Gaming Day – Animae & Sumo

Well this is it. Our last day on holiday. Sad, but I don’t mind going home when it’s raining cats and dogs. Today we would be checking out where all the animae geeks hang out and then going to the sumo wrestling.

We started our last day of adventures in Akihabara. Akihabara is an area known for 2 things: electronic town and manga/animae. Back in the day, this area was inundated with electronics stores. But then other retailers started selling them so the area reinvented itself as a place to buy everything animae ie comic book. However today you can find (probably hundreds) of stores that sell electronics or animae. On top of that there are soooo many gaming stores. Akihabara really is a geek heaven.

I have become a little geeky myself this trip and become obsessed with vending machines that give little prizes. There are stores that specialise purely in these vending machines!

There is also a kinky side to Akihabara. There are dozens of maid cafes where the waitresses are dressed as maids and serve you. The girls all look about 16 years old. And then you can also find sex shops specialising in animae porn. Mmmmmm….

From Akihabara we headed to Ryogoku to see us some sumo wrestling. Sumo is a Japanese form of wrestling that dates back to ancient times. Getting off the train you are immediately in the sumo hype. You see sumo wrestlers catching the train and there are posters and pictures of sumo all over the station.

Once you get into the stadium there is a real excitement in the air. Especially as the sumo are just walking about it their robes.

After getting a bento box each for lunch, the Japanese equivalent of a meat pie at the footy, we head to our seats. We got to see about 1 hour of the sumo before missy told us it was time to go home. Whilst initially disappointed we had to go, we were pleased that we saw what we did and all the ceremony that goes with it.

Late afternoon we headed over to Takayasima, a department store just near our hotel. We browsed through the food hall at all the delicious Japanese foods ranging from bento boxes, tempura, tea, biscuits. One observation about the Japanese is that they package everything so beautifully. It makes sense as you do eat with your eyes.

If Gracie is a terror on the flight home it’s all at the expense of her giving us our last night to enjoy a beautiful and romantic dinner while she slept in her pram. It wasn’t easy to get her to settle but once we did we headed down to the hotel restaurant. We quickly ordered wine and a wagyu steak each. She awoke briefly so I took her for a walk and thankfully she stayed asleep. This allowed us to enjoy the most delicious steak I have ever eaten in my life.

Next stop home. Pray for a safe flight and a well behaved baby 🙏🤞