I’ve always loved fiddling with parts and building new gadgets, so I go to Akihabara regularly (back in Korea it was Yongsan). These days Akiba is completely taken over by moe and maid stuff, but I’m not into that side of things, so I don’t even know what’s famous there. Lately my Tokyo schedule has been really tight, and there aren’t many decent places to eat in Akiba anyway, so I try to skip it whenever I can. This time, though, there was something I absolutely had to buy, so I had no choice but to go.
A cosplay girl handing out flyers in front of Akihabara Station
I haven’t taken any portraits lately, so I shot this as a test. When I asked her to pose, she flashed a smile for me, how sweet… Does this make me a certified otaku? ^_^ Honestly, I’d love to shoot portraits regularly, but it’s hard unless a chance like this comes along. When I first got into photography I shot portraits almost exclusively, but now it’s nearly all landscapes and food. Such a shame.
One more…
This cosplay girl gave me no fewer than four flyers. Not that it means anything, just saying…
The Granvania
I went in to test the day’s haul: two 4GB SO-DIMM memory sticks. When I bought them, the clerk tried to scare me off, saying he had no idea whether they’d work in a Mac and that they couldn’t be returned. Even so, something that cost 100,000 yen just a year ago had dropped to about a third of that, so I couldn’t not buy it. I was dying to check whether 8GB would run properly, so I ducked into The Granvania, a maid café and bar near the station.
For a detailed review of this place, see http://blog.daum.net/kori2sal/7087364.
Ginger ale
I know better than to order some weird custom menu item at a place like this, so I played it safe with a ginger ale. It only took a moment, but nobody paid much attention while I took my laptop apart and swapped the memory. That’s one of the good things about Akihabara. The swap went fine, and when I powered it on, it ran without a hitch. At last the era of true multitasking has arrived for me too. In fact, the machine I’m writing this post on is that MacBook Pro upgraded to 8GB, and I love it.
After one drink I headed straight for my next stop. I could have lingered and chatted with the maids, but I was way too busy to have any time for that. Such hectic days…