Japan Trip Day 6 part 2, more FF & Shinjuku

Sorry for the delay folks! It's been busy for me at work lately so I've been bushed when I get home.

 

Anyway, we were leaving Akihabara to go to another part of Tokyo and see some more Final Fantasy stuff as well as the Square Enix headquarters.

 

Hopping off the train we saw an Isetan store.

 

056 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

I can't recall the name of this area sadly but we had quite a ways to walk to get to where we were going. I took pics of things along the way...

 

057 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Saw this amazing 1970's Dodge Charger in traffic! The guy driving it was an old Japanese dude with a cigarette in his mouth, he looked really happy with himself and I can't blame him!

 

058 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Right across the street was this police car, no doubt keeping an eye on that hoodlum ojisan in the Charger. XD

 

059 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Battery powered bikes! Pedaling helps recharge the batteries.

 

060 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Random hotel.

 

061 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

062 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Came across this HUGE Daiso store! These are the equivalent of our Dollar Stores. There's so many awesome things in there! This one was 3 stories of goodness.

 

063 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

064 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

I love the shape of this apartment building.

 

065 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

So here's what we came to see...... a giant mochi building??

 

066 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Nope! Inside was another Final Fantasy themed café and store. They also had this really neat display area in the back.

 

067 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

I don't play the games but I think these are supposed to be Mana?

 

068 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

The big water feature was pretty cool as well.

 

069 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

After that we went wandering around a bit.

 

070 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

071 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Found a Lawsons where almost everything was only 100 yen!

 

072 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Mmmm... nuts.

 

073 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Passed by this shrine, it was kind of tucked in between some big buildings.

 

074 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

It had one small sakura tree blooming.

 

075 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

076 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Heading back to the station.

 

077 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

078 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

I'm not sure how anyone can eat food that hot...

 

079 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

We found a Tokyuu Hands store and looked around a little. It's a huge department store like Sears or J.C. Penny but WAY cooler. Here's the Nanoblock set area.

 

080 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

081 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

These are tiny little papercraft models. I would have ZERO patience trying to make these work out...

 

082 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Trump masks and cosplay items were already getting popular. LOL

 

083 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

It's a Godzilla bank! You put a penny on top, press a button and Godzilla comes up from beneath the waves to take it, all the while roaring his trademark roar. It was super cute, I totally should have bought this.

 

084 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

We saw these delivery bikes everywhere! Go Dominos!

 

085 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Now we're getting into MY part of town.....Shinjuku Kabuki-Cho! This is where I stayed in Tokyo on my last visit back in 2010 and this building is the first thing I'd see when getting off the train and heading back to my hotel. It's a pachinko parlor named Green Peas.

 

086 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

087 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

If yall don't know, Kabuki-Cho is the red-light district of Tokyo. There are TONS of host and hostess bars here as well as many, many other forms of "adult" entertainment.... if you catch my drift. But we didn't go to "those" areas this time around. We decided to stay in the shopping district and see what we could find. I saw this cool Street Fighter poster.

 

088 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

That led us into an arcade where we saw this massive game. That is all ONE GAME.

 

089 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Anyone care to guess what kind of game this is? I'll give you a hint.... it's a racing game. But why is that one guy sitting with his hands behind his head? How can you play a racing game with no hands?

 

090 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

That's easy........ because THAT is a HORSE RACING GAME where all you do is BET ON THE WINNER. It's a simulation of going to the horse track and betting on horses! Only in Japan folks...

 

Speaking of only in Japan, here are some dual stick giant robot fighting games called "Gunslinger Strafe". You had one stick shaped like a pistol and another control lever looking one. You had to use both to fly, run and maneuver your robot around while trying to shoot other players in a huge hide and seek styled cityscape. It was really wild looking in motion.

 

091 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Uh oh, looks like Ed found a Final Fantasy game!

 

092 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

It was a rhythm game of some sort, I couldn't really figure it out but Ed seemed to be doing well at it.

 

093 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Becca decided to try her hand at it too.

 

094 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

095 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

096 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

097 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

After all the arcade excitement, we figured it was time to eat so we went digging around for food and found this little shop. It was down 2 flights of stairs and was TINY.

 

098(2) by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

They also used a ticket machine to order your drinks and food. These things are so cool.

 

098 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

My tickets for the drink and food. What will they get me I wonder?

 

099 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Well, first off I got this jumbo drink that was actually JUMBO sized! Hooray! Someone knows what a jumbo drink should look like! I think it was a lemonade carbonated drink of some kind... I can't remember. All I know is that I was super happy to have a normal American sized drink with supper for a change.

 

100 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

I also got this little bit of heaven in a bowl.... pork with mushrooms over rice and onions with an egg cracked over the top. This was amazing.... it was silky smooth and so tasty! I also had that side of miso soup.... which got slammed in less than 10 seconds because I was hungry and it tasted great.

 

101 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Back inside the train station to head home.

 

102 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

103 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

104 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Look out for drunk salary men, old ladies and anthropomorphed trains! They can all easily kill you!

 

108 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

We got off at the stop one away from Akiba so we could see some of the sights at night since we'd only been thru here in daytime.

 

105 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

106 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

107 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

 

And that was our 6th day! Next time we go to Skytree! That's going to be a big two part post because I took a TON of pictures!

 

 

 

Billy

Wahhhh! I'm soooo jealous!!! Japan has been on my bucket list since I was a kid (yeah sailor moon started it all!... in grade 1!) the wonderful thing about your posts is that it's actually showing me things I would love to do or go to!

Wahhhh! I'm soooo jealous!!! Japan has been on my bucket list since I was a kid (yeah sailor moon started it all!... in grade 1!) the wonderful thing about your posts is that it's actually showing me things I would love to do or go to!

 

Hee hee, that's great! I'm very happy I'm giving you ideas for your future Japan trip! Hopefully you can go sooner rather than later.

 

 

 

Billy

Aaah why did you "hide" the rest of your pictures really interesting! It looks relatively peaceful, i would have expected more of a "hustle and bustle", or you are just incredibly good at catching calm shoots

Aaah why did you "hide" the rest of your pictures really interesting!

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "hide".... I didn't hide any of them on Flickr, all the ones I have uploaded are available for anyone to see.

 

It looks relatively peaceful, i would have expected more of a "hustle and bustle", or you are just incredibly good at catching calm shoots

 

There were times where there were large crowds with plenty of hustle and bustle but I'm pretty good at finding openings in crowds for photos.

 

 

 

Billy