Akihabara (秋葉原)

With today being Sunday, I decided to go to Akihabara today, since it's fun watching them close the main street and seeing all the crowds. But equally, keeping with the tradition of spending some time waddling, I took the train, overshot my destination by about 4 stations, and then walked back.

Which is how I found myself walking past Ueno park. This seems to be a bit of a theme by now: go somewhere, find a sign for something interesting, follow those signs, get lost. Yesterday that meant walking around Yoyogi park, trying to walk north to south, and then being really confused how I ended up at the northern tip again. Today though it seemed to be less lost than confused. The maps kept on saying that there was supposed to be a big puddle of water coming up, and the closer I get, the more skeptical I got. Because all I could see in the distance was this giant lake of lilly pads ...

Now does anybody remember that there was rain forecast for today? Now can you guess who didn't bring their umbrella? Well, the good news is that I wanted to buy a new one anyway. But the shop that I wanted to go to to buy a new one did not happen to be in the building I was in as it started bucketing.

So I kind of just started walking to the train station anyway, and then gave up about halfway when I felt like I fell in the bath tub. As someone said: when it rains in Japan, they mean it. So I got to huddle under a shop entrance roof with a bunch of other people while I dried (it might be bucketing but it's still like 30 degrees), and then went the rest of the way to catch the train to my umbrella. Which then stayed perfectly dry for the rest of the day ...

My umbrella purchase took me to Tokyo station, which of course meant that some train spotting had to happen. And the only place I could think of with a nice vantage point was the Tokyo Forum. Which is a giant green house, with the best vantage point being at the top, where all the heat accumulated. I'm glad they kept a vending machine up there for me to empty while watching the local and high speed trains shoot through Tokyo station.

Something which sets Japan apart from other countries for me is the complete overhaul in terms of what socially acceptable noises are and what aren't. I'm not saying that there aren't cars with missing mufflers, but they're rare enough to stand out as opposed to being the norm. And people speaking loud enough to each other than you can hear every word from across a busy street is usually a sure sign of a tourist. But trains, definitely break the trend. Walking through Shinjuku park, you could constantly hear trains stopping/starting/screeching through a corner (at least, when you weren't in a part dominated by Cicadas). And the park isn't even directly next to the station. So sitting on the 15th floor of the Forum, you could also easily hear every local train approach on the horizon. But not the Shinkansen, that one was dead silent. I guess that's the difference of designing something to be doing 300km/h through the country side.

Having done Akiba during the day, and with the rain seemingly being kept at bay by the umbrella strapped to the bottom of my bag, I walked back north to return to Akiba and get the night version.

It's kind of interesting that, for as dense of a city as Tokyo is, things do still significantly thin out compared to the major hubs. I mean, you still don't get the 100 acre free standing mansion. But you do end up in some small, slightly abandoned looking residential streets as you kind of hope to find some lights on the horizon again. At least they weren't too far away.

Akiba at night had its street re-opened. And still just as many tourists tripping over each other to take their pictures here. And lots of pretty lights.

Heading home, I thought I'd pay a visit to the Shinjuku Metropolitan building since they appear to have gotten a very shiny blue gleam since I last saw them, and because they have a nice observatory. Now, I've been trying to make a point of not taking my phone out to find everything but trying to rely on memory, signs, and local maps to improve my navigation. For Shinjuku station though, this still seems to mean that I generally start circling the station (i.e. like a big roundabout) till I find where I'm trying to go (i.e. my exit). While it seems to be doing the job, did I mention that Shinjuku station is kind of not small?