The main event I had planned for day 3 was a long awaited shopping session a Akihabara, the electric town, also known as the paradise of otaku. I didn't plan on buying a lot of stuff though, as I was going to end what I bought overseas to my home since I didn't want to carry a lot of stuff with me (plus I knew I was going to buy figures anyway).
The first thing was to get money, so I headed toward the nearest post station conveniently located 5 min on foot from my hotel, but I was 10 min earlier before the opening hours, so I killed some time by drinking some hot milk tea in a can (I'm unfortunately starting to love those canned format) and petting a Shiba Inu that was waiting just beside the machine. Not only vending machines are everywhere in Japan, but they also sell almost everything and as for drinks, you can have cold or hot drinks in the same machine, which is simply great especially at 8h50 during a cold morning.
Once the post office had opened and I withdrawn 20,000 Yen, I took off for Akiba. This was also my first use of my JR Rail Pass that I activated the day before, so no need to say I took the JR Yamanote instead of the metro. It was still quite quiet in Akiba when I arrived; the streets weren't packed, no maids handing you papers on the street and all the stores weren't open, but I wasn'T in a hurry so I just took my time visiting the place. First stop was the Kotobukiya store located just in front of the station. All those figures made me wish I had much more money than I did and the life sized -sold out- Kenshiro was the manliest thing I have ever seen so far. Didn't bought anything at first as I wanted to have a look around since it's pretty easy to pay less if you're careful about where you shop. I had the chance to see the yet to be released Monster Hunter Rathalos figure which was simply amazing for the price it had (around 7000 yen I think), but unfortunately it was on pre-order for Japanese resident only.
Animate was next. Now, there wasn't much things I wanted there, as Animate tends to be slightly overpriced, not to mention the insane price tags of Japanese media (DVD, Blu-Rays, CD, and so on), but I knew I wanted to buy the latest Berserk manga; not that I can fully read it, but for the new anime announcement the volume had. If you can understant Japanese, buying manga in Japan is truly a steal. I usually pay 16$ plus tax for a new Berserk volume, but I paid that one only 520 yen, which is like 6.50$.
The next on my list was Figure Hobby Shop, but it was closed at the moment, so I went off visiting SPOT a small shop excluded from the main street, but with considerably lower prices. Beside some obviously cheaper K-ON figures and an interesting P.O.P. Edition One Piece pack, nothing picked my interest. Time to go back to the main street where the maids were starting to go out and the crowd was growing. Figure Hobby Shop was now open so I made my way there first. The figures display were amazing and I took my time to check out each floor (except maybe the Gundam floor, which I'm not a particular fan of). Found a pretty sweet Senjouhagara figure from Bakemonogatari (not thr Good Smile Co. though) and while turning around to head for the counter, I saw that wonderful Alicia figure from Aria, figure that was discontinued a long time ago and can sell up to 300$ on Ebay... and it was 9500 yen (100$) just in front of me. Bought it by reflex along with the Senjouhagara one.
As I made my way toward the station, I made a last stop at the Kotobukiya store and to my great surprise bought the Good Smile Co. Black Rock Shooter figure. The thing is that I don't even like BRS (I tend to hate unjustified hype in general), but I must say its craftsmanship made it pretty attractive.
Back in Ueno, it was time to ship those babies back in Canada by EMS, which was rater expensive, but I did not want to take any chances.
The rest of my day was pretty dull to write about although it was relaxing and fun; hanged around Ueno Park and visited the Zoo over there. Also the staff guy at the restaurant I went seemed pretty proud to talk to me in a good English. I finished my fay by shopping in a 100yen store to find some laundry soap... and it took longer than expected. I almost ended up buying some toilet cleaner instead ! After buying something that looked like laundry soap (it was), returned at the hotel and enjoyed a good sashimi meal at the traditional Japanese restaurant just beside my hotel.
That was the end of my first journey in Tokyo as I was leaving for Zao Onsen the day after.
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