Otaku

Whenever i am in Tokyo there are always some places i just have to visit. Akihabara is one of them. It's the area around Akihabara station with everything from the biggest electronics shop you can image to small shops that sell trading cards or little plastick figurines. A real Otaku (or geek as we call it) heaven. On my first trip i discovered a great tshirt shop called Kamikazestyle and really wanted to get back to get me a new crazy cool tshirt. Now they have some designs in their collection that are way to offensive to wear in Europe (Don't mention the war!), but i found a great tshirt in size XL, the biggest they had there which fits me just right. It would be a large M or small L in Holland. Happy as a geek i continued to walk around the area, mainly in the backstreets and found, amongst other things, a yoyo shop, Melon books, trading card shops, a shop that sells model airplanes etc. You name a geek hobby and there was a shop for it.
I was slowly making my way back to the station as i saw a group of people patiently waiting in front of the AKB48 cafe. AKB48 is an idol group consisting of 48 beautiful young Japanese women who perform and sing all over Japan.
I had gotten curious and so i bought myself a beer and some snacks to see what was going to happen here. All of a sudden two girls came out of the cafe and started pulling numbers out of a box. Each time a number was called somebody walked up from the group to the girls and got a stamp on his hand. After the last lucky number was called the rest of the group split up and left. Meanwhile a dutch couple standing next to me had explained that this was a lottery to get entrance to the small theater where some girls of AKB48 were about to perform. Being hungry and curious i decided to enter the AKB48 cafe and order me some food and drinks. I just started eating lunch as the big screens where the videoclips of the group were display switched to a live connection to the theater that was just on the other side of the wall. I could see that three girls got on stage under loud applaus and a lot of cheers from the predominantly male fangroup. Everytime a joke was made the crowd laughed out loud. Even some people in the cafe next to me were enthousiastically joining in the cheering. You gotta love these people for their dedication. I finished my beer and had seen enough so i took the next train to the hostel to do some laundry and get a refreshing shower before the hostels 10th anniversary party started. I got back from the shower and the party had apparently already started so i decided to jump straight in with a glass of plum wine. ;-) Jimmy, Rob and Philip were already there and we basically did what we did every night only now with more people and music. I left about a half an hour before the party ended to meet up with some of the guest i met at the guest house in Suzaka. I had a great time with them right from the start and we were eventually joined by the other guests from the party. This is exactly what i like most. Such a great party with locals and people from the rest of the world! Arigatou everyone!Read more