Day 3: Akihabara, Ueno: Ameyoko Market (Hate!), Roppongi Hills (JUly 14)

"Grr!, I hate rain!" grimaced one irritated Mango. The nice breezy weather the day before left without a trace and was replaced with nearly thundering rain-storm it seems. Which is exactly why our professor, Jayson insisted that we stop by the local 7-11 store to buy some cheap 400 yen umbrellas ( that were so cool looking!!). At 7-11 I bought my awesome clear-umbrella and I never wanted to part from it ever. After getting our carcasses together, we made our way to the Shinagawa station to head of to the land of Otakudom, Akihabara, well more like the electronic headquarters of Tokyo.

Here, at Akihabara with the heavy rain still dampening our spirits, Judy-chan and I ventured off from the group to the Yodobashi, the biggest electronics store in Akihabara so she can buy some souvenirs for her friends and family. In particular, her brother's Naruto game and her friend, a DS. Whereas, after helping her find what she needed I wandered off to the gashopon ( instant gumball-like machines that spurt out toys and models instead) section hoping to pick up some Mai-HIME models for my guy friends back in Hawaii. I gave up that endeavor as soon as I ran out of loose change, after getting one gashopon model. Wandering aimlessly, I found the CDs and DVDs section, and spent a better half of my yen on CDs there. It was also there that I found the not-so-hidden Hentai-room, and well leave it at that. Readers are wondering: Did Mango go inside? The answer: "Ask Judy-chan."
By the time we got out of Yodobashi, we only had less than an hour left to do stuff, so we walked back the way of the station and found our very first 100-yen store (Mango and Judy-Chan does the Indian victory-dance, literally). At the 100-yen store, I dashed to the umbrella stand in hopes that they have the off-white umbrella I was looking for and they did. Another win for Mango as she walked out with the purchase in hand. Right next to the 100-yen store, was McDonalds' and at first Judy-Chan and I were hesitant to walk in since Jayson gave us fair warning that fast food restaurants in Japan permits smoking. With cautious steps, we made our way in and to to our surprise for some reason this particular McDonald Akihabara branch was rather clear of smoke. It was decided then that we would have our brief lunch at McDs to enjoy an ebi (shrimp) burger, which I swear by Buddha out there probably one of the most awesome McDonald concoction I have ever tasted. For me, this burger could stand in the first place ranks of the glorious McGriddles I adore.
With time still to spare we figured to experience Akihabara= maid cafes or butler cafes, means that we definitely need to check out one. A little bit out of the way of the major attractions, we got to the maid cafe that allows picture-taking recommended by Jayson. I believe that little quaint maid-cafe was called Hiyokoya (translated: chicks' place). I think Judy-Chan and I can testify and admit that we both had the pangs of the "Moe-syndrome". I think I gushed like-some otome(female version of otaku) -pervert when I got through the door. If Judy and I were some manga or anime character, our characters would have sparkling-eyes and our minds and body would be overwhelmed with this uplifting-feeling while in the background of the frame there will be in big, bold-font *Moe* gurgling out of us. The cafe's shelves were stocked full of cute, cuddly chicks, teddy bears-galore. I felt like I was in some Mother Goose' nursery. The walls were plastered with cute maid drawings and there was also a spot where regulars' kept their wine bottles, so that when they visit the cafe, they will drink from that. We were soon to be joined by Roxanne and Skye as we shared a light dessert of coffee and ice cream parfait ( we did not know what else to order). While we waited for our food, I asked the maid-tress [sidenote: Get it? a maid-waitress is a maid-tress..LOL] (the only one working that day..I wished there was more) if I can take pictures of her. The milky-skinned maid was just so pristine and innocent that I felt like I was some dirty photographer taking pictures of her for *Not-Safe-For-Work-Material*. But I was mentally prepared because those pictures were per request from my guy friends back home. Man, the things I do for them ::glare::

After what seem to be a very brief stay at Akihabara we head off to Ueno. And by the curses of the Buddha I hated Ueno's Ameyoko Market. To make it a long story short, it was still raining heavily, and shopkeepers started shouting at me. One shopkeeper shouted at me because water from my umbrella dripped on his merchandise. I apologized and held my umbrella back right when he pointed this to me, but I still think he was very angry because of seemingly-display of insolence. After that little incident, I had another bout of bad luck. While we were making out way to the meet up with the group, so we could head out to Roppongi together, I decided that I really needed souvenirs for family and friends and what better way than here at Ueno where they sell various snacks!. So, Judy-chan came with me to the last snack stand and apparently one of the owners was trying to bargain with me. The problem was I wanted to take my time to look and they were getting on my nerves, so I just said "'mite mite'= Look, Look at me" when it was lack for a better word trying to say, "wait a minute, I am looking around." Because of my word fart, we were chased away maybe because they think we were strange. For all they know, they must of thought I escaped from a mental hospital nearby as they waved us off saying " Bye-Bye" with such contempt. I was just furiously embarrassed that I thought for the longest time that I was saying the right Japanese phrase at the appropriate time, how wrong I was. That good grade that I earned ages ago in Japanese seemed like a bogus now. I repeat, I will hate Ueno from now on, just too many bad memories.

Our next stop, the pricey yet sophisticated Roppongi Hills which is nearly the Japan's counterpart of America's Beverly Hills. Beverly Hills is more glam while Roppongi Hills goes beyond and ventures into high-technological development and depth in their artistic structures. The first thing we did as a group was to take the tour of Roppongi which was for the most part very informal as our English-speaking tour guide pointed out to us various structures and buildings that had great significances in their titles and the famous masterminds behind them. Some structures that really left me with the greatest impressions in the tour was the spider structure right outside the Roppongi shopping mall, " Monmo(sp?)" to symbolize that Japan will continue to expand technology and innovations into the far horizons of the future and to be an icon of the web that communication-on the international level is what powers Japan's success. Another structure that the tour-guide pointed out was the fish pond that contained the "fish in space". I thought what a peculiar name for a pond that was but upon further reading of the sign, the fish in the pond were the first species of fish born in space and were brought back to Earth and now currently, residing in that pond. This exotic fish pond was clearly an 'jaw-dropper'. After the tour, Judy-Chan and I decided to check out the shopping mall but after going into one clothing store and seeing that the on-sale items were still several thousand yen too much for us to afford, we just high-tailed our way out of there.
Our feet were so sore that all we did was settle down on a table at the basement of the mall and just unhinged ourselves until the time came when we had to meet up with the group again.

Judy-chan, Ron-Chan, and I decided to go back directly to Akihabara to find the Radio Kaikan and hit other spots that we were not able to find or check out previously. Once again at Akihabara it was raining cats and dogs which fueled our annoyance and temper at the whole situation. The fact that we got lost and Judy-chan was getting sick that we had to back out from our quest and just settled down for a quiet dinner of tempura at a restaurant in the heart of Akihabara. After that I left with a heavy heart as we boarded a subway train back to Shinagawa, so we call all get a good nights sleep. I just never got to buy any NANA-related merchandises among other 'otaku-must-haves'. ::cries::