Enma's Adventures
Day 1: wasted
The first day in Tokyo was tough, we didn't sleep much in Busan (부산) since we had to leave early.
So we were all tired, got whatever amount of sleep we could on the plane.
But it was a short flight, around 2 hours, so it was not enough.
Mezu was the most tired of us three, he was even sick that day.
After getting out of airport security and all that bullshit, we took the Keisei Skyliner to leave the airport.
Our hotel was located in Nippori (日暮里), but because I didn't know there was a stop for Nippori, I booked tickets to stop at Ueno (上野), which is one stop further than Nippori.
That's the same thing I did last year, but last year I hadn't booked any hotel, so it wasn't a big deal.
Gozu asked me if I was sure that it was our stop, and I clearly told him that's what I did last year.
We did get off the train at Nippori.
When we arrived at our hotel, we ordered food there, which was a big mistake.
The food wasn't really bad, but it wasn't amazing either.
It was also overpriced for the portions we all got.
I ordered a matcha milkshake, as usual, and a curry (カレー) that was a complete scam.
Curry is supposed to have vegetables and meat in the sauce, but that thing was just rice, sauce and some spices.
We waited about two hours in the restaurant for our room to be ready since it was still being cleaned.
Mezu even took a nap on the chair, which must've been hella uncomfortable.
While they stayed in the restaurant, I walked around the area despite being tired.
I found a convenience store, called konbini (コンビニ) in Japanese, and a BOOK OFF bookstore near the hotel.
We didn't go to the bookstore until the last day, just a few hours before leaving for Osaka (大阪).
When our room was finally ready, we fetched our luggage from the luggage storage room, went up, and took a well-deserved nap, which ended up being at least a 5-hour nap.
I remember waking up around 21:30, hungry as hell, stomach growling for real food.
So we went out, walked around until we found an Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き) place and decided to eat there.
I wouldn't be able to explain what it is exactly, so I'll just quote Wikipedia:
Okonomiyaki (Japanese: お好み焼き; pronounced [okonomʲijakʲi] ⓘ) is a Japanese teppanyaki savory pancake dish consisting of wheat flour batter and other ingredients (mixed, or as toppings) cooked on a teppan (flat griddle). Common additions include cabbage, meat, and seafood, and toppings include okonomiyaki sauce (made with Worcestershire sauce), aonori (dried seaweed flakes), katsuobushi (bonito flakes), Japanese mayonnaise, and pickled ginger.
The only thing you need to remember, is that it was fucking delicious.
I even shouted うまい ! (umai / delicious) after eating the first bite.
After that, I got myself some well-deserved pudding as dessert from the nearest konbini.
You know what they say: "we got a second stomach for desserts and sweets".
We went back to our room, where nothing of note happened for a few hours.
But Mezu and I had to search for a coin laundry, so we went out.
There was one right next to the hotel, but Mezu didn't want to use it because it looked dirty...
That bastard complains a lot, doesn't he? says the one writing blog posts filled with profanity
Gozu had enough clean clothes so he didn't have to bother until Osaka.
Mezu also had enough clean clothes, so I don't get why he bothered going to the coin laundry with me.
I was the only moron with the fewest changes of clothes, who had to go to the laundry every few days.
I prefer packing light, then wash or buy anything I need, only when I need it.
Konbinis and coin laundries are open 24/7, so why bother bringing a ton of stuff from home?
That Pork loin cutlet bowl was hot, and ready to be consumed.
It's great, in the konbinis over there, they have microwaves, either self-service, or the staff can heat your food.
So I briefly went out of the coin laundry to eat, since the drying machines were still running, for the second time.
I don't know why but the drying machines were very weak in that store, and we had to use them two, sometimes even three times for the clothes to finally be dry-ish.
After we were finally done drying our clothes, we walked back to our hotel to sleep.
Because the next day, we were going to go to Akihabara (秋葉原) !
We did manage to get a good night of sleep, despite our long nap earlier.
Day 2: Akihabara
A word of warning: you will get annoyed by all the maids handing flyers or asking you to come to their restaurant or bar.
Ignore them, like you'd ignore homeless people, don't make eye contact, pretend they don't exist.
They're acting friendly and shit but that's just business, they're just treating you as a potential customer.
They definitely wouldn't act like this if they weren't on the clock.
The worst thing is, even if you walk down the Chuo Dori at night, you will not be at peace and will still find some maids handing their flyers.
