We were planning to go to various places but one look outside made us change our minds. It was raining pretty hard. As a consolation prize, we decided to go to Akihabara (Tokyo's electronics district).
We wandered the neighbourhood poking our noses into little places and looking around. We stumbled across one of my pleasant surprises of the trip, a cafe dedicated to Linux and Open Source.
We also saw a lot of girls dressed up handing out advertising. There is one exit from Akihabara eki where they seem to congregate.
We didn't buy anything. Our price comparisons basically showed everything to be about the same price as back home. Maybe a even a little bit more expensive. Where the Japanese beat us is in colour selection. We have a choice of black or silver for most electronics but the Japanese market is saturated with colours. A common ad that we saw everywhere featured Cameron Diaz shilling cell phones for a company called Softbank. The ads had nothing to do with the price or features of the service. All the ads were about the fact that the phones came in 20 different colours.
After Akihabara, we went to Kappabashi (the kitchen supply neighbourhood). Every single store in the area sells restaurant/kitchen supplies. It was a Sunday so most of the stores were closed but a few were open. Charles bought some wooden slatted things to use as place mats in his new kitchen. I bought a shirt that said “いらしゃいませ！”. That's the phase that all Japanese stores and restaurants scream at you when you walk in the door.
It was late afternoon by this point so we went back to the hotel to do some laundry and chill out. We had been going constantly since we got to Japan so we were starting to get worn out. An evening chilling in front of the TV was what we needed.
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