#ochanomizu station

[way2uchuu]

Ochanomizu Station, September 2016

[dogcoding]

i slept no more than 2 hours on the plane so im dying. but i watched 2 movies id been meaning to watch and they were both good so that's a win.

ugh hello im in dubai and i have no idea what time it’s meant to be in any area of the world

[dream-world-universe]

Ochanomizu, tokyo, Japan: Ochanomizu Station is a railway station in Tokyo, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and Tokyo subway operator Tokyo Metro…JR East's Ochanomizu station lies south of the Kanda River in Chiyoda ward. During the Edo period, the Kanda River was rerouted to pass through Ochanomizu, which was otherwise a highland between two valleys. Wikipedia

[yamada-ryo]

any recommendations for my honeymoon to Japan in July? have about 2 weeks around tokyo and 2 weeks around kyoto

Only listing places I've actually been to, some might be closed when your date(s) of visit so do check.

Tokyo: Shibamata Taishakuten, Tokyo Skytree, Sensoji / Nakamise street, Ueno Park museums, Hokusai Museum, Tokyo-edo museum, Akihabara street, Hijiribashi / Ochanomizu, Yasukuni shrine (controvertial), Tokyo station character street (underground complex), Imperial Palace (guided tour), Tuskiji Fish Market, Ginza street, DiverCity (1:1 Gundam Unicorn), Harajuku street, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Meiji Jingu / Yoyogi park, Nakano Broadway, Ikebukuro, Shinjuku Historical Museum, Suga Shrine (Kimi no Na Wa stairs), Lucky Dragon 5 Museum

Kyoto: Ryoanji, Kinkakuji, Imperial Palace / Kyoto Gyoen, Shokokuji Jotenkaku Museum, Tadasu no Mori, Higashiyama Jishoji, Nijo Castle, Honnouji, Kiyomizudera, Fushimi Inari Taisha (mountain with shrine gates all the way)

I highly recommend visiting Nara / Osaka / Kobe if you're around Kyoto for two weeks and Yokohama / Yokosuka / Saitama / Kamakura for Tokyo. I also recommend you to look up if any anime / manga / media you like is based on real locations and go visit those if you have the chance to.

[hurpdurpburps]

Otherside Picnic Manga Yuri Club Special Story 3 English Translation

SPOILER WARNING: Takes place immediately after the events of File 1 - Kunekune Hunting in Vol 1 of the novels.

Written by: Miyazawa Iori

Translated by: @hurpdurpburps

-

Chapter 3: Ochanomizu, The First Afterparty

"Hey… Earth to Toriko, you okay?"

I waved my hand in Toriko’s face, who was staring into space with her chin propped on her hand.

"Mnnnnnnmm… I'm okaaaaaaay…" Toriko answered fuzzily.

Her eyes were only halfway open, or perhaps just a quarter-way.

"You look like you’re gonna fall asleep though."

"No I’m nooot…"

Liar. It was obvious she'd already reached her breaking point.

As I watched her while taking small sips of beer from my glass, Toriko's eyes finally closed completely. With a droop of her head, she completely stopped moving.

Alright, that's all, folks. Toriko-san has closed up for the day. Great work today. [1]

… What the hell am I supposed to do?

On the table were three empty Tsingtao beer bottles. They were small in size, which should’ve been a reasonable amount for two drinkers, so I was surprised to see Toriko wiped out so early into the night. I’d assumed that she could hold her liquor well, judging from the way she went wild with our drink orders as soon as we were seated.

She’d applied the same heavy hand to our food orders as well. I'd thought that she could finish all of it but that wasn’t the case either. Our plates of cashew chicken (delicious), cumin lamb (spicy & delicious) and water spinach (perfect with beer) sat on the table, mostly untouched.

I don’t think this lass can eat any more…

Toriko was dozing off soundly, so the prospect of depending on her for help seemed unlikely in the near future.

I guess I don’t have a choice.

Resigned to my fate, I picked up my chopsticks and began eating the leftovers.

I wasn’t a glutton, I just simply didn’t like the idea of not clearing my plate. But I suppose it was also because I’d picked up the habit of eating whenever I was able to.

