Inside Japan

HERO'S STEAKHOUSE

2013-04-19T19:33:00.002+09:00

Hi everyone, it's been a while. Honestly speaking I haven't been feeling well and I lacked enough photos that would be new to most of you. Those are the reasons why I haven't updated this blog, but I've visited Akihabara several times since last November.

Now it's very warm in Tokyo, and you'd need only a jacket to walk down the streets of Akihabara. The main purpose of this time's visit was to buy rechargeable batteries. I bought two, and each cost only 8 dollars.

Another purpose was to have lunch at this steak house. I've passed this restaurant many times before because it's almost in the center of Akihabara.

There were many choices. My friend is a huge fan of steak, so he couldn't make his choice quickly. Those are his hands.

This is the one I ordered. We weren't going to see anybody after this, so having much garlic wasn't any problem at all. Would you mind the smell of garlic?

I want to update this blog when I feel up to it. Hope I will encounter something new that hasn't shown up in this blog so far :)

Sushi and then some

2012-11-22T17:53:00.002+09:00

Hi, it's getting really cold in my area too. I went to Akihabara two weeks ago, but there wasn't anything new that was worthy of taking pics of. So let me show you some random pictures that were taken in my area.

This is the biggest department store in my area, and it is called SEIBU. Though you can see the sign CREO big, people call it SEIBU because SEIBU, which occupies the left part of the building, sells luxurious goods that draw people. The merry-go-round you can see gets set up in November in preparation for Christmas.

I had sushi recently. This set was only 980 yen (about 11 US dollars). It was very inexpensive for this volume.

And let me show you my favorite, "anago". Foreign people often say they like eel as sushi, but to be specific we don't have eel but anago as sushi. Their tastes are a little different from each other.

And this is a picture of an anago. Yes, it does look like an eel, but while eels live mostly in the river, anagos are found in the sea. Japanese people would understand if you say "My favorite is anago", instead of eel.

Do you eat sushi as it's good for your health? I saw on TV people in New York saying something like that.

Komeda's Coffee

2012-11-05T16:48:00.000+09:00

Hi, I'd like to introduce a newly opened coffee shop in my city. It's Komeda's Coffee, which had started its business in Aichi prefecture. I had known this coffee shop for many years, but haven't given it a try because the nearest shop was in Tokyo. But when I went to Tokyo I was forgetful about it.

This shop opened on Oct, 17th in my city. My friend had been seeing its construction getting closer to completion, which made me very curious.

Almost all the seats were occupied. I liked these pillars and roof that were made of wood. The waitress wasn't familiar with the menu yet, so she went back to the kitchen to explain what they could serve.

This is the set I ordered. The price for the coffee was 500 yen and the egg sand was 490 yen. 990 yen in total, or about 12 US dollars. The coffee was good, but the taste was a little less than worth the price. The egg sand was just okay.

This is the dish my friend ordered. It was a "shrimp cutlet". There were three pieces in one set, and the price was 750 yen or about 7.5 Euros. It was very good, but people would want it to be less than 500 yen, which is the price for a big sandwich you can have at Doutor.

To those who can read Japanese: visit the website of this coffee shop.

Gundam Cafe and etc.

2012-10-22T16:22:00.001+09:00

As I was talking about, I went to Tokyo last weekend, and had some fun. The weather was ideal for people to stroll, with the temperature around 23 degrees Celsius (73 Fahrenheit).

I don't want to bore you with similar pics, but take a closer look. Every time I come to Akihabara, the ad on the GAMERS gets renewed. You can buy manga everywhere in Japan, but getting the one you really want at the GAMERS will give you more satisfaction.

One of the purposes we came to AKB was to have Ramen at this shop. The name was 雲林坊, which can be read as Yun Rin Bou.

You can have the same Ramen as China at this restaurant. This was a Ramen called 担担麺, but compared to ordinary 担担麺 (Tan Tan Men), this didn't have soup at all. But it tasted nice all the more for the uniqueness.

