Day 12 - Walking around Akiba, Ikebukuro and Shinjuku.

Char siu ramen for lunch. Very very delicious. My stomach is now rumbling from looking at it. Though for 1050 yen, its not very filling.

3 Project Diva Arcade machines at Club Sega. There was actually a queue for this game on the right. (not shown) I want to try it but then the buttons are laid out in a row instead of the PSP configuration so it`ll take time to acclimatise to it.

Project Diva poster. They had artwork for the various Hatsune Miku costumes scattered around the arcade. If Sega announces that Dreamy Theatre 2 is going to be in 3D, my bank account is going in the red.

Spent the afternoon walking around Akiba and deciding what things to buy on the last day since I don`t want to lug all that stuff to Osaka.

- Saw the Sabre Lily figure that I spent my whole trip last year thinking about for 20000 yen. WTF. I so regret not buying it then when it was around 150000 yen?

- Tony Miku is definitely on my list. Its not as good as the pictures and the box is a bit big though.

- The Selveria Bles figure from cheap considering its size but it just doesn`t give me that must buy feel.

- Figured out which shirts I want to get. Why isn`t there merchandise for Welcome to NHK, one of the greatest anime ever. Why is there merchandise for Working!! which turned out to be generic as hell. I want a pururin t-shirt goddamit.

- For Ore no Imouto fans, there is a Hoshi Witch Meruru t-shirt and yes, the merumerumeru song popped into my head when I saw it.

- Speaking of Ore no Imouto, I found second hand copies of the special edition for about 8500 yen. Not sure to go for that or just the normal version.

- 2nd hand psp games are plenty cheap and they even have new games like Saigo no Yakusoku Monogatari which I will get. Problem is I want to buy it from the PSN store so that I don`t need to change umds everytime I want to play a game and it uses less batteries. The savings might be work it though.

- Hori Real Arcade Pro V3 going for 13000 yen! Fark. I need one more stick for my pc and I don`t think there`s going to be anymore amazon specials.

My main objective for the evening was Animate in Ikebukuro. Yes I know I`ve been to Ikebukuro many times but its a bit of the way from the station. Animate Ikebukuro is apparently the largest Animate. Anyway to get there, go out the east Seibu exit and keep going all the way. Turn left when you reach the train tracks. Keep going till you see the Famima in the over picture. Animate is just behind it.

I don`t really remember Akiba`s animate but bloody hell there are a lot of chicks here. If you go to the floor where there are not guys, do not go in! Its mostly geared towards girls with lots of Sengoku Basara stuff, Prince of Tennis etc. Not a place you want to go for goods but if you like hearing kawaii~~~~ while walking past every aisle, this is the place for you. There is a K-books store filled with chicks looking to buy Sengoku Basara cosplay but I was too scared to enter.

Really nice park in Ikebukuro.

Dinner at Matsuya. Fuck, it is so fucking good for only 850 yen. You can`t get this much awesome meat for that price in Melbourne. No wonder it replenishes health in Ryu ga gotoku.

Headed to Shinjuku to try to randomly find Shinjuku Sportsland and Club Sega Shinjuku West. My powers of randomly finding arcades has yet to fail me but this time I seemed to hit a snag when I found myself in Kabukicho. (See the famous street arch at the end)

Walked to the front of Kabukicho, saw the Taito game centre and what to do you, Shinkuku Sportsland is just two buildings away! It had an interesting set up with monitors on top of the machines for viewers to watch the action. Must be for use in tournaments.

Pronto opposite Kabukicho. As a Ryu ga gotoku fan, it just fills me with a sense of familiarity and wonderment.

A look at Don Quixote Kabukicho at night. Its actually pretty small and is nothing compared to Akiba`s but when I heard the theme song inside, I felt like buying a costume to give to a hostess to get more hearts.

Next month Kamorucho will be overrun with zombies and Haruka will be kidnapped again. So to get to Shibuya sportsland, go east from the JR station and its directly in front of Kabukicho.

I had actually found a Club Sega earlier in the random wanderings but it seemed like it was only 1 floor. The stairs at the back was blocked for the way up and for the way down, there was nothing indicating that there was something downstairs. I stupidly assumed that it the arcade was only 1 floor for UFO catchers. After all, you`ve got Taito arcades that hardly have any hardcore games. I thought there must be another clubs Sega and spent so long looking for it.

When I was ready to give up but then decided to give it one more go. Went back to the Club Sega again, walked to the side and WTF. They`ve got stairs going up and down at the side of the arcade! The basement floor is dedicated to fighting games which is awesome and they have 8 AE cabinets. However no sign of Nekojita and a grandmaster Yun was beasting everyone. ZZZZZZ.

Hoped on the train to Shibuya, had a look at Shibuya Kaikan and there were 3 20000 players and a few cardless challengers.By this time I had been walking non stop from around 11am and my legs were killing me.

To get to Club Sega West, go out the west exit (duh) keep going straight for a while and walk around looking for Yodobashi Shinjuku. There`s a Yodobashi shop for games just behind the main shop and Club Sega is just next to it. Right now I really need to find at least a AAA Abel to watch before I go crazy watching all the Yuns and Yangs. Problem with it being weekdays now, I would need to be pretty lucky to run into Nekojita.