From there we went to 'Electric Street' in Shinjuku where Mark treated me to a late birthday present of a bigger lens for my Nikon 1 S2 camera I recently bought. Yodobashi cameras is one of those places where you can buy just about anything relating to cameras and computers. It was a little cheaper than in the UK and we didn't pay consumption tax either.
Then it was back to Shinjuku station and a train to Akihabara which is known as 'Electric Town'. This is a place for the geeks really. Think of every single electronic component you can buy even to the point of 'classic' capacitors and huge old valves, mixed up with old camers, video recorders (I kid you not), anything and everything is available here.
It almost suprised me that there was seemingly totally random items mixed up with the classic radios and cameras such as old fashioned pull weights and the like.
We were told off when I took a picture of oscilliscopes and I suppose they are fed up with tourists taking pictures and not buying anything. This place is also games heaven, though not being a gamer, it was a little lost on me. Much the same could be said for the manga (cartoons) and though we did look for some Initial D stuff, we didn't find any, it was akin to looking for a needle in a haystack.
The weather is very hot at the moment and Japan is experiencing heat wave with temperatures 6-8 degrees above normal. Think 35C with 93% humidity, this makes even climbing a set of stairs simply exhausting and the sweat just pours off you. Drinks aplenty is the way forward, but finding a bar in Japan is not as easy as it seems to be in Europe. It's fine if you want to eat, but bars for simply drinking seem few and far between and are often over priced.
I notice that there is a liking for European beer, but that means to us that it's simply hiedeously over priced beer that we drink a fair bit. Finding bars with Japanese beers seems to be harder, but it's a learning curve I guess.
We happened upon a maid cafe which are famous in this district. I admit and I'm sure Mark would too that we approached it with an air of trepidation as it is on the odd side, but on the other hand we won't find these kind of places anywhere else and the lure of a cold beer was too appealing to dismiss at this point.
Maid Cafe's are basically places where women dress like french maids in frilly short dresses and act as your servant during the dining experience. They like you to join in with various crazy arm gestures and seem to really like anything associated with cats. Saying 'meow, meow' whilst trying to make your hands into paws next to your face was a recurring theme!
It was a bit bizarre and I can see how people would feel out of their comfort zone with this. In a way I wondered if it would be full of men getting their kicks, but perhaps it's just too obvious and actually there were more women in there than men on our visit at least.
You get encouraged to go for a set menu and we fell for it too, it's very expensive and beer is not an option on the set menu which frustrated me a bit.
After doing various gestures and making noises following our 'maid' which was apparently to put magic on the food to make it taste better, we were allowed to eat once my omelette/rice combination had been decorated to look like a fox with correspondingly cute fox ears, we could then eat. The food was okay but nothing special and at around £17 for a main course and a coke I'd say it was terribly over priced. There was further charge for the show of the maid at the table, at around £3. Basically think, £40 (6328 Yen) for lunch for two!
Following the gestures and saying meow, meow quite a lot there was then a performance by one of the maids, though this one wasn't in the obligatory maids outfit. We had to clap a lot, be kind of over friendly and look like we were having fun. Were we having fun? Well kind of, it was on the edge of being bizarre and us and the other punters had a slight look of bewilderment on their faces!
Mark and I were then invited on stage again to make various cooing gestures, clap like a seal and entertain the other customers. I rolled with it, Mark looked a little less comfortable, but what can you do really?
After lots of clapping and numerous attempts to take a photo on a polaroid of us with the maid pawing and meowing, we finally got a picture which was lovingly decorated for us. To be fair it was an experience and one I won't forget, so I'm glad I did it in a way. It's worth noting that is basically a happy place where you pay far more than you need to for mediocre food, but if you can stomach that, then it's an experience, one that you probably won't repeat but won't regret doing.
Following this experience it was back to the unbearingly hot and humid streets. We went to the Manga centre and had a look at the process of how all this stuff is drawn. This is big business in Japan and what I do like about this place is the fairly complete lack of gender stereotyping that is the bane of life in the UK. Here women as well as men can be completely immersed in cartoons and this general appeal goes with gaming and well pretty much everything else we've encountered so far in Japan.
However for me, I got the similar feeling of when I see fine art in museums in Amsterdam, in that it is a little lost on me. It's just one of those things really you can't be interested in everything I suppose.
From here we grabbed a beer in a 'Victorian Pub'. Really the pub looked quite British, but I'm not sure about it being Victorian, it looked like the Slug and Lettuce variety to me. No matter though an ice cold pint of beer was appreciated at this point. What is interesting is that smoking is not allowed in the street for the most part, with no smoking signs stuck on the pavement of the bigger streets, but you can smoke in some of the bars and restaurants. A bit bizarre really, but there is a novely to having the odd cigarette whilst having a drink! Almost like the good old days. The difference here is that such places are so well ventilated you simply don't notice someone smoking next to you.
We took the train back as the heat was a killer, though thankfully like everything else in Japan that isn't outside the aircon is set to max all the time, so you almost don't want to get off and get hit by the wall of heat and humidity. We had another siesta in the afternoon before heading back to Shinjuku station to sort out our rail passes for the coming week. At the information centre, the two women there were incredibly helpful and we got everything processed and reserved our seats for tomorrow where we will go first class to Nagoya on the Shikansen (bullet train).
We opted for a cheapish meal in the station eating rice and pork cutlet with an egg on top. To be fair, it was a good filling meal and I couldn't eat all of it. Washed down with a beer we waited until the thunder and lightening stopped.
We then headed back to Electric Street and to Yodobashi camera shop to pick up a few more items.
Fortunately with the passing thunder and lightening and inevitable umbrella purchase the humidity began to fade a little and the air thinned to an almost bearable level. We headed for a bar and managed to pay far too much for beer. Still after spending around two hours in Shinjuku station a bit of peace and quiet was not a bad thing!
Here's a view down one of the streets in 'Electric Street' Shinjuku.
When it rains, umbrella bags come out so you can put your umbrella in a bag when you go into a shop!
A view down Electric Street, Shinjuku.
After some over priced beer in the quietest bar in Tokyo we headed for what might have been the noisest one! Here we found nice Kirin beer at reasonable prices (£3 a bottle) and we were entertained by a trio of old guys playing jazz. It seemed like they had all the friends and family around them and everyone joined in clapping at the performance. One of the older men even came and spoke to us, so we felt included which was nice. It was very much one of those experiences you have when you travel it seems and after the silence of the previous bar it was a welcome relief.
We headed back to the hotel after we found our bearings, thankfully the humidity had seriously reduced making it just about comfortable on the walk back.
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