Akihabara!

Monday 13th April
Today is the coldest day to date. Woke this morning feeling pretty nippy only to find it is just wet outside (umbrellas up everywhere) with a nearby billboard bouncing the temperature of 7 degrees C.
Todays main destination is Akihabara – a place that is close to me and my interests of technology. After leaving the hotel, the first thing we had to do was run to the nearest subway in order to purchase an umbrella. Umbrellas were cheap from the nearest pharmacist (costing 500 yen) and we then took the Metro to Akihabara.
Akihabara is no stranger to me since I am already am familiar with places such as Sham Shui Po and Mongkok in Hong Kong. Walking out of the Metro gave a very similar feeling – technology everywhere and was buyable. The first stop however was to find a place to eat. Since we left quite late (midday already) and between all three of us was freezing and hungry. We managed to find a nicely established Ramen place and ate (Chashu Ramen for me). Independent fast foods in Tokyo can often mean paying via a vending machine which will then place orders for you. Once we paid, we got to select the type of noodle (thin or thick), strength of the soup, Chilli, optional extras and the use of shallots (no for me). Ordered a plate of Gyoza (fried chinese dumplings) as well. The Ramen was gorgeously beautiful to eat with the flavours just enough as per your selections. Gyoza was also beautiful with just the amount of juiciness.
After eating, we spent the next few hours window shopping around the complexes Akihabara has to offer. We were definitely not disappointed and was quite happy with the selections of technology available. There are definitely a lot more varieties of things than Australia – but a lot of them are not usable here due to environmental factors such as Electrical differences and frequencies (such as Mobile phones). Price wise, it is a bit better than in Australia. For example, a pack of 20 blank Bluray discs (Mitsubishi branded) cost $36 AUD whilst MSY costs $8-10 EACH (for crappy Riteks). Couldn’t help myself so bought one in anticipation that I will get a BD burner in HK.. Standard stuff for a comparison includes a Sharp LED 60” TV costing only 4000 yen (around $4700 AUD). Too bad I cant carry that in my luggage.. Also ended up getting myself a Anti glare filter for the camera lens too. Hehe
All the window shopping had made us quite tired, so we ended up going to another “attraction” of Akihabara. A specially themed café for Afternoon tea. Very weird and I wont go into detail here (you will have to ask me separately about it). Lets just say its very very weird and just have to experience it to understand it. :P
After more window shopping around the area, we decided to call it quits and have an early dinner since our meals have not exactly been too full for the day. We found one place that was shown on the Tokyo Walker show that offered this Sashimi based rice dish called Barachiashi. This is basically all different sorts of Sashimi and put into a rice bowl with rice.. The secret of the taste is how fresh the ingredients are. Kalin went for the three-varieties (Tuna, Salmon /Roe and Urchin) whilst Tom and I were greedy going for the super multi type (Tuna, Salmon, Urchin, Roe, squid, octopus, Tuna Tartar, clams etc). It was pretty expensive for what it is (around 1750 yen or $24 AUD) but by god, it was so nice!!
The worst thing about today was the rain.. I could not take enough snaps since it was cold and wet with my camera in my bag for most of the time.
Since the night was quite early, we decided to pop down to Ginza for some more window shopping and to see if we can locate anything nice to buy for the family. Ginza is a very upmarket shopping town with many of the top tiered shops located here (Cartier, LV, Gucci etc etc). The worst thing about this region was that outside was like 6 degrees in the rain and wet, whilst the shopping centres itself (010, Seibu etc) had the thermostat up to like 28 degrees+ Difference of 20 degrees can make anyone go sick, seriously! After going through 010 and found the shops close at 9pm, we gave up and went back to the Metro.
The last stop of the day was back to Akasaka. The boys decided to go to the bar on top of an opposing hotel to get a good view of everything and to try and get some levels of internet access. Free wireless internet was available, but because my phone does not allow Copy/Paste into the browser, I could not send my blog and pictures.
Have to wake up earlier tomorrow since we have the bike ride!