9.5.12
Probably because it was a weekday so it was jam packed at the Harajuku Station. While in the subway we noticed a haliorious ad and it had a girl’s face with one tiny Asian eye and a glamorous eye (for color enhanced contacts). After getting off at Akihabara Station we found clearly labeled exit signs for the Akihabara Electronic Town. While heading towards the exit we found a locker area to store all our finds throughout the day. It didn’t take us long to figure out how to use the machines. I think after picking the locker number/size (empty ones lights up on the screen) it gave it a choice to pay with cash or our suica cards. We tired one way and for some reason it didn’t work so we pick the other payment method. Our shoulders, arms, and hands were liberated!
After coming out of the station, we see the AKB48 Cafe sign lit up in the dark Akihabara. This is the 1st time I had come to Akihabara at night, but there were still a good number of people near the station trying to catch the subway. There were a few “interesting” shops that are geared towards adults and some maid out passing flyers.n The street looked a lot more emptied than last time I visited. We hurried down the street not know when all the stores that are still open would close.
Finally we reached Don Quijote. To our surprise it would a lot closer than we had thought and the building looks more like a electronic store than an idol performance building! The first floor looks like a very small run-downed Chinese cellphone counter with a lot of “coin turn machines” (I can’t remember what they are called). But after we went up stairs we saw a lot of cute stuff animal clothes, hats, stuffed animals, and the such! We each bought a different sized Rilakkuma! My impulse buy of Rilakkuma turn out to be a packing hassle through the whole trip (but it’s so cute). On one of the floors Rachelle saw a HUGE backpack lying on the top of the shelf and with her tall height she was able to grab it down for a few photo ops lol There were also a lot of cosplay costumes that were super cute and sexy. Too bad they were too expensive 😦 Then as we were looking at the costumes I realized there was a huge group of men standing in line! I wasn’t sure if they were lining up for the performance (we want to go but forgot to email them in) since it was already late. There’s also a AKB48 “official shop” on the floor so maybe they are lining up for that? I saw one man that had a binder full of photo cards and chatting excitedly to the men next him while showing his collection! We then took some purikura on the floor with all the arcade games.
Since there wasn’t much restaurants that’s still open and not a maid cafe of some sort we decided to head back to the station first.We looked at AKB48 Cafe’s menu and it turned out to be a real cafe with no real food. When we ticketed in we saw that there’s a ramen shop, so we decided to eat now instead of fishing for food at Tokyo station. This restaurant is also a vending machine ticket type, but luckily it was the old fashion one button one order type (instead of the high tech combo meals type on the first night). Rachelle got a draft beer and extra flavorful ramen while I got the veggie tsukemen. After a good meal we went back to the lockers to retrieve our bags. All we had to do was punch in the numbers on our locker receipts (I had read online beforehand and knew to keep the receipt safe and had Rachelle guard it lol).
tina fob 