As the captain promised, we’re the first flight into Narita, landing just after 6 in the morning. The Japanese breakfast they offered had natto. After some thought I decided I can delay the start of my Japanese experience for something less risky and went for the ham and egg.

After clearing custom, it’s time to find the JR office to buy a NEX+Suica pass.

 

 

NEX is the Narita Express, the not quite express train between Narita and Tokyo. The bonus is really the Suica, the travel smartcard for the Tokyo area, I’ll get to use a lot the next few days and more than just on trains. I bought the single way package as I plan to return on the faster Keisei Skyliner. Together the package saves about 1000Y.

 

 

The Suica card that comes in the package is a special edition with its own unique design. The average Suica is apparently quite plain.

A few years ago Tokyo had 2 smart card systems, Suica and Pasmo. Thankfully they’ve integrated the system and all I need is Suica. I can’t imagine juggling two cards for the two systems and keeping them appropriately charged with money.

During the 1 hrs trip I got my first glimpse of Tokyo’s landscape. Actually reminds me a bit of Taiwan, with scenes of 2-3 floors buildings in the outskirts melding into 5-10 level apartments as we get closer to the city. Much cleaner and more organized though.

I get off at Tokyo station, time to transfer to get to Ueno where my hotel is.

Tokyo station is undergoing some major renovation, but I got around okay, heading up endless flights of escalators to get to the suburban train levels, where I got onto the Yamanote line. It confused me at first why it’s called the Yamanote when the Kanji clearly reads Yamate. Later I learned the long history of name changes on wiki and how it came to be called so.

The train was surprisingly empty. While I had hoped it won’t be crowded since I have to drag my luggage with me, it was still somewhat disappointing.

A few minutes later and I’m at Ueno. Immediately I’m in awe of the scale of the station and the amount of shops there are platform side (within the ticket area).

I settled on Ueno for my base of operation fairly early on, the place is on the Yamanote line (which is a must) and is crossed by 3 other metro lines, close to Asakusa where the Tobu train to Washinomiya starts, within walking distance to Akihabara, and the hotels here are cheaper than other more centralized areas.

The hotel is a short 5 min walk away. Which felt more like 2 (later on it’ll feel more like 10…).

I originally was looking to stay at the original Cube Hotel Ueno south of the station, then I saw on Rakuten that they have a new hotel which opened only in June, so I figured why not.It’s a little further but overall better positioned I think since it’s on the main street so I don’t have to worry about going through alleys when I come back late (which I will with all the xmas light night outs).

Ueno is packed with business hotels like these, I chose Cube because I figured I don’t need hotel breakfast anyway (from the photos, other hotel’s breakfast consists of bread buns and unappetizing brocolli), and it’s 100% non-smoking. Plus it’s new and the beds seem quite big compared to other hotels.

I dropped off my luggage at the reception then away I go.

I actually didn’t have a concrete plan for Day 1 daytime since I wasn’t sure when I’ll arrive at the hotel. Since it turned out I got here early I decided I’ll walk down to Akiba, essentially moving my scheduled Akiba day forward.

It’s still early, the Okachimachi market just south of Ueno station is only just beginning to stir. Akiba isn’t too far, I’d say about 15min walk.

 

 

 

Outside of K-Books I noticed the walls are lined with illustrations by Tinkle (てぃんくる).

One of the first illustrators I came to love and follow, who recently came into the spotlight for their works on the light novel Rokyu-bu. I consider them the queen of gothic lolis for their style of frail, delicate, intricate, devilish-innocent loli. I remember a joke a while ago – Tinkle often have to call a pause in their manga due to illness, one guy on a discussion board asked “just how weak is the artist?”, another replied “as weak as their loli”.

Tinkle is one of my top 10 illustrators, but not the best since their art style has a limited range which makes one loli very similar to another. Still there’s no one out there who can do better folds and details in clothing. Anyway I might go into various illustrators in another post.

 

After a brief tour of akiba, I head to the Goods Smile cafe in the Akiba Cultural Zone building above K-Books.

Good Smile, or Sinister Smile as they’re sometimes known for releasing figures and goods that’ll clean your wallets, also operates cafes that runs various anime themes throughout the year. As I found out during my trip plannings I’m very lucky and they’re doing Madoka till Spring. They’ve actually opened a new shop in Taipei just in November as well, which no doubt I’ll visit the next time I’m back in Taiwan.

(Only now I’m back in Sydney do I realize I actually don’t have a shot of the cafe entrance, ah well the entrance isn’t too special.)

(Putting such an important event on the first day when I’ve not quite figured out my camera is a big mistake, too much of my shots are out of focus or badly exposed from the high contrast environment)

 

They have a 1kg sized curry rice, which if you finish you’ll get to get your photo taken and go on the “Contract signed list of fame”. I went with the smallest one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s more than just Madoka, they also have other Good Smile designed figures on display, and a smaller section on Fate – Phantasm Carnival

 

For more visit the Day 1 gallery.