Today I woke up around 5 am and, after not being able to fall back asleep, decided to get up, get dressed, and go out for a little walk around the Shinobazu Pond that I can see from my hotel room, as well as try and locate the source of the gong sound that goes off at 6am each morning. I'm 90% sure it's the temple right there. I stopped to get a nice warm Zenzai soup in a can and drank that near the temple.
And I was right! Unfortunately the prayer and ceremony the Buddhist monks do are inside the temple so I couldn't actually watch them or see the gong. Still, it was a lovely morning and I got to see some ducks (Northern Pintails, I think).
And the sunrise over the temple, my hotel, and Tokyo Skytree (which I didn't even know was that close)!
Thank you Jeff for this adorable Yuru-can edit
My first quest of the day was to walk to the nearest (larger) UNIQLO to see if they had any Ultra Light Down coats in my size. Alas, Japan does not have anything over an XL in Men's or Women's clothing in their stores. You gotta order online for that, which is easy enough and I have done that before, I was just hoping to get a new coat since the one I bought here in 2016 is Angie of 2016 size. 2024 Angie cannot zip closed the men's XL coat 😓 But! If it's stretchy, I can fit in XL of men's and women's, so I bought me some more Heattech undershirts. The men had cool stripey ones, so I bought one blue and black stripey and one gray and black stripey Heattech shirt and wore one out that night! Mmm, nice and soft! Luckily, the lack of finding a coat doesn't seem like it will be a problem as it won't get cold until the Friday I fly out, and most stores are blasting heat anyway!
The UNIQLO I walked to was one stop over from Ueno in Okachimachi, and was very easy to walk to. While on my way a lady walked up to me and asked if I speak English. She asked if I liked Japan and how many times I've been here. She asked if I would want to live here and I honestly was like, "I love being a visitor here for the food and the sights but I don't think I could live here," and she laughed and agreed. She asked where I was from and I said the state of Ohio-shuu (I'm sure most Japanese understand I'm not saying Ohayou, but just in case) and she asked if it was warm there, I was like, "No, it's nice and warm here, while back at home it's very cold right now!" She was shocked to learn Ohio gets so hot in summer and so cold in winter. At the end of this conversation her true intentions were made known as she said her name was Meiko (I think?) and handed me her card. With the great big blue JW.org on the back. ARGH! Even in Japan I can't escape Jehovah Witnesses! At least she left it at that and didn't ask me to go inside and get a Bible or talk about God, so that was good. But still...
Once I was done at UNIQLO I decided to start hitting up the stores in Akihabara I had bookmarked. Again, I never realized how close Akihabara was to Ueno and how easily you could walk to it! It's only about 20 minutes on foot from my hotel! First was a Hobby Off/Hard Off that Norm had visited in a video. It was a very tiny one with three small floors but nothing for me. I'm keeping an eye out for Persona Games or a decently-priced Famicom Disc System. The Famicom at Hard Off was 23,100 yen (about $154).
Next closest bookmarked spot was a store called BEEP and this is the store where my 15-year quest finally came to an end. Yes, that's right, the PC-98 (and later re-released on Windows 2000) PC game that later was developed into a favorite anime that I became obsessed with (and still am today), starring everyone's (or just my) favorite purple-haired, vampire detective: Nightwalker. Yes, I have been looking for this PC game for over 15 years. Then, as if to apologize for the shitty year, last week I was able to find a download of the game that worked in a PC-98 emulator. And then today, I was able to find a physical copy of the 2000 re-release at BEEP!!!
"But Angie," you're saying, "That looks like porn." I believe the term you're looking for is
eroge, but yes it does contain explicit content.
Yet, the anime this was adapted into is nothing like the PC game it was based off of. I'd say the anime is rated...eh R at most. The first 4 episodes you get a couple of boob-shots, and then the rest of the series the worst that happens is blood and gore but is nowhere near hyper-gore or guro. It is actually the first anime series (instead of an OVA) to be based on an adult game. And here it is, the elusive adult game that started it all! The game where Riho is a ribbon twirler, Yayoi is still an awesome badass police chief, and Shido was apparently born a Dunbar (half human, half vampire) and his father is Nosferatu (LOL) and is a wise-cracking perv. Or so I have read. I am waiting to play the game with my partner-in-crime, Linny, because I KNOW we're going to have a great time laughing at all this game has to offer! She was there with me for the anime and soon we will also get to experience this game!