We went to Ochanomizu as well, and on our way back we visited this coffee shop in AKB. The Kanji 庵 can be read as Iori. The meaning of 庵 is like "hut".

The interior was really classic. I liked it very much.

The main purpose of visiting Tokyo this time was to have some drink at Gundam Cafe. This was the mobile suit Zaku, which was standing at the entrance.

Compare the pics with those robots (mobile suits) . You would see a little similarity between the robots and the dishes.

If you look up from the seats in the center of this cafe, you can see this relatively big figure. I saw some foreign people taking pics too.

The cocktail I ordered was "Kira Yamato", which is the name of the hero in the anime Gundam Seed Destiny. The two coasters were designed after the robots of Gundam too.

I had to drive back to my home after getting off the TX line, so the cocktail had no alcohol at all. But the Kira Yamato made me feel good like ordinary cocktails do to me. :)

Cafe de Shippona

2012-10-18T15:16:00.000+09:00

I was thinking of visiting Tokyo last weekend, but I had something to do in my city, which kept me from going. I think I might go to the capital this weekend, but I'm not really sure. By the way, I went to a restaurant in my city last weekend that seemed a bit unique.

The name for this cafe is "Cafe de しっぽな". You can see the name written on the two places in the pic. I think しっぽな(Shippona) is a coined word, which would basically mean "tail".

There were so many figures and pictures of cat all over the restaurant. You'd think the owner of this cafe should be a cat person.

One example of the figures was this. This place seemed like one for girls, so I was a bit embarrassed. I could see many female customers.

And another thing was this. Do you like it?

I ordered "A chicken cutlet set" for lunch. The left saucer was shaped like a cat again. The taste of the cutlet was much better than ordinary family restaurants. Next time I come here I should bring a woman to mitigate my embarrassment. ^^;

TomTom -2-

2012-10-03T14:54:00.001+09:00

As I've shown in this blog, I'm still a huge fan of coffee. I introduced a coffee shop "TomTom" in this post before, but lately I found its new outlet in a neighboring city. So I went in there to see how good its coffee was.

There is a bookstore "Wondergoo" in front of this shop, and I used to visit it to browse books, but I didn't notice this coffee shop until recently.

You'd relax to your heart's content in this coffee shop. I thought this shop was intended for adults, because one coffee was a bit more expensive than that of Doutor.

There was something like this which entertained my eyes. The room was dimly lit, so you'd concentrate on reading for example.

I always decide how good the shop is by drinking its iced coffee. It was a bit bitter but with a little milk in it the taste got milder. Another thing I liked about this shop was each table was relatively big where I could put my bag, ipod, and what not.

To tell you the truth I wanted to show you a new posting on Tokyo, but lately I've been unable to go to the capital because the weather has been unstable. I wish I could go there in next two weeks.

Under the railroad bridge

2012-09-17T14:40:00.002+09:00

Hi, it is "Respect-for-the-Aged-Day" today, so I have enough time to update my blog. I went to Tokyo last Saturday, and as I had expected, there were lots of people throughout the capital as people were going to have the three-day weekends.

My friend wanted to drop off at Okachimachi station to buy tennis goods, so we walked from there to Akihabara, when we saw this shopping mall under the railroad bridge. As you can see, it seemed very new, and I found out that it was built just last year. The mall has its own name, "2k540 AKI-OKA ARTISAN".

I could see many cute shops that sold things like this.

As the name "ARTISAN" suggests, many of the shops seemed to be run by people specializing in making artifacts.

Would you include Miku in the category of the artifact? As you can see this figurine was in the showcase for people to take pics.

As I was walking along the mall, I found this chic coffee shop "Yanaka". The seats in there were all occupied.

So we were seated on this deck just in front of the shop. It was a mildly hot day, so this iced coffee tasted really nice. It had the strong bitterness I was expecting of.

As I was strolling about Akihabara, I saw this pachinko ad truck that featured AKB48. I read an article where a famous music producer said this group's popularity would last for another 5 years. Well, I don't think so.

