Tokyo Revisited Day 7

Jon is an investor in a fairly new, promising Tokyo restaurant named Devil Craft. He’d mentioned that the restaurant would be celebrating its premiere of a new craft brew beginning at 3pm, so I assumed that he intended to go over to the place for a late lunch at three. So after performing my morning routine then watching the latest episodes of Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei and Haikyuu, Jon surprised me by asking about my plans for lunch. Since I hadn’t bothered to deliberately ask, I hadn’t realized that Jon didn’t actually intend to visit Devil Craft until the evening. So we agreed to get lunch before going separate ways for a short time.

We walked across the street to Tomato Ramen, the small twelve-seat restaurant that had been packed to capacity the evening before. The menu highlighted the cheese ramen as a house specialty, so I choose that. The idea of cheese atop ramen is entirely foreign to me, but discovering new things is one of my goals for this trip. The large bowl of noddle soup set before me had a light tomato broth with thin noodles and chunks of chicken. The very nice flavor struck me as a successful effort to integrate French pasta taste into Japanese soup. As I’ve been doing all along, I paid out entire bill. I’m still getting used to the effect of Japan’s cash-based society being that cashiers don’t even blink an eye when a consumer pays for a relatively small bill with a hundred dollar bill, or 10,000 yen note. Typically American stores and restaurants frown when they’re forced to break a $100 for a small purchase amount.

From the restaurant, Jon went to the gym while I got my exercise by walking to the station to take the trains two stops away, by express line, to Akihabara. Knowing that I had two or three hours to spend, I decided to concentrate on the streets off Chuo Dori.

I first exited the station and realized, for the first time, that by walking straight ahead for one block instead of turning right as I usually do, I’d reach the 8-story adults-only store M’s. I filed away that info for future reference and walked to the far side of Chuo Dori before turning right. When I reached the Sega Arcade, memory kicked in and reminded me that if I walked all the way to the back of the hallway, a set of unmarked stairs led into the basement that housed the large Melon Books store 1.

The store was absolutely jam-packed with patrons, male and a handful of females. The far right side of the store holds new release ero doujinshi and PC software. The far left side of the store is home to adult magazines and commercially published adult manga. The center of the store is devoted to all-ages doujinshi, anime illustration books, manga, and light novels. For two or three days now I’ve been considering purchasing a copy of the full CG “Himekano ~ Secret Lovers” adult manga by M&U. I noticed a stack of the books with a hand-written sign and a matching CD-ROM. Although I couldn’t read the sign, I thought to myself, “I wonder if that’s a free bonus CD-ROM for purchasing the book here.” I decided that I’d return to the shop on my way back to purchase the book. If I was going to pay cover price for the book anyway, I may as well buy it at Melon Books where I might possibly receive a bonus CD-ROM.

Since I passed by the Akihabara Culture Zone building on my previous visit to Akiba, I made a point to hit the multi-floor anime mall on this trip. I first went up to the fourth floor to the sprawling rental box store Zone Ten. The sheer amount of anime goods available there is staggering. I’m always fascinated to know what items and collectables Japanese otaku value. I was very surprised to see two-inch Holo figures priced at nearly $80 each! I didn’t buy anything, however, because the rental boxes were consistently filled with very contemporary goods, and I’m more interested in searching for slightly older merchandise.

At the Ganking store on the fourth floor I found an adorable four-inch-tall nekomimi-maid figure for 500 yen. I didn’t even realize at first that it was OreImo’s Saori Makishima. Despite not being much of an OreImo fan, the figure was too cute for me to leave behind.

I made my way through the fourth, third, and second floors then took a cursory look through the K-Books on the ground floor before heading out the back entrance into the street behind Chuo Dori. I spotted a sign that said “Doujin Floor 3F.” So I tentatively marched upward. The stairs seemed to end at the second floor’s electronics store, but as I reached the top of the stairwell, I noticed that the stairs continued up around a blind corner. I was immediately amused and excited by the warning signs on the stairs that I presumed alerted consumers to prepare themselves for what lay ahead.

The store turned out to be Akibaoo 3 go-ten, a small shop devoted exclusively to doujin goods. The rear wall of the shop was entirely fan-created animation CD-ROMs and DVDs. The middle of the store was devoted to Toho Project goods. The front third of the store was devoted to 2chan memes. I purchased a Kuma whisky glass and a sticker that parodied the Lawson’s convenience store sign.

