Today I went on a guided tour of Akihabara. The tour guide has been living in Japan for 6 years, and does research about this particular area of Tokyo, and is an "otaku," which is basically an anime/manga fan.

We learned a lot about the history of Aki on the tour, and how it developed the unique culture. Basically, back in WWII it acted as the black market for radio parts. Small shops would be set up and sell radio parts that were taken from anywhere really. However, the entire area was destroyed, and had to be rebuilt. Right next to the main station gate there is still a huge shopping area that sells very niche electronic parts - if you gave MacGyver 10 minutes in there he could probably build a space ship, powered by anti-matter. There was also a lot of home security stuff and things like spy cams.

We then went across the street to 世界のラジオ会社 (I think the last 2 kanji are wrong, oh well) which translates to the "World Radio Company." It is so named because back in the day the top floor was used a a show room for NEC's latest technology. The building now houses tons of anime/manga/collectors shops. There was one particular floor dedicated to these resin-joint dolls. The doll itself cost $750 minimum, then the clothes/hair/eyes were all very expensive as well. Apparently this is hugely popular in Aki, and people will carry their dolls around with them; some cafes even offer doll sized tea sets so you can have lunch with it. The tour guide explained that it has become very popular with men recently as well. Who knew?

We then proceeded to walk around a bit outside, and headed over towards "Man's Mainstreet." It is so called because it is filled with maid cafes (which I will get to in one second), and stores that sells all sorts of unmentionables. There were also quite a few arcades here as well - some of them were really interesting actually. There was one in particular that stood out because it was 100% dedicated to retro games such as atari and super nintendo.

The next two stops were maid themed. The first was a maid barber shop where, for the low, low price of $100, you can get "the shittiest haircut of your life" according to the tour guide. Basically it works under the idea of anti-talent, which means it is not about their ability, but rather that they are giving it 150% effort. I don't really understand it, but apparently it's very popular in Aki.

And now the maid cafe. Admittedly, I had wanted to visit one at least once while I was here (my host family's younger son even said that I have to go at least once). First, you walk up 2 flights of narrow stairs (would fail U.S. fire codes - no questions asked). I was the first one to go inside, and had this "what the ..." moment, because about 5 feet in front of me was a 18(?) year old Japanese girl wearing something that looked like a mix between underwear and a swim suit. This girl then said "okaeri, goshyujin-sama" which is something along the lines of "welcome back, master." I'm not sure if "master" is the best translation, but the whole point they are trying to convey is they are your "maid." Regarding the swimsuit, according to the sign today was "at the beach" day. The interior looked pretty much like a regular cafe.

 The sitting down and ordering was fairly normal. Then came the "service." I ordered a cream soda (melon soda, which is freakin' delicious, with ice cream). So the girl brings it to me, but instead of just putting it down on the table for me, she gets down on her knees, and holds the drink up to me, and has me drink the first part of it while she holds the straw. The tour guide got something a bit more extravagant though -- the girl brought out a tray filled with various ingredients. They were: Natto (this will get its own post) wasabi, caramel, milk, soda, ketchup, soy sauce, and a few others that I forget. The maid then had him stand up, and play 3 rounds of Japanese rock-paper-scissors with her. If he won, he got to pick 1 ingredient. However, if he lost she picked something. He won the first round, and picked the soda. The poor guy lost the next two rounds though and ended up with a natto, caramel, and soy sauce soda. On top of this, since he lost two in a row, the maid got to smack him! I have to give the guy credit though, he drank the entire thing. As his reward, he got to take a picture with the maid. (side note: you can't take pictures in maid cafes generally w/out spending a decent amount of cash). This was a really hilarious experience, and if you are ever in Japan, I highly recommend it. Here is the link to the maid cafe I went to: http://cos-cha.com/event.html (its all in Japanese - obviously).

If you want to sit and actually eat at a maid cafe, it will be fairly expensive. The food is pretty average, but what you are paying for is the "service." The more you order, the more the maids will talk to you, and play with you. You can even get point cards, which keep track of how much you spend, and at certain point levels you can get rewards from the maids.

They also have a huge variety of maid cafes as well. They do not all have girls in maid uniforms. There are butler cafes, cross-dresser cafes, and just about what ever you can think of. Some of the more popular maid cafes can have hour long lines!!!! Some of them also offer what is called "soul comfort" which means you pay like $100, and you get to sit down with a maid for 1 hour, and just talk about what ever you want. Apparently this is supposed to make you feel better - I guess if you are an otaku who games and watches anime 24/7, getting to sit down and talk to a cute girl in a maid outfit for an hour is worth $100?

After the maid cafe, we went to a few other buildings. One in particular was named Don Quixote. It was home to a very famous maid cafe, as well as AKB48 Stage, which is where pop idols come and sing. It was really crowded since there was a performance going while we were there. We also went to an anime art gallery, and besides the fact that all the art was of scantily clad anime girls, I was really impressed at the skill level. I am by no means an expert on art though; paintings ranged from between 2.5-4.5 thousand $.

That pretty much concludes the tour. It was a very interesting experience, and I highly recommend going to these places at least once - even if you aren't into anime/manga/maids(lol) I can almost guarantee you'll laugh at least once.

---------

There is a chance I'll be going on a camping trip in two weeks, which should be fun.

 This week is going to be very busy though, due to a lot of projects coming due, and tests, so I probably wont post too much. Hopefully I'll have something really entertaining to post after this weekend.