We started our day today by going to the Edo Tokyo Museum. This museum had a section on kufe during the Edo Period and a section on Tokyo as well. There was a re-creation of the Nihon Bashi (Japanese bridge) as well as several installation pieces that showed how families lived during the time period. We had a nice tourguide who showed us around the different exhibits. I haven't seen lots of Americans in Tokyo yet. Most people I've seen are either British of German.
After the museum we went to Akihabara which is Tokyo's famous electronics town. It's basically tons and tons of stalls of electronics vendors. They sell everything there from MP3 players to videogames to electronic Japanese dictionaries. The prices aren't any cheaper than the U.S. - if anything, things are more expensive. It is terribly crowded there and going in the small shops can get very claustrophobic. There are girls dressed in maid costumes on the street that hand out tissue packets with advertisements on them.
There are also lots of toy shops that sell rediculously priced figures and dolls. Most are from anime that I don't know. There are also some American characters like Spiderman and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
I tried to get a Japanese cell phone plan but I need to get my alien registration card first in order to do that. I'll have to wait till I get to Kyoto. Also, the sheer act of trying to understand the salesman's pitch was a struggle. The phones are super neat though.
Later in the day we went to the Sony Building in Ginza (a section of Tokyo that has the highest cost of living in the world). The building has electronics showrooms and a duty free store. I bought my white Playstation Portable (PSP). After many misunderstandings, it turns out that the PSP I bought CAN play both American and Japanese games.
Later that night I returned to Akihabara with Roger and bought some PSP games and movies. I also went in a six floor porn store that had floors labeled "maniac" and "super maniac." You could buy a 2 - 3 pound bag of used panties, but I passed.
B.E.W.
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