And I came to this restaurant, "Pizza Salvatore" for dinner. My friend's iphone worked very well for us to get here.

As it was still warm around 6pm, we dined at this table.

The name for this pizza was "Diabola". I guessed the name had something to do with devil, because it included many kinds of spice that would energize you like hell.

We came back to Akihbara. The Hatsune Miku ad was for a karaoke bar. It was very impressive to see the Miku lit up in the center of Akihabara in the night.

I often have unpleasant days as you would, but I want to show you mostly the fun part of Japan in this blog :)

Cheapest Ramen

2012-09-08T11:16:00.000+09:00

I went to Akihabara to eat Ramen that many people online said to be very good.

This Ramen shop "Kimura" was about a 10 minutes' walk from the station. Kimura is one of the most commonly used family names in Japan. I had a few friends whose names were Kimura.

The taste of this Ramen was relatively good, but what was amazing was the price was only 530 yen, or 6.3 dollars (5.3 Euros). As you can see it had enough volume to make me satisfied. As I waited at the table, people came one after another.

The last two pics of mine are additional ones. My friend wanted to buy cleaning liquid for his contact lens, so we came to Ikebukuro where almost anything is available.

Ikebukuro can be written as 池袋, and Akihabara is 秋葉原. You can see how far the two stations are from each other by looking at the pic above. A one-way ticket from Akihabara to Ikebukuro is 190 yen.

And I saw this ad truck on my way back to Ikebukuro station. It was advertising the website E☆エブリスタ where you can upload your own works like novels, manga. And basically you don't have to pay for the works available on the website.

It started to feel cool in the morning and evening over here. I'm now waiting for leaves to turn yellow :)

Yokohama -2-

2012-08-29T20:21:00.000+09:00

This is a sequel of the last post. I'd like to show you some more pics taken in Yokohama.

Some people overseas might know we're currently having a territorial dispute with China. This visit was before we started to have the problem, so Chinese people were friendly and we could take a look around this town very comfortably. Having said that, I still think the Chinese in this area would be kind to us.

Do you know the chestnuts that taste really sweet? These chestnuts are called "Tenshin Amaguri", and its origin is China. But we can buy similar products at convenience stores as well.

I left the Chinatown and came near to Tokyo Bay. This building was right before the station we got off, and its name was "Yokohama Kaikou Memorial Museum". Kaikou means "opening of the port".

If you walk from the station for 15 minutes, you can visit this "Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse". Its outside look is oldish, but you can buy lots of fashionable things inside of it.

We had coffee at this shop in the warehouse "Chez Madu". It is a coffee chain that has only 4 outlets in Japan. It was selling doughnuts as well which you can see on the left.

I don't remember what this coffee was, but I think it was a cafe latte. I'd say this tasted better than Starbucks, but I'd prefer inexpensive coffee that Veloce serves.

Some people know I'm a music freak, and I reserved a Korn live dvd that is going to be released next month. And I'm going to see Nickelback in December! What do you expect for after the summer ends?

Yokohama -1-

2012-08-20T19:33:00.000+09:00

This is the first time I say this, but I lived in Yokohama of Kanagawa prefecture before I moved to Ibaraki. I usually don't remember the times when I was there, but since it is such a nice city, I see it on TV from time to time. During Obon (the summer vacation of Japan), I came to the China town of Yokohama to enjoy the atmosphere.

It takes only 40 minutes or less from Tokyo station to Yokohama. This is "The Minatomirai 21 line", and it takes you to the China town. As you can see, this station was built recently, in 2004.

It was really hot like 35 degrees when I got here. This is one of the gates of the China town. There were so many people who I thought came to eat Chinese food.

Have you ever tried the sharks' fin soup? This restaurant specializes in it. Since there are several same restaurants in this China town, it would be hard for you to miss this.

Dumplings. The prices ranged from 400 to 500 yen. I wasn't sure if she was Chinese or Japanese.