Just an hour ago, Toriko and I had entered the “Other World” [2] via an old building in Jinbocho, encountered the kunekune, fended it off somehow, then fled in a mindboggling state of excitement and fear. In order to return to the real world, we had to take the exhausting route of climbing ten floors on a ladder attached to the exterior of the skeletal building. We’d both been laughing and screaming the entire time, which in hindsight, painted a rather unhinged picture of us.

Isn’t that way too scary from an objective point of view? I think something was probably wrong with us.

After our return, Toriko had kicked up a fuss about holding an afterparty for whatever reason, so we made our way to the station and entered the first Chinese restaurant we saw.

We made a toast and… ended up in this situation before we knew it.

Toriko's chin fell from her hands, and she collapsed onto the table, burying her face in her arms. Sending pieces of shredded lamb into my mouth from the plate that I had moved away so that her beautiful golden locks wouldn't get dirty, I stared intently at the crown of her head, which was facing me.

There’s no sign of black around her roots. Seems like it's not a dye job, but her natural hair colour. Huh…

I continued eating while staring at the head of a woman I didn't know well.

As if on cue, Toriko began to stir just as I was about to finish eating.

"Are you awake?"

"Hmmm…"

"You're sleepy after all."

"I'm not sleepyyyyy…" Toriko replied, her tone foggy and with her eyes still closed.

It seemed like it would take her a while to reboot.

"I thought about leaving you behind."

"Why would you say that…"

"You were the one who said you wanted to have dinner, then you went ahead and fell asleep anyway."

"You can’t do that… Don't leave me behind…" Toriko mumbled apologetically. "It's weird… I'm usually a lot stronger than this…"

"You're kidding."

"I’m serious, usually my face doesn’t even flush when I get like this."

"It's probably the exhaustion. I heard that alcohol tolerance can vary quite a bit depending on your condition."

"Hmm…" Toriko said, rubbing her eyes with both hands. "I guess it's because I met you, Sorawo."

"… Me?"

"Hmm… I guess you make me feel at ease."

"Huh?"

I had no idea what she was talking about. It was a good thing Toriko felt at ease, but I didn't think that had anything to do with me.

Wishing for Toriko to wake up soon, I scarfed down the last of the chicken and cashew.

TL Notes

General note: I adopted a more 'literary' prose style to match the tone of the novels. Hence, the translation in this series will be significantly more liberal than my usual analytical posts. Feel free to ask me anything.

[1] This line in Japanese is "はい終了。鳥子さん閉店ー。おつかれさまでしたー。", which conveys a humourous tone by using a business/shop metaphor for Toriko.

[2] A fun fact about the OP series name is that 裏世界 (urasekai - lit. "Other World") does not translate to "Otherside" exactly. 裏世界 is the term first used by Satsuki, Kozakura and Toriko, and was only adopted later by Sorawo.

The name for the UBL that Sorawo came up with on her own was 裏側 (uragawa - lit. "Other Side"). In fact, Sorawo continued using 裏側 until her first meeting (and briefing about the UBL) with Kozakura in Chapter 3 of File 2 - Hasshaku-sama Survival.

This bonus story takes place before that, which is why Sorawo is still using 裏側 here. I essentially flipped the translations of 裏世界 and 裏側 so that it makes a little more sense contextually.

PS. While I use the term "real world" for the reality in which our characters are from, the Japanese word used in the novels is in fact 表世界 (omotesekai - lit. "surface world"). This is because 表 ("surface" or side facing up) and 裏 ("back" or other-facing side) are antonyms.

The English localisation of the novels follows this terminology ("surface world") but the wordplay gets lost in translation due to the lack of context.

