I spent part of the day in Akihabara today - the mecca for all things video game, anime and geek. We’re talking serious business here. If you’re a geek for either games, electronics or anime, or all three, then Akihabara is where you want to die - cos you won’t wait long to go to heaven.

I’d been to Aki a few times before, but only quickly and to grab some bits for the house. Electronics wise the place is amazing. The main part of town is dubbed Electric Avenue - and quite rightly so, alongside multi-storey buildings offering everything and anything are little stalls selling their wares, and all next to each other in an area no bigger than Camden town. It’s total crazyness and as much of a sensory overload as Shibuya, but for entirely different reasons.

Akihabara is not all electronics though - it’s also gaming heaven. The biggest and best arcades in the country are there, with floors dedicated to one genre. It’s insane, and constantly packed as well as incredibly noisy as all the arcades boom out their respective audio. And amongst it all are countless otakus playing, including a high amount of seriously talented ones (I guess that talented part depends on where you stand when it comes to games). Alongside the arcades are tons of video game shops selling anything you can think of.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: akihabara, arcades, geeking, Tokyo, video games

The Tokyo neighbourhood of Ikebukuro is the closest to my house, about 20 mins on a train. Often referred to as pikey or a bit cheap and dirty, Ikebukuro is actually an excellent little neighbourhood, with museums, cool shops and quaint little areas. It’s also home to some of the cheapest shopping in town and a massive, and quite tacky, entertainment and shopping area called Sunshine City, named after a giant building, 60 storeys high, under which is an also giant shopping mall - both of which are called Sunshine City (though the building is called Sunshine 60 to be exact).

I’d been meaning to go to Sunshine City for a while - I normally go shopping for my smoking needs in Tokyu Hands (a mental, giant shop with a few Tokyo locations). It turns out rizlas in this country are a bit of a rarity, and to get mine I need to go to the pipe and lighter section of Tokyu Hands where rizlas are to be found being a locked glass cabinet! Anyways, Sunshine City is behind Tokyu Hands, so on a sunny day off Ella and I went off to Ikebukuro and walked around, before heading to Sunshine City.

There we went to the observatory on the 60th floor of the building - crazy little fact, the elevator to the observatory is one of the fastest in the world, taking you all the way up in about 30 odd seconds. Not a pleasant feeling though. The view from there was amazing, looking out into the vast sprawling metropolis that is Tokyo. Buildings until your eyes can’t see. Skyscrapers blending with houses, parks, towers and more. An amazing view of Tokyo, as you can walk all the way round the floor, seeing everything and realising that Tokyo really is friggin huge. London’s got nothing compared to this. It’s also a little dizzying - I don’t suffer from vertigo that I know of, but I didn’t feel too good after a little while.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: ikebukuro, pictures, Tokyo

Ah the pleasures of a bike ride. So simple and enjoyable.

Since getting a bike, I’ve never felt so happy to get out and do things - even if it’s just picking up my laundry at the dry cleaners (recognise - I never used one in my life until I realised the ones in Japan are cheaper than buying alcohol for the night). Not only is the bike bringing me enjoyment, it’s also keeping me a little healthy - something I regularly combat by smoking while I ride. But hey, my legs are a lot more toned you know? :lol:

Shortly after getting the bike, Ella and I set off on regular trips in the area around Kiyose, realising the wealth of attractions within a short ride from our house. We might be leaving in ‘bandit country’ as my mate said, surrounded by vegetable patches and houses, but there’s still a lot to do and see. Something which never ceases to amaze me - we’re still in Tokyo (though our borough is on the border with the next prefecture) but we’re actually in the countryside, and able to enjoy the best of both worlds. City conveniences, and countryside relaxation and sights. Perfect.

A little while ago I bought an atlas of tokyo and the surrounding areas, which came in really handy when we set off on our trips, looking for things to check out and see. One of the things my friend pointed out to me after I got the atlas was that there were two lakes not too far from us (about 15km) and I soon made it one of my missions to arrange a bike trip to the lakes. Luckily, though I didn’t know it at the time, we kept putting it off until this weekend, the beginning of the Golden Week holiday (a week long Japanese national holiday).

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written by Laurent \\ tags: cycling, pictures, saitama, Tokyo, travelling