3 major things happened today.
Let's start with the first one: Akihabara. Again.
I woke up around the same time as Demetri (it's funny how things work like that). After our usual morning stumble-out-of-bed routine and whatever else, he goes out to run.
Like 2 minutes later, I get a knock on my door.
I thought it was Demetri, forgetting to bring something.
I open the door and it's Nathan.
He asks, "Wanna go to a cosplay cafe?"
Yes.
I had never been to a maid cafe or cosplay cafe or anything of that type yet.
You'd think at this point in the trip, I would've gone to one at least, but no, I was being a dumbass.
There was a group within our group that did go to one, however, but I wasn't there at the time, so I didn't get to experience the goodness.
It seemed like Maaike wanted to go to a specific one called Maid in Angels.
Oh by the way, it was me, Maaike, Eric, and Nathan.
So we went to Akihabara.
After about 30 minutes of wandering around, we couldn't settle for one.
So we decided to go with any one that looked good.
And, remember, this is Akihabara we're talking about.
Looking for maid cafes is not difficult. There were tons of maids everywhere advertizing the cafes.
When we wanted to check one out, we realized that none of us had the balls to go up to the maid to ask for directions.
LOL
But then after pussing out, we went up to a maid and asked for a flier.
And we followed it.
We were escorted up by a maid to the second floor of a building, which was where the maid cafe was located.
When the elevator doors opened we were greeted by a line of maids that welcomed us into the cafe.
It was a crazy feeling.
No wonder people come here all the time.
The place was nearly empty though.
We were seated and a maid explained the menu to us and left us to decide on what to get.
Three of us got omurice. After all, isn't that what you're supposed to get at a maid cafe?
Nathan was the only one who got something different.
While the food was being prepared I took a look around.
Some maids were pretty good looking, and others not so much (not to sound mean, but I would've thought people hiring at a maid cafe would be more selective).
Finally our omurice came in. And Nathan's pilaf.
The maids asked what we would like drawn on our plate and our names (so they could put them on the actual egg).
Maaike asked for a Pikachu.
Eric really didn't know, and from a wild pick he just chose Donald Duck.
While they were drawing theirs, Nathan told me I could pretty much choose anything.
I really didn't know what I wanted either.
I looked around and I saw a Lucky Star poster.
So when they asked me what I wanted I said Lucky Star.
And she kind of looked at me weird. And then I said Konata. She seemed like she knew it.
She pulled out an iPhone and searched for the picture while the other maid just kind of stood around for support I guess.
I think the way it works, if they don't know the character, is they look it up on the iPhone and then draw it according to that.
Because that's what they did to me.
I felt bad because it took a long time and everyone else was waiting for mine to be finished.
Also, I heard the maid say "muzukashi" while she was copying the Konata picture and I felt worse.
But it was finished and we could all eat!
It wasn't a bad job either.
After the drawings were completed a maid came up to us and taught us how to make our food taste better with a "moe moe kyun" spell. No, I'm not kidding.
I tried really hard to eat without messing up the ketchup. I didn't want to mess it up because it took so long for them to make and I wanted to appreciate the drawing.
The rest of them told me to take a picture with one of them. I kind of wanted to but kind of didn't. There was a maid with Converse and loose socks. She was pretty. But she wasn't there at the time.
So we paid and left. And got some free stuff. Like a circular shaped thing. Eric has it though, so I can't take a picture of it.
Afterward, we stopped by a nearby anime and collectibles store.
The figurines there were FUCKING expensive.
Like 8000-12000 expensive.
Fuck that.
Some of the other stuff was pretty cool though.
Nathan found a set of boxes with Nichijou figurines in them.
They were random and you wouldn't be able to tell which one you got without opening it.
There were 2 poses for each character: Nano, Hakase, Yuuko, Mio, and Mai.
I fucking wanted Hakase.
Nathan fucking wanted Nano.
We bought one box each.
And we didn't open it till way later.
Eric and Maaike went to do other things in Akihabara while Nathan and I hurried back to Nishi-kasai so we could be in time for the second major event for the day.
Second thing: TCA
Demetri made plans with Miyu to go see TCA (Tokyo Communication Arts, the school that Miyu, Kengo, Ikumi, and Maya go to). Demetri has pet snakes at home and he heard that TCA had a shitload of snakes. He asked me before if I wanted to tag along. Why would I not go see Miyu and Kengo, they're like the best people ever.
So since Nathan was coming back with me I told him that we should tag along.
We ran into Teresa writing her essay in the hotel lobby and forced her to come along too.
Kengo was at the hotel waiting for us. Miyu was yet to arrive, but she did later.
On the way over to TCA, we picked up some ice cream at a convenience store because it was AS HOT AS A CAMEL'S ASSHOLE.
They led the way to TCA, cuz we didn't know where it was.
It didn't really look like a school.
We also ran into Mana at the school!
First thing I noticed were the multiple fish tanks around the room.
Miyu showed us one with black fish in it.
She showed us the things that she uses to train the fish (btw did I mention that she was studying to become a dolphin trainer?).
It was pretty damn cool.
After looking around on the floor, they took us down a level to what was called the "Aqualium". lol
The room we were in now was FULL of fishtanks.
Then we went into the room with all the reptiles, and other cool shit too.
There were so many goddamn animals in there, it was so cool.
Demetri wanted to take the snakes out, so Miyu got her friend, who we later found out was named Yuki, and got him to take some of the animals out, since he was studying to be a reptile handler.
