2013/07/26

Akihabara - Shops, Cafes, Refleurir Butler Café, Purikura, Flea Market



For breakfast before infiltrating the otaku territory, we had to get something to gain enough strength.


Actually, I really wanted to go to the AKB48 cafe and take a look at the Gundam one, but both had incredibly long queues, so no luck. Maybe I'll try during the working days if I start lab work later.





There was a giant screen playing J-pop songs pretty near the station.



I have to say the maids were super cute! But the school-girl like maids were kind of, overly made-up, which made them look less authentic.


I got separated from my friends in a huge electronics store as I decided I wasn't going to buy neither a beautifying machine, nor a weighting scale or tripod for cellphone selcas. Instead, I went to the flea market that was in a nearby street and desperately searched for Bleach stuff for my boyfriend. I have to tell you, Bleach is apparently so popular it's sold out all the time, or so unpopular no one even bother to sell it. On the other hand, One Piece, moe and ecchi stuff are everywhere. And surprisingly enough, also Natsume Yuujinchou (not complaining about this one, since its promo items have very nice traditional feel and therefore work perfectly as gifts to bring back home).  



This market was also my first face to face encounter with creepy men. To be precise, this was just one man, who sort of followed me for several minutes, then said "hi, nice to meet you" and then gradually started asking all sorts of questions and left only when I kept talking about "buying stuff for my B-O-Y-F-R-I-E-N-D".



At the end of the market, there was also a super cute couple selling mostly the girl's old clothes and also some anime stuff. I bought two of her tops (she had a HEART-E blouse, ZOMG!) and then they asked me if I listened to music (I said reluctantly that I do - I was worried they were trying to sell me something else) and if I knew enough Japanese to listen to stories. Then it turned out, they wanted to give me a free CD. O(≧∇≦)O And in the end, they gave me both a music CD and some fairy tales. And after I thanked them and left, I heard them talking about how kawaii I was, which totally made my day. (*^▽^*)





And then I braced myself and went into the otaku paradise.




Where I had a much scarier encounter with a textbook otaku. I entered one of the shops where there are basically only male shop assistants and only male customers (looking for stuff for my boyfriend) and some guy entered right behind me. After a short while, he leaned towards me, covered his mouth partially with his hand and started quickly whispering something in my ear. I totally got goosebumps and told him I didn't understand, so he asked if I spoke Japanese and I said I did, then he started talking really really fast again and when I said it was too quick, he finally left. I have no idea if he was asking what time it was, if I was in the wrong shop or if I would sell ma underwear, but he really gave me the creeps, especially since like 80% Japanese men are way taller and stronger than me. 





Ninja maids... well, why not.




Don Quijote in Akihabara. I had the brilliant idea i¨d go watch AKB48, since the tickets are only around 3000 Yen. Then I found out that in order to be able to BUY a ticket, you first need to win a lottery, and I decided I couldn't be bothered. There's also @home maid café, which looked busy but had no queues and where I'm considering going on my birthday, since they seem to have birthday events. And of course, it's Donki - that means food, cosmetics, clothes, costumes... I found awesome rainbow wigs, but 6000 Yen is a bit expensive.






By chance I found my roomie while roaming the streets and we decided to try Purikura together (she already tried it with other girls from UTRIP, so she knew how the photo booth worked). We chose Bijyo Cocktail and I think it was a good choice, the pictures we got were what I expected it to be like. There were other machines - for European look (LOL - do I need that?), red lips (WTH?) etc.


I think I look a bit like an alien in some of the pictures, but it's aweosme how the machine can make the skin super light, smooth, bright and the eyes doll-like.


And shortly after noon, we met up with a couple of friends and their labmates and headed for Refleurir (web, blog) - one of the new butler cafés. 


The reception desk didn't look very promising, especially since it was located on the 6th and 7th floor of a hidden tall building in Akihabara. Also, one of the Japanese girls cause a bit of confusion when she tried to cancel our reservation after she found out they had no Japanese-speaking staff, and when we told her we didn't want to cancel anyway, she had to ask to cancel the cancellation. Phew.



But the tearoom was another story - I totally forgot I was in crowded Akihabara and felt sort of like when I visited the little teahouses in Northern England. The room was very cute, with pretty furniture and lovely decorations. On the menu, they had a couple of salty dishes, two cake sets and then hundreds of different teas, and also some other drinks. Since we were 8, there were two butlers who did most of the work, one more helped with preparations of the food and one, who looked like a Kuroshitsuji cosplayer (which was really cool!) helped with the receipts.  





Oh right, my roomie got a plush chicken from some random guy in an arcade.





I have to say that compared to what I read on another blog, I suppose they weren't trying so hard with the role playing as half of us were foreigners. I was slightly proactive (and spoke some Japanese), so I got some interactions. I asked for tea recommendation and got a thorough description of the tea flavors, meanings... and in the end chose the recommended La Reine Rose, which was an absolutely delicious blend of rose and champagne. I would buy that tea no matter the price, if they were selling it to bring home. I ordered also the Fairy Heart cake set, because you can never go wrong with sweets. Ah, actually, I first picked the cakes and then asked what tea would match them. As for the other girls, most got some sort of tea, Juliette got a drink, and half of us got cakes and the other salad called "Siesta" I believe.  I', not sure why, but for some reason they only had 3 salads, so they said white boars (boars? BOARS?) in the garden ate all the vegetables and one ojou-sama needs to change her order. Thank god nothing ate the cakes.
Afterwards, I was presented with a lovely pink tea cup accompanied with "because you are so beautiful, I'm bringing you this pink cup". (ღ˘⌣˘ღ) I'm not sure, but he might have actually attempted to say it in English. That was cute. And of course, the tea pot is too hot for ojou-sama, so she can't pour the tea herself. In general, it made me slightly nervous when the butlers kneeled down whenever they talked to us, but considering their height, I would have broken my neck if I tried to look up to them were they standing.


Juliette's salad



My Fairy Heart cake set - pear pie, matcha cake and chocolate cake with tasty whipped cream, fruit sauce and flower decoration.


The delicious tea.


In general, it was a very nice experience (I'm not so sure if the butlers and rest of the girls shared this emotion), the tea + cake + couvert were 2500 Yen, which is not exactly cheap, but also not insane, considering how tasty the tea and cakes were and we were pretty much prepared for a similar sum. With "please take care on your way back" we were engulfed by the elevator and spat into rainy Akihabara streets, which killed my new dress (as the rain made the dye of the lace run on the fabric of the dress - hope Czech dry cleaners will be able to do something about it).

My roomie and Danzi trying on costumes at  Donki.
 

In Don Quijote, they were also playing some symphonic metal/visual kei PV and I quite liked the music, so I forced the poor Japanese girls to find out the band's name - it's Linked Horizon and the song was apparently an OP of some popular anime. Anyways, I bought their CD in Book-Off in Iidabashi in the evening.



Love Potion Ice cream at Iidabashi.



My roomie's sundae.


Dinner:


Yours truly otakufied
Vita

7 comments:

  1. Everything about this post is totally kawaii!! Loving your blog and everything you post. Will be keeping up with your blog!
    xx
    www.janicethitran.com (◕‿◕✿)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh really cute pics sweetie!
    All is so cute!
    The food oishii~
    xx

    www.sakuranko.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Na těch fotkách Ti to vážně moc sluší.. a vůbec se nedivím že si o Tobě ti prodejci říkali že jsi kawaii :)

    ReplyDelete