{"id":1740,"date":"2025-04-21T06:08:35","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T06:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aerowalsh.com\/cr\/?p=1740"},"modified":"2025-04-21T06:28:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T06:28:50","slug":"sun-20th-april-tokyo-akihabra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/?p=1740","title":{"rendered":"Sun 20th April – Tokyo (Akihabra)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CR: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we targetted a less walking intensive day after the chaos of Shibuya and Shinjuku yesterday. There was talk of an afternoon break at the hotel. That never eventuated but it was on the whole more leisurely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We slept in until 9am this morning, which aligned us well given everything opens 10-11am. We spent most of the day in a precinct called Akihabara. I think Akihabara is the losers answer to Shibuya. Everything is tech related, cars aren’t allowed on the main street on Sundays so that everyone has plenty of space, and the shop sounds are much quieter than Shibuya\/Shinjuku. Essentially, sperg friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Declan’s stress today has been money. For some reason he thinks I am spending too much. The purchase of a A$3 gatcha faces heavy scrutiny. I only convince Declan that I am allowed to buy it when I point out he spends that amount of arcade games every day. Gatcha turns out to be extremely disappointing, photo below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are both interested in the concept of a maid hotel. Neither of us have a good understanding of what that is. I like the performative aspect and I think Declan likes the welcoming aspect. However, all are up like six flights of stairs (with maids dressed up at street level with fliers to try and attract you), which makes me think there’s a more sordid truth to these cafes. Both of us aren’t brave enough to traverse the stairs, so we’ll just have to watch a YouTube video later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ve been doing a lot of walking between suburbs while we’ve been here. The hottest day has been 28degrees whereas today was a much more pleasant 23degrees. It hasn’t rained at all. This is fortunate given much of our activities are connected by hour long stretches of walking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CR: Our hotel room is pleasant. It is not luxurious but it is not tiny. Cost was A$500 per night, which I found to be equivalent to the Fullerton Hotel in Singapore, which is a much more luxe experience. I believe the time of year we are visiting and the relatively last minute booking meant we were subjected to particularly high rates. The hotel is situated in Shiba, a less touristy area of Tokyo. Main attractions and suburbs are a 15-30minute train ride away. It also features the narrowest couch I have ever seen. The hotel has Danish Hour 8-9pm. Here you can go to level 14 and have a complimentary glass of wine and a rather crappy Danish. A very strange pairing and a very strange time to offer Danishs. Are these left over Danishs that a random shop couldn’t sell?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DW: I really like the layout of all these little restaurants. There is an area in the middle where the staff work surrounded by benches on all sides. A separate kitchen (also open) is at the back forming an L shape. It is interesting to see what everyone ordered and you can observe the social cues you should be following.
CR: This was one of the few places open for breakfast. You got a set menu of grilled fish, rice and pickles for about A$7. I added on raw egg, which you whisk in a seperate bowl with your chopsticks and then pour over rice for extra flavour.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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CR: I hope Barry appreciated Declan promoting his Blackheath log-splitting business on Japan’s rail network.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DW: As Japan is a high trust society I encouraged Caitlin to return the umbrella she had inadvertently hooked in her bag through the proper channels. The trick is there are multiple train companies each with entirely independent systems of bureaucracy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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CR: This is a shark computer. Declan claimed he wasn’t interested but his voice betrayed excitement. If this had been Steve Backshall branded I would have purchased it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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CR: This is our ramen lunch. We chose this place due to its sick samuri branding. Cool places are pretty similar cost to Sydney, marginally cheaper. Lunch for two was around A$40.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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CR: This is my shit gatcha. Wish I got the platypus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DW: Akihabra (Akiba) is a more interesting version of Shibuya. Maid caf\u00e9s, dudes looking like anime characters walking around and stores selling video games on floor 1, “junk” in the basement and adult films on floor 2.
CR: The advertisment of the nurse with her tits out could easily be a reputable doctor’s surgery. Very hard to tell what is service and what is porn in Akihabra.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DW: There were a bunch of military LARPing (live action role playing) shops in one area of Akiba. The clarifying notice feels like they needed to address a concern from a previous customer. All the “toy” guns are solid metal and would be so illegal in Australia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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CR: The general rule in Japan is the cuter the cafe’s accoutrements, the more expensive the coffee. If your coffee is prepared in a beaker then that’s an extra 100 Yen on top too.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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CR: Most shops cover multiple small boxy floors, linked by narrow, steep stairwells.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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CR: Deko-san is drawn to the machine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DW: Me and my buddy Solid Snake getting our 100 JPY stockpile getting absolutely destroyed by Chun-Li’s thighs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DW: Some of the video game stores had a really nice atmosphere and are obviously run by people who are passionate. There is nothing like it in Australia.
CR: I can’t imagine this is where Pauline shopped when in Tokyo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DW: There are two types of coffee stores: chains (we have yet to explore properly) hole on the wall places. Coffee is basically only black with a big focus on your bean selection. It feels more akin to wine culture than coffee culture in Australia in this regard.
CR: In my mind this photo would be more flattering. My pink fleece was a total mistake. Japanese fashion is extremely monochromatic. I look stupid.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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CR: Dinner at an izakaya. If you don’t recognise what these skewers are, don’t worry, neither did we. When we ordered, the waiter\/chef grimaced and rubbed his belly and said “sorry, these are… Inside Organs”.  We assured him that it was okay. The izakaya only sat 10 customers at a time and was down a long flight of narrow stairs. The two men that ran the venue were young and clearly friends. We are seated at the kitchen front here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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DW: I operate on the risk-based principle that if everyone else is ordering it and you can find it in lots of restaurants then it’s definitely safer than driving a car, so go for it.
CR: Declan is making us sound more adventurous than we are. When we ordered the chicken, we actually had no idea it would be raw. I felt a bit funny about eating raw chicken, but it wasn’t as confronting as the lethal-livered blowfish from two nights ago so I proceeded to eat. It wasn’t my favourite. The skin (seared) was quite tough and chewy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-japan-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1740"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1800,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740\/revisions\/1800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}