I went to Taiwan last year, and saw many times the commercial for this energy drink on Taiwanese TV. So I tried this for the first time. But it tasted like odd Pepsi. 黒松 would mean "Black pine".

My friend said he wanted to have lunch at this restaurant. Looking back, I think this was a good choice.

This dish is called "刀削麺"(Toushoumen), and the noodles are basically cut off a wheat lump. It was cool like water but the taste was spicy.

There was something like a shrine in the center of the town. Precisely it must not be a shrine, but western people wouldn't be able to distinguish it from Chinese temples, which is the case with me too.

I want to show you more pics of Yokohama later!

Having fun in Tokyo

2012-08-10T15:50:00.001+09:00

Hi, I think everybody is following how their countries are winning medals at the Olympics, but you know in Japan the games begin around the evening, so people go out without being concerned about the results of the Olympics. So my friend and me came to Tokyo again last weekend.

As usual, I had searched for a nice restaurant in Tokyo. My friend had a stomach problem, so we had kept eating some Subway until recently, but since he recovered completely, we decided to have something that has a very thick taste.

This restaurant "Chicken Place" is basically a bar, but it serves good rice and curry during the day. I took a pic of this bar, and the pic you're looking at is typically a room for the Japanese bar.

This rice and curry's price was only 650 yen and the iced coffee 150 yen. I did enjoy the taste and since there weren't many people past 1pm, we could relax after the lunch.

We were in Akihabara, but my friend found on his iphone that an exhibition of "Tut Ankh Amon" was being held in Ueno. So we came to Ueno to have some fun.

One ticket per person was 3,000 yen, which translates into 38 US dollars, or 31 Euros. It was costly, but we decided to take a look only to get disappointed because they didn't bring the Tut's mask from Egypt. We waited in line for only 20 minutes.

It was past 3pm after the exhibition, so we were feeling hungry. So we had sweets at a Japanese cafe called "Mihashi" in Ueno. This is called Kuzu mochi, which was elastic like rice cake. It tastes better with the brown powder (Kinako).

And this drink was Matcha ice cream. As I said again and again, Matcha is like bitterer green tea. It helped me regain energy enough to walk around in Akihabara again.

I learned this morning that the Japanese women's soccer team "Nadeshiko" had been defeated by the USA and that failed to grab gold medals. But they won silver medals for the first time, which made me happy nonetheless!

Update on Akihabara

2012-07-31T00:06:00.000+09:00

Hi, it's been a while since I updated my blog, but I haven't been feeling well until recently. I went to AKB last weekend because like I said the summer is when you can feel that energy coming from the area.

It seems some lewd anime is ongoing now. But I don't think it's rated R because any anime that gets broadcast can't be too lewd. But in my opinion, an anime's quality depends on its story like Haruhi and K-On!

As I said two years ago, Kebab is something you can enjoy as a foreign dish in AKB. It seemed to be still selling.

I saw some graffiti-like painting for a live house. I think the artists would play something related to anime because I can see the anime-like girl in the center.

I was looking for an LED pen light, and walking from one shop to another. I was sweating a river as the temperature was about 95 Fahrenheit. The price for the light was only 3 dollars. Akihabara is where you can buy electronics on the cheap.

One side of a Sofmap. It's quite typical of AKB. One thing I was told by a Chinese was that there were mostly guys in this area. So even if you don't have a gf, you can walk around comfortably in this area, haha. ^^;

My friend and I was looking for good earphones for our ipods. This shop is where you can try every earphones, which I think is important because you wouldn't want to feel disappointed after spending about 100 dollars.

I saw this figure standing in front of a Pachinko parlor. It's where you can play slot machine-like pinballs. If you get many balls, you can exchange them for money. Some people are really addicted to this gambling.

Obviously, there are many cafes, but instead of relaxing at a cafe, walking down the streets of AKB would let you feel more entertained.

