The thinkings/opinions of a bizarre, quiet girl: BLOG -- My Trip to Japan V.4 -- ADVENTURE PART 1 (Akihabara, Shibuya, Ikebukuro)

Here is part 1 of my Japan adventure. Even though I've been to these areas before (as can be seen from the links to my previous Japan blogs below), I still experienced some things for the first time.

If you're curious how I took to these areas before (and to see other photos), you can check the links below.

Japan Trip 2018: Akihabara, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro
Japan Trip 2016: Akihabara, Shibuya, Ikebukuro, Shinjuku
Japan Trip 2014: Akihabara & Ikebukuro
Japan Trip 2014: Shibuya & Shinjuku

AKIHABARA

DAYS SPENT: 2.5

OVERALL THOUGHTS: I was afraid that Akihabara had become a sad place with the closures of several big arcade buildings during the pandemic. But there were still lots of hustle and bustle. There were still a lot of maid cafes and shops. But most importantly -- there were still lots of other arcade buildings around. The nerdom is still there. <3

PLACES VISITED:

Volks Akihabara Hobby Paradise 2

I suspect I visited this place on a past trip. Part of the floor layout looked very familiar. It's a huge shop with multiple floors selling various anime goods. Keep an eye on your wallet! :)

So much Fate/Grand Order merchandise... the Arjuna Alter and Abigail Williams key chains were calling for me so badly, hahaha.

An exhibition of some custom gunpla (gunpla that is built using multiple gunpla kits).

I like this custom gunpla a lot. This tells me that the fighting is over and peaceful days is here.

I think these figures are hand painted. It's quite nice if they are!

One neat thing about this store is that there is a section on the first floor displaying many second-hand figures and goods for sale. Based off of observing this section, individuals can rent out a space and fill that space with things they would like to sell off. I think it's a very cool idea! Something to keep in mind is that some of the prices can vary so be sure to shop around.

A shot of some second-hand figures and goods for sale.

A bunch of Monster Hunter figures. Some are quite pricey!

Hobby-Off

Hobby-Off seems to be in line with Book-Offs, but selling other things like used figures and... other things (I only paid attention to the figures). The prices tend to be very cheap, so definitely check them if you get the chance :)

"Partial Crane Game Shop" (RE-VISIT)

I came back to this place just to see if it still existed. Part of this shop carries crane game prizes while the other part carries regular merchandise. From all my wanderings, the pricing on the crane game prizes was cheapest here. It's located under a bridge.

Ameyoko Market

I think I wandered through here on past trips but didn't know what it was called. It also seems to be on the border of Ueno and Akihabara. Ameyoko Market is a long street full of different shops, selling various snacks, goods, and seafood. There are also some food stands selling alcohol and dishes, with some plastic tables for you to dine at. My boyfriend said it was very reminiscent of some of the street markets in Vietnam.

OTHER PHOTOS:

A vending machine for bugs... Eeeeek! I understand that bugs can be edible, but I don't think I'd ever try them myself willingly. O_O

Imagine walking by and being greeted by that! Is somebody wearing it? I stayed away >_>

Some not safe for work gachapons. I did not get any.

A huge tonberry plushie costing almost 20000 yen. I do love tonberrys but... that's too pricey.

GiGO is now the big arcade building around Akihabara. Some other big arcades exist, too.

My boyfriend stopped here to get some ice cream. He said it was very good.

It's nice to see that iDOLM@STER is still alive.

Another shot of iDOLM@STER (and Uma Musume in the background).

A crane game for some yummy gummies.

A crane game for shrimp tempura plushies. They look sooo cute and delicious!!

Some virtual character singing Zone's "Secret Base". I recognized the song right away but couldn't remember the song title. I had to listen through my old song collection to find it. She's not too bad. You may need to turn the volume up.

SHIBUYA

DAYS SPENT: 2

OVERALL THOUGHTS: I mainly came to Shibuya to do the same thing I've done in past trips -- go karaoking! I'm sure it's still the fashion hotspot but I didn't check any of it while there.

