June 5, 2008

Tired as hell again, I eventually woke up at 1. I don't know why, but I always feel crazily tired in the morning when I sleep in hotel rooms. Took a shower, ate 2 tiny sausage buns for breakfast, and quickly went out. Just as I reached Shimbashi station, I realised I forgot to refill the cash in my wallet, so I walked all the way back again..

Finally reaching Akihabara, well, I just walked around everywhere, in and out of shops. Shops dedicated to figurines only, or DVDs and games only, etc. There isn't a shop dedicated to porn only, since porn is never displayed on the first floor. But with that said, some shops contain more porn than other stuff, just that they're only at the higher floors and the basement. I think I saw more porn today than in my whole life. Games, doujins, manga, hentai.. one of the shops even had LCD screens giving previews of the game. The guy and the girl go at it, there was even a small window at the bottom left showing what went on 'internally'. Her cries and moans were more than audiable, far from subtle at all. And it was not just one screen, there were about 5 or 6. This side, you hear this girl crying out, right behind you, theres another one.. uhhh.. surround sound?

One of the shops had normal stuff at the ground floor, with 5 more upper floors full of doujins. 2nd floor doujin, 3rd floor doujin, 4th floor doujin, 5th floor doujin, 6th floor used doujin. The 6th floor especially interested me. I thought they'd be doujins full of... you know.. but the quality looked perfect. They were all in plastic sleeves. No creases, the corners were perfect as well, but they most were given quality grades 'B'. They looked so good, I don't think I'd be able to tell them from brand new ones. Whats more amazing is they were selling for 210 yen each. I would have gotten a bagful of them, but I wasn't too sure if they'd make it back to Singapore, so.. oh well. I guess I'll check on the customs routine for this trip, and maybe buy some the next time I come.

Found Animate. It looked a lot different from the one I went to the last time, so I assume that Akihabara has 2 Animate stores. Anyway, I took a look around, and found out they sell porn too, at the basement. Its really a wonder why I never noticed Animate selling porn the last time I came. The best thing is that the doujins/hentai manga they sell, they have SAMPLES!! You can literally stand there and read the whole thing. You don't get to... do your stuff.. though, so theres at least still a reason to buy it. I kinda expected it, but I was still surprised. Guys of all ages were there. Young guys, middle-aged salarymen and even old uncles. The crowd was the extent of any other store. So thats where all the salarymen disappear to after working hours. I saw a few girls there too. Seems like guys aren't the only ones.

Speaking of girls, another shop had a floor dedicated for girls. I took a look. Guys. Guys. Guy and guy. Guy on guy. Guy on boy. Boys love. Only a few guy and girl popped up. I never exactly what materials girls used. Know I know. For you people who might have been wondering too, know you know.

And Tenga! They sell Tenga! And more artificial cats. They also sold wanking machines. One of them was in the shape of a Tenga. You.. put it in horizontally.. start the machine, and the tenga part moves forward and backward, forward and backward. There was another in the shape of the hand. This one moves up and down. Not that I've seen it do it though.. I'm just inferring from the picture..

So.. thats quite a lot that has to do with porn. Did I mention the figurines? I think we all knew that already anyway. They stock those kind of figurines in the gashapon machines too, just that they cost 500 yen each rather than the usual 300, 200 or 100 yen. Cards too. A pic of your favourite girl on both sides. After you're done wanking to it, you can trade them with your friends for even more visual goodness. Porn and trading cards, two in one. Who could ask for more?

This time at Akihabara's Macdonalds, there were even more smoking seats than non-smoking, roughly a ratio of 2:1. Is it even possible to smoke and eat at the same time? Every arcade smells of smoke. Maybe not the ground floor, but still. While going up the escalator from the ground floor to 2nd floor, the air suddenly changes from fresh to smoked. Its like theres an invisible barrier that doesn't allow smoke to pass through, so once you're past that barrier, you can immediately tell the difference. Those guys on the rhythm/music games are just hax, down to every single on of them, girls as well. Even elementary school kids can play the taiko-drum game pretty well.

But while owning all the rhythm games, they don't seem to do awfully well at the UFO catcher games. You knew I was gonna come to this eventually, didn't you? Anyway, in my time here, I've only seen three people actually win stuff from the machines. One was a fat okatu-looking salaryman, another was a normal salarymen with his friend, and the last was some 15-ish year old kid. My mum is complaining about the amount of stuff I bring back every day.. because its gonna be a problem bringing all the stuff back to Singapore..

My catch for today is, in chronological order, a Yuki Nagato figurine set, a Haruhi in school uniform figurine, a Haruhi in PE uniform figurine, a Mikuru in maid outfit figurine, and a giant blue angel marin stuffy (from Ragnarok Online). I basically got all 5 of them at the same game outlet. I got the first 4 all in one sitting, while the last one, I came back for one more visit before heading back to the hotel. For the first 4, they kept getting stuck somehow. The first one, it dropped off the crossed rubber bars holding it up, but landed upright on the machine platform right next to the chute. I thought it didn't count as a win yet, so I used another 500 yen. After trying the 2 out of 3 tries to get it inside the chute, the lady manning the place came over and said it is counted as fallen already. She opened the case and gave it to me. That was 500 yen wasted. =/ For the other 3, it was another machine, but the same machine for all 3. The prizes were placed standing around the machine, so I slowly dragged the prizes closer and closer to the chute until they fell in. Every single one of the 3 turned 90 degrees while dropping down the chute, so that the longer part of the box was horizontal, causing them to get stuck. Every single time, I had to call the lady to help me open the machine to get it. The final time, after giving me the prize, she asked something in Japanese. WAYYYYY too fast for me to understand. I was like, uhhh, 'sumimasen, wakarimasen (Sorry, I don't understand)'. Then she said 'ah', and just bowed. Up till now, I still don't know what she said. Perhaps if I needed a bigger bag to carry the stuff? Or that to take a picture of me and all those prizes so that they can paste it in the machines? Or that I won too much stuff and I'm not allowed to play anymore? Guess I won't know.

Its not just her that speaks fast. Every other service staff I've seen or talked to spoke just as fast. Maybe its their job that requires them to speak fast? I know other people don't speak as fast. While eating or something, I can sometimes pick up their conversations. I guess I need to be exposed to more Japanese speech.

Whew, that should be all for now. I know I'm still missing a lot of stuff that I want to say, but this should be ok for now. Finally.. the picture of the stuff for the day..

UFO catcher stuff at the back, 2 Ghost in the Shell t-shirts at the front. Bought 2 of those dictionary-sized magazines also, but not in the picture.