Akihabara (tech)

Akihabara is famous for it's electronics stores and anime. On the main road, Antec has its shown showroom not unlike an Apple store (though it was closed today). Places like Sofmap sell tons of new PC parts, and there are even real electronics stores that are stacked floor to ceiling with meters, tools, electric adapters, and spools of every kind of wire imaginable.

The back streets are where it gets interesting. Store after store has bins of used or extremely low cost parts, obviously binned from recycled PCs and laptops. Some of the stores even just listed the brand, part number, and price lists on huge signs out front which made shopping convenient. Guys were checking prices via cell phones and calling people to verify if something was a good deal or not. And, even though Nintendo's been taking legal action against the some developers (or importers?) of hardware that allows pirated games to run on the DS you could certainly find multiple types of them for sale here. Those usb2/sata/ide adapters were even the equivalent of about $10 at some places.

Finally on the tech front, walking behind I think the main Sofmap store, they honestly had a poster on how to properly wire up RJ-45 keystone jacks! Ok, enough on the tech...

原宿 Harajuku

Across the tracks at Harajuku station is what appears to be the heart of the teenage fashion district. Again I made it there kinda early in the day so, while this picture shows what it was like before noon, it got busier enough that I heard mutterings of こんでいるね by some of the locals. There are a really wide variety of clothing and accessory stores there and once you get off the main roads and wander the side streets it was actually a quiet and nice area. The only weird thing that felt a little out of place was a few foreign run businesses where the guys would heckle passerbys to try and entice them in. It was more aggressive than the Japanese with signs yelling at you to come check out their stores. As for American type stores, Claire's was there, CK had guy ads, and Forever 21 was ridiculously popular.

After finishing up there I headed back to the station, noticed both trains stopped for longer than normal. They kept repeating something over the PA and I caught parts of it like the times but a nice guy next to me who was herding his 3 boys was fluent in English and explained that there was some sort of accident so it would be at least 30 minutes before the trains moved again...There have been wind and track problems in the last day or so due to some pretty strong winds.

明治神宮 Meiji Jingu

Across the tracks from the heart of Harajuku is a gigantic and important Shinto shrine known as Meiji Jingu. There were crowds of people there, and a wedding happened to be taking place as I walked into the main shrine complex with what looked like another one queuing up as I left. I had read about shrine etiquette but forgot most of it since I only happened to notice on the map that it was right at Harajuku so I tried to stay out of the way. You approach the shrine via a long walk through woods and streams. It was easily the most nature I've seen in Tokyo so far.

I've seen a few tour guides leading foreigners around and the lady at this one seemed to be carrying something like a swiffer duster to help the tourists follow her...

日枝神社 Hie-jinja

The Hie shrine is an important Shinto shrine near the Akasaka-Mitsuke stop. The orange torii are indicative of Shinto shrines I believe though don't believe what you see on the internet including that statement. It was a nice, quiet Sunday morning and few people were around.

On Business models

秋葉原 or Akihabara is filled with niche businesses catering to all sorts of things. While wandering around I thought I'd stumbled across a lolcats sign of some sort before realizing that it was a literal cat cafe. For 800円 you get a drink and can play with cats for half an hour. You of course aren't allowed to bother the cats and if they're sleeping you're supposed to leave them alone, etc. but it's definitely something different than your typical Maid Cafe, or Starbucks.

On the streets

I've seen a number of people carrying musical instruments around, even lugging keyboards around on small hand carts on the train. Outside Shinjuku station on Saturday, it seemed people were either taking turns or it was one group of performers alternating. Regardless this girl played the keyboard and had a good voice. I feel for her if she lugged all that gear around Tokyo without help.

My last day in Tokyo is tomorrow, and today I walked for miles around Harajuku, Akihabara, and Shinjuku. More on those places soon. I'll be in Kyoto for 3 days and then it's 1-2 day stops at a bunch of places so posts will probably slow down after tomorrow (or stop depending on time and access).

渋谷 Shibuya

Shibuya on a weekday is busy. Shibuya on a weekend is a neverending flood of people there to do, something. Each time the light changed at Hachiko gate/crossing hundreds (thousands?) of people swarmed the roads. Saw a group of guys with bigger, badder, better hair than any of the girls. The crowd picture here is actually one of the roads leading up to Shibuya 109, a pretty popular department store.

There's lots of "cute" here. Some of the artwork and even the back of the street sign stickers are cute yet kinda disturbing.