The funnest ever

I have not been as tired as I am right now since the plane ride over here.  We went to a LOT of things in Tokyo.  Here are the ones I remembered to photograph.

This is just Ikebukuro.  After seeing a lot of pictures where the sky is not visible, Japan sort of starts to look like an old movie set -- it's enclosed, it's often cramped, and there are fantastic things that don't exist anywhere else.

We went to Namja Town, which is an indoor amusement thing run by Namco.  We mostly went for the haunted house, but there are other things like an ice cream land and some kind of magical gyouza adventure.  Also, they apparently had a cat photograph contest, and it was awesome.

At the Animate in Ikebukuro, I found this.  It's Yousei Teikoku CDs in their natural habitat.  Speaking from the point of view of a fan that has to import everything they make, seeing multiple copies of several different CDs all at once was mildly euphoric.

I took a picture of this road because it is where we spent some of our Tokyo free day when we were last here in 2006.  The music store in the basement of the left-most building had not changed a bit; the people behind the counter were the same and everything.

Akihabara was next.  LOOK, IT'S THE AKB48 CAFE.  I pretty much had to take a picture, because they have a WHOLE CAFE based on their group.  That will never, ever happen in America.  Also, because there are so many members of the group, and because there seemed to be a special event going on here today, there is a small chance that these girls in the window may be actual members.  I don't know the group well enough to be sure.

This was a life-sized cutout of Rider from Fate/Zero.  It was so inspiring that I wanted to cry, but so manly that I didn't.  Fate/Zero is the best.

Here is Akihabara being bright and shiny and such.  Just before this was taken, Wesley and I had the most interesting dinner of our lives, because we had it at a maid cafe.  Maid cafes are an exclusively Japanese thing that try and stretch the limits of cuteness as far as they possibly can.  Essentially, all the wait staff are girls in maid outfits, and between serving drinks and food they do adorable things like talk with puppets or dance.  It's really, really bizarre.  The point at which I realized  how hilarious it all was was when I called one of the maids over to ask for a dessert, and she replied with "はいにゃ～", which doesn't translate very well but literally means "Yes meooww".  Like a cat.  I laughed so hard.  They also sell photographs of all their staff members, and I was going to get one to commemorate the occasion, but they were all out of the one I wanted (her name was Misa and she looks like this: http://stat.ameba.jp/user_images/20120323/10/misamisa-m-d-m/1c/58/j/o0480064311868891117.jpg).  I had omelette rice, atop which our server drew a smiling panda with ketchup, and a pancake that looked like a happy tiger.  I think you get the idea by now.  Astoundingly, the food was actually really, really good, and not all that expensive considering you're paying as much for the experience as you are for the food.

This is the entrance to the street where (my) dreams are made, Takeshita.  Unfortunately, by the time we got there everything was closing.  Yellow House (where I got my bird ring six years ago) was still open, and the same tremendously pushy old lady was still there, being pushy and speaking English.  She makes me uncomfortable, but she has met and designed clothes for every important Japanese band of a certain type, so I need to talk to her anyway.  Also it had started raining, so that was kind of bad, too.

I bought this in Akihabara.  It's the CD containing the opening theme to my favorite anime ever, Sister Princess.  It's actually a really horrible show, what with all the low-quality artwork and the minimal amount of plot, but the setting is nice and peaceful and it helps me sleep at night.  The opening theme, however, is a wonderful classic of anime theme song-ery that everyone needs to hear at least once.  Seeing two of these on the shelf practically sent me into convulsions.

Today was a bit hectic because we were trying to get to as many places as we could, and that was after we had school until around 12:20.  In the future, Tokyo trips will likely only be to one or two places at a time, and that's okay.  Today we were just doing the touristy thing, I guess.

No school tomorrow, but my host family is having a barbecue just because they can.  The cafe employees will probably be there!  It's exciting!