魚べい (Uobei)

2012-07-18T04:03:00.001+09:00

I tended to go to the same restaurants these days because there hasn't been a newly opened one. But when I went to the biggest mall in my city, I saw this Kaiten sushi restaurant for the first time.

The kanji 魚 means "fish". I came here last weekend, and it was really crowded as each dish cost only 100 yen. It's close to a little over one dollar.

Usually they put two pieces on a dish. But if the sushi is really good like fatty tuna, you can have only one piece on one dish.

Most of the Kaiten sushi I've seen tend to serve cake too. I guess it's because they want to entertain kids too. I've seen kids taking cake only. When I was very small I didn't like sushi either.

And sweet potato was available too!

As each dish was only 100 yen, you'd feel full with only 8 dishes or so. That translates into 800 yen for lunch. It would be reasonable for anybody and you can also have fun picking up only your favorites :)

神 ice

2012-07-02T13:57:00.000+09:00

Let me introduce an ice cream shop in Akihabara called "神 ice". The Kanji 神 means "God", and if Otaku people want to refer to something very epic, they would call it 神-something, which means it is as good as God. For example, you can call a very good song 神曲. The latter Kanji 曲 is "song". So I think the owner of this ice cream shop wanted to mean it serves ice cream that tastes superb to you.

This shop is on the first floor of a building "AKIBA 神TOWER", and it has other floors where you can get massage, and see amateur idols sing in front of you. You can see how to go from Akihabara station to this shop by seeing the video below. Also, here's a link to the website of this tower.

Normally Akihabara is very crowded like the pics I showed you before, so I guess this video was shot in the early morning.

It's always fun to be in Tokyo!

2012-06-26T23:17:00.001+09:00

Hi, I went to Tokyo for a second time this month. You might think I live very close to the capital, but actually it costs me as much as 25 us dollars by train for a round trip. I'm not sure how long Tokyo will stay as my favorite, but I want to enjoy it as long as I like it.

I was walking along the street of AKB, when I saw this truck passing by. The anime is called "Haiyore Nyaruko-san", and it seems to be ongoing. It was advertising its DVD that was released on June 22.

Is there this kind of vending machine in your country? You can only see the pictures of what is sold, and if you touch the screen and pay money for the one you like you can get it. It's eco-friendly, isn't it?

There is a food company in Japan that serves so many kinds of lunchbox for busy workers. The company is called ROCK FIELD, or R 1/F. I have eaten some of their food, but it was really tasty. This pic was taken in Shinjuku station.

And as I got out of Shinjuku station, I saw this band playing some kind of music that sounded to me like the 90's J-Pop. I'm into rock music, so their music wasn't my type, but seeing them moving around holding the instruments was fun.

We were really tired from walking on end in Tokyo, so we had some coffee at this Veloce. But we were put into the smoking section, which made it uncomfortable for us to stay.

This is an ad of Yodobashi Camera. Looks cool?

Just before I got in the TX line, I bought this energy drink called "Monster Khaos". I saw it for the first time, which was the reason I bought it. The letter "K" makes it look like from North Europe in my book.

Actually it wasn't the energy drink that energized me, but it was the atmosphere of Tokyo that made me invigorated :D

Akihabara in June

2012-06-18T22:37:00.000+09:00

I think the best season to visit Akihabara is from April to September when you don't have to wear much clothes. If you want to see all the shops you're interested in, it would take a day. So you'd hope the temperature won't drop suddenly in the evening.

Do you know the anime "Ore no Imouto"? In the anime you'll see this anime shop "GAMERS". I looked closely at the ad, but I didn't get what it was. Anime is like rock music, I mean, it's impossible to be familiar with everything.

I saw the ad for this salon for the first time. It's where you can get your ears cleaned by girls. I just wondered if the girl would look pretty in the eyes of foreign people. She can be considered very pretty in Japan. The pink Japanese on the upper side reads, "The oasis of Akihabara".

The voice actress Aya Hirano released a new album lately. I used to say she was the biggest Seiyuu years ago, but now she isn't so popular as she used to be. It's partly because there has been an increase of talented younger Seiyuus.

