October 19, 2012
Jesse's October web post
This month, we received a new exchange student from Canada, Chase. And because he is new, we decided that the only course of action was to take him out to Akihabara, the electronics and highly “otaku”district. [Peter - Otaku means 'fanatic', and can be applied to almost any hobby, however the otaku in Akihabara are noted for being crazy about anime, hi-tech products and videogames.]
Source: tokyotravel.webatu.com
I must admit, up until this point I had not actually been to Akihabara, and I never really realized what I had been missing out on. For the first hour or so, because Annariina was late, Chase and I went figure shopping. This is a difficult task, especially when you watch and read as much anime and manga as Chase and I do, because there are just so many figures, and they are so unfortunately priced for an exchange student.
Source: unframedworld.com
After choosing a 100 yen figure, we ventured to one of the flashing, blaring arcades close by. We are both somewhat shamed to admit that we completely failed at Dance Dance Revolution, and that we may or may not have spent a little too much time on the fighting games. But there was one game that there was absolutely no regrets about, and this was the Table Flipping Game™. [Peter - Table flipping, or "Chabudai gaeshi" is a Japanese cultural phrase coming from older times, and is usually used to convey severe anger/frustration and that the person flipping said table has generally had enough.] After witnessing this ridiculous and awesome game, we realized that we had had just the right amount of silly mixed with bizarre for the day, and promptly headed home.
Source: sndfrosteyneko.tumblr.com
But of course, Japan decided that no, we were not done yet, and showed us a belly dancer protesting anti-piracy laws, along with a group of otaku wearing masks for the same reason.
Thank you Japan, for never ceasing to impress me, it was a great day out, yet again.