The Plan
- 9/16 – No plans?? OH WAIT.
- I thought I had plans for the 16th, and I actually didn’t but now I do because I thought teamLabs was yesterday and it wasn’t lol. Wtf lol. Whatever.
- Later, I’m headed to Akihabara to check out the anime shops and card shops.
- No plans for tonight. Maybe pachinko and get some pics of Golden Gai?
The Reality
- 9/16 – Borderless and Akihabara
- Went to teamLabs on the correct date and time
- Akihabara to check out the anime shops and card shops.
- Maid Cafe
- Sake Tasting
- Chinese hoodlum hangout
WAKE UP! Grab a brush–
Slept poorly again. I attribute it to the late night “Strong” 9% Grape drink. Tonight I’m skipping it. Went to bed at 2:30am woke up at 6am. Mind you nothing in Japan opens until 11am. Oh except Borderless was open at 9am and if I wasn’t an idiot I could have booked it for 9am, but who knew that nothing in Japan opens until 11am? Sat there and typed out yesterday’s blog post on my phone for an hour and a half (editing posts on mobile is cursed). After about 30 minutes of wanting to eat something but looking at the insane prices in Azabudai, I skipped the meal and ran out of time.
I am insanely shy when it comes to putting myself into situations I’m unsure of, so this whole trip has been really hard for me when I don’t have social support of someone else I’m hanging with. I’m learning though. Some big W’s today in that category.
Borderless is incredible
Words can’t adequately capture it. I think people try, and when they do, they fall short. I’m going to fall short. It’s like… the first room you enter is beautiful. Flowers on every surface, and a big open space. Everyone sitting in there has no idea what’s in store later. I wandered around into several spaces that were off to the side and each was so unique and incredible that I was at a loss. One of the spaces uses this projector on several sloped surfaces and the angles and the rotation of the images almost made me lose my balance. It was my favorite room because it actually physically affected me by making me dizzy just looking at it. Incredible.
Another room I loved was the one that everyone sees when you Google it, the one with the vertical LED strips that light up. I walked through it and it kept changing and I was like, whoa… But then I rounded the corner and there’s this adorable little Japanese girl laughing and playing with this monitor that controls all the LEDs in the entire room by touching different “elements” haha it was just awesome. What a thing man… Then I went to a room with a lot of different spheres hanging down and asked some woman who was taking photos if she wanted her picture taken, she said sure, then took mine — which you can see below — and we talked for a bit. She’s from Vancouver, traveling solo while being well into her 60’s. She’s going to Sumo tomorrow too! It was kind of a cool coincidence because she landed the same day I did too, but I’m sure we’re having wildly different times here. I mean… If she’s doing the stuff I am she’s crazy lol. Anyway, we parted ways and then I ran into a couple nice chicks who had just come back from Korea and were spending their last day in Tokyo doing Borderless. Talked for a bit, parted ways, and then I walked around a lot, got lost in there, walked around some more, got lost again, walked around… It really was a whole trip to be honest. That place is absolutely incredible. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen before. If you go to Japan it’s a DO NOT MISS event.
After this, I messaged my new friend Jan asking if he wanted to get food. I ended up getting to Akihabara before I heard back from him.
Akihabara
Kyushu Ramen
Started off by just following maps to Kyushu Ramen, which my friend Red Zone Rogue recommended me. It was actually really good ramen, but I was somewhat disappointed by how cramped it was. There was this really big dude with a huge backpack blocking the VERY small space to walk, and like a 20 minute wait. The ramen was really good though, don’t get me wrong. I do also appreciate when they hand me an English menu because I’m a big ol white dude lol. I actually feel like I’m gonna lose a lot of weight on this trip though between the heat and the walking. I hope so! I feel like nothing here is made for my size, and I’m not even that big. I got pinged during lunch that my friends were heading to maid cafe and I was like “YOOOO LET ME JOIN” lmao so off I went after lunch.
