Sorry I haven’t given you all an update since we arrived, I’ve been struggling the past few days to upload photos… There are some up there but only from our first couple of days! So there will be lots more to come when I have more success…

On Tuesday we went to Akihabara which is known as the electronic city where there are hundreds of alleys with street side vendors selling all sorts of gadgets like mostly memory sticks, and computer part or weird electronic toys… Its also the anime hub of Japan…

We saw heaps of strange shit but those that took the cake were:

• a large array of electronic toilet seats which you can adjust the strength of the spray from the bidet, built in heating and can make flushing sounds to hide any other sounds you might be making on the toilet.. Haha!
• an exercise device which can only be described as a ride on bull but with the way they were advertising it you’d compare it to the abdominal products they try to sell back home.. I have photos wait for them!!
• rotating car spaces – basically you drive in and the car is on a large round plate which will spin the car back around so you can drive it back out, no reserving or 3 point turns!
• figurines by the millions! no joke there is a figurine for everything and any thing… most movies you can think of you can probably find one for, then there are all the anime characters and kids shows.. there are even some very provocative adult ones which we bought from a vending machine which were hilarious!

We also stumbled across a few strange little shops that appeared to sell just random junk outside then you get inside and it looks more like a hardware store.. take a few steps further towards the back and they’re selling weapons like ninja stars, nun-chucks, samurai swords and knives.. take a few more steps and they’re selling adult DVD’s and sex toys!?

Speaking of which on our way back to the station we stopped in to a big book store trying to find an English book about Tokyo. The store was about 7 levels and you’d compare it to borders back in brisbane first few floors were normal books like computers, novels, magazines, non-fictions… but you get to the upper few levels and they were ALL manga/anime porn?! Some of which was very graphic… and the weird thing is some of the business men here on the trains will just read this in public with no shame even sitting next to elderly women!