Atarashii Prelude

Invasion of Area 11

Come 23rd November 2007 at approximately 2300 hours, me, Evern and Male A will be departing to Area 11 for an all-out Otaku pilgrimage of sorts. If Muslims need to visit Mecca at least once in their life, then an Otaku would probably have to do the same by stepping foot at Akihabara, which incidentally is our first stop(lawl, no surprises there) although it is mainly due to the fact there is a guided tour organized by the Japan National Tourist Organization which takes a group of 15 tourists to visit the many locales at the Electrical Town, aptly named the New Discovery Of Akihabara, on the very day we arrive.

As much as I'd like to list down every place we intend to visit, I'd probably just leave that after we've returned from the trip and instead just name a few locations that come into mind, otaku related of course.

With the trip lasting 5 days(excluding the 2 days for flying there and back) and the intention of only staying in Tokyo for the first 3 days, we were given a room at the Sunshine City Prince hotel(initially Shinjuku Washington, but it was overbooked) , at the heart of Ikebukuro. Although, I would have personally preferred somewhere close to Akiba, the tour agency does not have any liaisons with any of the hotels in that area. In any case, it wasn't that bad a location, as that is where the famed 8 floor Animate(that's right, 8 freaking floors of otaku merchandise) is located, not to mention Otome Road(think Akihabara tailor-made for rabid yaoi fangirls)

Speaking of Akihabara, one of the main things on my agenda is to of course set foot in a maid cafe (*´Д`)ﾊｧﾊｧ and after watching The Foreign King Of Akiba I've decided to go to this one since that's where the fabled hitomi-chan is; that or Cos-cha, where you play a game of janken to determine the ingredients you put in a drink, which consists of really nauseating stuff, in which the loser is forced to gulp it down, and failing to do so, would probably earn you a slap from the maid. Right up my (masochistic) streak then. ; ) There are also other specialty maid related service outlets like maid manicures, massages and ear cleaning parlours, but I think I'll skip those ._. All this talk about maids but I've yet to mention the most important thing to do at Akiba, which is shopping. This is where the chunk of my budget would be splashed on, although I've not really planned on what to purchase, although must purchases would probably be a figurine or two, doujins and the like. I had more explicit stuff in mind like anime Dakimakuras but these usually cost a bomb, so I'll have to pass on them too ;(

Some of the Tokyo locales that we plan to go as follows:

Asakusa (The most famous Buddhist temple is here)

Harajuku (Sunday mornings are where gothic lolitas, visual kei and various breeds of youths gather)

Shibuya (Hachiko crossing ; ) )

Tokyo University (??? Let's go to Toudai together???)

Tokyo Dome (Currently the Deimon Devil Bats are facing off against the Hakushu Dinosaurs here.. don't ask)

Studio Ghibli Museum (Self explanatory)

Disneyland ( ;P)

That's just a fraction off the schedule of course, and time allows, places recommended by Danny Choo, such as the Shin Marunouchi building, even though it looks expensive ><

Moving onwards, on the 2nd day, we'll be heading off to Saitama. Just 30 minutes outside Tokyo, this is where the town Lucky Star was based on. You'd probably guess it by now; I have every intention of doing the Kagami Walk at the Washinomiya Shrine and write "Kagami is my wife" on those wooden blocks as did many otakus before me lawl. Talking about outskirts, we had initially planned to go to an onsen at Hakone at a traditional inn, but it proved too expensive, so we settled for one in Tokyo and spend the day at a waterpark in Hakone(since Evern insists in going there no matter what, since he wants to look at Mt Fuji on the way) instead.

Other things that we will have to try there food-wise is of course apart from the normal Japanese fare, would be snacks and food items heavily featured in anime, like Konata's chocolate cornet, Shana's melon bread, apple candies, takoyakis and taiyakis. Other random snacks would probably be the desserts(or sweets, as the Japanese fondly refer them as) and if possible: CLANNAD-IN-A-CAN Gives the phrase "eating her out" a whole new meaning... (*´Д`)ﾊｧﾊｧ

Too many other stuff to be written in this post(I need to go have lunch) so I'll probably post a more detailed version after the trip with lots of pictures when we return. Till then, Shin out.