I woke around 5:30 in the morning as my body thought it was somewhere closer to noon. As it turns out, jet lag can be a harsh mistress. Bleerily I managed to get myself dressed and out of my hotel. I stumbled down the streets outside in search of coffee and food. Luckily for me I was able to meet up with a friend, and she showed me the way to some runny eggs and deliciously thick toast. I had not eaten in over fourteen hours, and so it seemed a bounty fit for a king.
After scarfing down breakfast and once again filling my body with a quad shot of coffee from a nearby Starbucks it was time for adventure. I had no idea where to go, and so I took the first suggestion I got, which was to visit Akihabara.
Akihabara is well known for its wealth o technology stores, as well as the slightly more creepy otaku culture (People obsessed with anime, manga, or anything of the like, usually to a degree that can be seen as fairly unsettling.) On every corner there was a young japanese girl beconing me into a "maid cafe"(Resstaurants where the staff dress up as french maids and refer to you as "master"...), and nearly every building had some sort if busty anime girl gazing down at me. As I passed a sign that said: "Danger: Watch out for upskirting." with a picture of a cell phone camera crossed out, I knew that I was in for an interesting day.
The second thing that struck me about the area was that rather than selling food or nick nacks on the side of the street, a good deal of the stands were vending computer parts. From fans to processors, the side of the street was a PC builder's wet dream.
My friend showed me around for a bit, but then had to leave to go meet someone for lunch. This left me with two hours to kill before we were to meet up again, and in a somewhat unusual move I struck out into the unknown for adventure.
As I stepped out of the JR train station I was greeted by a massive Sega sign. Not knowing what else to do(As I have never been anywhere near Japan), I followed it into a large building. Where I found myself was a seven story arcade! Every wall on the first floor was lined with various iterations of the crane game, and each level up the building was filled with various other game types. In short, it was heaven.
I continued following the escalators up until I was on the top floor. It was here that I found a series of around twelvebubbles, each containing a confusing set of joysticks and wall to wall screens. I pulled open the bubble and sat down inside. A voice greeted me in Japanese so quick that I was unable to understand anything other than the fact that I needed to put in coins.
I slipped in a hundred yen and watched awestruck as screens all around my head lit up. there was a loud hum as the booth began to warm up and then I was at a menu screen, once again entirely in kanji I didn't recognize. I continued to hit the start button until a mech selection screen popped up. It appeared that I would be fighting the people in the other booths in some sort of Gundam style combat.
A few more clicks of the start button and I was on a field getting absolutely demolished by the other players. Every once in a while I would manage to get a kill in, but with no control instructions it was fairly difficult. To top it off each bubble had a headset, and while I couldn't understand everything being said, I did catch the words heta(bad) and gaijin(foreigner) being thrown around pretty liberally. After twenty minutes of getting stomped by local teenagers I decided it was time to leave and see what else the area had to offer.
I walked back to the train station area and connected to the Wi-Fi. I searched things to do in Akihabara, and found something very interesting. There was an article detailing a small shrine hidden down a side street just over the nearby river dedicated to the Tanooki. This is a half fox half raccoon, or something of the like that can be found in Japan, or in mario games as a wearable suit.
The article was very vague as to where the shrine was, other than just across the river and hard to find. Excited, and with adventure in my heart, I took off in the general direction the article had given me. I walked all of the side streets around the river, searching high and low for any sign of the shrine, but could find nothing. It was getting close to the time I needed to meet up with my friend, and sadly I called an end to the search.
Luckily, my friend is also possessed by a similar sense of adventure, and was totoally behind continuing the search. Together it only took about ten minutes of searching and we found oursleves outside the shrine gates. Inside I could see the various tanooki statues, among other traditional shrine fare.
A cat hung off the side of one of the buildings, keeping watch over us as we cleansed our hands in the basin at the entrance. I walked around in silence, looking at the various carvings and representations of the tanooki. As I looked around I noticed something strange. All of the carvings had enormous balls, some measuring half the size of the animal! It was a truly humbling site.
With the tanooki shrine found we decided to call it a succesful day and take the JR line back to the hotel. While I sit in my hotel room writing this, I know I will never forget my experience with the big balled tanooki of Akihabara...
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