The Last 4 Days

We've spent our last 4 days in Japan taking it fairly easy and doing a bunch of shopping with a little more sight-seeing. Places of mention are the large park at Ueno where we rented a pink swan paddle boat for an afternoon drift around the lake. The park also had quite a few resident cats that were somewhat friendly, probably more so if you had food for them.

Where we're staying in Tokyo is close to Tamachi Station which is a few stops south of Tokyo Station. We use the Yamanote line to get around as it stops at all major stations and runs in a big loop. Each station has a different tune that plays when a train is arriving and when the doors are closing. We ended up doing a full loop one day and got to hear all the different tunes. The best tune goes to the station called Takadanobaba. Why? Because the tunes are the theme songs from Astro Boy! We had stupid grins on our faces when we heard it. For those that don't know, Astro Boy was born at the Ministry of Science at Takadanobaba on 7 April 2003.

We had set aside Sunday for going back to Akihabara to see the cosplayers, but it was a cold wet and windy day so I didn't hold much hope. The first hour or so we spent searching for garage model kits for PChii, again without success. Outside was still cold and wet, but there were a few cosplayers that braved the weather to show themselves off to the huge crowds. The weirdest one was a giant green and yellow bean looking thing that rode in on a bike and did some play acting with a few other random cosplayers. As the day wore on, the crowds of people got bigger. Tip for anyone that wants to check out Akiharaba, do it on a Sunday afternoon after 2pm.

Yesterday we headed to the Sega Joypolis, a big 3 floor indoor amusement park. After some confusion, due to the lack of clear English, we ended up with the a 3500 yen "passport" each. With our passports in hand, one of the attendant ladies that had been standing near us during the whole 15mins ordeal trying to figure out what was what, came up to us and handed us an English brochure!! What became clear was that you can either enter the Joypolis for 500 yen and then pay for whatever you want to do inside or you can buy a passport, which includes the entry fee and all amusement rides are free! My primary objective was to play the special Initial D arcade game that is setup using real cars on big moving platforms. We read through a whole bunch of warnings and said we were OK to go. The attendant then asked if we were going in together, which took me by surprise. Since the game uses shells of real cars, there is a passenger seat for a friend to sit in. Another thing I should mention is that there are 3 cars; Subaru WRX, Toyota Sprinter AE86 (Hachi Roku) and a Mazda RX-7. The board of rules tells us that you can not pick which car you ride in, but I had luck on my side and my first ride was in the WRX. The feel of the whole car moving around when you turn is quite bizarre at first but I eventually got the hang of it and most of all it was really fun! We came back two more times during the day and I managed to score rides in the other 2 cars :D PChii even had a go in the WRX! Funnily enough I liked the RX-7 the best. The rest of Joypolis is filled with attractions that range from gut-wrenching to spooky. We spent the whole day at Joypolis and did most of the attractions and had a blast.

Right now we're packing our suitcases, trying to make everything fit. Its a bit sad that the trip is almost over, but we're both certainly looking forward to coming back home.