Day two of Tokyo was uber nerdage day. We started by going to Akihabara, the well-known geek Mecca of Japan. Ta-da!
I was a little surprised to see how many tourists were there. Far be it for me to say who looks like a geek and who doesn't but... Well, there were a lot more middle-aged tourists than I expected. I guess Brain Training has made Akihabara a must-see destination now?
Speaking of DS games, Clinton and I had a massive double-win when we found an import (i.e. English) games shop down a side street. Clinton found Galactrix, the second Puzzle Quest game (funnily enough, he bought the first one in Edinburgh...), and I found the second Professor Layton game! Well, actually, Clinton found it and showed me and I bought it straight away. Much excitement. Then we realised we'd left the DS in Osaka... Well, that was probably for the best.
Akihabara is well-known for it's array of maid cafes. We didn't go to one, but we almost did... We got handed a flyer for a 'Sengoku Jidai' (warring states period) themed maid cafe. The girls were dressed in purple maid outfits with pink samurai armour over the top, and they brandished plastic katana. So very tempting, but the food looked rubbish, and we were hungreeee.
After Akihabara, we went for a quick wander through Jinbocho. This is a bookshop area, mostly second-hand bookshops. I just wanted to have a quick look because it features in the anime Read Or Die. So we looked quickly, and then went back to the hotel for a break, because we suddenly realised we were knackered.
The evening's entertainment was to be the Kotaku party in Shibuya. We headed to Shibuya early to grab dinner. Shibuya is pretty bewildering.
We wandered around for ages trying to pick a good place, getting marginally lost and somewhat distracted by shiny things. We ended up at a pretty good Italian restaurant.
After dinner, we set off to try and find the party venue. All we had to go on was the name, and a dot on a map. You'd think that'd be enough, wouldn't you? Well, it probably would have, if the party had been where we'd expected it to. When we finally found the place, it was locked up tight. We stood outside being confused with a few other guys who'd also rocked up for the party. Then someone rocked up and explained that the party had moved, and gave us directions to the new place. We had to go on a train and go somewhere else, I have no idea where.
So, we did get to the party, and we talked to random people and it was fun, but it was dark and my camera is crap, so I don't have any photos. Hideo Kojima walked past me. We met a stupid American who didn't know about the differences between US and British English. We also met a lovely German who worked on the German translation of some of the Final Fantasy games. And a woman from Iceland who'd been dragged to the party by her husband. Sucks to be her, I guess.
Clinton and I took a taxi home at 2am. It wasn't nearly as expensive as we thought it might be.
Stay tuned for day three. There are BIG spiders!
P.S. Sorry about the lack of photos. We did a lot of stuff that wasn't really photo-optimal. To make up for it, here is a statue of giant budgies that was near our hotel in Akasuka.
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