8 May 2010
Akihabara and Ginza by night
Tonight I revisited a couple of places I had been to already, which are probably much more interesting at night.
First up, Akihabara, Electric Town. Yes there were a lot more lights and a lot more maids (see below), but actually a lot of the electrical goods shops shut by 8pm. This seems to be the case for most of Tokyo which is quite different from Hong Kong where everything is open until 10pm 7 days a week.
Next I went back to Ginza, where at this time some stores were still open but there really wasnt much to see apart from russian women dressed in entirely too much jewellery carry huge arm fulls of expensive goods. There were lots of rich Japanese people here as well, some with little dogs in handbags.
For those of you who demanded more maid pictures (you know who you are), here you go.
Akihabara has them on every street corner, there has to be at least 100 of them near the station. A lot of them however do not like having their photo taken at all, so this is the best I could do.
For those that dont know, a maid cafe is where one of these girls dressed like this sits with you whilst you pay for expensive ice cream and pancakes and soft drinks to share together. She tells you how handsome you are and apparently will spoon feed you as well.
I dont get the appeal of it but it sure seems popular.
Another maid, but note how she is standing. I have noticed that many Japanese girls walk like this, like they are almost crippled. Why is this? Guys do not walk like this at all. I think its just a fashion thing as the more ridiculously you are dressed the more likely you are to walk like this.
Is that racist? Or just offensive?
There are many cars painted in a tribute to various manga type things. Vans are the most popular to paint like this, just like the USA do with crappy R&B artists.
This trend also extends to motorbikes. I am going to paint my car in a tribute to the smurfs.
There are a few famous big Japanese burger chains, Lotteria, Freshness burger, and tonight I have decided to go to Mos Burger.
They have an english menu available which was helpful, although the girl that served me seemed to speak english anyway.
I decided to order the mos burger, which I am guessing is their signature burger since its the same name as the store.
I havent had a burger of any kind for what seems years, so dont have much to compare it to. But it wasnt that great. They put entirely too much of the relish type sauce on it. The burger itself tasted like the supermarket brand frozen food variety.
The salad was the highlight! Not a very fulfilling meal, and at $7, comparitively expensive.
I couldnt find anything to take a photo of in Ginza, unless you want to see Gucci or Louis Vuitton, so the best I can do is the same shot as last time but this time at night time.
OK, this was sort of interesting, its the Nissan Leaf. Which is apparently all set to become the worlds top selling car. It is an all electric car like the Tesla, I cant wait...
They managed to make it look even more stupid than the Prius.