After our rain free visit to Asakusa it was a soggy day in Electric town. The morning started well – we went to the Origami museum. Our online reading said that the master might be there – he dropped in when he felt like it, but either way it was worth a visit. It sure was! And the master was there, holding court at his work table on the third floor. He was a telling jokes and stories and making things – without even looking at his hands or the paper. Chat chat, fold, fold and there be a maple leaf, or a boar. 2019 will be the Year of the Boar and boars with golden tusks are showing up everywhere.
Bill and I took a little workshop and learned some basic techniques
Now just have to practice for many years and we can produce magical things without looking!
We swam our way through the rain to a ramen shop – you can always count on ramen on a wet day!
I was gong to say cold wet day, but it is not cold. Quite the contrary. We’re finding it quite warm – low twenties, high teens for the most part. The transit is crowded – and hot and even the shops seem overheated to us. And then we’ll be walking along and see some westerners in down puffer jackets and we look at each other and say ‘Australians!’ And it always is!
Akihabara, or Electric Town, is an area with a warren of little shops under and around the train tracks that specializes in all the components to make things electrical. Need to fix an old telephone – there’s a shop for that. Transistors – check. Cathode ray tube – yep. Robot parts – got ’em. Over time the anime people moved in, so there are areas devoted to various animated characters. There are also a lot of maid cafes – and on this day that meant a lot of rather bedraggled young women dressed as maids handing out fliers.
I’m rather light on photos for that day – too busy managing my umbrella in the crowds!
Where I'm At 