Akihabara

Yesterday we went to Akihabara (the electronic district). First we had curry for lunch at CoCo's which is a local favorite. Even the regular was a little too spicy for me, but we'll go back and I'll try the mild. Especially with my stomach in a constantly nauseous state, I'm thinking it might not be a regular dinner spot for a while. Mike and Jackson both seemed to really like it though. They have spice levels from 1-10 (and mild and regular are below 1). Mike had 5 (you can't get higher than 5 until you eat a whole plate of 5, then you can get 6 and once you eat that you can get 7, etc.) Who knows if they actually control that since, really, how are they going to remember everyone that's allowed to get 6 and up?

Then we got on the train and headed to Akihabara. It was a little over an hour to get there, with 3 transfers but one ride lasting over 30 minutes. Jackson was pretty tired as it was about 1:15 when we got on this train and he hadn't had a nap at all yesterday (despite my desperate attempts to get him down before we left). We tried and tried to get him to sleep. Finally we laid him on his belly across both our laps (head on Mike's, legs on mine). I patted, Mike sang and he was asleep in minutes... maybe seconds. Too bad there were only about 10 minutes left in the train ride. We left him as long as we could then transferred him to his stroller completely expecting him to wake up. He DOES NOT sleep in his stroller EVER. He stayed asleep! Miracle of all miracles.

He slept for 45 minutes despite the craziness in Akihabara and the NOISE that was surrounding us. Of course 45 minutes is a super-short nap for him and it was the only one he took so he went to bed for the night at like 5:00 when we got home... BUT he slept in his stroller. I keep hoping that the more he sleeps in it, the more he'll get used to it and maybe eventually he'll be able to fall asleep in it, too.

The electronics district was INSANE. I have never seen anything like it before. Just stores crammed full of stuff, crammed in right next to each other. Some buildings 5 or more stories high.

One we went into had kind of random stuff on the bottom arranged in categories like you'd expect (but with very narrow aisles--fun with a full sized stroller). But the second floor was all cameras and camera accessories (including a $9,000 lense). Then the third floor was laptops and iPods, the fourth was PCs. All the tall buildings are like that, with each floor dedicated to one or two things. One of the guys we went with bought something that hooks up two hard drives plus has USB so you can hook up to a computer, too and transfer stuff between all 3. The other guy bought $150 headphones. We bought a waffle with chocolate cream (I didn't eat much curry and wanted dessert). Then I needed to change Jackson and found a restroom inside a Mr. Doughnut so the guys decided to get some. Mike got me a chocolate doughnut with chocolate cream filling and chocolate pieces. And 2 doughnuts for him and Jackson to share. Then we were back at the train station and Mike found a cake place and bought a piece of cheesecake to bring home and eat after dinner. Ummm... maybe we missed the point of Akihabara? =)

The train ride home was uneventful. Jackson wouldn't sleep. BUT we did somehow manage to get on a Special Rapid meaning it skipped a bunch of little stops. So the ride home was much faster. And it was also a different line than what we thought it was and took out one transfer for us, which was nice to avoid with the stroller and all.