NEON & PRAYER

Asakusa (浅草) and Akihabara (秋葉原) are physically less than a 15min ride apart on the subway but two entirely different atmospheres and potentially time periods as well. Somewhat unexpectedly, I didn't end up taking too many photos in the sea of visitors in Sensoji and neither in Akihabara - perhaps it was camera weariness, perhaps it was buying a gigantic weekender bag on bargain and hence feeling weird enough lugging it around or perhaps it was simply wishing to experience the moment.

Go figure. 

Asakusa's Sensoji was tourist central and very crowded because we went on Saturday.

Food and snacks are surprisingly not that expensive and you walk through the main path up to the temple to the smells of various street foods intermingled with the glint of racks upon racks of keychains, fans and lacquered chopsticks that make up your typical Japanese omiyage. It's a really good place for foreigners because they all expect you to be foreign anyway so there are English translations everywhere. Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take photos inside most of the stalls

Akiba was an area of Tokyo filled with imposingly tall buildings, but surprisingly more quiet than expected at night time. I have to admit it was slightly underwhelming - perhaps a place to be visited on weekends when the cosplayers are out in full regalia?

At night, there is honestly not much to photograph, beyond billboarded skyscrapers and the fluorescent-lit insides of electronics giants like Yodobashi Camera.

I did go a little wild in the Gashapon machines in Yodobashi but there were fewer machines than I remembered from my last visit. They do make great novelty presents, probably at a lower price than the trinkets you might buy from other omiyage stores - I would highly recommend it for children or friends who appreciate a good Running Daikon keychain.

We wanted to go to a maid cafe but it was a pricey 3000yen per head, for what looked to be standard 'Japanese-Western' food.

So we settled for taking sticker photos in freely provided maid, Suzumiya Haruhi and Akatsuki cosplay in one of the shopping malls - I wish I could remember the name because they had an amazing set of barely-worn cosplay costumes to play with. 

It's exactly as fun as it sounds (:

(☞ﾟ∀ﾟ)☞ JAPAN 2013 MASTERPOST