Today and tomorrow we have a set of guided tours to choose from; either Asakusa, Shinjuku and Harajuku, or and Roppongi. Although I had already been to Asakusa, most of the folks I had become acquainted with were headed there, and so I decided on that. My ulterior motives for choosing Asakusa is that it’s close to Akihabara, where I can easily find a plug adapter for my laptop, and maybe a bag.
There was a pretty large group of folks headed towards Asakusa, so after we arrived and took a big group photo in front of the huge Kaminari-mon (thunder gate), we split into smaller groups. It’s so much easier for a group of 5 or so to move around than a group of 20, for obvious reasons. We walked down the rows of tourist-trap shops that line the walkway to Sensou-ji, the famous temple at Asakusa. This year I had no interest in buying gifts for people back home (yet), so I was able to fight the urge to buy anything. We did the whole temple thing, wafting good-luck incense smoke towards our heads for good health, tossing the five yen coin into the coffers, and praying for something or another. The everlasting hail of coins hitting the bottom of the wooden boxes made me wonder how much income the temple saw in a single day.
We split off to the left, into a tranquil little garden with a koi pond. At this point, it was just me, Hans, Hilary, and four Japanese guides, none of whom had actually been to Asakusa before. So I guided the group around the areas I knew, and when it became obvious that there really was nothing else worth seeing in Asakusa, I made it known that I’d like to swing by Akihabara. Hilary’s boyfriend (who is coincidentally the 2000 yo-yo world champion, holy shit) stopped by and she took off with him to unknown parts. We found a subway station and skipped down to Akihabara, which again, I was the only one in the group who had visited before. We found a converter in no time at all, and took a look at a few bags and phone plans for the upcoming keitai purchase. Remembering a new Akiba-kei phenomenon, I asked if anyone was interested in checking out a maid café. These cafes are like any other kissatten, except the waitresses are all dressed like 18th century maids, call you goshujin-sama (master), and supposedly act all cutesy and stuff which drives the local otaku wild. We couldn’t find the café, but thought to call the yo-yo champ. I’ll be damned if he didn’t know exactly where it was, and just how long the wait would be. I wonder if Hilary is alright with that…
We puttered around for a while longer, and ducked into a large store. Hans was interested in getting a Nintendo DS lite, so we walked through an impressively large Akiba superstore. I saw a lot of decent-looking bikes for under 30,000 yen, which is about 280 bucks, but no brands that I recognized (other than one bike which was actually emblazoned with the Chevy logo). The DSes were all out of stock, so we went upstairs to a little bistro and enjoyed some expensive cheesecake. Yeah it was good, but can’t hold a candle to the cheesecake factory in terms of quality or quantity. Hans and I split some kind of multi-fruit cheesecake tart. The trouble with traveling with a group of Japanese students is that when they start to speak to each other, I get lost in a hurry. I can generally pick up the majority of the conversation, but I’ll miss what the subject is, and be at a total loss. At the time I was a bit uncomfortable, since it was obvious that Hans and I couldn’t follow what they were talking about, but now that I think of it, it’s just another reminder that I still have a long way to go in my studies. I have no choice to but do my best.
I forgot to mention that on the way home (as this was my first commute on my own), I overshot a turn and walked into the next chome, which is like a zip-code. I realized I had walked too far, and asked an elderly gentlemen who was trimming his hedges for help. The first thing he asked me is モルモン教? (are you Mormon?) Totally taken aback, I said “no no, I’m lost!” He was able to point me in the right direction, and I made it back to my house about twenty minutes later. I told my host family what happened and they had a good laugh and said they worried I might get a bit lost, but that they expected me to get on the wrong train! Apparently, there’s a Mormon church in the area, so the old man’s question wasn’t completely random, but it sure wasn’t what I was expecting!
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