ダニエルの冒険

Yup, seriously the best day of my life. Almost everything I’ve been wanting to do since I became interested in Japan I was able to do, including getting purikura taken, going to a karaoke, going around Akihabara, seeing meido-san, seeing otaku, seeing cosplay, and lots more!

So, from the start. My friends from Gunma were coming down the Yamanote line from the north (Ueno direction) and me from the south and were both heading for Akihabara. I got there on the early side and found them eventually. I think I fell in love 8 times (I was counting) while waiting at the station. What an incredible place. Second only to Ginza for falling in love. This was Sunday so all the younger people (and freaks) were out in the sunshine. Check out the Flickr stream for pictures of said freaks.

We were fairly hungry so we went to a Japanese restaurant and I did my best with a bowl of Oyakodon (chicken, an egg, rice, onions, leeks, and various other bits and pieces). When the rain had lifted we headed towards the first exciting thing I had seen from the window: Yodobashi. This is a 9-story electronics store and we had lots of fun with massage chairs, “exercise” electrical mechanical bulls (I exercised my “hippu” — ‘hip’ (???)). I bought the latest Aiko CD and we looked around the DVD and CD floor for a while, playing with the disc jocky mixing desks. I had a look inside the dirty video section to see if anyone would be surprised to have a foreigner wander around… but they weren’t. In fact, it wasn’t really that dirty at all. I’m not sure if that’s disappointing or not, but it’s the truth. Most of it was anime characters anyway, as opposed to live actors. There were these machines which drop out small figures and toys in capsules for 200 or 300 yen. I got 2 characters from Suzumiya Haruhi and a keychain from a “moe” (the burning feeling you get when you see a really cute girl, or indeed, anything that you desire a lot, but not in a sexual sense) machine that says “oniiiiichan!” (big brother!! — this was “imouto” (younger sister) moe) when you press it. You can buy these from jbox.com.

When we left Yodobashi there was lots of commotion outside. First of all, we saw a big red robot getting ready to fight a big black robot (and here I thought that only happened in anime). It turned out there was a crowd of about 20 or 30 people all in cosplay (people dressing up in costumes and playing…), mostly cosplaying characters from The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, and dancing to the well-know ending theme. There was also a guy dressed in an ouendan (male cheersquad — actually much cooler than you just imagined) outfit, possibly imitating Kishidan from a song like One Night Carnival. You can find a video yourself because the official one has been DMCA’d off the face of the internet.

Just beside us, a girl set up a stereo and started dancing and singing karaoke-style into it. I guess she’s some singer from an anime or wants to be but not one really cared. Across the street, there was a semi-circle of otaku (guys who spend all their money, time, and lives on anime and manga — kinda like me) dancing around a girl dressed as a nurse with a large soft syringe. They’d dance, say “sei-no!” (here we go!) and then she’d hit them with it while singing. Beside her were four really pretty young girls singing and then giving a speech to fawning onlookers. One guy was using a still camera and a video camera at the same time with an overjoyed grin all the time I was there.

Next we decided to go to Yoyogi park to check out all the cosplayers. On the way we met a guy called Jonathan working in McDonald’s. His Japanese was incredible and he said he had taught it to himself over 3 years then come to Japan in September. But when he started making jokes at my harem of 5 girls he was getting a little too cool so I hurried us on to the Yamanote line before they realised how much better his Japanese is than mine.

We walked past a purikura (think photobooth where you can edit photos with a stylus and print them in tiny form, just like everything else in Japan, to stick your phone) place and went into the booth for the photo. In the booth, you select the background colour and pose, then you have a certain amount of time to select the photos you like. After you leave, you go to a kiosk where you add writing and special effect like hearts, stars, frames, etc, to the photos. Then they’re printed, you cut them, and stick ‘em to your phone!

We walked through the very crowded Harajuku to get to Yoyogi park and there was the famous bridge full of all the weirdos. Words just can’t describe them… you have to see the pictures. There were some white people doing it too but it really didn’t suit them. That being said, it didn’t suit a lot of the Japanese either but some of them looked absolutely adorable. There was one huge girl with a sign that said “FREE HUGS” and that wasn’t adorable. But there are some cute girls I got in the photos.

We were all fairly tired afterwards so we went to a cafe and afterwards Saharu and Hitomi had to leave to catch their train home. Myself and Ayumi and Kaori and Miho went to a karaoke-kan! I sang One Night Carnival to get something in Japanese, an Eminem song to get something fast, in English, which I knew (believe me, it’s cool to know Eminem songs in Japan), and Mack the Knife by Bobby Darren, which wasn’t as cool as Eminem *sigh* Ayumi sang some Ayumi Hamasaki songs and it turns out she’s more than a name. She actually hit all the notes perfectly and really sounded similar to my beloved Ayu!! My jaw actually dropped at every chorus.

They had to go home soon, so we went to a small street stall and all bought the same type of ring before parting at the Harajuku station. What a day!

This entry was posted on Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 2:59 pm and is filed under Japan 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.