As I browsed the Jungle Anime store, I couldn’t tell if the shop carried higher-end collectable merchandise or if it was just more expensive than many of its competing stores. However, I was both surprised and pleased to find a bath towel featuring a nude lady illustration drawn by Yoshiten priced at only 540 yen. So I eagerly bought it.

While strolling down the back street I was reminded once again of a bizarre contradiction in Japanese society. Japan is recognized worldwide as possibly the most polite country on Earth. Yet consistently Japanese citizens don’t make any special effort to part ways for ambulances with sirens roaring. Perhaps Japanese folks believe that no one deserves special treatment, including even people critically injured and being rushed to a hospital. Yet the trains reserve seats for the elderly & pregnant. Furthermore, while Japanese residents won’t go out of their way to make way for an ambulance, they do deliberately stand on the left on escalators to keep the right side clear for people who choose to climb, rather than ride, the escalators.

When I made my way back to Chuo Dori I was disappointed to find that the vintage toy shop Golden Age was closed for the day. I entered Liberty No. 8 and took the elevator up to the 5th floor, the gachapon floor. I found an amusing discounted “Bust Emperor” figure that will compliment my “Hip Parade” figures that I have at home. I also purchased a 600 yen gachapon figure that’s so obscene I can’t even describe it in public.

I went back to Melon Books to purchase the Himekano manga. The store was still crowded to elbow-room, and I had to stand in line to check out, even with six active cashiers! I’m pleased that I did indeed receive the free bonus CD-ROM disc.

While waiting for the light to change underneath the rail overpass, I noticed that the Matsukiyo drug store behind me had a display rack on the sidewalk filled with the Schick Shingeki no Kyojin commemorative razors that I’d been searching for. I happily purchased a 906 yen razor that included an SD Mikasa figure.

Upon crossing the street, instead of heading back to the station, I circled the block. On the second floor of Asobit Hobby City I was amazed and crestfallen to find the super rare original Xentex Mars Ichigeki Sacchu Hoihoi-san figure for 7,800 yen. Back in 2007 the one I purchased at Liberty No. 8 cost me 30,000 yen. I also found a used, boxed Churuya-san Nendoroid figure for 2,150 yen – slightly cheaper than the 2,500 yen I’d paid at Nakano Broadway – and an even cheaper loose one in a zip-lock back for 1,600 yen.

I’ve definitely determined that prices at the stores facing Chuo Dori are slightly higher than prices at the stores off the main street. All prices for second-hand anime collectables are lower in Japan than in America, and even in Akihabara, diligent searching can turn up some amazing bargains.

Partially out of curiosity, I decided to peek into the M’s sex store. I was amused by the 500 yen blind package foil bags adorned with the Japanese idol group-style female mascot characters for the store. The foil bags randomly contained goods such as condoms, lotion, or a mini “rotor” vibrator. I climbed up to the second floor that stocks “onna holes.” I was really overwhelmed by the massive selection and variety of male self-pleasure toys available. Somewhat in a stunned daze, I departed without purchasing anything then caught the trains back to Yotsuya.

Shortly later, the pair of us departed for Kanda, the bar district. Diagonally across from the station by a few blocks we came to Devil Craft, a small, homey craft beer and Chicago-style pizza restaurant. Two parties waited ahead of us, so the waiter brought out a pair of folding stadium chairs and a plank of wood and set up a makeshift table for us to sit and wait at in the alley beside the restaurant. While waiting, I tried my first Japanese beer, a short glass of Hebesu lager, a crisp, golden beer with a light, refreshing sourness. Not being much of an alcohol drinker, myself, the beer distantly reminded me of the taste of Corona.

While Jon & I waited, a handsome young adult Japanese guy named Kohei wandered up to us and struck up a conversation in English. He explained that he was formerly a barber in Kanda but had just returned to Japan the day prior from an extended working stay in Sydney, Australia. So he was searching for English language conversation partners. The three of us drank and chatted for a while until he departed. After roughly an hour wait, Devil Craft offered Jon and I a seat in the “wait” table under the store’s front awning. My second beer was a tall glass of Hoegaarden Witbier. This one had a bit of a mild bite on the tip of my tongue and a light bitter taste that wasn’t as much to my preference. I ended up eating most of our “The Works” large Chicago-style deep dish pizza. The pizza, my two beers, and Jon’s two or three glasses ended up costing 6,000 yen after Jon’s discount since he’s a stock-holder in the restaurant.