Japan Trip 2012, Day 7 - Akihabara, Travelling

Not too much to say about the rest of the day, but well... yeah, I went off to Akihabara, but I took some time to see one of my friends off first. He arrived earlier than me, and was leaving earlier than me as well, so I got him and his luggage onto the Narita Express from the hotel. And after he was off, I was off.

I only had a few hours at Akihabara, so I went back to Yodobashi Camera and sampled some headphones for a while (mostly AKGs), even if I can't remember what any of them sounded like real well. I did run across an Australian musician at Tower Records, though.

I later found out this was Rusty Brown of Electric Mary, and he was doing a one-man acoustic mini-live at Tower Records. It was probably to promote his real upcoming gig at Club Quattro in Shibuya the next week. Myself, I'm not a Shibuya person since I'm more otaku and not enough reality, and I was going to Chuubu that week as well. So, after hanging around until he was done, I got myself a bite to eat and headed back to Ueno Station to catch the Shinkansen to Hikone Station.

My hotel was a cheap business hotel, Business Hotel Serikawa, some twenty minutes from the station on foot. Here it dawned on me that I forgot one important thing about Japanese map-making: Japan does not have street names. They have intersection names, which I totally forgot to write down. This made it pretty difficult for me to judge distance and landmarks, and the hotel ended up being further than I imagined. I actually had to call and get directions.

Ironically, once I checked in and dropped off my stuff, I walked back out to the station where I came from to find something to eat. I managed to find a place that served Hikone-Don, which is I guess some unique rice bowl that's either only served in the area, or only served at that restaurant. It was pork on half-cooked egg, with some mystery red... thing. It wasn't the best thing I ever ate in Japan, but it filled my stomach.

I went back to the hotel where I snapped pictures of the stuff I bought earlier that day, but I forgot to take pictures of the hotel itself. There were two communal sinks, one single-person bathroom, and one single-person restroom on my floor. The coin laundry was out on the balcony. While someone might raise an eyebrow at this, it surprisingly didn't end up being an issue during the two days I was there. On the first floor, I think I saw a cafe attached to the place, and there was a shelf of borrowable manga. As you can imagine, the place was pretty cheap. I spent two nights here comfortably despite the limited facilities and distance from the station, and all in all I got what I expected for the amount I paid.