on-brand.

Did you know he’s actually a decently popular artist with over 15K followers on Twitter?
Anyway, I dm’ed the celebrity on Twitter like “yo, you don’t remember me but I’m in Japan, wanna food?” and he was like “いいね 😋👍！”

A-san’s avatar on LINE is also cute.

I showed him Noe’s cosplays and VRChat avatars. “Cute! 😋👍”

We started eating and he sugoi’ed that I could use chopsticks. Bro, your country got these from us.
Turns out he’s from the same city that AnoHana was set in.

After asking me about the places I visited, he got jealous and said he’s only been to the US once for the Google IO dev conference. Then I remembered that time he posted a photo of his school swimsuit in front of the Google headquarters on Twitter.

A-san uses a Sony smartphone. Apparently they’re still pretty popular in Japan.
We were both using the same phones as the last time we met. Loved my Samsung S7, it outlasted even the Google phone of its generation in software updates.

I was having a hard time figuring out this word A-san was using. Turns out the Japanese pronounce “app” as apuri. A-san had made this Live2D loli app, and it turns out I had actually downloaded it before in the past. Wow, this thing even has over a 100K downloads. I had to translate that to 10万 for him.

“Would you get detained at the border if I gave you one of my doujins?”
I accepted his sfw New Years postcard instead.

I ended up losing the pay-the-bill battle with A-san again. He paid with a card. Fancy.

He knew my avatar on LINE was Yuno from Hidamari and asked if I was watching any airing anime. I didn’t know how to pronounce the full Wataten title so I just showed him Google images of Hana eating melon pan.

Then as we were leaving, the same exact scene showed up on one of the video billboards.
I love Akihabara.

I sugoi’ed him a lot and he would shy away and iie iie iie wave his hands each time.

Toranoana

“Pointing stuff out to each other in a big store” bonding time!

A-san asked if I watched any Virtual Youtubers and it took me 5 tries to pronounce Kaguya Luna. “Oh, did you know there’s a new vtuber on Luna’s team, Pinky Pop Hepburn?” Just as I said that, we rounded the corner to a P.P.H artbook and we both simultaneously pointed it out like a couple of soyjacks.
A-san likes Hatoba Tsugu.

Has science gone too far?

A-san noticed the Yuru Camp keychain on my bag and said his uni friend is working on season 2.

We saw the artbook celebrating the end of the Heisei era that I bought on the first day. A-san mentioned that he works as a server engineer and it’s been his job lately to make sure there aren’t any bugs during the era transition. Japan’s own Year 2000.
“Server buggu?”
“Hai…”

Bye bye Akiba

I’ll be back. Assuming some once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic doesn’t kill the region.

2022 update: RIP in peace, Toranoana

Fuck me

Everyone I met this trip has expressed concern over whether I’m cold in just a hoodie.

The Japanese are simply built different.

Minami-Senju

New Koyo Hostel

After what happened in 2017, I’m gonna play it safe and stay overnight at the airport.

Who could these handsome fellows be?

Playing it double safe and taking a taxi this time. The receptionist seemed kinda surprised by that. “Eh? It costs money you know?” I guess their hostel guests usually pick the economical option.

Didn’t buy as many things this time.

Yosh.

Goodbye, New Koyo. Last time I’ll be staying with you.
You’ve served me well these past few years but I’ve outgrown the hostel lifestyle.

2023 update: RIP IN PEACE

Comfy late-night Tokyo.

Yo…he’s taking the expensive toll route…
I should’ve taken the train…

Haneda Airport

First Cabin Hotel

Only half an hour later… Yeah, I’m never travelling through rush hour ever again.

I always liked the decor in the capsule hotels I stay in. It feels like I’m on a spaceship.

I splurged a bit and got a “first class” room pod.

Right, dropped off the bags, time to explore the airport.

Oh!…it’s a dog face.

Everything’s closed, even the konbini. DAMNIT, LEMON, GO TO SLEEP ALREADY.

Comfy. Would stay in again.

Oyasumi… 😴

Epilogue

I picked up the latest Tights artbooks by Yomu.
A-san praised my choice and went full otaku-mode, pointing out all the little details like the stitching in the tights that Yomu gets right, while simultaenously honing in on a bunch of other artists on the nearby shelves that he calls true experts.

The store also gave me Yomu’s free bonus sketchbook that despite the chest-focused cover, only contains sketches of feet.

Also got some usagi cakes for Noe and some popular facewash capsules for my sister.

My A-san collection grows.
I like how his business card lists his skills as “IT engineer”, “illustrating”, and “swimsuits”.
Also his Twitter got banned lol.