Akihabara

Yesterday was Culture Day in Japan which means another welcome national holiday. Japanese workers have far fewer paid holidays to take when compared to the average Brit, but the large number of national holidays in Japan do make up for it somewhat. I think the next public holiday will be on 23rd November, so not too long to wait.

I have always been interested in Akihabara, primarily because of the numerous electrical shops which are located there, hence the Electric City moniker. After arriving in Akihabara around midday I was in need of some sustenance before I browsed though the many shops. I had settled on getting a burger for reasons of convenience. However, as luck would have it, I stumbled across a Brazilian steak restaurant which I recalled had been highly recommended by one of my colleagues at Weathernews.

The place is called Tucano's and I soon discovered that it was worth visiting Akihabara for the steak alone. A nice big piece of rump steak with a smattering of green beans and sweetcorn cost 880 yen. Not a bad price for a great piece of meat. I of course felt obliged to order an Asashi beer to help wash it down. What a great start to my visit in Akihabara!!!! I will return for another steak in the not too distant future, I promise.

After lunch, I meandered through a maze of large and small electrical shops. I marvelled at the sheer selection of goods on display and could have spent a fortune had I not been careful. Although browsing was high on my 'to do' list, I also intended buying a very capable Japanese-English electronic dictionary. These devices are remarkable and contain volumes of dictionaries, encyclopedias etc. As they are highly capable, I was soon to discover that they also came at a highly capable price. One girl was doing her best to sell me the latest Casio dictionary for 35,000 yen - far too much! I had decided that as the price was so high, I would not end up buying a dictionary after all. However, I passed a small shop on a side street that was selling the previous generation of Casio dictionaries for only 15,000 yen. Quite a saving and it seems that the only difference is that the latest model has a colour screen. The main drawback to this learning tool seems to be the requirement that you need to be fluent in Japanese to use the thing. Quite a painful process indeed....

Well, a successful trip to Akihabara and a great way to break up the week. Other news......yes! I will be off to Hong Kong in early December to attend the wedding of my brother. Not long until that trip and am really looking to a small break away and seeing the family.

Will try to do another blog soon. Till then, take it easy.

Culture Day / Tokyo Weekend

November 3rd was a national holiday in Japan called Culture Day. This day is used to celebrate Japanese culture and encourage cultural activities. On this day, the Emperor takes the opportunity to award individuals the Order of Culture. Those who receive this award have been deemed to have made a significant contribution to Japan's art, literature or culture. The awardees also receive an annuity for life - perhaps the reason why most of the awardees seem to be in their 70s.

We decided to use the extra holiday as an excuse to visit Tokyo for a long weekend. We travelled down on Thursday night and returned to Shimogo on Sunday afternoon. The drive down to Tokyo only took about 4 hours but the return journey to Shimogo took us 6 hours as the roads were very busy with tourists viewing the autumn colours. I'll try and get some autumn photographs on the blog before it's too late.

The most important aspect of my trip to Tokyo was my planned visit to an area called Ochanomizu. This is an area which has an abundance of ski shops and musical instrument shops. I planned to buy a new ski helmet as the one I am currently borrowing is slightly small for me.

In the end I decided on a Giro helmet, although I had originally decided to buy a Boeri. The Giro helmet that I bought is technically a snowboarding helmet, but I chose that one anyway because it fitted the best and was the most comfortable. It also seems to be fairly light compared to some of the other helmets that I tried on. I'm fairly pleased with it but have just realised that I need to buy new skiing goggles as my old set have been crushed and are seriously out of shape.

I'm back at work tomorrow and have to wait until November the 23rd for the next national holiday. Tomorrow will be an easy start to the week with only one class to attend. I'll try and post a couple of autumnal photos in the near future. Cheers.