While I was walking on the street I was given this snack. It was an ad for the video game "Moe can change".

When I finished shopping in Yodobashi Akiba, I saw this girl who was cosplaying as the heroine of the anime "Space Battleship Yamato". She has a good figure, doesn't she?

This has nothing to do with anime, but do you know the guy in the lower pic? He's a guitarist Michael Schenker, and most of the albums he released were huge hits. Some even consider him as the god of rock music. This pic was taken in Ochanomizu where there are many instruments shops.

Do you have any plans for this summer? It's my favorite season :)

Tokyo Skytree

2012-06-10T18:42:00.001+09:00

Sorry I haven't updated my blog in a while. It was partly because I haven't done anything special enough to upload. But on Saturday I went to see Tokyo Skytree, which opened last month.

As usual I took advantage of TX line, and got off the train at Asakusa station. I walked from the station to another to get to the Tree. When I was walking, I came across this Kabuki statue.

And this is the station that is the nearest to Tokyo Skytree. The name for this station is as you can see "とうきょうスカイツリー駅", which can be written in English "Tokyo Skytree Station".

There were several floors from which you can look up to the tower, but you'd have to ride a few escalators to get a nice view.

How does it look? I wanted to climb up to an upper level, but tickets had been sold out for a limited number of people, and people like me just had to look up.

This is the foot of the tower. The height is 634 meters. 634 can be read as "Mu Sa Shi", and it is the name of a renowned warrior 武蔵.

It was a bit strange but I saw this Ghibli shop that sold Totoro's stuffed toys and what not. It would seem "Japanese" to foreign people anyways.

If you come to Japan on and after July 11, you can buy tickets without reservation. It's just a tower, but at least it's the newest attraction of Japan :)

永利 (A Chinese restaurant in Ikebukuro)

2012-05-24T23:29:00.001+09:00

I went to Tokyo the other day. Or specifically I visited 池袋 (Ikebukuro) in Toshimaku, which is an area in Tokyo where many young people hang out. There is a renowned university called "Rikkyou Univ" in this area, and you can see many of its students walking there.

But one thing that is notable about this area is that there is an increasing number of Chinese people living in this area. This is a restaurant I visited which seemed to be run by Chinese.

When I got in, there were already customers, all of whom were speaking Chinese. There are many people who are against Chinese people in Japan. But you know, no matter what they say online, they don't curse when they see them in person. And I'm a pacifist too.

This is a dish called "炒飯", which is something like fried rice. The Kanji reads "Chaahan". It's a Chinese dish, but we have it at home as it's easy to cook. But it's not easy to cook it like a pro.

Do you know there is an area in China where Germans lived? This is the beer of the area "青島(Tsingtao)", and this booze is called Tsingtao beer. We can buy this beer in our neighborhood as its tasted would be liked by any beer-loving people.

There are some Chinese shops where you can buy some as souvenirs. While 新大久保 (Shin-Okubo) is a place where Koreans live, this Ikebukuro is where you can see many Chinese.

FIRE HOUSE

2012-05-07T19:35:00.002+09:00

The Golden Week lasted until yesterday. During the week we're supposed to do something special like traveling to a faraway place, but in my case I've come to Tokyo many times for the past years. So my friend and I had searched online for a restaurant in Tokyo where we could have a nice dinner.

The one we found was a hamburger shop that was in Suidoubashi, Tokyo. It's the station people use to go to Tokyo Dome where big concerts are held and baseball games are played.

You might have noticed in the first pic, but there were these hamburger objects in front of the shop.

When I went in, I was happy to see the interior decorated in the old-fashioned way. In my opinion, all the furniture was like from old American movies.

The hamburger I ordered had an egg sunny-side over. The taste was also classic, and it was what I was expecting from this shop.

When I was seated a women at the next table was reading a book silently over tea. It was such tranquil atmosphere that I wanted to come here again soon.