List of Yuri Club's Otherside Picnic Short Stories [my translations]:

1. Shinjuku, The First Meet-Up (新宿、初めての待ち合わせ)

2. Hasshaku-sama Epilogue (八尺様エピローグ)

3. Ochanomizu, The First Afterparty (お茶の水、初めての打ち上げ)

4. Ikebukuro, Cafe Meal For One (池袋、ひとりカフェ飯)

5. Naha, After The Big Job (那覇、大仕事の後)

6. Ishigaki Island, A Dazed Vacation (石垣島、呆然のリゾート)

7. Mercedes AMG, The Backseat (メルセデスAMG、後部座席)

8. Otherworldly Elevator, On The Way Back (異世界エレベーター、帰路)

9. Kozakura Mansion, Pizza Party (小桜屋敷、ピザパーティー)

10. Ikebukuro Bookstore, Meet Up (池袋の書店、待ち合わせ)

11. Hannou, In The Car From The Station (飯能、駅からの車中)

12. TBD

[tokyowalking]

Ochanomizu, a pedestrian paradise at lunchtime.

On weekdays from 12:00 to 13:00 on Myougei-dori Street, just outside Ochanomizu Station, there is a pedestrian paradise.

Other times are from 8:00 to 9:00 and 10:00 to 5:00 p.m.

お茶の水、お昼時の歩行者天国です。

御茶ノ水駅を出てすぐの茗渓通りにて平日の12～13時には歩行者天国になります。

他には8～9時、22～5時が歩行者天国として楽しめます。

[manfrommars2049]

Ochanomizu Station from an other world, Tokyo - Japan [OC] via VaporwaveAesthetics

[alexin-wonderlust]

Day 7 - Japan Blog - 13 February 2024 DisneySea

Today, my partner and I, Ben are going separate ways.

He wants to go and find music stuffs; so I found him a whole street where they have guitars, bass, ukulele, record stores... its literally called "Guitar Street" or Ochanomizu and its near Ueno (sort of). I, on the otherhand... will never be satiated with Disney. So Im doing another day at Disney but Im going to DisneySea. The second day at Disney is always more organised and streamlined -- I didnt really eat much but I did make sure to do the things I wanted to do.

We started the day at Tokyo Station and I found the Kirby Sweets Cafe (to make up for the fact I missed out on making a booking for the Kirby Cafe when the bookings sold out in less than a DAYYYY!) I had a banana and caramel pie with bubblegum flavoured cream. It was intense, and... while it was nice and decadent. I dont think it was amazing. But CUTE though? When we split ways, I went to Disney and the first person I ran into was GOOFY! There were lots of character greets happening as I arrived so I managed to snag a picture with Goofy and Daisy. I wanted to buy the black ears that I have had my eye on for YEARS -- the girl who served me was lovely and wrote me a cute sticker!! I had some food from the italian place in the main area, which was pretty bloody good to be honest. I had a lambrusco and a beer from a craft brewery called Harvest Moon -- but it, wasnt good at all. Then I spent the rest of the day going around, taking photos. I did purchase a ticket to ride Journey to the Centre of the Earth and it is still an absolute highlight of my day. Love that ride so much! When it got dark, I managed to find myself a spot to watch the night time show and it was epic. Of course. Then I got a Stella Lou bunny for my niece to take home. :) Ben met me at Shinagawa Station so we could find ramen, but ended up in a HUB pub and had pizza and beer for dinner.

[luke-r-gillespie]

May 19 - Travel to Kyoto

Freewriting

Today was a pretty uneventful day as the majority of it was spent traveling from Tokyo to Kyoto. Today's meeting began at the normal time of 9 so I woke up at 8:30 to give myself enough time to get ready and pack the remainder of my things for the journey. We left from Ochanomizu station and arrived at Tokyo Station where we would catch our shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo. The shinkansen ride itself was actually really cool as we reached speeds of up to 180 miles per hour. The views of Japan's smaller cities and countryside's (and Fuji-San) racing by, as the train tore its way down the tracks was unlike anything I have ever seen on a train before. After arriving in Kyoto, we had over an hour to kill at the station before we could check into the hotel so I grabbed some lunch with some friends (I had teriyaki chicken and it was surprisingly good for a restaurant in a train station.)

After arriving at our new hotel (Stay SAKURA) and unpacking my things, I set out to explore Kyoto a little and grab some dinner with a few of the lads. Right outside our hotel was a really cool little shrine and as I walked around more of Kyoto, I kept finding more shrines all over the city.

The last thing that I did this evening was grab some food at a Chinese restaurant (which was really good) before grabbing some ice-cream and heading back to the hotel. I wouldn't go back however as they kept forgetting to prepare Zacchary's food and seemed pretty unapologetic about the whole ordeal.

