I don't work in specifics, because the devil is in the detail

After the madness that was Friday, we actually got up at an early hour. My usual early morning witnessing alarm went off at 6.15, we were dozing until about 6.30. Dean, Conrad and I wanted a coffee, so we headed out briefly into the street with our cameras, and grabbed a coffee from the machines outside the front door of the hotel. I grabbed a Georgia European blend, which wasn't bad. I figured that because it was a "European" style coffee, it would be black with less milk. I was right.. The other 2 didn't read the machine properly and grabbed some coffe, but they were cold.

We went back up to the room as the girls weren't ready yet, so I had a shower to freshen up (I was a bit smelly from sweating in my coat). We now were ready to head to Donki (Don Quixote), a magical cave of wonder. As I wrote in my blog last year, Donki has everything you want at 2 O'clock in the morning after a night on the turps. Getting there would be half the fun...

We set out from the hotel to the nearest 7-11. I hadn't transferred any savings into my normal account so I hadn't pulled out any money the night before, now with some fresh spending money, we headed down Yasukuni-dori (toward the area with all the snow and music shops). We took a left at (A street). This was my mistake, as it was actually another main road about 2 blocks down, but anyway. We walked down this street for a bit, my anxiety levels growing, because I didn't want everyone yelling at me for sending them in the wrong direction. But we were hungry, (especially Whitney), so we stopped in at a Lotteria. Lotteria is one of the many burger/fast food chains in Japan, but this time they had little Japanese pancakes, and other things on their breakfast menu. I got a bacon egg sando set, with melon soda (wish we could get it in Australia). It was different... I think they had used the egg whites, then made the yolk out of mustard/wasabi/pickle.. It was yellow, and a little googy, but it cleared the sinuses and worked well with the bacon, lettuce and mayo.

I finished my food first, so while everyone else was savouring theirs, I went around the corner to the Koban (police box) to check the local map. We were now about 1km across from where we actually wanted to be, so after planning our route, we kept on walking. We walked through Ochanomizu (strict translation would be tea water, as there were a lot of tea houses during the Edo period apparently). This is now a university sector, with quite a few campuses, including the University hospital, which had ambulances running too it. We walked across a little river, then along side it, and our path took us into the heart of Akihabara. This wasn't where I wanted to be, so my stress level was rising, and I thought I kept losing things (my wallet, the room card, my marbles). No matter. I knew where we were going, and which direction to head there, loosely pointing it out on the map, so the others wouldn't start freaking out. We kept on walking, when Dean said to take a right. We followed him, but it was taking us in the wrong direction. We stopped when we got to a railway section, and decided to walk down the little street running parallel to the train tracks. We walked that way for about 750m or so, before coming to what look liked a main street. Fortunately, there are maps quite often on the main streets so after walking toward a decent intersection I checked the map there.

The map had some more familiar looking areas on it (huzzah!). Dean had actually gotten us off the road we needed to take so, the little sojourn down the railway side was actually away from where we needed to be, so one block up and 2 blocks left, we finally arrived at Donki. Dean and Whitney had only been here briefly 3 years ago, and Conrad had never been to this little treasure trove. On the first level, they have a lot of coats, socks, jocks, scarves and baggage, but there are 7 levels to this place! The next level up had cosmetics and health supplies. And a few other things. We scouted around for some protein bars for Conrad (found plenty of tubs of powder, but with no constant supply of milk or washing up facilities, then we decided to forgo that. They did have some shoes and dumbells and stuff (as I said, best place after a night on the turps), so Conrad tried on some airwalks and put them in his basket. The next level up had all different mobile phone covers and stuff, with Mum finding a cheap cover for Galaxy S2, plus it looks like a chocolate bar. We spent ages in Donki, with us all getting something, but time was getting on and I really wanted to go to the Auto Salon. Still, Conrad and I had a quick peak downstairs, where they had all sorts of food goods, sweets and alcohol. Kahlua for 1280Y a bottle, and other stuff for cheap (not as cheap as Hasegawa, but still half of what you'd pay in Australia).

We did the sensible thing and got the subway back to Jimbocho, and offloaded our supplies. I also put my passport and stuff in my bag, as with all the freaking out I was doing, I didn't want to freak out about losing my passport. I was feeling bag, because I thought I was the only one wanting to go to the Auto Salon, and was dragging the other 2 there, but Conrad said he wanted to, and Dean didn't mind. So after a subway ride to Tokyo station, then a long (well 40 mins or so) to Kaihim-Makuhari, we gott off and walked the 500m or so to where the Auto Salon was.

I don't think any of us were really prepared for how big this event is, with halls 1-9 being filled with cars and bikes and parts and such. We spent the next 4 hours or so, making our way through the crowds, seeing different stands. One highlight would have to have been sitting on Casey Stoner's #2 bike in the Honda stand. I asked the guy whether it was a replica, which was a definite no. (The battle damage made me suspect it wasn't). The fellow explained in decent English, that the #1 bike was at the Osaka Auto Show this weekend, so the Auto Salon got the #2 bike instead. Conrad was like a kid in a lolly shop. Here he was, sitting on the champion's bike, getting to hug the tank.. We had to get pictures, so Dean and I snapped away. I couldn't pass up the oppurtunity, so I also got to sit on it.
We meandered in and out of the various halls seeing the companies displays. There was kei cars, VIP cars, tuned exotics, Vans with decked out interious and plenty of R35 GTR's. I would have loved some R32's but they are getting on in years :(
By the time the sun started going down we were bushed. After getting the train back to Tokyo, we had the worst surprise... Our favourite, award-winning gyoza place was not longer there !! :'( We walked around for a while, trying to get a hold of Mum and Whitney. I tried a 1963 Armagnac. This was fire on my dry lips and burnt all the way down. Ok, but for the age and stuff, I would have expected more smoothness... We waited for a little longer before deciding to head back to the hotel. It's no mean feet, as you have to walk nearly 2kms to get to the correct platform at Otemachi for the subway back to Tokyo. We arrived back at the hotel about 6.30 and were a little miffed, but Mum and Whitney explained that their phones hadn't been switched to International Roaming properly and they had tried to send us an email, but with no unsecured wifi around, our phones simply wouldn't get it (Our data roaming is turned off).

After stopping for a few minutes to rest, we decided to go get some dinner. With our plans to go to the gyoza place ending in tears, we decided to head out and see what we could find. We ended up stopping at a small place that did gyoza and udon (not a chain) and while the gyoza was nice, it wasn't the same (but a lot cheaper at 6640Y). A quick trip via the 7-11 and we were back at the hotel to chill before we all went to bed "early" at 10 o'clock.

Pics for Saturday are here. https://picasaweb.google.com/sciclone/1412012?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIv4-Lbiy5LlcA&feat=directlink