Kristian Reg, (Intermixi’s Anime Expo 09 “Win a trip to Japan” winner) was part of the Tokyo Game Show Tour. The first time to experience Japan, Kristian was kinda enough to recap everyday that went by on his Intermixi tour.


This was my first experience with Japan. First and foremost Isaac, known to most as Aka-san, provided a friendly environment for the returning members and new members to the tour. Our experience started for me in LAX. We met up with some tour members who have taken the Intermixi experience. Immediately, Isaac was quick to bring up topics to keep the group entertained, based on common interests. This will be a recurring theme throughout the tour.


After we landed in Japan, we met up with the remaining tour members, who were waiting at the airport. We boarded our shuttle bus and headed for our hotel, the Shinagawa Prince. This would be our base of operations for the next 6 days in Tokyo. The accomodations that were set up for us were great. The hotel was right near the train station, which gave us easy access. The tour days were set up nicely, so that tour members had time (depending on how early a riser you were) to do activities before the tour agenda started for the day. On day one, a good number of us were interested in going to the Tsukiji fish market. We went early enough to get some breakfast and sight see, but not early enough to see the auction. This was a great intro into what we were going to see for the rest of Tokyo, lots of people, all somehow harmonizing in what seemed like chaos. Literally the spaghetti of loading trucks moving around a small area, where people were walking and working seemed like an accident could happen any minute, but it all just seemed to work.


DAY ONE


On day one we went on a Tokyo culture tour. Man, we were in for a treat here. Our tour guide for the day was really well prepared, witty, and ready to handle the “man tour”. Our first stop was the Imperial palace. Oka-san, or as she also allowed us to call her, okaasan (mother), was very informative in describing the use of the palace, the design of the gates, as well as an in depth breakdown of the Japanese imperial family and breakdown of succession. This amount of detail would follow as we walked around form location to location. Our next stop was a temple in Asakusa. This temple was neat as Oka-san showed us different traditions as well as opened us up to lots of the little vendors that were outside of the temple. Our next stop was the Tokyo government building, where we got to see a nice high up layout of Tokyo via an observation deck. Next we walked to Kabukicho where in the process we stopped at this “Love” sign, where we got to take photos. This was significant to some tour members as it was featured in various anime or Japanese dramas. This type of catering towards the tour members was a neat feature that may not get covered in a normal tour. We then traveled to Harajuku for more sightseeing. Day one was a neat experience, as our tour guide, Oka-san, was always very quick to offer information in the smallest of areas as well as open to answer a lot of our questions about Japan.


DAY TWO


Day two was a super treat to all of us self-proclaimed otakus, as we were transported to noneother than the mecca of otakus, Akihabara, or Akiba for short. Man, you could spend weeks here and not see everything. It literally is a labyrinth of endless shops with even more endless back alleys and floors that you would miss if you couldn’t read the language, or if you didn’t have a tour guide. Again, Aka-san got us a great tour guide. Adrian, who is an American living in Akihabara, gave us a great well rounded tour. He started out by handing us this neat booklet with a map of our stops and a glossary of terms used in Akiba. This would be super helpful on our day off, as a lot of us went to Akiba to look around and hunt for treasure. Adrian started off the tour with a historical background of Akiba, then a foot tour of some neat shops, always giving tons of interesting info along the way. One of the stops on the tour was a maid cafe. This was a treat to witness a neat game of jan-ken-pon for ingredients to a drink. If the maid wins, she often puts gross stuff in a drink, usually natto, octopus, or a raw egg. If the player wins, he can put whatever he likes, which the good ingredients are chocolate or caramel syrup. All of this is to win a picture with the maid, if you can drink the concoction. If you gag or fail to finish, she slaps you. And from the video playing in the cafe, it’s not a light slap, it’s a full on slap. Luckily the tour member who opted for the game, downed his drink, which the only gross item present, was a raw egg. So, he received his prize, which was a pic with the lovely maid. All in all, the tour of Akiba was mostly informative to the noob venturing off in the huge maze of shops. Giving us tips on where to find the best bargains and showing us unique shops that may be unkown to us.

Related posts:

1. Memoirs of a Gaijin: Final Blog Entries of Spring Tour 2009
2. Memoirs of a Gaijin: TGS 09 (booth babes…)
3. Memoirs of a Gaijin: NHK Broadcasting
4. Memoirs of a Gaijin