Japan Trip Day 2 and 3: Akihabara! (^o^)

On the 2nd day I went to Akihabara after applying for an Alien registration card to try open a bank account so I can do online shopping from Japan easier.

Since I took so long sorting everything out with the Alien registration card, it was already past lunch time and I decided to have a quick wonder around Radio Kaikan outside Akihabara station before I had to leave to meet up with my friend for dinner.

Each time I went to Akiba, I’d pass by Shibuya to change from the train station to the subway. So I decided to take a few photos of Shibuya. I’ve only ventured as far as to the outside of the station, but haven’t gone any further than that. I remember there are some anime shops there according to a book my friend, Mac, lent me so I have to check that again.

Akihabara had changed a bit since the time I went about 1.5 years ago, and it also seemed that the station was under construction which I reckoned ruined the atmosphere a bit. I didn’t even see any girls in maid outfits handing out stuff. Still, all the shops where there, and I ended up buying quite a bit of stuff on the 2nd day there. For the first day, I just mainly held back from spending money and just got used to the standard prices of everything at different stores to figure out the average price. My shopping for the first day was a 1/4 scale Konata figure released by Freeing and a 5 CDs of Manami Okui’s music.

I found one of the limited edition Kanakon figures while I was checking out Kotobukiya in Radio Kaikan. Even the the figure was meant to be a Wonder Festival only exclusive, which I didn’t buy at the event despite there being heaps of stock. I was able to buy it from there on my 2nd day after deciding that I actually wanted it.

I started my 2nd day with K-Books and aimed to buy a few art books and groundwork books to help me learn to draw my favourite anime characters. I tried to look for Key’s 10th Anniversary art book called “White Clover” for myself and my friend Mac, although all I could find was the limited edition version that was selling for twice the price and apparently had some damage to it.

I always enjoy looking at the rental showcase boxes to find some bargains, and managed to buy the entire set of Key plushies for a cheap price.

By that time, I had a look in one of the other stores before I got a call from Ronald (Rin) who wanted to meet up. Since we were both in Akihabara, we decided to meet up next to softmap. It was a funny experience since we both knew there were a lot of softmaps there, but fortunately we were able to find each other pretty quickly.

Ronald took me around and it seemed he knew his stuff about where to buy things from Akihabara. Although I have been to Akihabara many times before, I am not as familiar with it as he is mainly because I often bought too much and got too tired of walking up 7 floors of stairs for each and every building on every street. (^^;)

Anyways, we did a bit of visiting various stores and noticed one store he took me to sold some resin kits at decent prices. I saw a couple of Liquid Stone ones at some decent prices, so I plan to check it out again when I go back to Tokyo. I hope it won’t be sold by then. (>_<)