Akihabara and Ikebukuro

 Now more than 6 months have passed since the earthquake. When I turn on TV, they still broadcast things related to the earthquake, such as economic downturn, people evacuated from Fukushima. But if you are in the areas near Tokyo, you'd see people who seem to have forgotten about what happened on March 11th. And this weekend I saw again lots of foreign people in Akihabara.

Do you know a girls' group "AKB48"? Another group "Morning Musume" would be more familiar to foreign people who like Japan, but whenever I see TV, the former group shows up in so many programs. And it opened this new cafe in Akiahabara. It is next to the Gundam Cafe I introduced before.

So I think Akihabara is the place for both idol and anime fans, and I saw this "Hobby Tengoku" opened recently near the station. It sells things like plastic models, figurines, and besides that you can see events for Otaku here as well. This shop is going to be open for three years from now, so it's kinda "limited" things that Otaku people like. Click this to see its site. 

There is a Pachinko parlor "Island", which features anime characters. And this was its ad that said "We cheer up Japan in Akihabara". Why cheer up? It's because Japan is struggling to recover from the earthquake. Pachinko is like slot machines, on which you can get or lose money.  

People think Japan is now full of girls' groups like AKB48, SDN48, NMB48, the Morning Musume  and etc...and this Momoiro Clover.  Honestly there are too many and people wouldn't recognize which girl is from which group. Only I can recognize this as their costumes are based on our ranger series. This is a banner of their upcoming cds. 

My friend and me decided to have dinner in Tokyo, and the taste of the pizza restaurant Shakey's in Ikebukuro was something we couldn't forget. It was about 5pm and it was really crowded like this.  

You know, Halloween is around the corner. This is the entrance of the Shakey's.  

I had to drive after coming back to my hometown, so I had this non-alcoholic beer "Free". And the fried things you can see were chips and shrimps. 

I think you don't have to worry at all about earthquakes and radiation in Tokyo. Like the foreign people I saw on this day, you'd enjoy walking about in our capital.