This guy is Yuki, by the way.
Then we moved on from snakes to other things.
Then they fucking took out the tarantula.
I screamed and ran the fuck to the furthest corner while he took out the spider and held it out for everyone to see.
We poked around the room a lot more.
In the fridge they kept frozen mice to feed the snakes.
We pretty much left after exploring the entire room.
Kengo and Miyu walked us back to the hotel.
It was a very sad moment.
I suggested we all take a picture together.
While we could still see them, some people exchanged mail addresses and such.
We eventually had to say goodbyes.
I almost choked up and teared up.
Miyu would be leaving the next day to go to New Zealand, so this was the last time ever we could see her on this trip.
Kengo I will be seeing tomorrow for one final time, hopefully.
So they left and we went back up.
Nathan and I finally opened our Nichijou boxes.
Neither of us got what we wanted.
He got Yuuko, and I got Mio.
We traded.
After that Eric came by, after Nathan left our room, and we told him about the school while also just fucking around.
Demetri fell on the floor laughing because I was playing dentist with the bed light.
So then we finally had to get ready for the third event of the day.
Third thing: Outing with Prof. Hall
So Professor Hall invited us all out to go explore a part of some city with him.
About half the group came while the other half went to the festival held today.
We met in a building, but some people, like Kevin, weren't around yet so it was decided (through nose goes) that I would wait at the bottom for Kevin and them while everyone else went to the top floor to the observatory.
Demetri lent me his phone so I could practice kanji.
All of the sudden, these two Japanese people approach me, a guy and a girl.
The guy says, "Sumimasen..." and then something in Japanese.
I gave him a nervous smile and said, "Nihongo ga dekimasen."
And then he goes, "Ah...uh...do you...know...Kevin?"
Startled, I say that I do.
Both of them look relieved and they introduce themselves to me as Kevin's friends (more like acquaintances looking back on it).
The girl's name was Yummi (pronounced Yu-Mee) and the guy's name was Shohei.
Their English was fucking good.
I talked with them and this is their story:
They both were in the class that Kevin's friend Calvin teaches (I met Calvin a while back, I just didn't write about it). Calvin teaches English. Which explained why their English was so good. They both live in Chiba and we made small talk. They were very nice people.
Professor Hall came down a while later and was surprised at the newcomers.
After some talk, confusion was cleared.
I think they were surprised to see a white man speak fluent Japanese.
So Prof. Hall sent us up to the observatory with Yummi and Shohei to see the rest of the group while he would wait for Kevin and the rest of them.
So we went.
So I introduced them to the rest of the group.
It was a very friendly communication.
Jamar also came up and told us that the rest of the group was waiting downstairs.
We went down to meet them.
It was Kevin, Nathan, and Lali with Professor Hall.
Once we were all together, we decided to go get something to eat.
We just followed Professor Hall around since none of us, not even Yummi or Shohei, knew the city.
We ended up at a yakinikku place.
Lali didn't want to eat meat, since she's vegetarian, so she and Professor Hall went to go eat something else, which really pissed off Kevin, cuz the reason he came out was to drink with Professor Hall.
But we went up anyways.
While we were in the same room, the tables were split into "all you can drink" and not.
Maaike, Yummi, Jamar, Kevin, and Shohei were at the all you can drink table, aka nomihodai.
Me, Demetri, Eric, and Nathan were at the other table.
We ordered our meat. Unfortunately, the meat was not all you can eat.
The night was full of laughter and jokes and stories while we ate.
It was actually really fun.
Even though our table was not all you can drink, Demetri and Eric still ordered beers.
Later on I got a Calpis Sour, which was pretty much just mixed drinks with Calpis in it.
It was good.
The other table was drinking a LOT.
Asian glow up the ass.
Except Jamar.
Shohei was also pretty red, and I told him that he was in Gear Second.
He then stood up, imitated Luffy and did Jet Pistol, which made everyone double over in laughter.
Prof. Hall and Lali joined us a while later, and by that time we were done, so we paid the bill and stood outside the restaurant for a while, deciding what to do.
Demetri noticed that Maaike looked a little weird.
He asked if she was OK.
She shook her head while simultaneously throwing up all over the street.
All the yakinikku that she ate.
We kind of eased ourselves away from the scene.
Prof Hall wanted to take us to some bars (isn't he a fucking cool guy?).
Yummi and Shohei had to leave, however.
We said goodbye to them, and made plans to contact each other over FB.
We ended up at a place called Club Pink Monster.
Yeah.
We decided to go up anyways.
We ended up in a small bar that was kind of like a lounge.
It was really dark inside and entry fee was 500 yen. All drinks were 500 yen.
We were wondering why the hell this place was called Pink Monster.
Well, it turns out the place we were in wasn't Pink Monster.
Pink Monster was downstairs.
The place we were in was called "San Ichi Go" or 315, named after the room number of the building.
I ordered a green tea, cuz I didn't want anything alcoholic.
We spent a good amount of time in there. Professor Hall is super chill and we shared stories, and it was like he was one of us, not a teacher with his students, but rather a friend with his peers.
After around an hour in there, we left and walked around a bit more.
But after not finding anything else to do we decided to go back.
Kevin and some people went back to Afrobeat in Nishi-Kasai.
Nathan and I went back since we were not in the mood for more drinks.
And that was our day.
Damn packed.
No comments:
Post a Comment