I was actually planning on sleeping in a little late, but for some reason I sprang awake when Eikichi’s first (of 3) alarms for work went off, and couldn’t get back to sleep after that. Watched AM TV (which is pretty fun, a lot of it consists of people reading from that morning’s paper on TV, and giving comments). Eikichi went to work, and I went to.. work.

Well, not at first anyway. I hit up Tokyu Hands in Shinjuku again, and gathered a bunch of small gifts for friends, and more for myself (I love picking up strange dice, cards, games, toys and Japanese goods in this place). Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to hit the stationery floor to pick up paper and writing goods, as I wanted to hit up Netapp (my company) to meet friends and head to lunch.

Got there at about 11:30, and while I planned on saying “hi”, sticking around and talking to friends, using the free wireless to send some emails, and head to lunch with buddies then splitting (at about 2:00), I ended up staying until about 5:30. Talked with friends, and then… I forget how it happened. A conversation with my buddies Hiroaki and Fumihito about filer (storage PC) performance (my specialty) led to one topic, then another… next thing I know, after lunch we’ve reserved a meeting room, and I’m giving a lecture in front of the entire support department on ‘advanced storage computer and network troubleshooting, from CIFS to NFS to SAN to WAFL to RAID, complete with demonstration of performance-analysis software tools, and hands-on demonstrations using real-world client data’. Originally penned for 30 minutes of ad-libbing, I went for about 2 hours from the basics to deep deep into core OS functionality and processes. And it was FUN. I came half way around the world for vacation, and found myself spending half a day enjoying work. Weird.

Anyway, with little time after that (I was planning on making a raid on a few ecclectic collectibles stores and Japanese stationery stores) before I had to meet up with Eikichi after work, I made a run to a place that he recommended to me called “Nakano Broadway”.

In Nakano there’s a traditional shopping arcade, like the more famous ones in Asakusa, Ueon, Kichijouji and the like. The thing is, at the end of Nakano’s hike is a 4-story building that used to be a department store, that is now known as “Nakano Broadway”, a 5-story (inlcuding the basement floor’s “fashion wonderland”) collection of… tons of shit. Mostly maniac stuff, any way you look at it. Dozens of little stores on each floor: One focusing on 80-s era anime laser disks. Another on US Army surplus uniforms and equipment. Another on airsoft weapons. Another on pulp samurai books. Another on games from the Famicon/Nintendo era. Another on track suits. Another on old gangster and samurai DVDs. Another on collectible robot figurines. 5 floors of that. I actually managed to See It All and get back to the station in about 30 minutes.  Mostly because in the end, it was a little too maniac out of my interests (frex, even if there was a TRPG store, it would focus on older collectible stuff, and I’m just not interested in collectibles all that much). Still, though, it was a cute experience.

On the way back, I bought some cold medicine, of the “do not drive heavy vehicles after swallowing” variety. I fought to maintain my stamina, though, and luckily didn’t become too drowsy.

Met up with Eikichi, we went to a unique place called “The Yoyogi Robot” ( http://www.ro-bo-ta.com/ ), a small theme bar with model robot toys plastered everywhere. THey constantly play theme music from robot and mecha-themed anime, while a TV constantly plays anime DVDs. There are some specialty drinks that are named after famous lines from various robot/mecha anime and the like. I ended up having a beer and a peach-cassis cocktail, and we both chatted up the barmaid: A girl in her mid/late 20s wearing a mecha pilot suit and glasses. She gave us each a card and stamped it with a stamp that said “Megane” (”glasses”), explaining that she’s a maniac for glasses. Cute girl in a “hot goth librarian” kind of way. Anyway, unfortunately due to creepy weirdos about they have a policy about no taking pictures of the barmaids, but you are allowed to take other pictures inside and outside the bar, so I did so.

THe stamp cards we received were funky: Basically, you get a stamp for every drink you order (and most drinks are 500 yen). You write a “code name/handle” on the card, and bring it. When you get 15 stamps, you retire your card and get a new one, of a higher military rank (captain, lieutenant, etc). The last rank is “Shogun”, and to get that rank you basically have to go through 10 cards. 150 drinks, at 500 yen per drink, I figured comes out to about $750 to become a Shogun. If ever I hit the lottery, I’d love to just pull out a fat stack of bills and be like, “148 drinks please” (basically buying rounds for everyone in the bar)..In reality, though, I can think of about 40 more interesting ways to blow close to a thousand bucks.

After that, we hit up Akihabara to get a carrying case for the dictionary I ordered, and then took some trains back to Gunma. Talked for a while, then took Eikichi back home, and crashed.