I woke up early for my interview (for real this time), which went well!
Then I headed back to the guesthouse to drop my luggage off after checking out of the hotel. I wasn’t allowed to hang out at the guesthouse till after 5PM, so I headed back out to Akihabara, the “Electric City” district. I’d already been, but I wanted to do more exploring, and potentially buy a piece of retro technology for myself.
On the way to the subway station, I saw two little dogs sitting out in the sun in front of a shop. Seeing me grin and stop to take out my phone for a photo, the Japanese lady who ran the shop waved me over, so I stooped to pet them.
They were so soft!The subway was actually quite empty at this time of day! Normally there are so many people around that I don’t feel comfortable taking photos.There are a lot of really cool old neon signs in Akihabara, which I imagine would look awesome at night.
After getting to Akihabara, I explored another set of electronics department stores I hadn’t gone into yet.
I did find a shop with a bunch of older digital and analog cameras, and was very tempted to get some – but most weren’t that interesting (or were overpriced).
I did find the same model as the camera I’d originally brought that stopped working (momentarily)! But it was like $65, which is far more than I want to pay.
It is in muuuch nicer condition than mine is though…Of course, there were Nintendo consoles also.
I didn’t end up buying anything – it turns out some of the shops I was thinking of buying from were closed (It’s Golden Week here in Japan – the longest vacation most Japanese people get, so a lot of places are closed while the owners take vacation). That was better anyway – I wasn’t super excited about anything I saw, and I’m headed to a flea market on Saturday, so need some spending cash for that.
Next I headed to Ueno Park, a large park in the middle of the Ueno district in Tokyo. In the middle of the park is an old Buddhist temple, but it’s surrounded by ponds and other greenery.
DUCK BOATS! I told myself that if they were less than 1000 yen, I’d get one…
The duck boats were 800 yen (for a swan one), 700 yen for a basic covered boat, and 500 for a rowboat, all for 30 minutes. So I got a covered boat!
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My legs did not fit in the boat well, but I managed regardless to make a decent loop around the lake. It was fun, though would have been a little easier with another person (and shorter legs).
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After this, I walked over to the Buddhist temple, and explored around it a bit.
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After this, I headed across another bridge across the pond and stumbled upon a small flea market. And I found a lot of cool things!
An Original Gameboy for 800 yen (About $5.60)
A Gameboy camera for 500 yen ($3.50)
A Japanese Yoshi game for 500 yen (Still $3.50)
A cute ceramic cup for Mo for 300 yen ($2.10)
A pair of vintage sunglasses that I’m hoping don’t make me look too much like a serial killer for 2000 yen ($14)
A brass whistle with a Nissan label on it (gonna carry it on my keychain to get people’s attention if needed – another guy tested it for 500 yen (STILL $3.50!)
I’d forgotten how difficult the Gameboy’s screen is to see, let alone photograph. Anyway, trust that the photos from the Gameboy camera look a little better in real life. Only a little. Unfortunately, immediately after getting the Gameboy to turn on and boot the Yoshi game I had to relinquish control to Izara, one of the other guesthouse guests, who has become very invested in the game. The sound doesn’t work, but if you plug in a pair of headphones it does.
On my way back to the subway station, I snapped a few more photos in the sunset glow.
OLYMPUS C4100I tried drawing this flower later in the evening. There is a reason I have not posted the drawing.A majestic tree and gateAn older metro car that was sitting in the neighborhood I walked through.This kindly-looking old man was taking a smoke break when I walked by. The streetcar above was behind him and I tried to sneak a photo of him, but it looks like he noticed (and didn’t mind)Little planters of flowers outside people’s houses are really common here, which is really cute!A lot of Honda Supercub mopeds around! I’m pretty sure driving a Moped would be illegal for me here, but I also haven’t seen any places to rent them.
After this, I hung out in the common area and shared my finds with the other guests. I also got sushi at a conveyor belt place down the road, but forgot to take photos.
Finally a breakfast picture! I had the presence of mind to take a photo before I started eating.
After breakfast and some blogging, I headed out with Matt, one of the other people at the hostel – we were heading in the same direction towards Toyko, he to get a haircut and I to visit Akihabara, Toyko’s “Electric City” – known for (among other things), a lot of electronics shops. Perfect for me!
