Japan Day 17

After a restless night, I woke up late in the morning (around 7am), and was in a rush to get ready. Tim sent me a text to let me know that he had already left. With the grand opening of the Gundam Cafe, we knew had to be there really early to get in line. I hurriedly got ready and then asked Pat if he was ready to go. He said no and to go on ahead. Shortly after I left the hostel, I got a text from Tim saying that he was in line for the cafe. I caught the train to Akihabara just as I got to the station. After only a couple of stops, I got off and took the exit towards Electric Town. As soon as I exited the metro, there it was: Akihabara's Gundam Cafe. I snapped a photo and then quickly got in line. I sent Tim a text to let him know that I was there and asked him where he was in the line. He said he was near the front, but I didn't see him anywhere when I got there. After several minutes of texting eachother in line, Tim realized that he was not at the Gundam Cafe. Turns out he was in line for some concert that was happening in Akiba.

Shortly after that, Tim arrived and we talked briefly before he got in line behind me. It was a really cold morning, but at least it was sunny. Tim and I kept texting while waiting in line, and finally we started to move forward very, very slowly. Once I had moved up a few more metres in line, Patrick passed by. I told him that Tim got the wrong line and was somewhere behind me. He seemed kind of pissed off. His fault for not getting up early. After about an hour and a half, I was near the front of the line. I could see Tim in line behind me. There were at least a dozen people between us. After he quickly chatted with the Bandai staff, they agreed to let him move up with me in line.

Once we got into the cafe, we were greeted by a very cute girl in cosplay who seemed extremely surprised to see a foreigner. She allowed us to take a picture and then we were informed that the cafe was only serving select beverages in the morning. We each ordered a coffee with a Gundam Cafe mug. It was about $11, but we got to keep the mug. The place was pretty cool if like Gundam. Heck, even if you don't like Gundam, it was awesome. Finally, Patrick arrived and sat down with us. After finishing our beverages and snapping lots of photos, we checked out the little gift shop next door. It mostly had Gundam themed snacks, but there were some other cool things. They also had Gundam taiyaki bread!

After the cafe, we headed into Akihabara to do some shopping. It was nuts. Akihabara is known as Japan's Electric town. It used to be an area to get radios, televisions, and the latest electronic gadgets, however, it was now the centre of geek culture in Japan. Girls dressed as maids lined the streets handing out flyers and tissues advertising Maid Cafes, every second store housed video games, comics, anime, or a combination of the two, and the sidewalks were absolutely packed full of shoppers. It's insane. We visited all kinds of shops and got seperated lots, but it was fun. I ended up buying a couple of games and three CD's. I probably spent entirely too much on the CD's, but it's stuff I can't get in Canada.

Our shopping bags full and our stomachs now empty, we began looking for the next hotel we were staying in. It took us some searching and directions from a helpful train station employee, but we found it and got settled in.