My next destination would be an area that I’ve been wanting to visit in Tokyo for a long while now – Akihabara, THE LAND OF ELECTRONICS, VIDEO GAMES, AND OTHER COOL STUFF! HELL YEAH DUDE…oh man I could go off for days on how I had to make sure that I made a stop here to just take it all in – I’ve heard about Bic Camera, the ACOS Cosplay Shop, the Gundam cafe, and the Square Enix Cafe (which I’ll talk about in a bit) through you guessed it…Paolo De Guzman from Paolo from Tokyo via his Top 10 Things to DO in AKIHABARA Tokyo | WATCH BEFORE YOU GO youtube vid! – also, who can forget the well known area that is of Yodobashi Camera (the premier place to buy electronics here in Tokyo and the like); I’ve seen a myriad of youtube vids about this place, and I was just stoked to be able to check this out.
Before I took the Ginza Line from Tawaramachi Station in Asakusa to Suehirochō Station in Akihabara, I had to get a Suica Pass! While I was in the Tawaramachi Station though, I couldn’t find the machine where they spit out Suica Passes, but I did stumble upon another public transit type of Smart Card Pass they had here called Pasmo!
I even paid a bit extra ¥ to have it personalized – pretty dope! With this new Pasmo card, I can finally feel like one of the locals here! CHYEAH – reload this card with some of that ¥ and scan this card in between gates like a pro! HELL YEAH. So convenient too… AND, (and especially later on in this trip) I’m able to use this card in combinis, coffee shops, and other places! I wish we had this sort of system in the States.
Anyway, after I stepped out of the Suehirochō Station in Akihabara, I started to notice quite a number of these gachapon machines on the street – I’ve always been intrigued by these and it reminds me back to the days of my youth at my local 99 Ranch Supermarket where they would have a few of these toy vending “hand-cranking” action machines both inside and outside the place – those back then would have mini action figurines from a range of stuff such as Pokemon and Power Rangers. It’s like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get! (Quote from Forrest Gump – although, that quote is related to something more with life-meaning moreso than anticipating and feeling anxious about what surprise you’re going to get from a toy vending machine.)
First stop around this area that I went to was the ACOS Cosplay Store to check out some of their cosplay stuff (although, it took me a little bit to figure out how to get to the 5th floor of that building since the entrance to the building (along with the actual elevator to hit up the 5th floor) wasn’t as conspicuous as I thought it would be.)
Going into the store and looking at all the different types of costumes that are available to buy for cosplaying was really nice to see – it took me back to the time I went to Anime Expo back in 2005 for the first time (which was the first time I even heard about cosplaying), and I had a last minute, half-assed Ryoma Echizen cosplay (from one of my favorite sports animes of all time – “Prince of Tennis”). Even though my costume was half-assed, I felt like I was part of the overall crowd back then, and seeing how a lot of other people were cosplaying opened this new world to me of how amazing and serious costumes can be – it’s literally like dressing up for Halloween, but NEXT LEVEL.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of me in that half-assed Ryoma costume; however, I did redeem myself with a much better costume (I first started wearing my Shinsengumi outfit to dress up as part of a Halloween event for work back in 2015) in the form of one of the Shinsengumi (a special police force that was part of Japan’s Bakumatsu period in 1863 + they were featured in one of my favorite animes of all time – Rurouni Kenshin!)
Needless to say, I wasn’t interested in buying a costume to cosplay since I was just there to check it out and browse.
After I left ACOS, I went over to my next location – BIC CAMERA! HELL YEAH SON. There’s a total of 7 floors, and there was only one floor that I was interested in – THE TOP FLOOR. NUMBER 7…which had the toys, video games, and Tokyo 2020 stuff.
~ Side Note #10: For the toy section, I was interested in checking out their amiibo selection, especially since two of my friends (Darrel and Sergio – who I co-host the “Nintendo Jump Podcast” with, which by the way is a video game podcast where we talk about all things Nintendo games and sometimes other games on non-Nintendo platforms as well :D) said that there are super rare amiibo that only exist in Japan that I have the opportunity of obtaining!