AKB during Golden Week

2012-05-01T11:33:00.000+09:00

As I explained before, we have a long vacation from the end of April to the beginning of May. It's called "Golden Week", and many Japanese go abroad to enjoy themselves. But since I went to Taiwan last November, I decided to stay in Japan.

As I had expected, AKB (Akihabara) was really crowded. I suppose some people came from the countryside, because they seemed to be amazed at the whole anime thing.

I dropped by this Doujin shop "White Canvas". It sells mainly Doujinshi, and there were other original goods that must have been invented by amateurs. It's only Sunday or holidays that you can see such goods sold in front of the shop.

I had curry for lunch. There weren't many people at this restaurant "Ajanta", so my friend and I could relax over coffee. This set was "chicken curry", and the chicken was really soft, which made it easy for me to have it with the naan.

I walked from AKB to Ochanomizu to buy CD's. I took this pic from a bridge where I could see the Chuo Line, which is the orange-striped cars. I bought Korn's unplugged live CD.

If you come to AKB on Sunday, you can enjoy the pedestrian paradise in the Chuo St. But one thing you have to be careful about is that some electronic shops of AKB are closed on Sunday.

This is a pic of Sofmap Nigoukan (the second annex). You can see the Madoka's pic, and it was an ad for her figurine sold in there.

During Golden Week you can see this flea market where you can buy many kinds of thing from figurines to ordinary T-shirts. It was hot like summer, and the weather was ideal for the people to open their stalls.

I got this AKB map near the station. You can see where the Chuo St. is, which I mentioned in this post.

I was watching carefully if there were many foreign people, and I thought there were more than this time last year. We still have small earthquakes, but less frequently, like three times a month.

Harajuku and Sakura

2012-04-16T06:52:00.001+09:00

As some of my friends know, I went to a concert by a Swedish heavy metal band "Arch Enemy". The venue was close to Harajuku station in Tokyo.

Harajuku is known as a place where young people like teenagers get together, so there are many chic clothes shops and coffee houses. I don't know if I could say GAP is chic, but I thought this illumination looked so pretty.

There was a pedestrian bridge from which I could overlook the area around the station. It was about 6pm. The concert began at 7pm. When we arrived here we were kinda lost so my friend searched this area on his iphone. It helped us a lot.

We were killing time so that we can be just in time for the main act. Any Doutor is never prettier than this. It shows why this area is hot among young people.

And these were what I was having before the show began. As I waited, young people came one after another. I wasn't going to stay here for more than an hour, but it started to rain and that kept us here needlessly longer.

And let me show you two Sakura pics. In the prefecture I live in, the Sakura trees started to blossom last weekend. The beauty of the Sakura always amazes me even though I've seen them many times.

On this day, the temperature got close to 25 degrees Celsius. It was really an ideal day for the people in my area to take a walk and look at the Sakura.

How do you celebrate the advent of spring? However you celebrate it, warm weather always makes us active, doesn't it?

Kashiwa （柏）

2012-04-10T07:18:00.002+09:00

There is a relatively big city "Kashiwa" in Chiba prefecture. It's about a 30 minutes' train ride from Tokyo, and it can be reached in the same time from where I live too. For the past few years I've visited AKB to do shopping, but I used to come to this city a lot before the line TX was in service.

This is the entrance of a department store "Marui". You can buy many expensive clothes, watches, perfumes and etc in there. There are many clothes shops in my city too, but if you want to buy some as presents, you can get them easily at this Marui. The stall with the green flags nearside was selling "Zundamochi", which is a kind of rice cake sold in Sendai.

This Chinrai (珍来) is the Ramen chain that is the most well-known in Japan. You can see them everywhere in the Kanto region, but I don't think it's taste is very good. You can tell this shop from the others by recognizing this Dragon, which is holding the Ramen bowl.

And very often the main purpose I come to Kashiwa is to buy metal CD's. You can buy any CD's on Amazon, but most CD's are often cheaper at this shop.

