Japan Update #3 - Arcades, Vintage and Tokyu Hands

These are just a few snapshots from our wanderings around Shinjuku, where we are staying, and Shibuya, which is a very busy shopping area in Tokyo. There's a chain of stores called Mandarake, they are definitely the home of the Otaku. In case you're not familiar with Otaku, it's a Japanese word for "nerd" at the simplest translation. But I think a better description of an Otaku would be one who is obsessively interested in a very particular topic. Often it's a particular manga, which is sold in Madarake, but you can be Otaku about anything I think. We met a "Tenchi Muyo Otaku" in Kyoto, and there are military Otaku, doll otaku, and probably any other otaku that you can think of. This Manadarake store had the most amazing entrance, I'm pretty sure really dark stairs with disorienting strobe lights would not be possible in Australia, or America, due to "health and safety". Bor-ring! Japan, you rock :) 

So many shops and cafes here are all jazzed up for Halloween, and this arcade has tonnes of fun Halloween games going on. We played Taiko Drumming, of course (I'll try to make a video for you). Upstairs, we discovered a whole floor of Kawaii photo booths. It seems like you can get dressed in the costumes they have, and then have your photo taken. But it looks like it's just for girls. I'll investigate further and hopefully take some pictures in there! In the meantime, enjoy this instructional poster:

We made a brief exploration in Tokyu Hands, which is a crafting supplies shop (and more). I quite enjoyed the 'wood' floor, as you can see. It's built in this weird configuration with half-floors, which just reminds me of "Being John Malkovich". I think we made it up to the 3 1/2 floor, so I have to go back, I think there is something like 8 floors (x2).

So much vintage shopping...

Kitty
xo

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