Most shops in Japan are closed on the 1st of January, but they open on the 2nd. So even if you go out on the 1st, you'd have nothing to do especially in rural areas. I came to Akihabara yesterday, and I could see so many people enjoying shopping in the new year.
As I showed you before, Akihabara station was renewed. I like anime, and that's the reason why I frequent Akihabara, but I think there is some special atmosphere here that makes people feel liberated.
One thing that makes this place special is this kind of car. You'd not see such a car in rural areas or other places in Tokyo, much less in foreign countries.
Took a pic of GAMERS, which is just in front of the station. I got inside, and saw many anime fans grabbing what they want like manga, magazines, and figurines. I think this anime shop was featured in "Ore no Imouto", and that must be the reason it put up the ad in the middle.
I walked around a lot, but the time we had dinner was around 5pm. My friend is a fan of China, so we decided to dine here. The name of this Chinese restaurant is "Shanghai Bar". You'd know where Shanghai is.
Dumplings and the fried stuff in the right is called "Harumaki". The latter had some shrimp inside, and was fried and wrapped with pieces of sheet that were made of rice.
When we got out, it was already dark. The sun sets around 4:30 in the beginning of January, and the daytime gets longer by one minute a day as you know, so it's very bright at 6:30pm in June here.
Japan is now trying to attract more foreign tourists, and for that to happen we should capitalize on the popularity of anime. But the governor of Tokyo is trying to make illegal some manga, which led some manga publishers to withdraw from an anime event that was held in Tokyo area. Wouldn't you think that is contradictory?
