Jpop: World Order - Have a nice day

I just love World Order and their synchronized dances, but they somehow overdid themselves this time with "Have a nice day" by going to Akibahara in Tokyo, the worlds number one nerd district. They went and visited electronic stores, maid cafes, AKB48 (of course!) and all the other stuff I love or remember. This video is pure love and made me cry from happiness. I even went and changed the name of my blog to the current one, as I acknowledged to myself how easily I cry from happiness, just like AKB48's (ex)-member Yuko Oshima (Start at 8:20 if you're in hurry).

• World Order - Have a nice day

Trip to Korea and Japan: Day 26 - Top 5 List

(Click here for first day, yesterday and all trips)



It is hard to sum up such a long journey to two countries and three cities in a top 5 list, but it can still serve as a focus for what I, at the moment at least, see as my top 5 experiences. In the background is of course a multitude of memories, people and places mixing together in a weave of emotions and impressions, but these five rise above the others in my mind's inner eye.

1. BUIE Share house Gakuenmae. The people of this place really stuck a chord in me and maybe done what years of anime, manga and studies of Japanese culture couldn't do - made me really (really) decide to try to learn the language. Kenji and all you other guys, you were really good friends.

2. Sapporo and Hokkaido. The climate is better than Tokyo, the people better looking, and the shopping and eating is really fantastic enough. If I ever live in Japan, you could do worse.

3. Japanese food. There is a paradox that while Japanese groceries are often quite expensive, you can find simple dishes which taste really great. And the sweets...the Japanese really has a sweet tooth.

4. That day in Ulsan. The day I went looking for the petroglyphs outside Ulsan really redeemed the Korean's to me as I honestly never had felt that much of an connection (like I do in Japan) to the ones I had met. The bus driver gave me directions and a free ride, the two ladies at the exit post near Cheongjeong-ri treated me with water and peaches when I was in need, and it was just a really nice and warm feeling.

5. Bying miniatures in Akibahara in Tokyo. To go to nerd heaven with no cares about what you should do as a grown man is sheer fun. I and my (also grown up) sister went there and shopped fantasy miniatures, comic books and toys like any other japanese otaku. Wearing a fresh 2013 AKB48 t-shirt didn't make it any less fun when in Tokyo.

Trip to Korea and Japan: Day 20 - Temple Run and Otaku Style

(Click here for first day, yesterday and all trips)
Today we went to the super fun kitchen utensil street Kappabashi dori, Temple quarter Asakusa, and otaku (nerd) paradise Akibahara. A really long day that was very satisfying, even though Tokyo is really hot and humid.

OK, this is rather uninteresting but...this is me *not* using my brain when wanting to have a foto on my telephone of the kitchen utensil shopping street Kappabashi dori.

And this is when I use it (a little more).

Tokyo Skytower in the distance

Even Japan has rundown houses.

Nice restaurant in Ueno Park

The National Museum

National museum again

Just hanging out...

A store solely dealing in restaurant/shop signs

Plastic food

and more plastic food. But it IS really nice to know what you are ordering in a land where you sometimes cant read the menus.

I mean, really! Just 390 yen (26 SEK/5 USD) for a delicious menu that I would have no problem paying twice, even thrice, in Sweden.

Eh? Big toe night stretcher?

Big apartment buildings next to midget houses. I just love that about Tokyo.

Here we come, Asakusa! Tokyo's oldest temple and a really nice kind of tourist trap (actually said without any irony, which is unusual for me).

Nice prices, was our thought, even if we didn't buy any of these.

Plastic versions. Malin was like, nah no one wants these, but I am quite sure those striped heel ones would go just right at certain parties? Sci-Fi meets Japanese culture. ^_^

Lucky charm lottery.

Shake and get your stick with a number.

Open the corresponding drawer and get your divination

Kawaii ne!

Koukeshi wooden dolls, really nice, for 1500 - 4000 yen (100-270 SEK/25-70 USD)

My sister mustered up the courage (she already had it, from the start to be honest...) and photographed these pretty girls in yukata.

And then, we went to Akibahara, and down the street we strolled into a release party for some kind computer game. Lots of free extras, like water bottle, light sticks, and some kind of veteran rock singer singing for all his worth (no photos allowed, so he may actually have been someone semi famous...)

Well, not *every* Japanese can love his work 24-7, hehe. But that's OK. 大丈夫!

Mer bilder från releasepartyt.

So cute. And short! The people inside must be sweating as hell, though.

I had decided beforehand, after watching several japanese tv-series about otakus and Tokyo, that I wanted one of these classic anime/manga miniatures. And they weren't actually that expensive as one could believe. So now I am one of those grown men with dolls, haha! But I don't care they were really nice (and still rather restrained, not ones with giant b**bs) and will look very nice on my desk.

And then a short visit at Super Potato, the retro video game store. A must for us who played video games in the 80s and 90s.

The entrance isn't super easy to find even if you have Google Maps.

And what better way to end the evening than with a (I believe) jpop singing girl at the subway station, probably dreaming to be the new Kyary or a member of AKB48 or similar. She did pretty good, listen here:

(CLick here for the next day)