Day 3 - Akihabara, where dreams came true
I’ve spent my lifetime wanting to visit Akihabara. As with all things Japan, part of my desire comes from how Tokyo inspired Blade Runner and other cyberpunk media. But more than that, as a child of the 80s, Akihabara also represented the centre of technological advancement. As a life-long geek Akihabara (aka Akiba) is my Graceland.
But (while) I've reason to believe we all will be received in Graceland, as a family, I needed everyone awake to do so and Bella wasn’t stirring. Appreciating she needed her rest I set off to source breakfast from the local bakery and 7-11.
Breakfast mission: croissants, melon pan and onigiri
The local bakery, called Tomtom, smelt wonderful. Being a self-serve setup, I picked up a tray and pair of tongs, quickly sourcing croissants and melon pan. The friendly staff on hand ensured I had all I wished for and once I'd paid, I headed next-door to the local 7-11. Here I bought onigiri and bananas. Once back at the hotel everyone was now up and everyone enjoyed the simple breakfast selection to start the day. In fact this was the first time Bella and I had eaten onigiri and we immediately became converts to this new meal option. I had seen some "salary-men" eating onigiri for breakfast from a "konbini" store the previous day but I'm unsure if it's a typical breakfast dish. However, everyone was happy with the breakfast and so we were ready to press on.
On the train to geek central
We took the Asakusa Line, changed onto the Chūō-Sōbu Line at the Asakusabashi Station and exited into Akihabara TV screen-filled station. I was absolutely beaming. I had arrived!
Due to the late-start of the day I had to cut down what I was going to see and visit. The most important for me were Radio Center and Yodobashi Camera and I knew if I covered both of these, then I would be happy. James also had something special he wanted to do in Japan, and Yodobashi Camera would help us achieve this. But first, I needed to point something out to my kids.
While we stood looking at the old Sega building and all the chaotic energy of Akihabara I said to my children this:
“I’ve spent 40 years dreaming of coming here and now I’m here. So, dreams can come true and I want you to know and remember that but also something else, equally as important.
What was my dream? It was just to fly to another country and really how simple was that? So, my dream to one day go into space may be difficult, but not all of them are.”
With a big hug from both of the kids we walked to Yodobashi Camera to geek out on all the tech.
The many worlds of Yodobashi Camera
We went from floor to floor walking through all that was on offer. This place is huge! We tried not to waste time browsing aimlessly, but of course it couldn't be helped:
The kids loved the toy section and gachapon machines.
Bella and my wife spent 15+ minutes in the vast stationery department.
My wife and I enjoyed the keyboard displays in the music section.
But the boring bit for my family was watching me nerd out at all the watches on the 3rd Floor. I was as quick as I could be and didn’t try any watches on but I had budget for a JDM (Japanese Domestic Market i.e. Japanese exclusive) watch and needed to review all the Seiko, Citizen, and Casio options. With that completed and some grumpy/grumbling comments I knew it was time for lunch.
Lunch at Craft Beer Tap – with kindness on tap
The whole of the 8th floor in Yodobashi Camera is dedicated to restaurants. The scale of the department store constantly hits you and looking at the map of all the food on offer was quite something to take in. But seeing that Craft Beer Tap had options that all us wanted, we stepped in to be greeted by friendly staff.
When we ordered our food they also ensured that my daughter's peanut allergy wasn’t affected. I had printed off some translated explanation about her peanut allergy and the staff went out of their way to point out the one item that she shouldn’t eat. Can’t thank them enough for their care and we enjoyed the wonderful food provided. And with well fed stomachs replacing the grumpy faces from earlier we headed to floor 9 for something quite special.
Fore! Golf on the roof
Those with keen eyes may have noticed I seem to be carrying a golf club in Akihabara and that’s because I was. James plays at the local driving range and being a nerd I knew about the netted driving range on-top of Yodobashi Camera. What I didn’t know was if it would be OK for left-handed players to use the range. I’m not a golfer and it isn’t obvious from photos how left handed players can tee up.
So, clarifying that was difficult given the language barrier but as will have guessed already the staff were super helpful.