For those who don’t know, amiibo are these awesome figures that are a toys-to-life platform by Nintendo – you can use them to store video game data and interact with Nintendo consoles such as the current generation Nintendo Switch! ~
Even though I was aiming to get to the top floor of BIC CAMERA, I took a bit of time just to walk around anyway and check out each and every floor (whether it be phone cases, TVs and monitors, smartphones, and even traveling gear like travel mugs!)
One thing I noticed about BIC CAMERA as an electronic store compared to other electronic stores that we have back in the states is that the lighting is so much brighter (like I’m talking like as if the sun would say that it’s too bright!), and even though it’s so bright, it’s to a level where it doesn’t really hurt my eyes. That was an initial thought that I had when I first entered the store – does anyone else feel that way? Maybe it’s just me, but I mean at this point, I’m just nitpicking.
This was what I saw right when I got to the top 7th floor of BIC CAMERA – a nice “Welcome!” Mario stand thing, along with a TV showing off the upcoming release of Pokemon Sword and Shield (I will cover that later in the blog, not this post!) This floor had your standard offerings of games (via Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft), toys, and other things of the like.
Right after some exploring, I saw this amazing wall of amiibo, including some rare Splatoon (a third-person paint-based shooter video game series on the Nintendo Platform) ones! I went back and forth on this one and other Splatoon amiibo that were here since Darrel mentioned that these sort of Splatoon amiibo are pretty rare to get and virtually impossible to get in stores in the states (unless you order online).
There is one amiibo that Sergio mentioned that I should check to see if BIC CAMERA would have it – Amiibo Cuby! This is a super rare amiibo (oh my goodness, it’s $245 on amazon from when I hyperlinked it) that is only sold/made in Japan.
When I went over to ask a BIC CAMERA employee (in Japanese too! since I wanted to practice beyond my very limited/basic Japanese) about the availability of the Amiibo Cuby, he immediately answered me in English and said something along the lines of “One second, let me check.”
Sighhhhhhhh… even when I try to speak Japanese here, it’s not enough with certain people here that I speak Japanese to in order to receive a response back in Japanese (even if I don’t understand a lot of what they’re saying haha). It’s probably my beginner Japanese accent… don’t get me wrong, I’m not offended or anything – I just think it’s interesting that the gentleman that I spoke to inquiring about the super rare amiibo in Japanese could tell right away that I’m not from around the area and that using English would be a much better way of communicating. They can definitely sniff me out so well – I guess this is a good cue to try to get better and practice speaking more Japanese while I’m here 😀
Unfortunately, the employee said that they don’t carry that kind of amiibo anymore – oh well no worries! It wasn’t a must for me to get a rare amiibo here anyway, but I was just curious. I ended up not getting anything in this BIC CAMERA Akihabara location, which is totally fine because it’s just nice to browse around and check out the electronics store anyway. Even though it could just be a “standard” electronics store to many people who live in Japan, to me it’s always refreshing to checkout stores outside of where I live in general because I think there’s that sort of carefree, exciting adventure that I feel where maybe I’ll come across something that I normally would find unless it were overseas. This also applies not only to electronic stores, but also food as well (which you’ve probably already and will notice throughout this travel blog).
After I left BIC CAMERA, I walked about 5 minutes to get to my next stop – you’ve heard of it, you know it! YODABASHI CAMERA!!! YESSSSSSS. finally. Before I get into the store itself, I happened to see a certain video game themed cafe that piqued my interest immediately…
BOOM. SQUARE ENIX CAFE…like dayeummm, this is actually a thing! I had to stop by before I entered the Yodobashi Camera Akiba store!
I wasn’t surprised that there was a line for the cafe, especially hearing about how cool this cafe is! I mean, my love of final fantasy just spills out and I just wanted to just be here.
I went inside to inquire on how to get a seat in the cafe, and after waiting for a couple minutes (to let the people in line enter the cafe), one of the servers there told me that I need to put my name down for a spot at one of their available times. Since it was almost 1pm (and I thought of maybe going inside Yodobashi Camera first and then coming back to sit and eat/drink at the cafe), I ended up putting my name down for a spot at 2pm.
After a couple minutes, and before I walked out of the cafe, one of the servers actually said that they can sit me down immediately! NICEEEE. Luck has shined on me today!