Maid Cafe
Man… Maid Cafes… Being waited on by cute girls is just like, haha idk how to describe it. It’s great. That’s how I’ll describe it. Great. Anyway, the maids were nice, the tea was excellent and overpriced and the whole experience can now be checked off my bucket list. Also, Akihabara is crazy. Every 10 feet there’s some adorable girl looking horribly depressed dressed in a maid outfit then she’ll light up when she makes eye contact with a mark and tries to hand them a pamphlet. They ignore her and she goes back to being depressed. It’s actually brutal out there, because I think it’s something they make the new maids do until they “level up” by getting enough people or someone new joins the team. I’m not 100% on that, so don’t quote me.
In the maid cafe I was with my friend Jan and meeting his friend Yuya. He speaks Japanese so it was good because the maids generally don’t speak English at the smaller cafes. I will say though, they had Love Live! songs on the entire time and I was like, “Oh I know this one. Oh I know this one too… Oh I know this one too…” It was funny. Very cute atmosphere and very good time. Jan took a pic of me with the Love Live! stand up cutouts they had (No, I’m not posting it anywhere ever lmao). You’re also not allowed to take pics of people there. Even the maids on the street will use their pamphlets to cover their face if they see some rando trying to make their YouTube debut on the streets. After we paid, we left and went wandering around to a TON of card shops looking for cards for Jan’s Weiss Schwartz deck. Didn’t find them, but I found a nice gift for my friend Mark back home.
After Jan left, I saw two dudes sitting and smoking cigs in a spot so I was like, “oh you can smoke here?” Thinking I could strike up a conversation with some locals. And they’re like “yeah” then I sat down hoping to talk to them and literally they were Chinese tourists who landed today, spoke no English and then I learned you’re absolutely NOT supposed to smoke there lol. I went back and communicated it to them with a bunch of hand gestures lmao. Then again, you see host boys slamming cigs on the streets if they’re drunk af after hours. /shruggie
Sake Market (Tasting Bar)
After that, I got a text from one of the guys I met day 1 asking what’s up. I told him, then I asked him for recs in the area. He said he went to this place that allowed you to drink unlimited sake, and you paid 1500 yen for 30 minutes. You poured it yourself and they had a huge variety in the fridge. I’m gonna break down the ones I tried that were memorable in a list below.
- Nyaon – Supposed to “embody the essence of a cat’s meow” and I truly think it does.
- Plastic Models – Supposed to “embody the essence of building plastic models” also spot on.
- Etchusaburo – Aged 3 years, supposedly dry and sweet. I didn’t really like this one as much.
- Kaniku Mango – It had a TON of pulp and was not a very refined flavor. Felt like the flavored Smirnoff Ice of the sake world.
I spoke mostly in Japanese to the staff and I’m getting more comfortable forming sentences even though they’re probably wrong, but it’s good practice to speak. After I left I said “Gochisousama deshita” which is “thanks for the meal” — but like… I didn’t eat anything lol. I could hear them laugh about it as I left lol. I realized it as soon as I hit the elevator but whatever, lmao maybe it made their night. Gaijin (foreigner) pass puttin’ in work tonight son!
GiGO – Get in the Gaming Oasis
Tons of these buildings that have arcades in them. GiGO is huge, an arcade GIANT in Japan. I went to the rhythm game floor expecting more Jubeat but all they had was that circle slapping game, the piano game and taiko. You’re not allowed to take pics or vids but man these guys were absolute monsters. Japan breeds some of the best rhythm game players in the world for sure. So I went to the top floor and they had Fate Grand Order. I spent like 45 minutes fighting with the Sega website to get my “aime” card running and finally gave up. Decided that I was actually mad about it and it was time to go home.
So in order to make things harder on myself I accidentally rode the wrong train north for like 20 minutes. Google maps can be kind of obtuse sometimes. It’s like my first subway gaff so I’m just gonna forgive myself and move on.
Anyway, tomorrow is Sumo day so I’m going to bed. I’m gonna be yelling and cheering a LOT tomorrow. If you want an appreciation for sumo, go watch Sanctuary on Netflix for the “shortcut” version.
Sumo is really cool. See you tomorrow!
