In the morning Kyle had a few errands to run which he
expected would take most of the day. That provided me with the perfect
opportunity to make a trip to Akihabara.
From the forecast, I could see it was going to be a
particularly hot day. Never one to let little things like heatstroke, sunburn
or dehydration get in the way of buying anime merchandise, I shrugged off the
alarmingly high temperatures and started to make plans.
My first order of business before heading out was my daily
source of caffeine. Simply put, getting a can of coffee from the nearby vending
machine. In the kind of weather we were experiencing, a nice cool can of milky
coffee was much more refreshing than the usual (hot) black coffee I would drink
in the UK.
With my caffeine reserves replenished, I left the apartment
to catch the train to Akihabara (two trains, to be precise). As I approached
the station, I could feel the heat start to hit me. Between the heat and the
brightness I was feeling glad that I’d remembered my hat and applied some sun
block beforehand (those who know me will know that there’s a risk I’ll burst in
to flames if left in direct sunlight).
As expected, there had been a few changes in Akihabara since
I’d last been there. One of the new additions (near to the JR station and UDX
building) was a small garden. It was quite refreshing to see something so
peaceful and traditional looking in such a modern part of Tokyo.
I wandered around I started to notice a growing rumbling
sound. I initially feared an earthquake was starting; however, it didn’t take
long to realize it was my stomach. Clearly, it was time for lunch. There was a
curry restaurant that Kyle and I had been to previously that Kyle suggested I
go to. I had no idea where the restaurant was, all I remembered was that the
restaurant had wooden walls and offered something called “homerun curry”.
Despite not knowing the name of the restaurant or where it was, I successfully
located it – Great navigational skills, eh? Who am I kidding, it was luck.
While looking for a vending machine, I happened to stumble across it.
 |
| Homerun Curry |
With lunch out of the way, it was time to get back to the main
task of the day – adding more anime figures to the collection. The two I
decided on were Black Hanekawa (from Bakemonogatari) and Sheryl Nome (from
Macross Frontier).
With some figures and a few other assorted bits and pieces
(I wasn’t buying Ecchi manga, honest!), it was time to head back. Kyle and I
were starting to get hungry this point so we decided to go out for food, seeing
as we were keen to avoid our stomachs setting off seismic sensors.
We noticed a sukiyaki restaurant that Kyle hadn’t been to
before, it looked worth a try. The sukiyaki was quite similar to yakiniku but
included a stew that was cooked at the table (on a small gas burner).
The meal was enjoyable, however, there was a little surprise
in store. It turned out that we had made a slight miscalculation when ordering,
the meal turned out to be a little more expensive than we were expecting. Oops.
After getting back to the apartment, our plan to spend the
evening relaxing was interrupted by something scuttling across the floor - a
rather large insect. Being from the UK, I wasn’t used to seeing large insects
so found it a little unnerving. This reaction paled in comparison to Kyle, who
appeared to be having a panic attack. The insect appeared to have gone under
the sofa, given that I would he sleeping on a futon on the floor, I knew there
was no way I’d get a decent night’s sleep while it was still in the apartment. Due
to Kyle’s earlier reaction, responsibility for eradicating the aforementioned
pest (the insect, not Kyle) fell to me.
Armed with a promotional fan from Mr Abe and with Kyle
following close by, it soon became apparent that we were in a low budget remake
of Alien.
Almost an hour was spent stalking the critter. Most of the
time was spent in an eerie silence, punctuated only by the occasional shriek
from Kyle and plastic bottle being thrown at some source of movement.
Eventually we got lucky and I gave it a few blasts of the fly spray, with the
bug dazed and confused I sprung in to action with the fan and brought it down
on the insect. I’m sure Ripley and co. would have been proud!
The fact that a promotional fan from a dental clinic was the
last thing the… whatever it was saw added a somewhat ludicrous quality to the
events.
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| My nemesis! I can't work out if this was more like Alien or Terraformars |
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