Rise and shine, fans! Or rather.. good news, everyone: I have (mentally) gathered enough memories and other things regarding Japan, to make it worth writing another few paragraphs of stuff here. Oh and more importantly, maybe even worth reading for everyone who accidentally mistyped their URL and somehow landed on this little website, waste of internet space, blog.
Last installment of this was about arriving and getting to know stuff.. boooring! While the whole getting to know the vicinity thing certainly was a work in progress over the whole 2 months, the initial few trips were certainly the most WTF AM I (Note: that’s “WHERE..” and not “WHO..”, at least for the most part) kind of ones. So, after getting to know ones surroundings, it was time to start spending precious time in the most meaningful way available: Going around enjoying nightlife and alcohol at night, and otaku’ing around Akiba during the day! ^^
The first few choices of nightlife places in Shibuya and Roppongi Hills were a little.. uh.. let’s just say they would have taken a little more getting used to than I had initially planned. As an example, I’ll shortly introduce “TheRoom” of Shibuya, since they were all pretty similar. This particular one was pretty tough to locate, but -optimistic as I am- one would think that’s ok.. places like that need a few hours to populate with some people, anyway. Duh..
After paying the usual horrendous amount of an entrance fee and not even getting a place to store ones coats at.. what I saw was.. people! I saw dead people, and nothing else really.. no ground or anything. Simply because on every single m² there were about 5 human beings already. Ahhh, the joys of Japan. Not.
In any case, ..after fighting towards the bar and picking some drinks by color (”midori no wo kudasai!”), mostly because the Japanese barkeepers wouldn’t understand the correct English pronunciation of the English named drinks, one was gtg to “have fun” among at least 66% of non-Japanese, or, as we called them, fucking gaijin! At this point once again a “Hi” to the uber drunken Hachi-chan from that very place! Yes, for a fact, drunk Japanese are much better at foreign languages than sober ones. Oh and also “Hi” to the plentiful German dudes :p
So much for the nights! As for the days, since I wasn’t planning on going on a spending spree so early in the trip, I tried to enjoy and experience the less expensive sides of Haruhiland. That, uh, so to say, wasn’t working out. >_<. Instead, after some investigation, the joys of visiting AKB48 concerts and meido-kisaten were discovered! Yes, it really is like in those anime flicks 
“Irasshaimase, Goshujinsama”, the angelic voice of a youthful Japanese beauty, dressed in a maid outfit featuring a very short skirt, gently caressed the eardrums of whoever entered the café of choice, Cos-Cha, followed by a silent but very playful giggle. Ahh, the joys of Japan. Yep.. or, as Yamazaki from NHK ni Youkoso phrased it: “This is the pride of Japan’s culture, a Maid Cafe.” An établissement like this isn’t very hard to locate either, even for newbie amateur otaku gaijins like myself..
If you were to search Akihabara specifically for places like the previously mentioned one all on your own, you would likely fail.. mostly because they are all discreetly located in very small side streets with very little door advertisements. Instead, you would want to check the big Akihabara streets for random maids standing around, handing out flyers and (cryptic) maps! A little harder was it to locate AKB48’s lair place, unless it wes really early in the morning.. when it was really easy to locate :p
o_0, you say? Well, simple enough.. early in the morning there usually are about 200 people lining up in front of the building “Don Quixote“, waiting for their number in line to purchase a ticket. Luckily enough, after 4 or 5 tries to get one of those sought-after pieces of paper, I happened to be allowed to buy one of the hot 2000 yen snippets as well. Not only that, but they also come with a free pink paper bracelets, to mark you as the one who actually bought the ticket. If you remove or damage it, you’re outta luck! So, yep, since the show is in the evening, that means you have to walk around the whole day wearing a pink bracelet. Hawt.
To follow the AKB48 visiting process just a bit further.. I shall explain it thoroughly before coming to an end of this blog entry. Once you manage to get the ticket and bracelet set, you either leave the building again for doing stuff, or chill at the AKB48 cafe in the same building, located right next to the concert hall entrance.. and also, coincidentally, right next to the place to buy AKB48 merchandise plunder at. Yay.
When you come back at the opening time stated on the ticket, you’ll be placed to a certain spot according to your ticket number. Curse those no-pix-policies of most Japanese places. So, in words, there are tags lying around all over saying [0-10], [11-20], .., [131-140]. And you go to your spot according to the ticket number and wait for things to happen. To be exact, for the 0-6 girls who somehow bought or received a ticket.. cuz girls are allowed to go in first :p Sexism omg!! Then.. for some guy to use his lottery machine, randomizing some plastic balls within it.. eventually he’ll pick out a random ball and announce whatever number it says.
The first time I visited an AKB48 event, I carried ticket number 22.. and the first ball that was announced was [21-30]. But not only that, it was also the 16th birthday AKB48 member Naru Inoue.. one of their hottest cutest members. So we all received some extra blinky stuff etc, to celebrate together with her in an extra encore.. and enjoy her teary-eyed thank you speech afterwards. Talk about being luckeh.
Luckeh, because this meant I and 9 others were allowed into the concert hall first, picking any seat available. Yay for the middle of the first row, ~1 meter away from the AKB48 beauties. Eventually I learned that all the remaining visitors were all being lottoed 10 by 10 as well. Neat system, at least it insures no murder happens in the mornings when the line is being formed. What the concert itself was like to me, I tried to put into words in an earlier article..
Last but not least, since I announced that today (March 19th) is a very, very special day.. I shall explain that also! Today.. well.. I’ll just say it like this:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHIMOKAWA MIKUNI SAMA!!!!! <3
so long,
-M.
PS: Photo gallery is still located at http://picasaweb.google.com/mide82