First though, I needed a Suica card – the trains in Toyko (and I believe, much of Japan) are paid for via “IC Cards”. You can technically buy individual tickets, but the system isn’t well set up for them. I know this because on my way from the camera shops to the hostel, after about 25 minutes of careful studying of multiple guides on her PDF and consulting another coworker, the lady at the ticket counter finally printed one out, and then hand wrote kanji on it, added an official stamp, and sent me on my way.
None of the ticket machines would take the modified ticket, so each station I had to go to the information booth to ask to be let through.
Anyway, the first thing we did was stop by an ATM (I withdrew 10,000 Yen, about USD $70 – cash is very commonly used here, and card isn’t universally accepted), then went to a ticket machine to get my very own Suica IC card, preloaded with 1,500 Yen.
I like the little penguin. Other cards have other designs.
After 30 or so minutes on the subway into the heart of Tokyo, I hopped off at Akihabara station and started exploring.
It’s amazing how much they have for sale here! You can buy new and used phones, ranging from $15 for very old phones in untested condition like the ones in the bins below, to new or refurbished iPhones and other high end brands.
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If you wanted to buy a computer, it would be easy – dozens of shops with new and used laptops and desktops, plus any accessory you could need.
This TINY laptop was 14,000 Yen, about $90. Despite its size, it would work fine for light computing, and the fact that it would fit in my side bag is tempting…
Better yet, if you wanted to build a computer, everything you need, new and used, is available with in a few minutes’ walk. From low-end web browsing PCs to high end gaming machines, everything is here.
I found this vintage macbook too! After I finished looking at it, I realized the bin it had been in had a “do not touch” sticker on it (that, to be fair, had fallen off). Oops.
There are also tons of little stands with a wide variety of little electronic components. Some of these take up only a hundred or so square feet, and are run by an older Japanese man. It surprises me (pleasantly) that it’s possible for these people to have their own little business – in a world where most electronics are now bought online, it’s really cool to see these little shops still around. I have heard that they are becoming less and less common.
I also checked out a couple of thrift stores – the ones I went to mostly focused on electronics and musical instruments. Both stores were split across multiple levels – the nicer things on the upper levels, but in the basement, the “Junk” – less valuable, possibly non-working things for lower prices. I very much enjoyed digging through these bins.
There were also a ton of vintage game consoles, especially Nintendo. It makes sense – Nintendo is a Japanese company, and their first consoles were originally released in Japan. The yellow/red consoles are the original Japanese version of the NES.
Some of these are only $15-20 USD! I’m tempted to get one, but the cartridges between the Family Computer and NES aren’t compatible – though maybe a minor case modification would solve this… You can’t see it behind the price tag, but this camera is a pretty unique digital camera from 1998 – very early for digital cameras! However, the price ($115 USD!) is ridiculous.
In my quest to find vintage computer gear, I visited a bunch of retro gaming shops, and found even more consoles, and thousands of games.
There were games in bins like these, but most of the more popular games were in individual plastic packaging and hanging on pegs. The Super Famicon was the next generation of console after the Nintendo Family Computer, but was still pretty similar. Anime / Manga is a big part of the culture here too – lots of the game shops also had that sort of thing yet. The original “Pocket Monsters” Pokemon games.Two pieces of very cool tech – the robot companion for the Nintendo Family Computer, and a very old retro gaming computer with a vertical aspect ratio. There were also a lot of consoles I’d never heard of before, like this one, the “PC Engine”. Apparently there is a floppy disk drive add-on for the original Family Computer – it was used for saving games, even as an alternative for game cartridges, and apparently for additional higher quality soundtracks on games.
Many larger stores here are broken across several floors in a narrow 5-7 story building. In the top floor of one of the vintage game stores was an arcade with a bunch of old arcade machines and a bunch of snacks for sale.
One of these had english voice acting. This supersized gameboy didn’t seem to be playable. I wonder what it was supposed to do?
After several hours of walking around I needed some food – and Matt, another person at my hostel, had joined me to explore. We found a local dry ramen shop (no broth, just oil on the noodles) and got some food there.
It was great! Apparently it’s often had with mayonnaise, which I tried on about 1/8th of the remaining noodles – it was delicious!
After the noodles, we did a little more looking around, but we were both kind of tired from walking around at that point, so we headed back to the hostel.
Later in the evening, a group of several of us decided to check out a local karaoke place (apparently karaoke is HUGE in Japan) – the place just opened today, and was giving out 30% off coupons.
I guess I forgot to smile, oops!
After this and a few more hours of late-night chatting, I finally got to bed at 2:30 AM… 😛
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