Let's go to Tokyo! Winter 2018

Activities and places to go

Not going to worry too much about listing off otaku stores... Akiba frankly isn't even worth making a list for. It's so fun just to explore for a few days! You seriously have no idea what you'll find (I have some idea but really....neither do I!) Here are places that stuck out to me though.

Gamers! Not something I really need to list since Gamers is everywhere, it's a big chain of new goods but it's fun.
Sofmap! Like above but way good for eroge and other perv junk. My favourite tbh.
K-Books! This is in the Akiba centre where the Azone store is. Don't even look it up. Let it surprise and consume you. It made me go insane
Akiba Zone (shopping mall for nerds)
SEGA Arcade
Shinjuku. This is a major train station to transfer at so we'll inevitably be there. It's nice.
Shibuya
Toranoana (DOUJINSHI HEAVEN EVERYTHING IS SO CHEAP TwT)
Mandarake (The Akiba one isn't that good and is pretty hellish but the one at Nakano Broadway rules)
Nakano Broadway is fun and is full of super cheap stuff that's secondhand. A lot of it is discounted because it comes from smoking homes though so it's a lil stinky. Also there's a fetish art shop with a lot of menhera!
Bath house? Hot springs are mostly in the countryside from what I understand...if we want to shell out a few hundred dollars we can take the shinkansen, but it really is quite expensive to.
Don Quixote OH MY GOD
Animate
AmiAmi :)
Mulan
If we can see a military museum I'd love to. It sounds really interesting to see Japan's perspective on WWII and to see their teeny tiny tanks
DAISO!!!!
There's a shop that sells kigurumi animegao oh my god I finally get to be an anime girl
Kawagoe is a fun little town
A Purikura place! Dude it's like a whole store full of nothing but a million photo booths of all different kinds, you can even rent costumes there to take pictures in. Let's take lots together :3 They can be cut and used as stickers!
Shrines and temples
Pokémon Centre? :3
It would be nice to go to an aquarium... I know we're both into marine biology so ^^ eee
Sanrio Puroland? :)))

Tasty

@ HOME!!!!! @ HOME CAFE OH MY GOOOOOOD!!!!! If you can get a student ID beforehand you get discounted entry! It's only like 700 yen
Dominos??? I haven't been yet but yay!
711 owo
Lawson OwO (lot of exclusive anime goods depending on what's being promoted)
Royal Host (family restaurant)
The Akiba Honey Toast Café!
Various seasonal anime cafés....would you be interested in going to an Osomatsu-san one if they're around?
Moe cookies from Akiba stores :D
Tendon bowl if we go to Kawagoe :L
Really good and different from how they are at home: the rice, seaweed, strawberries, apples, inari sushi from konbini, bananas, miso
Choco cornets and melonpan :3 And mochi ring doughnuts
Mister Donuts

Things to bring

Passport, duh :P
Pass case if you have one, if you don't we can grab one at Gamers
If you have a good backpack like a tactical one that straps around the front, it'll be useful because shopping bags get heavy in the blink of an eye in Holy Land
If you can bring an extra (empty) suitcase, do it (and in the first place, pack as little as you possibly can)
Sketch book :3 imagine sitting around drawing together after a fun day omg
Portable wifi
Snacks for the plane trip! Omg it's so long I'm dreading it LOL
Airborne tablets or other anti-illness high in vitamins stuff
Comfy shoes Dx
If you use tampons, bring your own if you expect to have your period there. Different countries use different kinds of womens' sanitary products and the last thing you want is to have your period and have no choice but to have really weird tampons
Call your bank beforehand to tell them your plans so the bank doesn't shut down your card for suspicious activity, and ask about fees for using your card abroad etc
I recommend portable wifi over a phone plan but if you wanna have texting and stuff give the company a call beforehand.
Slippers
A comact umbrella