Academic Reflection

Japan's Shinkansen (bullet train) was the world's first ever high-speed rail service. Japan opened the first Shinkansen line in October of 1964 between Tokyo and Osaka, in preparation for the 1964 Olympic games. Japan had originally intended for more lines to be available by this time but due to time constraints and other extenuating circumstances this was not possible. The Shinkansen was one of many efforts being made by Japan at this time to portray themselves as a successful and developed nation (distancing themselves from the world's old perceptions of them following world war 2.) The Shinkansen gives the Japanese people an efficient and affordable way to travel across the country, allowing areas and people to be more interconnected. Additionally, by limiting travel time, people who travel by Shinkansen have more time to spend in their destinations, leading to further stimulation of Japan's economy. While an undeniable feat of engineering and technology, the Shinkansen does have unintended negative impacts on certain groups in Japan. For example, people displaced by the Shinkansen's construction or villages that lack stops from the Shinkansen (or its faster counterparts.) Not having a stop in ones city can be detrimental to the local economy because travelers opt to go to locations where Shinkansen stops are available instead. In this way, the Shinkansen has the unfortunate ability to make or break the economy of small Japanese towns.

[puniper]

Puniper can we please get an atom the beginning update? What’s going on in in

hmmm.. aaah, im bad at retelling so here is a summary of part 2 so far in bullet points

Takes place 20 years after part 2 and the main characters are Tobio and Botan (Shunsaku's and Ran's daughter/Ochanomizu's niece)

Tobio spent 3 years in Vietnam for a brain surgery and rehabilitation, apparently he was born with some weird defect and had to have an AI chip implanted in his brain also while he was there Pink taught him martial arts, which he uses to beat up a bunch of kids that were bullying him on his first day of class

Due to what happened in part 1 with A108 (basically bewusstein infecting robots and making them go haywire and kill people), AI research was restricted and autonomous AIs have been banned in Japan, so most robots that currently exist are pretty archaic, A106 and A107 were sealed and been kept stored in Ochanomizu's lab ever since, AI being banned is also the reason why Tobio had to go to Vietnam for his brain implant

Tenma drops by Ochanomizu's lab and ask him if he can unseal A106 and A107 so that Tobio can meet them, he makes the most pathetic meow meow face and manages to convince him, when Six wakes up, he immediately makes connection with Tobio's brain chip, so basically they can talk to each other telepathically now

Since they can't bear to shut them down again, Tenma takes A106 to his house meanwhile Shunsaku and Ran take A107 to theirs, at Tenma's place we learn that Hoshie's mom, Tsukie is in the hospital with like a few weeks left to live, she has a brain tumour caused by a brain implant like the one Tobio has. Turns out that using brain chips to communicate with machines is extremely harmful because human brains can't handle the speed information is transmitted between machines so that shit will kill you long term.

So naturally Tobio takes Six to his room and tells him the way they connected with each other was sooooooooo cool and they should do it again, Six refuses and says he doesn't want to harm him so Tobio promises that he understands and won't ask him again (this is a lie), he's also keeping the fact he and Six can communicate a secret from Tenma and Hoshie

Which brings us to the current chapter, Tobio and Botan dress up Six and A107 so that people can't recognize them and take them for a walk, there they spot Tobio's classmates (which are all punkass delinquent kids btw) who are planning to play a prank during the prime minister's speech, they're gonna throw a bag that has a smokescreen to scare people into thinking its a bomb, Six reacts immediately and jumps into action to grab the bag and throw it away, one of the prime minister's bodyguards sees him and tries to give chase, meanwhile Tobio is yelling asking Six where he is and to reply to him via his brain chip since 'its an emergency', Six tells him what happened and Tobio has an idea to meet up with Six before he's found and change clothes with each other to try to fool the bodyguard thats looking for him

After Tobio exchanges clothes with Six he lets himself be caught and says he's just playing 'hero' with his friends and the smokescreen was just a harmless game, however the bodyguard isn't convinced and asks him to come to the police station, that's where we are so far

Oh yeah I should mention that when A106 and A107 woke up, we get a glimpse of A108 who apparently is still around and still very very mad and violent so thats gonna be a shitshow lol

[konradnews]

JR East adds 15 more stations to be equipped with platform doors this fiscal year. Most of the Nambu Line stations are covered.