We paid the tourist cost to use the range (which was ¥4000, around £20, at time). You may be upset to hear tourists pay a different rate but from my point of view we were a real pain for the staff trying to accommodate us, which they did. And while 20 quid may be a lot of money we got 30 minutes of fun and laughter, countless photos and videos of James playing golf in another country for the very first time. It wasn’t just special for James, it was great for Bella and I to be part of it too and 100% worth the price and the complete pain of carrying a children's’ 7 iron around Tokyo, looking like a lunatic.
Radio Center and... Regret #1
Speaking of crazy, have you seen Radio Center and the photos of the people working there? I’ve always wanted to visit it and it’s simple enough to find. It was great briefly wandering through this iconic marketplace but I made a huge error while I was there.
James had spotted a “rare” pokemon card in a shop and decided to invest some of his holiday spending money. I didn’t have a souvenir from my time in Yodobashi Camera, unable to find a JDM watch I wanted or could afford (if someone wants to give me £10,000 for a UFA Grand Seiko, call me). While my wife and son talked with the pokemon shop keeper I looked on at this lady, selling hardware manuals.
Of course all of them were in Japanese and so I didn’t think about buying one, just looking around and taking in the different and interesting ways some people make a living. It was only later in the evening that it stuck me - why didn’t I buy a manual as a souvenir? I had the cash on me. The cost was relatively low and flicking through a tech manual or magazine I can’t read is exactly how I like to spend my freetime!
Photo credit https://leechapman.photos/
To the lady in the marketplace I’m sorry I didn’t buy anything. You now occupy a special place in my regrets from the trip to Japan. These are wrongs to right should I be lucky enough to visit Japan again.
Regret 1 - Didn’t buy a manual from the manual lady
Next stop: Ryogoku Station
If you’re wondering why I made this oversight it was because my mind was already on the next destination back, The Sumida Hokusai Museum. Jumping back on the Metro it’s a short-trip from Akiba (yup I just used the abbreviated name, I’m basically a local now) to Ryogoku Station from where we would walk 10 minutes to the museum. But first we had to stop at the Sumida City Tourist Office!
I imagine you’re thinking that if I had a clear idea of where I was going why stop by the tourist office? Well Ryogoku is home to both the Ryogoku Kokugikan Sumo Hall (or National Sumo Arena) and Edo-Toyko Museum. We weren’t going to visit those on day 3 but stopping at the tourist office gave the family a taste of what this part of Japan is famous for. My family didn’t have a clue what they were walking into, they thought it would be a boring, pamphlet landen office but Japan don’t do tourism like so many of us do and the kids couldn’t believe this space when they saw it (no photos to save spoilers but check-out their website):
The local restaurateurs seemed bemused but pleased to see my kids walking up to their shop windows and one gave a knowing thumbs up. I don’t think many foreign tourist visit this part of Tokyo but I would suggest they do and I would love to explore more around Ryogoku for sure. Alas time was against again so with some proper Dad walking we headed at The Sumida Hokusai Museum.
If you have any passing interesting in Art, Design, Animation or Manga this is a must-see destination. It is a relatively small museum and we had viewed the exhibitions in just over an hour. That is of course with two children mostly browsing the work, naturally. But even with one eye on the work and one on the family, Hokusai’s work was incredible to see and viewing the scope of it, made the impact of the work so much more tangible.
With our cultural appetite fed, we were now getting hungry for something equally tasty.
Sumida supper and a warm local welcome
My wife, feeling brave, found a local restaurant close to our hotel with good reviews. So, after a quick bus trip, using a combination of English and our fingers we had a table for 4 and ordered food for all.
As we all tucked into the wonderful food we congratulated my wife had found a winner, at the Sumida Cafe but more fun was to be had. As it appears our appearance (ho ho ho) caught the locals quite off guard. First we met some pensioners who wished us well when leaving the restaurant. Neither of us spoke each others language but it was lovely seeing people excited to see us enjoying visiting their country. We didn’t struggle to speak with the next local who spoke fluent English! A family of four came into the restaurant and two teenage boys were dumbfounded by our presence. As the mum of the family joined her sons as, we were leaving, she engaged us in conversation, initially asking if we had moved to Sumida. With my mind now distracted, already thinking about whether that was a real possibility, my wife explained how we were on holiday and staying not so far away from the cafe. After a brief conversation, with me regaining my ability to speak, we wished each other well and headed home to our hotel.
It put the cap on another fabulous day but with a planned meeting of a local Japanese man I did actually know lined up the next day the trip was starting to heat up.
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