Dorking Out in Tokyo

This past weekend we went into Tokyo again. This time we went by ourselves, and although we had to ask for help a few times and we wandered around in circles a little bit, we made it there and back again. About getting there: first we drive about 10 minutes to the nearest station with an express train into the city, then we take the train for about an hour into the outskirts of the city. After that we can get on the subway and go wherever we want.

We went to Akihabara (Akiba) first. Akiba is the electronic district of Tokyo, famous for electronic stores, gaming and maid cafes. Maid cafes are kind of like Hooters for Japanese nerds.  After that we went to Jimbocho, which has been the bookseller's district of Tokyo for decades.  Dozens of bookstores....and if you look hard enough you can find English books. I found a couple of aisles of them at Sanseido Bookstore (the bookstore in the local mall also has a couple of shelves of English books, for the record.)

By the time we got home (we were gone 9am to 5pm) we were exhausted. I learned to not plan too much for a day trip into the city. I think you could live there your whole life and never see the whole city..... Hopefully we can plan to stay a full weekend soon and get in some real sightseeing. Check out Shutterfly for a lot more photos!

akiba skyline

in a trance

the maids stand on all the street corners
and try to lure poor suckers into the cafes

bookstores as far as the eye can see