There is a key on my keyboard which I must not touch. Actually there are four of them. More on that later. Today's plan was to sleep late, Catch a train to Akihabara, walk to Ginza, shop a while, then go home. I got as far as step two.

I've gotten used to being shocked and amuzed by many of the things I see on a regular basis. Most things don't really phase me too much any more, but Akihabara was totally different from anything I've ever seen before. I have to say, if I had to pick one place to live and work for the rest of my life right now, I'd say Akihabara without pause.

I got off the train and exited the station through the "electric town" exit. Reading the sign I though "Hmmm, electric town, microwaves and radios, maybe some TVs." And yes, there were those things. I was met at the exit be two flyer-handing-out-poeple who actually say "hello" but I brushed them off with the same force I brush off normal flyer-people without finding out what they were hawking.

I started walking in the area around the station to get a feel for the area. I found a couple video game shops right away. I'd normally be more interested in these stores, but my game system can't play Japanese games (well, one of them can... but I digress.) The next thing I found was a store I had seen on TV. I gathered from the TV spots that it's relitively new. What it turned out to be was a Best Buy on crack. Not just a little crack though, we're talking hollywood bender ammounts here. Imagine a Best Buy floor plan, now multiply by 8, and stack them on top of each other and you get the jist of it. I wandered around inside for a while going from floor to floor. Each floor has a different department (Computers, Periferals, Home Goods, Books, Toys, Golf (!?)) After I decided I'd seen all there was to see, I wandered back past the train station towards what turned out to be the main drag. On the way I spotted a shop labeled "Hobby Shop" and ducked (haha) inside. Inside I found the types os things you find from Japan in comic shops in the States. (An aside, wow, the import toy market has a huuuuuuuuuge markup.) I wasn't too enthused by the selection until I spotted a little door in the back. Behind the door was a set of stairs. Up ther stairs, were 3 more floors of store! I could do some real damage to my budget in on of these stores. As I walked around some more I found many many more "Hobby Shops" around. I call them "Hobby Shops" and not "Toy Stores" because the customers were mostly my age and older (See, I'm not strange... in this country... well except not being Japanese...)

After being totally awestruck by the coolness of the shops I had been in I stopped for lunch. Then I decided to hop of the beaten path and ducked down a side street. Oh... WOW... was THAT a good idea... I first saw a little used computer shop. I ducked in (yes, laugh it up) and browsed there little selection. Departing I wandered around a corner into HEAVEN. There' litterally no other way to discribe it. A quarter mile+, 3 blocks wide, 2+ stories tall. All computer shops. Every imagenable part evermade for any computer could be bought here. There were moniter shops, keyboard shops, CPU ans memory shops. New computer shops and 2nd hand shops. I walked up and down the streets for at least 4 hours. I was completely blown away. There is nothing in the States that even compares to this place. After stopping in pertty much every store to see what they had, I found a second had IBM ThinkPad for $100 in the back of one and it called my name. Which brings me back to 4 keys which must not be touched. It's a Japanese laptop with a Japanese keyboard and Japanese OS. Which means it has "Kana" keys which change the input from "Roman" to Japanese. It's kind of tricky to switch it back...

Even tough I only got half of what I planned to do today done I had a REALLY good time doing it. I definately need to go back to Akihabara at some point. I have my first Kendo practice tomorrow morning so I should rest up (I walked a lot today.)

Ja Mata Ne.