Although the "night maids" are less "aggressive" when it comes to handing flyers, so you can still chat with them about random things.
Mezu asked some store clerk if we could somehow buy some Steins;Gate posters, but sadly couldn't.
We then went into the K-BOOKS store inside the tower, then into the 18+ section of the store.
Of course, I am not going to upload pictures of the 18+ corner on here.
I could, but at the time of writing this, the blog doesn't have a blur function for pictures, so I won't.
After a long time spent in the adult corner, and a few purchases of hentai and doujinshi books (hehe), we went out of the K-BOOKS, explored the rest of the stores in Radio Tower, then left to wander around in various stores on the Chuo Dori main street.
As you can already guess, we split ways with Mezu at some point.
Gozu and I were really into the otaku stuff, the bookstores, the figurine stores, etc...
But Mezu wasn't, despite being the one who introduced me to Anime, 10 years ago...
After a lot of walking around, we needed FOOD, so we searched for a place to eat, until we stumbled upon a Sukiya (すき家) restaurant chain, which I wanted to try out.
Gyudon is basically a bowl of beef and rice.
I cracked a raw egg on top which made it even better.
I didn't eat in a Sukiya last year, since I didn't know about it.
But after hearing about it in a few YouTube videos, between both trips, I decided to try it out.
Honestly, it was well worth it, great chow for cheap.
But now, after eating, it was finally time to go GAMBLING !!!
It was located on 4F, you can see it from there, where it says メイドカジノ below 5F.
Ahh, how I missed this place, the only place to satisfy my never-ending gambling addiction.
Upon entering, we had to pay an entrance fee, and buy fictional currency with real currency.
On the first picture, we were playing American Roulette, which adds a 00 slot to the standard 0-36 layout.
After some time playing roulette, we moved to the Blackjack table.
On the second picture, I got a triple perfect pair, which does absolutely nothing, for two reasons:
- I haven't bet anything on the ANYPAIR side-bet slot
- Only the first perfect pair counts, so only the first two cards
However, it's still an unlikely thing to witness and I had to take a picture of it.
Getting a perfect pair is already extremely rare, and you get a 25:1 return, if you get one.
As you can see on the third picture, I got a perfect pair with a side-bet of 20.
So I got a return of 20 * 25 = 500, while keeping my side-bet of 20, which totals up to 520
The fourth picture is just me taking a picture of my chips (I'M RICH) and two free drink tokens.
We both got two tokens, and we both used one, and stole kept one as a souvenir.
The maid casino closed around 22:30, so we stayed until closing time.
We still didn't want to take the train back to Nippori just yet, so we roamed around a bit more.
When it was finally time to head to the station, we picked up our purchases of the day from a coin locker, and went back.
After such a great day, we went to sleep for the next day, which I wasn't looking forward to.
Gozu had plans to go to Shibuya (渋谷), which is a district I absolutely hate, for three reasons:
- Lack of otaku stores compared to my beloved Akihabara
- Every time I go to Shibuya, I have a bad experience
- It's filled with
monkeystourists because of the fucking Shibuya Scramble Crossing
Day 3: Shibuya
Gozu wanted to take this picture, but there were already a lot of monkeys tourists lining up to take the exact same picture, so we had to line up too.
While we were walking around in Shitbuya (typo intended), Gozu told me about the official ONE PIECE store, the MUGIWARA STORE, so we obviously went there.
I dislike Shitbuya a bit less now, only thanks to the MUGIWARA STORE.
We then met up with Mezu for some food and bubble tea, then went up a tower to take a picture of the Shibuya Scramble Crossing from very high up.
Day 4: solo day
Mezu and Gozu wanted to visit a temple pretty far away, so they woke up early.
I wasn't interested so I stayed at the hotel to sleep.
When I woke up, I went to Akihabara alone, to roam around, take a nap, and do some GAMBLING again.
There was a brand new Lashinbang (らしんばん) store there that opened the day before, so they were handing out free plastic fans to celebrate the store opening.
Day 5: check-out and train to Osaka
As I mentioned in Day 1, I had found a BOOK OFF bookstore near the hotel.
Gozu and I went there for some last-minute shopping, while Mezu was somewhere else.
We then took the train to another train station to take another train, the Shinkansen (新幹線), to Osaka.
We intended to walk straight to the platform to wait for the train, but Mezu was hungry.
So we decided to wait for him somewhere within the station, but before the ticket gates.
