7 November 2015
Beneath the tracks
Waling from Ueno to Akihabara for omurice
Its only 2 stops to Akihabara, so thats where I decided to go, on foot.
You can walk under the elevated JR line the enitre way which is actually very interesting.An artist community and market has popped up, completely making over the parking garage under the tracks and turning it into 100 or so small high end hand made goods shops.
Nothing in there was cheap. If you want a hat designed to match your beard, heres the place to go.
If you want ethically sourced hand made designer toilet paper, theres a store for that too. No Photos!
I think the market was called 2k548 Artisan. I looked around for the world famous leather banana holder that clips onto you bike seat, but couldnt find it, its the only thing I really wanted.
Cross over the road, and you will arrive at food truck heaven, theres about 50 of them and they are permanently in this location. Theres a heap of tables and chairs set up (my biggest gripe with food trucks is having to stand to eat), and public toilets etc.
Your foods of choice were similar to Adelaide food trucks, lots of mexican, gourmet burgers, hot dogs, meatballs. Just the thing to go with your artisan produced scarf and hat made from recycled fishing nets.
Soon after, I was in Akihabara, another of the most popular places with tourists, and there were millions of them here tonight.
Strangely, lots of middle aged women all dressed up looking cautiously and somewhat disapprovingly at the school girl maids, and the pornographic figurine representations of the same.
The maids seem to hae stopped trying, and are just wearing their actual school uniforms now, rather than the elaborate milk maid things I seem to recall.
Far scarier than this, is the gangs of visiting nerds from Australia (primarily), whos entire life so far has been leading to this point, its all downhill from here.
They were running around far too excited, and needed to be reminded to use their out in public voices.
One particular guy, evidently has come here in the same black kmart track pants he has been wearing for years now covered in a lifetime of stains that tell the story of his life, with most of his ass hanging out the back and most of his stomach hanging out the front. He folded most of his shame into his big bang theory bazinga t-shirt as he ran about panting from excitement.
When he stopped to look in a window he was literally vibrating on the spot and yelling for his friends to COME QUICK!
These were not young people, they were at least 30.
My hotel is probably not in the best part of town. Each night this row of signs appears on the street out the front.
Something we still dont have in Australia, somewhere proper to park your bike. Actually I may have seen one in Brisbane.
How much did the bike lane cost in Adelaide thats being ripped out again? That would have paid for one of these in the middle of Adelaide for a decade with 3 permanent staff to make sure no one steals or damages anyones bikes.
Here I am looking for an artisan made nose picker.
This old style supermarket was really very awesome, but a total fire trap.
Peak food truck. Call an emergency council meeting. We need to shut this down.
AKB48 have their own cafe and shop. They are a group of 48 girls, of which maybe 6 are permanent members, of Japans number one pop star super group.
They have become like cirque du soleil, in that no ones sure how many of them there are, and they seem to tour multiple places simultaneously.
One day we will all be in AKB48.
I was now at my destination.
As evidenced by the massive amount of neon. Still, given that its Saturday night, I found it to be quiet.
A new concept in adult products, 10 storey shop with street facing windows.
If this is your thing, this is your place. I went up and down the escalators.
But I did have my dinner in the electronics store, and I did get to have my omurice, which was cheap.
But the real highlight today, a new flavour in zero calorie pepsi, LEMON AND MINT. And it is great.
Tastes a bit like fizzy toothpaste.
I genuinely like it.