PLACES VISITED:

Ikea

Checking this out was on a whim. If you've ever been to an Ikea before, it is a furniture store with various room layout concepts. I was curious what kind of room layout concepts there would be for a home in Japan. Unfortunately, the store itself was fairly small so there were only a few room layout concepts.

There was a really nice eating area (my boyfriend got a meal for himself while I got some fizzy fruit drink).

The layout for one room.

The Ikea eating area.

The seating area. It looks pretty chill.

Pachinko

A pachinko parlor mascot has spotted me!

In all my trips to Japan, I avoided pachinko parlors. My impressions were: loud, full of cigarette smoke, and possibly sketchy/dangerous. I got exposed to pachinko machines in Yakuza 4 and I had no idea how they worked. My boyfriend really wanted to try it out, though, so we did.

When we stepped into a pachinko parlor for the first time, we were very lost. There were rows and rows of machines, but no information desk anywhere that we saw. There were some staff walking around but we felt shy to ask for help. We ended up going to the 2nd floor which was very empty and sitting by a couple machines while my boyfriend looked up a video on how to play (the video below).

Pachinko machines are more or less flashy slot machines. Once you exchange money for some balls, you will twist a knob to shoot some of the balls into the machine. The aim is to get the ball to go through a certain hole to start up the roulette with some flashy animations. Sometimes you may need to press a button during the animations but most times the roulette will run and stop automatically. If the numbers match you win some balls (different from the balls you use). When you're done playing, if you had any wins you'd take those balls to exchange for prizes.

A few things to be mindful of:

-Many parlors allow for indoor smoking. We walked out of several parlors as soon I smelled cigarette smoke, but stayed at ones that had designated smoking areas and the machines we used were far away enough from the smoke.

-If you see a machine with a bunch of balls already, it means somebody has already claimed that machine and are likely taking a smoke break. Please respect the etiquette and use another machine (also don't steal their balls).

-Even though Japan considers pachinko as a form of entertainment more than gambling, pachinko is very much gambling! You spend money for a chance to win more money. So, please play responsibly if you ever decide to play pachinko yourself. My boyfriend and I spent a total of 5000 yen, and won nothing.

"The best Pachinko guide ever ( simple version)" by Marunouchi Broadway.
This gives a quick overview of how to start playing a pachinko machine.

Also check out the first comment to this Reddit thread for a funny pachinko story (please keep in mind that this is an anomaly, not the norm! Do not try pachinko with expectations this would happen to you, too!):

https://www.reddit.com/r/Kyoto/comments/11zefyx/does_anyone_know_how_to_play_pachinko/

The start of the pachinko journey for my boyfriend.

Some flashy animations.

Now it's my turn to play -- with a Black Lagoon machine.

Some flashy animations.

Karaoke-kan (RE-VISIT)

My boyfriend and I went to Karaoke-kan three times this trip (well -- more like we went twice and I "dragged" him for the third time).

The first time we went, it was at a location in Osaka close to Dotonbori. Compared to my favourite location in Shibuya, the Shibuya location won out. The Osaka location did have a good selection of songs, but some of the songs I wanted to sing were shortened versions, which left me woefully unprepared when I sang them again in the Shibuya location.

To this day I still don't fully understand the karaoke rates when I look at the pricing but the general understanding is that early time for certain weekdays tend to have the best rates, but you have to order at least one drink. There also seems to be flat rates for certain time periods (called "free hour" or something) so that could be more worth it depending on how long you plan to karaoke for. All three times the employee would show you the cost per person for the session so you know beforehand how much you'd be paying. At the Osaka location we took the flat rate 'cuz it came with a free self-serve drinking station. For the Shibuya location we took the regular rate for that day.

Same as last time, when you enter there is a sign-in sheet to fill out. Just to mention again, the details to fill out are: name, age, gender... and either # of hours that will be spent karaoking or # of ppl in the room (I don't remember).

