With everyone in my host family away on their own business yesterday, I had the whole of Tokyo to myself for the day, and decided to make my first visit to Akihabara. About half an hour from Shibuya on the Yamanote line, it's not exactly the kind of place to stop off after school.

Wandered around the bit taking some pictures and looking around stores. If you're a big fan of of anime/manga you will find so much here. There are loads of shops large and small with all sorts of otaku goodies and electronics. Some of the stores have many floors as well, one which I went to had about seven if I correctly recall.

Some magazines from the said store. I really think it's quite extraordinary how manga and anime appeals so much to males with its cuteness. You could say it's breaking free from gender stereotypes, or you might think it's just the product of the sick fantasies of sweaty nerds. I know I have readers to support both views so it would be great to hear your ideas on this.

The shop's adult section, not going there (not with my give away high schooler's uniform anyway.) It wasn't really isolated at all from the rest of the shop, there was just a sign on the wall telling you to stop if you were under 18.

Most people familiar with Japan will know that Akihabara is famous for its "Maid Cafes", which are essentialy somewhat expensive cafes where you are served by cute girls dressed as maids. You would imagine these places are full of socially challenged otaku, and you could be right, but upon stumbling upon the one advertised above (yes! I just happened to find it,) I was surprised to notice the long que to get inside was at least a third females, with many of the guys looking perfectly normal. Japan is funny in the way that it isn't that definite whether things like this are targeted towards guys who want to see pretty girls, or towards women who want to see cute girls.

This cafe was in a random building I decided to walk into, a building which was just bursting with interesting and occasionally pointless stuff. The only way to go up the floors was up a cramped escalator. Occasionally the top of the escalator would be so crowded you wouldn't have space to get off, which was interesting because the escalator didn't slow down to compensate.

I was relieved to find out that my insecurities about being the only one with an unnatural love of pirates we're unfounded. 

In the same building, I think I know some people who would go crazy for this stuff.

Check out the Akihabara gallery for a few more pictures.

On Sunday I met up with some friends to go to Harajuku for the first time. Unlike Akihabara which is almost thirty minutes away by train, Harajuku is right next to Shibuya - which means I can go there every Sunday to take more photos, hooray!

For the non-japanophiles who read my blog, Harajuku is one of the better known places in Tokyo, the Harajuku bridge and the eccentricly dressed teenagers that frequent it being particularly well known through their occasional appearance in foreign media (and Gwen Stefani's music video.) It is also right next to Yoyogi park, the Meijijingu shrine and the fashionable Omotesando shopping street.

The second major street is the alley-like Takeshitadôri, which is more popular among young people, with plenty of clothing shops catering to youth fashions and subcultures such as Gothloli and the like. For some reason it also has loads of stalls selling crepes, rolled up into cones and filled with ice cream, chocolate, fruits, berries, cheesecake, cheese (note the difference) or even prosciutto ham if you fancy a savory option. 

Check out which country's design brand is on Harajuku Fashion Joyboard 11, heh heh.

Everything is happening in Japan! Have you bumped into a skateboarding dog recently? The dog would put his/her front paws on the board, push it for some speed and then hop on. Unfortunately this is the only picture I have with "Harajuku Girls" in it, but I will be sure to put up more soon (next Sunday.)

As in the future I will probably be taking many photos around Tokyo, I've decided to organise my photo gallery regionally, with all new photos going to their respective categories. From now on I will also tag all the articles that go with the photos with "Harajuku Photos" and so on so that you can easily find commentary for the photos as well. I've also put up some pictures of my visit to Akihabara, will write on that later ^^ 

Was leaving out this morning when I accidentally almost slammed the door into the face of the two women about to ring the doorbell. I thought they were Okaasans friends so I apologised and then waited for them to ask where she was or something along those lines. Instead, one of them asked whether I spoke English, and having expressed that English is indeed a preferable language should smooth communication be a priority, they proudly proclaimed to be Jehova's Witnesses. I couldn't help grinning a bit, I've heard the jokes about how annoying they are, and now I've experienced their door to door bothering for real. I'm actually surprised they still do that, considering the reputation it has earnt them. They were grinning too, that typical goody goody smile religious people occasionally have; bit like a salesperson smile, except it's not faked.

After some chit chat my older host brother came up, and didn't look especially impressed. They wished me good luck in Japan, handed my host brother the brochures and scarpered. At no point did they actually talk about the religion. Thinking back now I probably should have told them about my devotion to the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I asked my host brother later if the brochures were interesting, and he just replied he had thrown them away. Truly quite an enviromentally unfriendly sect, perhaps they should eliminate the middleman and just recycle the brochures themselves.

Last Tuesday was a national holiday, and while the rest of the family was running around with their own business, me, crazygay (My host brother named after his favourite insult - hehe, talk about lasting revenge.) and Okaasan went to a cool sushi bar. As with most of the things you want to do in Japan, this was preceeded by plenty of waiting, but that's essentially a way of life here and it was great to look around the restaurant and the different dishes going around.

The dishes are coloured according to their price, with the highest at around thousand yen and the lowest below a hundread. Needless to say we didn't bother with the expensive ones (Leave that for another time when you're being treated by someone you don't mind bankrupting). How expensive this kind of dining is really depends on how much you need to eat. I didn't really find my dishes amounting to that much, despite the otherwise classy feel of the place. Crazygay on the other hand eats like he is feeding an Ethiopian family in his stomach, and thus this wouldn't be a practical option after a busy day for him.

One cool thing is that (assuming you can speak Japanese) you can just shout at the nearest chef to prepear you whatever sushi you like. Below the food conveyor belt there is another belt with tea mugs; on the table were two types of tea, and the tap you can see in the picture provides hot water. Japanese restaurants also always serve free water, and it's very unusual to buy other drinks. At out home too water is the usual drink, with a cool ice compartment below the fridge. If I feel the urge for a Fanta Grape, I can just pop out to the nearest vending machine. Vending machines are indeed absolutely everywhere, usually with several next to each other, offering a huge variety of hot and cold teas and coffees, carbonated drinks, juices and sports drinks. They are also much cheaper than in Finland, with the highest price for a bottle I've seen beeing 140 yen, or 0.86 euros, or 0.67 pounds, or 1.3 dollars.

One popular joke among the school scallywags here is doing a lazily excecuted salute while brightly exclaiming "sex!" It seems that, being an English speaker, they though I would find it especially funny, but the most it has gotten out of me was an "Ee-wah?" the first time they did it. Yesterday I walked past a group of such scallywags and as they let fly with their witticism I realised I could make it a bit more interesting my teaching them some obscure Finnish power words to bellow out. Then I thought I could make it funny by teaching them "power words" such as "flower" in Finnish; which they could then shout all they like while I chuckle quietly to myself. I'll let you know when I hear someone shouting "flower!" at me in Finnish.

There's another, genuinly clever and actually quite funny antic worth mentioning. It would seem that having fun at the teachers' expense by disrespecting them would not be wise, so instead they have fun by upping the ante on politeness. It's great fun to see a teacher pass a group of these fellows, all of them doing several perfectly excecuted bows while shouting "Konnichiwa!" in the sharpest military tone they can muster. Then follow this with a similar barrage of greetings to their friend who has just come from the toilet. I wouldn't know but it seems to teachers find it quite amusing too - everybody wins!