JR East announced that it will newly target line 29 at 15 stations for platform door installation in FY2024, in addition to those previously announced. The reason for this is that it has become possible to secure the components. The target stations include Ochanomizu and Chiba stations on the Chuo and Sobu Lines (local stop trains), as well as 13 stations (including some stations where platform…

[zacharyja]

Thursday, May 16, 2024

Mount Takao Day Trip and Ikebukuro

Today began early again as always at 7am with breakfast and a class meeting at 8am. The class then walked to Ochanomizu station where we took a train down to Takao station which took about an hour. Once there, we all walked up through the town towards the path up the Takao Mountain. The town itself was pretty quiet and seemed like it would be a nice and peaceful place to visit to get out of the big city. We then made our way to the ski lifts to get us a good way up the mountain which offered great views of the luscious forests surrounding us. Once at the top, of the ski lifts, we were essentially in the clouds and literally could see the clouds in front of us and feel the mist as we walked through it all. The views of the trees in the mountains with the cloud/fog cover looked beautiful.

We then made our way up to the Yakuo-in Temple, and along the way there were many shinto monuments and red lanterns lining the pathway. It felt really nice walking through the forest and the weather was absolutely perfect. Feeling the nice cool breeze with the slight mist as we walked through the dense foliage cover made for a great time walking through the pathway.

The temple itself was very pretty and ornate and I was a fan of the backstory behind a lot of it, as learning about the origins of Shingon Buddhism was very interesting. Walking with my group was fun as well as we all had good conversation and enjoyed each others company. Once we got to the very top we could see so much of the city, as well as all the mountains off in the distance.

After reaching the summit of 599.3 meters, we walked back down and a group of us opted for taking a more scenic route that would give us more time to explore the mountain trail and enjoy the nature of the mountains with the great view. We had a great time on the hike back and at one point we saw a crazy looking leech type creature that was swallowing and entire 10 inch worm whole. I ended up taking some sticks and pulling the worm out of its mouth to see what it was. Once I got the worm out, the leech thing started squirming around and moving in very weird manners. I have never seen anything like this creature and am still a bit puzzled as to what it was. If i find out what exactly it is i’ll update the blog. Edit i found out the name of the leech, it is called “Orobdella octonaria”.

After that, we made our way down the mountain and towards the ski lifts, where the view was even better than the one going up which was pretty amazing to see. After that we stopped at a fresh doughnut place to grab a quick snack before our hour train ride home. The doughnut was delicious and really filled the caloric void I received from walking so much and ascending hills. After the train ride home we stopped to get some food at a burger place called “Crane Burgers” where I ordered a teriyaki cheeseburger and a Hazy IPA. The burger was delicious and the IPA was okay.

After getting back home we did some laundry and Luke, Rich and I decided to head over to Ikebukuro to check out the Sunshine City indoor mall. We walked around there for a while and enjoyed window shopping and ended up checking out the Pokemon Center Mega Tokyo, which was about the same as all the others but still fun to see. We then went to a massive claw machine place and did some Gashapon. After that we went back to the station and headed home to write our blogs.

Academic Reflection

After visiting Mount Takao and seeing how densely populated the forests are in Japan with trees and other flora, I was able to understand at just how large of a scale they were able to preserve and properly maintain the wildlife. I could have very easily seen Japan going down the same path that many other developed countries do, where they deforest tons of land and seemingly have no care for how that may impact the land in the future. So it was nice to read about all the different measures that Japan put in place in order to start early in sustainably harvesting and growing the trees that they used so much for timber and other means. The massive Japanese Cedar trees were very impressive and in my opinion almost rivaled the coastal redwoods in terms of sheer scale and dense population. We even saw one tree today that was over 450 years old, which is an insanely large number for a living organism to have been alive for. I am very grateful that Japan utilized their resources well and did not destroy the precious beautiful land that they had, as I am sure that would have been the easier route to take rather than doing the actual right thing.