The vast song selection always amazes me. Even though it doesn't have everything I want to sing (some songs I want to sing are really, really obscure), I always find some nice surprises. There were some songs from Persona 5 and even the opening song to Persona Q! I also found some English songs not available in some karaoke places in North America. I mainly sang songs from Man With a Mission, Ellegarden, the Yakuza video game series (where's "Friday Night"?! D:), the Persona video game series (where's "Rivers in the Desert"?! D:), and the 86 anime series (where's "Voices of the Chord"?! D:).

Partway through the third session, my boyfriend was playing around with the settings and accidentally turned on ranking mode. For the rest of the songs, the top half of the video showed notes on bar lines. As you sang, the video would show how accurately you hit the notes and then a score would be given at the end.

Close to the end of the third session, I found a section that listed only video game and anime songs. I scrolled through the hundreds of songs and found a bunch from iDOLM@STER and... Project Sekai (one of the phone games I currently play)!! My eyeballs went O_O! but I was not at all prepared to sing anything from there. I would have loved to sing airhead or Close to Gray or... something. >w<!!

The last time I karaoked in Japan, I experienced a warm room and thought it was a sneaky tactic to get me to order more drinks. I now realize that the air conditioning was turned off... I'm sorry to Karaoke-kan for jumping to the wrong conclusion! *bows* You can turn on the air conditioning in a room and adjust the temperature if needed.

My total cost (room rate + drink) for three hours was about 1948 yen per person. It's higher than last time, but it's still cheaper than karaoke rates in Toronto.

A pic of a song with ranking turned on. Do you recognize the song? :)

Below are a few songs I sung (not very well):

Me singing "Akatsuki" by Man With a Mission. It's one of my favourite songs from Man With a Mission and I didn't want to miss the chance to sing it. :) The screen is black so click "Play" and do something else. You may need to click "Play" twice and turn the volume up.

The song is in Japanese.

Me singing "Avid", an ending theme for 86. I really hope "Voices of the Chord" gets added for next time! This song is in Japanese.

Me singing "Experience Pearls" from Ace of Base. I was surprised this song was even available. I thought it one of their lesser-known songs. I was happy to sing it! Now if only "Angel Eyes" was available I'd be super duper happy! XD

This song is in English.

OTHER PHOTOS:

It was interesting to see Harry Potter in anime form.

A food stall selling spam musubi. My boyfriend got one and enjoyed it.

Hachiko is still here. There was a line-up to take a selfie with it.

Godiva sells other things than chocolate :)

IKEBUKURO

DAYS SPENT: 1

OVERALL THOUGHTS: I still haven't checked out the Otomate building. I was originally going to pass on this area, but a certain pop-up cafe forced my hand -- or rather, forced my schedule :)

Overall, it wasn't a waste to re-visit.

PLACES VISITED:

Toho Cinemas

We didn't actually watch a movie in Japan... but we did check out the lobby. From what I saw, the concessions were priced pretty decently! I don't remember how much a movie ticket would cost. A couple North American movies were being shown in English with Japanese subtitles, but I didn't have any interest in watching them. Maybe next time :)

A bunch of sweets you can load up on at one corner of the theater.

A weighing scale so you can weigh your sweets.

Movies that were currently playing.

Sunshine City (RE-VISIT)

Despite being largely the same, there were some differences since my last visit. J-World is no longer there. The Mugiwara Store is new (or was it always there and I never noticed?). Finally -- it's still a nice place to walk around and shop :)

The Pokemon Center! There were less plushies on the walls and I barely recognized the pokemons. Am I outgrowing them???

I am so happy that the Mugiwara Store still exists. I was afraid it closed down when One Piece Tokyo Tower closed down (RIP).

One Piece t-shirts -- blind box style!... >_>

I'll have to try this sometime.

The menu.

Animate (RE-VISIT)

Animate is still Animate. It's a store selling certain anime and video game merchandise and tends to target the female audience. It used to have a large DVD and CD section but that's been reduced quite a bit. All-in-all, it's still worth a visit to see what's still there.

There was a small Shin Megami Tensei / Persona section but... with how pricey some of the goods were, I kinda feel like Shin Megami Tensei / Persona might be seen more as a brand these days instead of a series to appreciate. :(