Category: Trip

Today I spent over 8 hours in Akihabara, the otaku paradise of the world. If you’re interested in games, toys, anime or books and merchandise on these topics then this is the place for you.

Even in a full nonstop day I only saw a small portion. It’s like a massive dungeon of incredible stores, and for all you see you know there’s a lot you miss as well.

Some shops are so cramped I could barely walk the aisles. Some were so tiny I could barely even enter! And every shelf in every store it bursting with an inconceivable amount of stuff for sale.

Every type of hobby seems to be represented. Aside from the obvious (game and anime) I saw shops specializing in trains, guns, male dolls, wrestling and even in one case yo-yo‘s!

I spent most of my time in game shops. These are like museums to me and I feel I could browse them every day. The glass cases full of the truly rare stuff fascinate me.

I also invested more than I’d care to admit in UFO machines… and won nothing! Not even a chicken banana!

Another of my shoes broke today, and quite possibly my body with it. It was all I could do to shovel in my gourmet dinner…

…before returning to the hotel to write the last postcards and pack for my return flight tomorrow.

I had so much fun in Akihabara though I truly wish I could just go back and do it all again tomorrow. That’s not possible, but I know I’ll be back again one day.

Today I visited teamlab Borderless, a ‘digital art museum’ in the Odaiba district of Tokyo. And it was, to say the least, incredible.

It comprises a vast maze like space with many rooms and at least two levels (it’s hard to keep track) filled with all sorts of unusual digital art.

Almost all of the artwork is based around light in some form or another, and none of it is static. The lights and projections are constantly changing and moving, and the soundtrack changes with them.

There are vast cavernous rooms where one moment the walls are covered with ink paintings and then the next butterflies and then the next a waterfall. There are tiny rooms full of flowers or falling cherry blossoms. There is a round room with waves crashing against the walls.

There’s the completely mirrored room full of hanging lanterns that change colour slowly. There’s a large sloping room filled with artificial plants that you walk through (and yes you need to push them out of the way) as ‘wind’ blows around you. There are large animals made of flowers walking along walls and geckos and whales walking and swimming underneath your feet.

Tiny rooms contain what at first seem to be traditional artworks hung on walls but on closer scrutiny reveal themselves to be animated as well, only slowly or on a minute scale. There was so much to see I’m sure I missed some of it (there’s no map or guide) and since the installations were often changing the same room could be different next time you went in.

The above photo was taken in a room with LED light strings suspended from the ceiling. As I first walked through (which wasn’t easy since the density of strings is high and the floor mirrored!) all of a sudden it ‘rained’ light down onto me in a very convincing manner. It was extraordinary. I visited the room several times and never saw rain again.

As far as attractions go this was an 11 out of 10. Easily one of – if not the best art museum I’ve ever been to. I spent over two hours inside and could have spent much more had I not been starving. I think more of these will be installed around the world and if you’re ever near one I highly recommend you go.

After a gourmet (¥630) meal, my next stop was right next to teamlab, and what do you know it was another Ferris wheel:

I’ve rode this one – called Daikanransha – twice before although not in many years. For a while it was the biggest in the world and even today it’s the second biggest I’ve ever personally ridden (after another Tokyo wheel). I can assure you that yes the wind still blows the cars a bit and yes it’s as high as it looks.

It was also incredibly sunny, as you may notice in the above photo. This has the effect of warming the cars wonderfully, and I greatly enjoyed my toasty ride. Here’s the obligatory snap from the carriage:

Such style and such handsomeness! Tokyo will miss me when I leave 🙂

After the wheel I wandered over to the new giant Gundam statue at Diver City mall. KLS and I saw the old one (an RX-78 Gundam) years back but this new one – a Unicorn Gundam – was only installed two years ago. It’s 20 meters tall, incredibly detailed and incredibly awesome. Inside the mall I visited the giant Gundam Base which not only sold a mind-boggling array of Gundam kits but also had a vast display area of prize-winning or otherwise special assembled Gundams.

The talent on display beggared belief. I don’t even paint my Gundams but today I saw some that had been resculpted, engraved, fully decked out with lights and even metallized as shown above. As someone who has assembled quite a few plastic model kits myself I was awestruck, and greatly enjoyed the exhibit.

The rest of the day was more shopping, UFO machines, buying souvenirs etc. And yes that cat armour was a real product for sale. Of course I didn’t buy it, but I very nearly did buy some of this cotton candy (fairy floss):

Yes, yes and yes. Those are both made of cotton candy!

Yet another great day in my endless vacation. However there was a strange occurrence today that made me pause. Just as I got off the Ferris wheel my shoe broke! It seems after the 507,000 steps I’ve done these past 28 days (I’ll let you calculate the average) the shoes decided to just pack it in rather than walk any more! So today I walked easily over 10k steps in a broken, uncomfortable shoe which ended up ruining my sock as well. Luckily I have a spare pair of shoes, which should see me through these last remaining days of the trip.

To finish today’s post I couldn’t help to notice that the news was a little more excited than usual today. Once I found out the reason I became a tad excited myself: they are forecasting snow in Tokyo tonight at 11 pm! Unfortunately I’m tired like the dead and will probably sleep through it if it happens, but perhaps if I wake early enough I may find traces? Let’s find out tomorrow!