Weird Tokyo.

This morning, I woke up with a raging sore throat. You know, the kind that prefaces a sinus infection. It has stayed with me all day, and I feel pretty gross. It was our last day in Tokyo though, so we tried to make the most of it. Sadly, it rained all day. Good thing I don't care about my hair, which got plenty frizzy.

You know the image of weird, sexually repressed Tokyo with hentai comic books? Yeah, we found that today. We started out in the Akihabara Electronics district, which is a dork's dream come true.


Electronics and anime stuff everywhere. And Super Nintendo!


Akihabara is also filled with maid cafés, which are exactly what they sound like: restaurants employed by girls dressed as French maids. The lucky ones get to stand out in the rain and solicit customers:


There was also a large and disturbing selection of anime porn ("hentai"). I didn't want to take any pictures because it was so gross and creepy. Here's an example of a conversation we had while browsing the selection of books:

Me: Ew, no one's boobs squish like that! What is that? Oh look, that girl has a carrot coming out of her v-jay-jay.
Boyfriend: Actually, I think someone put it in there.

Want some of these?


Fortunately, we got out of Akihabara and headed for Jimbocho booksellers' district. Apparently, Jimbocho is also home to all the sporting goods stores in Tokyo. I found a running store and marveled at the selection (No Brooks though!).


The book shops in Jimbocho were pretty cool...except that I can't read anything in Japanese. I mean, really, I can't read anything. All the books open from the back, and everything is written from top to bottom!


We stopped at a supermarket to get some cough drops. Outside, there was a vending machine selling one of the more popular Japanese drink brands: Calpis!


Inside, there was a large selection of various fried things:


The boyfriend picked up some Pocari Sweat, which is sort of like an electrolyte replacement drink. He said it tasted like Gatorade:


A lot of the restaurants in Tokyo show off their various specialties with plastic models. None of them look very appetizing:


Back at the hotel, we were greeted by the shoes of the 12348301294130 students who are staying here as well:


For dinner, we walked in the rain in search of an Indian restaurant recommended by my guide book. On the way, we found a cool store:


The Indian was good, though vindaloo was noticeably lacking from the menu:


Now, we are having an ice cream party in the hotel room. Tomorrow, we leave Tokyo for Seoul. It has been quite an eventful three days. I might try to slow down the pace a little bit in Seoul since I'm convinced that being such a hardcore traveler is making me sick (That and all this stupid rain).