Once I can down from the high of finding this game, I went on to the other places I had bookmarked in Akiba. Two more potential PC game stores (one of which was current PC eroge games and I'm sorry to all the mortified men for seeing me, a woman, there) because now I'm being greedy and why not just buy all copies that I find? LOL. But no, there were no more Nightwalker games to be found in the other stores and I am still more than perfectly happy having this one.
One of the stores was near Akihabara station and sold train and Suica merchandise. Needless to say I got excited by all the cute reusable bags and Suica penguin merch.
It's an IC card holder that looks like the Komachi train heading towards Akita, and the window is cut out so the Suica penguin on your IC card can look out!! SO CUTE!!
I was hungry for lunch, and it was about 1:30 already, so I looked for the closest place with the most options. I knew the area because I was right by the Washington Hotel Jeff and I stayed at in 2019! And right nearby was a Yodobashi Camera with SO MANY FLOORS, and one of the floors was all restaurants! Very convenient, this is one of the many things I love about Japan. I also love that there's still malls and physical stores. I miss them 😞
I eventually picked tsukemen ramen and, even though I picked the medium size, was a LOT of noodles that I alas couldn't finish. It was good and the dipping broth was very hearty! I'm glad they gave me a bib LOL!
I headed back to the hotel because my feet were once again starting to hurt and Google maps was doing that annoying drifting thing. UGH! Luckily I was still able to find my way back to the station. No way were my feet going to let me walk back to the hotel!
The nap I took was long and deep as my body tried to fight it's way back into my American circadian rhythm, so it was a struggle to wake up and get back up and moving. I felt a little hungry but not much, so I decided to see what the local arcades had to offer. I'm no pro at UFO crane games but it's fun to watch others. I tried my hand at a long-tailed tit plushie and a Frieren figure, but no such luck. Besides, I can probably find that figure for much less than it would take me to win it at a local Book/Hobby Off/Lahsingban/other second-hand anime stores. But that's for another shopping day!
I did do an obligatory purikura photoshoot. I am disappointed that 500 yen only got me two pictures printed out and the ability to save them to my phone. Ah well. So here's they are, looking as alien as ever! LOL
These things always crack me up!
LOL, always fun being the lone person in a purikura booth on a Saturday night surrounded by all the teens dragging their boyfriends into the booths with them! I do still love these though!
While I may not have won anything big, I did get this adorable little kitsune!
The trick is to go for the crane games for kids and the smaller plushies. Those seem to work for me!
By then it was around 9pm and I was more tired than hungry, but I walked to a 7 Eleven on the way back to see if anything looked tempting. First of all: Saturdays nights are wild and woolly as the young adults are out in force with friends, getting drunk, as are the tourists and there's very large crowds and no one is really minding themselves as they rush around or shove around with their friends. Being in the busy streets of Ameyoko was tough, but being in a conbini with about 3 groups like this was intolerable. I got myself a cup of oden (I haven't seen it fresh and hot behind the counter or up front yet, do they not do that anymore??), a salad, and a purin (I'm a Japanese pudding fiend). The guy at the counter quickly rang me up and then moved on to the next person. He seemed put out when I asked if I could have it warmed up (I've been PRACTICING my atatamete kudasai, dammit!) and just pointed at the little red label on the lid. I was like, oh, maybe it's one of those self-heating ones, so I nodded, arigatou'd and left. No, the red label on the lid was telling you to pull the lid back halfway and then heat it up in the microwave LIKE I HAD ASKED HIM TO! I did a little looking on the 'net and it seems not all conbinis will warm things up for you. They'll ask if they have the ability, if you want it warmed up, but not all places do that. Some places have microwaves and you warm it up yourself. This might have been the case, but I was already anxious and tired and just wanted some gosh darned soup! Luckily the hotel has a microwave, so I did it myself and brought it up to my room. I remember the oden I had from 7 Eleven being more flavorful, but it was food and it was warm and I definitely had no trouble going to sleep.
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