Food and Akihabara

On Friday the kids and I met bob near base and he got us a day pass so we could get on.  We then walked a long way to the commissary where tucker and I sat outside while penelope and bob shopped (I can't go in).  Bob got as much food as he thought we could carry and we walked back.  It is so nice to now have eggs, bagels, cereal, shampoo, and laundry detergent, just to name a few of the luxuries I have been missing the past couple of days.  We were exhausted by the time we got home.  It wont be so hard in the future because Bob bought a bike and now instead of a 20 min walk to the commissary and back from his office it will probably only take him about 5.  he is going to get a basket to go on the front/back and buy food that way.  Everyone here rides bikes.

On Saturday we took an 8 am train to Tokyo to do some sightseeing.  We first took an 70 min. train and then a 2 minute train to where we wanted to go.  The kids did pretty good especially considering that in Japan it is rude to talk on the train.  Everyone rides in 'silent mode.'

Our first stop was Ochanomizu.  This train station has over 100,000 people pass through it a day.  This town is known for their music district.  We went down a street with tons and tons of tiny guitar shops.  Bob absolutely loved it.  Tucker liked it too but he wanted to get everything which was slightly annoying.

They had some pretty neat guitars.  You can even pick out your piece of wood and have them carve it for you.

Our next stop was the Kanda Myojin Shrine and the Yushima Seido Temple.  The shrine is meant to bring family happiness, success in business, and a suitable match in marriage partners (all things witch I already have hehe).

 This is the tallest statue of Confucius in the world.

Our final destination was Akihabara. This is known for being one of the biggest electric towns in the world.  It also has tons of anime and video game stuff too.  This place was crazy!  It was so packed full of people.  the picture doesn't do it justice.  It was very crowded and there were hundreds of stores.  I wanted to buy a small cheap camera and thought what better place to do it than in japan.  The crazy thing is that even here we couldn't find a charger for my battery, luckily it fell out of my bag at my moms house and she is going to mail it to me.  meantime, I did buy a 12 megapixel tiny  pink camera with a case and memory card for 7900y (about $90).  I figure I can always try to sell it on craigslist when i get back home.  Anyway, this place was funny because they had girls dressed up in these ridiculous costumes handing out fliers.  i think they were supposed to be amine characters.  i tried to take a picture of one but she saw me and left.  It was funny.

While in Akihabara we ate at this curry resturaunt that was pretty good.  they even gave us an english menue.  The food looked gross, but tasted good.


We then walked over to the largest wholesale district and when we got there most of the places were already closed.  it was only 5?  We were so tired anyway we headed back to the train and rode home.  Once home I ended the day with a nice long bath.  I can't remember the last time I took a bath.