Handy info to keep in mind

A lot of these things I didn't know until I went

Like every non-chain otaku store is super cramped and you have to walk sideways like a crab down every aisle. DO NOT WEAR A BACKPACK IN THESE AAAAAA
Food is SO CHEAP
Try to eat at 711 or Lawson whenever possible when you're out and hungry. You can get onigiri for about 79 yen, it's best to only spend more money on food when you're able to sit down and appreciate it, if you're out shopping then hunger is just an inconvenience you should nip in the bud tbh
With hotels and dorms etc, the lights in the room don't work unless you put your electronic room key in a slot by the door. This is good to keep in mind if there's two of us and only one key and one of us has to go out or something
I do recommend studying before you go. The transportation is extremely easy for English speakers because it's all done bilingually, and a lot of people try to speak English for foreigners, but it really is good to show them their effort to integrate into their culture and they appreciate it a lot. Learning numbers is the most useful, also "yen" is just pronounced as "en" there. The Genki books are the best for learning, also DuoLingo is really useful, lmk if you want any help at all because I also have a bazillion things from my two years of Japanese classes (printouts, tests, notes and so-on)

Oh my god like every western anime site is blocked there it's so funny, if you go to Plamoya it's just a black screen with giant white letters that say FORBIDDEN or something. Watching anime online there is difficult because they're really on top of piracy for that.
Blowing your nose or making any face noises at all is considered rude unless you're at like a ramen restaurant so when we're sniffly on the train we are going to suffer immensely
Everybody is going to try to give you free tissues with ads in them and it gets to be too much after a while if you keep taking them. Get them from eroge stores they give you tissues with hentai on them lmao
Idk if you've been to Kinokuniya but in Japan it's just a normal bookstore without any of the ACG stuff that makes it cool in the west so it's just really boring unless you want a popular light novel or something
The best feeling in the world is walking to the store to pick up an item the day it comes out instead of preordering it and waiting 90 years for it to arrive in the post
Most stores don't accept cards and are cash only. Like, fucking McDonalds is cash only. Check your bank's fees for exchanges, using your card can have a fee sometimes and so can taking out money. But 711 has machines for foreigners to exhange for cash and it's fee-less!
Don't wear your shoes in the hotel room fgsgfhs

You're gonna inevitably see some Nazi shit idk it really weirded me out but like....Axis side of history I guess
Harajuku fucking sucks tbh it's just really crowded and full of wipepo and overpriced tourist shops. To me it's not something on my list but if you wanna see lolita stores or like 6% DOKIDOKI and the like we can go
We are going to get fucking drunk OFTEN in place of weedy because buying alcohol there is so cheap, easy to get wasted on, and easy to buy. U literally go to the konbini counter and they show you a screen that says "Are you 20?" and you press "yes" and it's just like ok enjoy your 9% grape flavoured sake in a can come back soon
The jet lag will be fucking awful and I was unable to sleep for an entire week when I got there and when I got back home :D
Fish and meat is in like everything so I'm going to be a slight pain in the ass to eat with
Be really careful about your luggage weight and space coming back, it's good to distribute it among your carryon and purse or extra suitcase if you bring one. I bought a lot of doujins so I tried to avoid books and stuff, also for figures I disposed all of the boxes and wrapped them in my tshirts and clothes for cushion to bring home
On the first few days you're gonna be impressed by everything and if you make purchases you'll probably regret them later since some stuff ends up being common or not that special or you find way better versions of it, etc. I held off on shopping for a full week before I was like "ok let's do this" but I also had classes and more time so I'd just wait like a day instead. But if you see something grail-like at a secondhand shop get iiiit

There are giant crows EVERYWHERE and they take giant shits and sometimes the giant shits land on people
There are vending machines everywhere outside, but garbage cans are very rare and usually just in the hotel. Whenever you buy drinks or anything with packaging prepare to carry around the garbage with you until you're home. When I went Akiba crazy and bought a lot and wanted to throw out garbage and boxes to make room to continue shopping, I went to McDonalds to buy a soft drink and throw out my stuff in their trash cans.
The garbage there is complicated. There's plastics, paper/fruit peels, metals, and more depending on the place. A lot of sorting is involved. When you buy anything packaged though it'll say what kind of garbage it is on the packaging, like everything that's plastic garbage will be labelled 「プラ」
EVERY SINGLE STORE WILL GIVE YOU A PLASTIC OR PAPER BAG FOR EVERYTHING YOU BUY EVER even if you buy a grain of sand WELP PLASTIC BAG and they tape it closed. Learn to say "fukuro iwanai desu" at like every checkout where you don't need one because omg the poor environment
ANO SUMIMASEN