Electric Town — Akihabara! |
Capsule Hotel in Tokyo |
By Brian Hon
The first stop when we departed the train for these areas were to put our huge baggage somewhere; lockers. Once everyone's things were safely away, it was off to the capsule hotel, to drop off our few pieces of clothing that we had for the next day.
The hotel lobby was nice enough, though small. We paid for our room, then, after exchanging our shoes for slippers, got our capsule locker key. The capsule itself wasn't even locked. There was a futon, the very small locker, a pay-by-the-hour TV, and the blankets. That was it, along with barely enough space to maneuver. After locking up our stuff, it was off to Asakusa.
Asakusa, which was a shopping area, which sold more traditional things. It was very nice, especially since the main street was shaded from the hot afternoon sun. It was crowded, and was packed with many cramped shops. I bought very little, since everything was pretty expensive. Well, after everyone got his or her fill of tradition shopping, we were going to the other extreme; Akihabara, or Electric City.
An old student of sensei's joined us there, named Jenny. She went on the trip with sensei five years ago, and had been living in Japan for about a year now.
Akihabara was very bright; lit like a Christmas tree in the darkness. I wanted to find two things: a CD from a Japanese group called Mongol 800, and some ear buds. After much searching, and direction asking on Jenny's part, I did find both. The stores in Electric City were very narrow, but stacked up at least five stories, if not more, all packed with as many electronic things as they could fit.
After Akihabara, we had our group-only party, as a final, fun, group thing to do.
Isakaiya was the restaurant where the party took place. It is a nice place. We had food come at various times throughout the time we were there. There was all-you-could-drink as well, so nobody ever went thirsty. All in all, it was a really fun time.
Exhausted from the party, everyone slumped back to the capsule hotel, crawled into their capsules, and fitfully slept.