As I was being directed to my seat, I noticed a couple things: A lot of “Dragon Quest XI | Echoes of an Elusive Age” (which is a game entry that just released not too long ago from a very famous Japanese RPG (role-playing game) series) merchandise were all around the initial entrance of the cafe (pretty cool btw!), and I noticed on my left side as I were going up the half floor height stairs that there’s an exclusive Square Enix Merchandise store with tons of awesome goodies (especially from Final Fantasy…AHHYEAH! THAT’S SO DOPE.)
This is legit! They even use iPads for their limited menu and I could totally understand the strict instructions that they have when in the Square Enix Cafe. I’m glad that they allow pictures though (hence the pictures I have of inside the cafe so far + incoming). It was cool to see the different items on the menu as you swipe right.
I have to say, even though the menu looks really good with appetizing food and unique, exclusive drinks themed after the Dragon Quest XI game… I ended up not getting anything because besides playing a bit of Dragon Quest VI (on the Nintendo DS 9 years ago), I don’t have any emotional attachment or sentiment to this particular series in general (Excuse me in advance Japan, I know that the Dragon Quest series is a national treasure for y’all, and I can definitely see why! I’ve heard A LOT about this RPG series and I’ve been around it for a little bit from friends in years past who’ve played the first three entries).
~ Side Note #11: I honestly didn’t grow up with the Dragon Quest series as much as I did with the Final Fantasy series, which is why I was a lot more hyped and excited for the Final Fantasy merch that they had in the cafe. ~
With that being said, I got out of my seat for a little bit, and I checked out the merch area in the corner of the shop! Super dope – as you can imagine, they have quite a bit of stuff (I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the things here are Square Enix Cafe Exclusives!). The soundtrack CDs they had of different final fantasy entries and other games (such as Octopath Traveler – a very good JRPG to play on the Nintendo Switch by the way!) is nice to see.
Both of these creatures (Tonberry + Cactuar) are iconic in the Final Fantasy series, and it’s nice to see that places like the Square Enix Cafe offer these awesome stuffed creatures in person to buy; though… I was tempted to buy one of these (just as a fan of the series), but I decided against it since they were too big to fit into my luggage (plus, I wanted to use that space for other stuff that I thought had priority).
After some browsing, I ended up not ordering anything from the menu or buying anything from the corner of the shop where they had a bunch of Square Enix related merch. I left the cafe shortly after and headed straight to my next location – Yodobashi Camera – Akiba!
YESSSSS…but before I continue, I gotta do a hard stop right here and talk more about the second half of the second part of the day in a next post (I hope that made sense…otherwise, the original intended post about the second half of day 2 in Japan would be WAYYY too long to digest in one sitting). Haha excuse me from the ending of the last post (via “Day 2 (Part 3): Street food in Asakusa + an owl! (11/11/19)“) where I mentioned that I would start and finish talking about the second half of the day in the next post. Sigh… so much for pacing content in this travel blog haha 😅
There’s still quite a bit to talk and blog about for day 2 that I haven’t gotten to yet! I’m talkin’ about stuff including the Pokémon Center Tokyo DX (HELL YEAH YOU HEARD IT RIGHT – A LEGIT Pokémon STORE! CHYEAH), the sushi I had in Shibuya, and last but not least, a shop there called LOFT that was really unique that I’m just dying to share with y’all!).
With that being said, please excuse me for splitting the original intended post (regarding covering the entire second half of day 2 in Japan) into three posts (this one you’re reading currently and the next two posts). You have my word that these next two posts will finish covering the rest of day 2 in Japan! 100%.
~ Side Note #12: from the last post, you’ve probably noticed a picture of some Pokémon and a nighttime picture (of which was taken in Shibuya) – those will be covered in the next posts fsho! ~
Cheers / wave
[Edit Note (1/29/2020): I mentioned two posts earlier, but because of the amount of content that I have to write about in day 2 part 5 that I honestly didn’t anticipate…I had to split that into two posts lol…otherwise part 5 would just be wayyyyyyy too long to consume in one sitting. That’s going to be part 5 and part 6 now. Excuse the split.]
Listen to what you see. 