[loganinjapan]

Day 7: ACTIVITIES

Hakone Day Trip, Pre-Lunch: Today got off to a rough start. I slept through the entire class meeting. Not genuinely surprised considering the day before was a 6 AM -> 12 AM type of day. I apologized and we began our journey. We ended up taking a train, cable car, gondola and even a pirate ship during the first half of our day trip! One funny moment (well... terrifying for me) was when a giant Asian hornet flew into the cable car and everyone freaked out. It was both hilarious and absolutely scary. Luckily someone let it back out and my heartrate went back to normal. This was the part of the trip where I got mom's souvenir - an oven mitt with a pretty cute shiba inu / Mt. Fuji design!!! We also tried eggs that were hardboiled in sulfulric volcanic water - they were black!!!! Also... sulfur smells terrible. Lunch: Before becoming a pirate and embarking towards Hakone, we stopped at a cafeteria to grab lunch. I ended up getting the omurice with bolognese, with some tater tots on the side and peach juice to drink. It was honestly pretty good and I didn't have any complaints, it's just overshadowed by everything else I've had that's delicious so far this trip. 9/10. Hakone Day Trip, Post-Lunch: Thanks guys. Now I have more blisters on my feet. This day went more downhill than Tigris and Iron Gwazi at Busch Gardens combined. Yes, a lot of the area was very pretty and I got some great photos. But I'd rather zero photos and alive feet than the alternative. This day HURT LIKE HELL. It was either walking or sitting on the bench trying to cool down my feet because each step felt like walking on hot coals. We still have to hike Mt. Takao. I'm cooked. Dinner: Before I stumbled into my hotel room, I decided to lull myself to sleep with a log-rolling dinner. I ended up at I-Kitchen, a place serving Indian food just minutes from Ochanomizu Station and on the way back to my hotel. I rarely, if ever, get Indian food so this was kind of a new experience. In the end, I ordered the butter chicken set which came with butter chicken curry, rice, a small salad, and orange juice. I also ordered some cheese naan for craps and giggles. To sum it up, this was good. I'm still new to Indian food so it'll take some time, but this was a good start. The flavors worked super well in my mouth, as if they were shaking hands after a successful business meeting. This might not be the last time I try Indian food on the trip. Some biryani or tandoori chicken sounds delightful. 8/10. As a reminder, I'm trying a lot of restaurants on this trip, and I'm rating them out of 10 to see which ones I like the most. The great, the good, the bad, I want to try it all. Here's a ranking so far, as we have officially finished the first week! - Yuragi: 10/10 - Tokyo American Club: 10/10 - Tonkatsu Hinata: 10/10 - Ginza Grill Cardinal: 10/10 - Cedar Chop House Bar & Grill: 9/10 - Mochizuki Curry: 9/10 - I-Kitchen: 8/10 - Ristorante Cavacavallo: 8/10 - Hope-ken Sendagaya HQ: 8/10 - McDonald's: 7/10 - Brisk Stand: 5/10

[itsayaze]

Day Two - "Wait, what did we come in here for again?"

I woke up early that day. 6AM. When I wake up before I actually want to I lay there for a few minutes to see if I'm AWAKE awake. And I was. That morning, I hopped into a Discord call with my friends and just hung around with them whilst I wrote the previous day's journal.

After that, I went outside for a quick nibble. There's a Famima directly across from the hotel, so I dropped in for a drink and my trusty favourite: tuna mayo onigiri. I returned to the hotel and got ready for the day.

Later on, we made our way towards the day's destination: Akihabara.

However, there's a little detour we need to take first. So from Shinjuku, we made our way over to Ochanomizu's Hijiribashi Bridge, because we had a mission: can we get the fated triple?

We patiently waited as many trains came and went, chatting all the while about a theoretical Pokemon Snap-like for transporting, since its a fairly universal hobby. After a while, we'd assumed that it wasn't gonna happen, and just as we were getting ready to walk to Akihabara, the 3 trains (and a bonus fourth) all rocked up at the same time!

With that achievement bagged, we headed off towards Akihabara to continue the Chigyu Championship.

