Vacationing in Japan

[Heibi]

Aging Otaku's "tweet" on daily shopping and site seeing.
I hope I keep posting my daily journal here on this trip. Otherwise, starting this thread was stupid.

Uneventful trip. Flight was a little bumpy in areas and caused no problems up until landing. A poor little kid in the middle row lost his lunch due to the roller coaster ride caused by strong winds on landing. The smell started to spread but there were no more casualties.
Customs, as always, went without a hitch. A few folks complained about the forms - but, oh well... US Customs makes foreigners do it too.
Exchange rate was 79.70 to the dollar. Not stellar like the heydays of the 90's when 100 to 1 was the norm. But seeing how the Yen buy back rate in Dallas was 71.6, we'll be spending before we return, or keeping it.
The limousine bus ride to the hotel was quick. The bus driver altered our route to avoid an accident and we made it in about 1.5 hours.
Got our room with a good view of Fuji again. Clouds obscured it, but you could make it out. We might get a better view later.
Wandered a little in Shinjuku and noticed that it was just about the same. They added a Burger King on one corner, and tore down a building near the corner McDonald's. In that same corner we found one of our used DVD and game shops. We scouted it out a little and found a couple things we may buy if we don't find them elsewhere.
Ate at C&C Curry.(We love that place -It's cheap and the food is good) We had the Katsu-Curry. After stuffing ourselves we hit a corner convenience store and picked up some snacks and drinks for the room.
Not much else to tell. We watched a few shows - I found several anime programs playing, a couple of which were reruns. Gatchaman was one of them. Grew tired and hit the sack early so we would be ready for a full day of train rides and shopping on Friday.

[Heibi]

A day of shopping. Weather turned out better than the forecast. It hit the 60's I believe and cleared up nicely.
Started in Nakano - hunting for manga, DVDs, figures and CDs. Had to fill the lists of friends back home. Of course, I found 2 old series on DVD for myself. Zillion and Yamato season 3.
After a quick stop in Shinjuku to drop off our loot in the room we headed for Akihabara. Visited Ishimaru, 3 Liberty outlets, Trader, K-Books and Kotobukiya. We spent well. Heading back again tomorrow for several more stores and re-visits.
After we got back to Shinjuku we ate at a different Japanese fast food place. We had Katsudon. Delicious.
Good night.

[Daniel]

Glad to hear that you made it safely.

Thanks for keeping us updated -- it's a fun read...!

Got any pictures of cool stuff?

[Heibi]

I'll take some pictures later today after our full-day excursion into Akihabara.

[Heibi]

Rain day near the end of the shopping day. Windy all day. My friend got soaked because he didn't use his umbrella. I, being the old Otaku, and wise, I used my umbrella and was mostly dry.
Hit most of the shops I frequent. Filled up my back pack. More pictures to follow.

[Heibi]

Today's loot.

[Heibi]

More loot.

[Daniel]

I'm having a difficult time taking my eyes off of this Nyanko-sensei...

[Heibi]

Today was perfect for shopping. Sunny and cool. Went to Kichijoji and hit Animate then to Nakano. 40 minutes in Animate(it's only 1 floor - unlike Akihabara's version), 2 hours in Nakano Broadway. After stopping in Shinjuku to drop off stuff and eat we headed back to Akihabara. They had the street blocked off again this Sunday. Fulfilled my DVD list!!!

On a side note, in both Nakano and Kichijoji they are redoing the stations. Nakano was easy to adjust to, but Kichijoji it was completely different. We had to circle the station on the outside to get our bearings to get to Animate. Nakano had a few concept pictures and it looks like it'll be really nice.

[Heibi]

And the loot pictures start.