Nerd Mecca and Joypolis

Yesterday, I had a full list of temples and the palace. But before this was Akihabara, a district in Tokyo dedicated to computer parts, video games, dvd's, anime, manga, and general nerd paraphernalia. This was another aspect of Tokyo I was not aware of before coming here. I had heard about this from some friends who were decidedly not nerds. So my expectations were low.

Akihabara is nerd mecca. It is a pilgrimage every nerd should make once in their life. I spent three hours walking up and down a giant store dedicated exclusively to all the old toys I used to play with as a kid. Transformers, Power Rangers, Gundam, NES, SNES, Sega, you name it, it was there. It was amazing. Then I left that building, and found a square mile of shops dedicated mostly to the same thing. It was amazing. I found so many amazing things that I could not buy. Mostly cause they cost a fortune now that they are collectors items. I ended up spending the whole day there. It was awesome.

That night two friends and I went to a cool sushi restaurant. The ones where the plates go round a conveyor belt. I stuck to the cheap plates. It was still delicious. As we were walking back, a building with a big Bandai sign caught our eye. Bandai made most of the toys I mentioned in the paragraph before. They, along with Nintendo and a few other companies, are directly responsible for my nerdiness. After a little investigation, we found out that that was indeed Bandai HQ, nestled in the strangest part of Taito, Tokyo. My friends and I started flipping out.

Today we went back there and took pictures. They had a museum of their most succesful toys, which we shamelessly drooled over. Tokyo has been one giant nerd and nostalgia trip. It's been awesome. After this, we decided to take a hike to the harbor district in Tokyo. We had heard about two cool parks. Muscle Park, an offshoot of Ninja Warrior, and Joypolis, and indoor amusement park by Sega. Muscle Park was a huge letdown. I was expecting obstacle courses. Instead I got a little kids playground. Complete with a ball pit. It was sad really.

Joypolis on the other hand was awesome. All the latest video games, but on steroids. My friend, Lloyd and I spent the whole day there going on every ride and video game imaginable. My favorite was the giant oversized Tetris game. It wasn't too complicated either, and would be fairly simple to build. But I think I have enough nerd projects that I haven't finished.

Anyway, tomorrow I change hotels to a Capsule hotel! This is where your bed is literally a hole in the wall. It's a strange Japanese custom, but I'm interested to see how it works. After that, it's off to Honolulu! Back to USA. Now that I have been to a dozen countries all over the world, I can safely say that there is no place like home. Internet there might be expensive, so my next few posts may very well come from good old NJ. If I don't get to post til then, it's been fun everyone, and I'll see you all soon back home!