It is also a fantastic place to people-watch, as all manner of people traverse its busy streets daily. There are also the Maid Cafes where you can go have a bite to eat while being doted on by a young Japanese girl wearing a maid outfit. These places generally cater to Japanese men who are obsessed with manga, video games, and especially the young girl caricatures which often feature prominently in both. We didn't go into one, but we saw plenty of "maids" walking up and down the streets handing out fliers for their establishment. Think of these places like a Japanese version of a "Hooters" restaurant for nerds. Pictures of some "maids" looking for potential customers, and one of their fliers:
If you're REALLY curious, you can check out the website for one of them: http://candyfruit-strawberry.com/ I think it's mostly work safe, but I can't read any of the Japanese on the page, so visit at your own discretion. Anyways, we didn't go into any of those places, instead settling on a nice normal Western-style (as in European/American, not "Old West") cafe. As we walked around and browsed the shops, we saw a few interesting things:
Yes, that is a mouse pad of an anime girl that has her breasts as the protruding soft jelly-like area where your wrist rests. Classy. They also had pornographic computer games that you'll have to leave to your imagination because we did not take pictures of them.
That last one really creeps me out. After more walking around, I heard a familiar tune cutting through the Tokyo noise. Me: "Is that...Yes...Yes! It's the original Super Mario Bros. theme music!" Like a siren's call, I was drawn to a building by which time the music had changed to the classic Legend of Zelda theme. We entered and followed the signs up to the fifth floor, where there was an arcade of old school video games. It was like a mecca video gamers who grew up in the 80s. Atari, Nintendo, Neo Geo, you name it, if it was old and Japanese, they had it. Tessa played some Tetris while I played some original Super Mario and then Mega Man. Ah, good times:
A throne fit for a king!
Or should I say, Queen?
I even met a celebrity!
It was reeeeally smoky in there, and reminded me what it was like to go to a club or bar before Washington state's smoking ban. Yuck.
We then headed to the Ginza area to get in line to buy tickets for Kabuki at the Kabuki-za theater. While waiting in line, we met some nice Austria who (impressively) spoke perfect English. We chatted with them for a while about life in Japan (she lives in Tokyo with her husband who was there doing research as a physicist) and other general things. The show itself was pretty awesome, though we were way back as far as you could go. We only paid to see one act (about an hour) but it was amazing and well worth it.
A countdown for how many days the historic Kabuki-za theater has left until it is torn down to build a new theater. We were pretty lucky to see it.
That evening, after the show, we went to a bar advertised in the back of our program. It had all drinks and food for 300 yen, not a bad deal, except that each order of food had incredibly small portions. It was still quite fun as it was the first time we had been in a real bar since we've been in Seattle. We got back in a bit late and tired from the long day, but satisfied. Stay tuned for Day Four: The Future is Here, Today! Coming soon, I promise!
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