Japan Trip Day 6: Shinjuku, Nakano, Akibahabara

I only had about 4 hours of sleep last night since I slept at 3am yesterday. Although the shops usually open at 10-11am, I woke up earlier because for the last 2 days, I decided to give a try having breakfast at the hotel. I came down at 9am and there was a long queue for the breakfast. The breakfast had pretty good spread with mixtures of western, Japanese, and Korean food. Though the breakfast time ends at 10am, it was considered late when I came down as some food already ran out. The one to be missed was the DIY donburi with spicy tuna and spicy salmon. I still had a hearty breakfast with my favorites being the totter tots and bacons.

It took me about 1 hour to be satisfied with breakfast and timing was just nice when I reached Shinjuku to get my iPad. The shop was still quite empty but unfortunately the staff really could not speak English. My Japanese was quite rusty and I read the katakana for “gold” as “black” instead so I was asking if there was a black iPad. There is no black iPad haha. That is what happens when non-fanboy tries to buy. I gave the AppleCare a pass since I could not communicate with the staff.

Since it was early, I also explored to find Don Quijote at Shinjuku and that brought me to see the Godzilla at Shinjuku for the first time. It looked quite amazing but was dwarved by the surrounding high-rise buildings. The Don Quijote here was so small and the alleys in between the shelves were so narrow for 2 people to walk pass each other. I can’t understand why people love coming to here so much. I bought some Kit Kat and mochis and I made the best decision of the day: to return to the hotel to drop off them and iPad first before continuing with the shopping for the rest of the day.

Next destination was Nakano Broadway and I was surprised that I competed the place in 2 hours. I guessed I came too often that there were not that many new things to see. I bought nothing from Mandarake and honestly I sort of rushed through the artbook sections because I don’t think I have enough luggage space and I still have yet to see if I will get any figurines at Akihabara. Unfortunately, the Pocahontas porcelain figure that I saw in June was already sold. Bleah.. should have just bought it then.

The loots from Nakano Broadway today were Aladdin figurines. There was one Aladdin figurine from Tokyo Disneysea 15th Anniversary which still came in box. The original price tag is still at the box (4800JPY) but I only paid 3000JPY for this. Hehe. I think it is quite sad that nowadays they seldom have Aladdin merchandises.

The best picture of the figure that I can find online

I decided to get a set of Aladdin-Jasmine-Genie porcelain figurines for 5800JPY. They were without boxes and there were some chips here and there. I was not even sure where they originated but I think at the bottom of one of them there was still a Tokyo Disneyland (or sea) label so they might be official items from the past. I was pretty undecided and after going one round, I made up my mind to buy them rather than regretting not buying like the Pocahontas figurine.

Wow surprisingly I can find an image of the set online

Once done, it was time for lunch but the tendon restaurant that I was eyeing earlier was closed after 2pm T_T I was hungry so I could not wait and decided to eat at a café at level 1. My Japanese really cannot make it. I could answer the first question (that I was eating alone) but I did not get the second question if I would like a smoking or non-smoking area.

With that, it was finally the last destination for this holiday: Akihabara. I only discovered now that there is a direct station gantry to Atre1 so that is kinda cool. I went to Radio Kaikan first before checking out Animate, Surugaya (the one near Animate), Mandarake, and Akiba Culture Zones (where Lashinbang is). I somehow could not locate Kotobukiya store and I forwent about it since I was running out of time.

I actually did not find things that I really wanted to buy. Yet I did not want to waste my luggage space by returning back empty. So it was a bit of impulse shopping to buy whatever decent looking enough and I like. I was even thinking of getting Heiji nesoberi but decided that ultimately I prefer figurines to plushies.

I returned to Surugaya and ended up buying I never planned to get. Well some of the things I actually never saw or knew their existence before. Lol. I found this cute Gundam SEED Picture Studio series that I never saw before. I suppose it should be a series of figurines but there were only Kira as 3 Little Pigs (2400JPY) and Yzak as Emperor New Clothes (1700JPY). I think they are not cheap but oh wells. I also bought Prince of Tennis One Coin Grande set for 2800JPY. It is much cheaper than the original price but I would not even think of buying it under normal circumstances since I don't really like this kind of chibi style figurines.

Gundam SEED Picture Studio series that I bought

Prince of Tennis One Coin Grande

The one that made me happy is Haruichi Kominato Palmate figurine for 926JPY. After all I already own Eijun and Ryosuke. His price is weird because he was considered "junk" lol and hence the price was already without tax. Something new learnt today: those yellow tags in Surugaya are those considered "junk" items. I also bought Mikoshiba figurine for 1000JPY although I already owned this figure. He is actually the prize figurine when ordering the Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun volume 6 and I actually already bought the manga when it was released. Told ya that I was just chionging to race against time.

I was glad that I already went to Don Quijote this morning and did not go to the one at Akihabara or else I would already miss returning to Radio Kaikan because unexpectedly the whole mall closed at 8pm. Wew.. The drizzle sort of helped as it made me decided to quickly call it a day and I returned to Radio Kaikan. Lucky they still allowed me to enter at 755pm and quickly chionged at Amiami. I was really kancheong as I forgot where Pupu plushie (2288 JPY) was placed so lucky I managed to find it. I don't like to collect acrylic stands but in order to hit the 5000 JPY for tax-free purchase, I just quickly grabbed the acrylic stands of Amuro and Sera (1528 JPY). Basically the main characters were already sold out and only Amuro, Sera, and Sonoko were left. To my horror, I actually grabbed Sonoko instead of Sera -_-" That was what happened when shopping in a hurry with a tired body and a tired mind.

I was so emo that I did not manage to visit another store to get Shuichi Akai figurine since after checking various shops, the cheapest was in one of the stores here. Cannot be I have to rush tomorrow morning to Akihabara just to get this and forgo my photo with Gundam. Before going home, I decided to just check out the Surugaya store near this Radio Kaikan blog and thank God, I saw the Shuichi Akai figurine here for 1500 JPY. That is about 300 JPY cheaper than what I thought was the cheapest. If only this was available at the other Surugaya store earlier, I would avoid all the emotional roller coaster and I would avoid the tax as well.

The drizzle was getting heavier and it was really time to say goodbye. Sigh.. sad.. that really marks the end of my solo trip. I bought oden again for dinner and as previously, I always end up overeating for the last evening of the holiday. Other than the oden, I also bought chicken cutlet (the snack kind), chicken karaage, and my diet tea.

Time to do packing now and from now on, I think I will always choose ANA over SQ. The allowance to have 2 pieces of check-in luggage (ANA) is so much better than 1 piece of 35kg (SQ). Usually I am quite particular about the boxes of my figurines but for now my hand carry is already full with iPad and the fragile figurines. So hopefully those I put in the check-in luggage will not be crushed too badly. And surprise surprise.. I do not buy any anime book this time.