Japan Trip Day 3 & 4

Day 3

I believe, it was a Sunday when we decided to head down to Akihabara coz Pc told us that it would be much more crowded/interesting/happening/etc. But it just turns out to be crowded and nothing more. Apparently, someone from the K's House dorm told us that a stabbing incident happened before and thus some of the activity present at Akiba has toned down. ;_;


Soooo yea, right out of Akihabara station, we were greeted by the SEGA building. We kept going pass this building but never actually going into it.


Took a left turn from SEGA building and was greeted by this cute information poster along the buildings. I forgot about the content so maybe you can decipher it for yourself xD.


Whoever feels sexy can snap pictures of themselves here.


Pc and his failed attempt at looking moe.





I was looking for an otaku blood donation center featured by Danny Choo before and found it on the 5th floor of one of the buildings.


The entranceway to the said donation center. They were having some Tony Taka theme this round. Pity we weren't really allowed to take a tour within. Only blood donors are allowed to do so and we had a restriction for donating since we are foreigners. So we left with only this shot taken.


One of the alley ways had this promotional poster for Nitro+'s new game.


Back to the main street where all the goodies really are.


We chanced upon this awesome poster of Keima from 'The World God Only Knows'



A whole shelf of eroges :D I forgot where we took a shot of this. We aren't actually allowed to take any shots of stuff in shops but my bro had just acquired the skill 'Ninja Shot' and was happily taking pot luck shots of the said prohibited areas.


One of the more raunchy suggestive promotional posters. These things are everywhere so just you know. It's a very normal thing for them.


There was a sort of event at Akiba Square (photos below) and we were really fortunate to come across this Itasha most probably owned by some big gun of Nitro+.


The cool car was practically plastered with Sonico.


It would be my dream when i have the moolah in future to own a car such as this...


Said event at Akiba Square after the crowd has dispersed later in the afternoon.


Mostly featured booths from ero-game companies if i'm not mistaken. They were selling stuff like dakimakuras, CDs and misc stuff which were mostly gone when we were looking around.


Nippon Ichi Software! The cool doods who did Disgaea series! DOOOOOOOOOD!!!!! They were promoting their latest game here, i think it was called 'Criminal Girls' or something.



We like to break rules, particularly on this signage. A true ninja my bro has turned into.


Ze Animate store (duh)


Tony Taka was having an exhibition of his works at the basement of Toranoana and his latest work, particularly this one is just too awesome to describe. We weren't allowed to take pics again so...yea you know.



A precaution on the staircase of Toranoana to the upper levels of their building where the real good stuffs are.


After getting our otaku fix, we were looking around to try out maid cafes just for the kicks of it. We went for this which was quite a reasonably priced cafe with just ordinary maids with no special settings, since we just burnt our wallets earlier.



I couldn't resist asking my bro to take this shot. It's just too darn cute.


On our way back to the station, lo and behold! GUNDAM CAFE WTFUX??? i wasn't a fan so yeap nothing to see here after my wtf session.


Ready to head back for dinner.


One of the posters at the station.


Day 4

I was feeling a bit tired out after our little Akiba run on day 3. We were supposed to head to Hakone for some hotsprings and Fuji mountain scenery, but decided to go on the 5th day instead to maximize our time there since we wasted quite a bit of time finding stuff out at the station to make it a worthwhile trip anymore. So instead, we went for Washinomiya Shrine. What is so special about this shrine you ask? Read on.


Poster taken at the Washinomiya station. I'm not too sure what the kanji means but visually i think you would know too.


This is what we were here for. Washinomiya is the hometown for the author of Lucky Star and this place was used as reference spots for the anime.



We followed the breadcrumbs to the shrine.


Supposedly before this bridge (or after) was one of the settings used in the anime but we aren't hardcore enough to recognize it.


More breadcrumbs on lamp posts.


Most of the shops we passed by was decorated similarly to this.


We got lost following the crumbs along the way but yea, finally at the gates of the shrine.


Just outside the gate.


Confirmation that we are at the right shrine.




I forgot what these are called but we got to see a load of wishes by other patrons hung here.


I'll leave you to enjoy the architecture here.











Boards hung by Pc and me which can be found at the shrine now before they decide to make more room. Each board costs 1000 yen @.@" i wasn't going to participate but got poisoned along the way to do so too. The temperate here was freezing although there weren't any wind surprisingly. I had a hard time trying to draw with my frozen hands and with a ballpoint pen since Pc stole my Uni pen.



At the end of this trip back at the Washinomiya station, i was gradually falling sick. Halfway back to K's House dorm i was suffering so intensely that i lost control of my tear glands and was shaking uncontrollably. Standing and walking took all of my strength and i couldn't even mutter a word. By the time i was back to the dorm, i was down with a fever.

Fortunately, my bro was around to take care of me and later, Eddie together with his Singaporean mates back at the dorm gave me some medication. I was better the next day but not well enough to make the journey to Hakone ):

Stay tuned for the last 3 days!