I took a pic of a wall of the Diskunion. It sells not only metal but also J-Pop and even jazz CD's, too.

I bought this Murderdolls CD. I've been interested in it because the drummer of Slipknot plays the guitar in this band. It was only 6.8 us dollars, or about 5 Euros.

We had these breads for lunch. The combination of the cheese and sausage gave a good taste, and in my book this "Delifrance" was better than any bakeries in my city.

What cities do you want to visit except for Tokyo? Smaller cities of Japan have their own attraction too! :)

AKB in early spring

2012-04-04T11:31:00.005+09:00

This is a bit late update, but I went to Akihabara again to buy a special outlet for my audio system. I'm a huge fan of music, so naturally I want to listen to it in good condition. So, a friend of mine told me I needed an outlet made for hospitals that conveys electricity without loss.

So the best place in Japan where you can buy it is of course Akihabara. I come to this place to enjoy myself mainly, but I think you can learn about the unique aspect of Japan visually as there are many anime ads.

I introduced before this shop "Hobby Tengoku", but this was the first time I entered it. There were literally so many figurines and anime-related goods, and people were standing in line for the cashier. The word "Tengoku" basically means "heaven", but in this case it means "paradise".

This is an ad truck for the game "Moe can change!". As far as I searched, it's a game where you grow androids. The game is available on computer and smart phone. I don't know much about games, but they seem to be evolving very rapidly.

A stamp rally was held in AKB. You should visit many shops in AKB to get stamps for rare goods. You can take part in this rally on an app, so you need your own smart phone.

I was relaxing at a Veloce. I usually drink coffee, but this time I had hot Matcha latte. Matcha is like bitterer green tea, but if you blend it in milk, its bitterness gets weak and it will give a mild taste.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is promoting Japan as "cool". And the promotion itself is called "Cool Japan". Hope you'll find Japan cool someday :)

Seiryuu （清瀧）

2012-03-27T19:32:00.004+09:00

I had sushi in January and this was the second time I had sushi this year. As I told you, we Japanese consider sushi as very expensive, and we have it mostly on special occasions like one's birthday or promotion.

The name of this restaurant was 清瀧, and I think it can be translated as "a pure waterfall". If you write the latter Kanji as 龍, its meaning is "a dragon", but with the three strokes on the left side, its meaning changes to a waterfall.

As I was waiting for my dish to be delivered, I found this Leo statue. The Kanji 獅子 means Leo. There was another room on my right, and the people were making noises and I was a bit irritated.

This is a set I ordered for lunch. Of course the main dish was sushi, but I could have Osumashi （お澄まし） and Chawanmushi (茶わん蒸し) as side dishes. The former tastes like diluted soy sauce, which looks like the black soup on the right, and the latter is like steamed egg that contains boiled chicken and some pieces of vegetable, and it is to the left of the Osumashi and looks yellow.

I have to say this set was reasonable as it was about only 12 US dollars, and this was the reason why I could have sushi for no special reason :)

Ueshima Coffee Shop

2012-03-19T14:59:00.000+09:00

As I've said, I'm a huge fan of coffee. It might sound odd that I like coffee so much, and it would make more sense if I introduce green tea for this blog. But even if you walk around in my city or somewhere else, you wouldn't find a single green tea shop. It's served only when you go to a Japanese restaurant, or you should make it yourself at home.

I came to this outlet mall in a nearby city. I always try to avoid taking pics of people because it would infringe on their privacy.

I had checked online if there was any new coffee shop opened, but the website for this mall didn't show this Ueshima Coffee Shop. It's one of the most prestigious coffee brands of Japan.

It was very comfortable to sit on this seat. I came here just before noon, and it started to get crowded when we were leaving.

These were an iced Cafe Vienne and sandwiches. The latter had raw salmon and cheese. This coffee was more than worth the price, but I can't come here often because I would have to drive more than half an hour to get here.

What do you like about Japan? Whatever you like, you'd need nice meals to make your trip satisfying :)