Now, I stayed in AKB with my partner in 2018 when we visited it last, so I'd like to say I know it pretty well. And whilst it is mostly the same, the lack of Club SEGA breaks my heart a bit. I don't WANT to get into the gaming oasis. I want to join club SEGA!

Round 2 of the CC found us at Sukiya. We ordered up, and the fabulous cheese gyudon arrived. At Sukiya, they also give you tabasco sauce, so I slathered it over and stirred. The cheese is better than that at Matsuya, and the addition of tabasco elevates the dish higher. Sukiya currently sits at top of the ranking. Next up, Yoshinoya.

Beefed up, we went to Excelsior Coffee, where I got a iced latte. It was there that my buddy showed me a sticker he'd stumbled upon in a prior visit to the city. It was a lenticular sticker of a guy driving a car, but pulling over to stop and look at you at the right angle. There was a website on it, and it's a Web 1.0 delight.

We went to go and see if the sticker was still there out of curiosity.

Curiosity satiated, and we went to start the day's mission proper.

My goal for the day was to try and find a neGcon, the weird PS1 controller made by Namco. Apparently, it's a really good way of playing Ridge Racer, so it makes sense to have one.

We went to a few places. Let's do a quick rundown:

Super Potato: Cool retro shop, but now has become so well known its basically a tourist trap.

Beep: "Super Potato but gooder" - they also carry a lot of PC-98 stuff. Recently, they published Radirgy 2?! I must remember to grab a copy... As soon as I spotted the Game CD section my quest for the neGcon went straight out the fuckin' window. I grabbed a whole bunch of Ridge Racer OSTs and a Phantasy Star Online Ep I&II arrange album.

Surugaya: I've known about Surugaya when importing stuff using OneMap. I bought quite a lot of stuff in here, mostly some nice gifts for my girlfriend.

Trader: Usually good, but way too busy today. Maybe I'll take a nose another day.

Mandarake: Was comically busy. We were both kind of hurting at that point so we turned around immediately. We're heading to Nakano Broadway soon anyway.

The hell began when we went across Akiba to Yodobashi Camera. Initially, we were going there because Dave wanted to find a fancy-ass cable for his fancy-ass phone with a weird charging standard.

Just over an hour and a half later, I've got a whole bunch of shit in my basket. As we're standing at the register to deal with the tax-free shopping process, I turn to Dave and say "Wait, what did we come in here for again?"

We headed back to the Chuo Rapid to get home to Shinjuku, completely forgetting that another one of the things we were going there for was to play the big sitdown Densha de GO!! cabinet at Taito Station.

But, not to worry, there's a Taito Station at the East Exit of Shinjuku Station! The DDG website said that on its location list, they had one, so we figured we'd drop in on the way home to right that wrong.

Whilst yes, they technically have a DDG cab, it is not the full-size model. Which makes sense, considering the real estate. Dave asked me "do you really want your first experience of the DDG cabinet to be on the small one next to a Taiko?" and on that note, we'd left.

Thanks a lot, Big Crappy!

After a soak with a strong zero to calm my leg muscles down, and a quick nap to put some more gas in the tank, we went to a Bankara Ramen for an outrageously great bowl of tonkatsu. After this, a little stop into the Game Panic. This is pretty much our home arcade since it's right next door to our hotel.

That day, we focused mostly on racing games. I'd set up my profiles for Initial D THE ARCADE and Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 6RR. (MaxiTune 6 is hilarious, we've gone from 6, to 6R, to 6RR. Sadly, 6RR+ comes out a few days after I leave Japan, and it adds the new Nissan Fairlady Z... I love that car, man.)

So many intense races, close calls and outrageous drifts. I love these games so much. After that, I played Chunithm until a staff member came over to inform us it was closing time. I grabbed some snacks and something to drink from the nearby 7-Eleven, including Coca-Cola K-Wave, which is a limited-time K-Pop flavour, and a pouch of Coolish, of which I am now a massive fan.

Time to rest up. Tomorrow is the RGG pop-up shop and potentially Nakano Broadway.

[calochortus]

Ochanomizu Station, Tokyo, Japan 御茶ノ水駅、東京 by Matthew S

[60daysinjapan]

Ochanomizu, Tokyo