Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Failure in Akiba

Today I had a mission. Buy the Yuffie action figure.

Yuffie is a character from FFVII. My favourite character, at that. And as such, I would like the action figure version of her. I've seen it everywhere for forty plus dollars, but I was not willing to pay that price. Back home it was twenty to thirty dollars.

Only a few days ago I had seen it on sale in the Mandarake in Akihabara for 2100 yen. Unfortunately, this coincided with my having asked someone to see if they could find it back home. On the off chance that they worked fast, I didn't want to end up with two, and so I left the figure in the case, vowing to return to pick it up later once all that had been sorted.

Today was the day to return. 800yen round trip in subway fare. But when I got the figure all would be worthwhile.

Of course, when I got there it was gone. Of course it was.

I can not say anything to describe my sense of disappointment, save for that, coupled with the lack of food in my belly it made for a very dreary day. It was gone. I am figureless. While on the whole this is probably for the best (not having to truck it down) the feeling of failure was overwhelming. Sure I found a few 8gig USB keys for 1200yen each, and buying two of those helped to offset the subway fare, but still... I had failed.

[authors note: looking back, a few days later, I think not getting the Yuffie, and instead getting the memory to free up another 16gig SD card for my camera was probably the best way things could have gone, but you couldn't have convinced me of that day back.]

I left Akiba, passing the launch, or demo, or something, of Gundam Online. All I know for sure is that there were girls dressed up in Gundam uniforms, with a giant robot head, and people lining up to play something on laptops provided. Even seeing that unique event, I till left, head hung low in defeat. I then headed back for the transfer at Shibuya. I kicked around there for a while, and ended up finding some more food, which worked to raise my spirits a tad. So many environmental factors at work clouding my thoughts right now – the ongoings in the novel I was reading, the lack of juice in my system, the hunger... the failure too, but I think that was the smallest of the four impactors.

Eventually I made it back to the house, using the key attached to a giant plush chicken with a creepy mouth, instead of a beak, to get inside. And there I crashed around, playing some Oblivion, and reading internets. I may have also crawled under blankets and caught up on LOST. And let me tell you, if I did, it was wonderful! I will miss warm accessible beds.

Dinner was sushi, hand rolled. Finally I know what those things, slightly resembling (and perhaps once used as) place mats that come with chop stick sets are. Colour me embarrassed.

Sushi – like a giant seaweed burrito. Things I added to my list of newly eaten: natto (gross, terrible, rotten beans. My god Japanese people... really? Like Aussies with their Vegemite!) sea urchin (no it is not delicious, despite what I was told!) I narrowly avoided having wee little squid added to the menu. No more. Never again.

Sleep came early(ish) and welcomed on this day. A first in some time. And, as tomorrow would see me at the orchestra, this was definitely for the best. No one wants to nod off during a concert.

1 comment:

  1. AKIBA? GUHHHHHHHH YOU HAVE TO GO TO THE DONKI IF YOU GO TO AKIBA. BAHHHHHHHH. What I would give to set foot in that theatre...my idols are going to LA in the summer, but I would never be allowed to go, and I have no one to go with. I hate feeling stuck in Toronto. My dad always goes DON'T GET A JOB, JUST GO TO SCHOOL but if I'm living on his money, it's all his say in the end. Lame.

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