Today was the end of a very long first day, walking Yokohama old town, and exploring Kamakura's five temples. Finally before heading to my capsule hotel for tonite I was going to do a walk thru Akihabara district.

In its heyday in the 70s and 80s this was the 'go to' place to get the latest in electronics from cameras, watches, radios, cassette tapes and recorders, vcrs, tvs, walkmans, batteries, and video cameras. With the growth of rival foreign brands and newer digital technologies the area's global preeminence has waned.

However with the growth of Japanese pop culture since the 90s with pop bands, manga comics, and anime cartoons, the area has reinvented and saved itself from decline.

First stop by Akihabara station was AKB48 cafe. This is named after a popular all girl group and they perform live shows here if you can get a highly prized ticket.

Next door was Gundam cafe themed after a Transformers style robot with its own line of merchandise.

Then I was trying to navigate my neighbourhood map walking round and round trying to find the places I had picked out.

Eventually I found Mandrake a 7 floored themed store. Interesting were many movie characters and figures but the store was very tight and cramped to navigate the aisles.

Each floor had a different theme from movies, CDs and DVDs, Manga, Anime, and pop icons.

The Manga cartoon porn was a bit bizarre and there were also costumed dolls and outfits in the same theme.

Nearby I had to wander around until I found Super Potato another themed store. Again this had several floors and was quite cramped.

This was more geared to retro gaming with Atari, Nintendo, and old arcade games from the 80s and 90s.

Surprisingly the area wasnt as crowded as I thought despite very compact tight stores.

Finally I was trying to find Gamers and Radio Kaikan but it was hard to tell the names of the stores.

After more wandering I went back to the station to make my reservation for tomorrow morning to Hakodate on Hokkaido Island. Then I tried to find my capsule hotel. The map on the booking was wrong and I went to the wrong capsule.

They gave me directions and I stopped by Family Mart for some fish cakes and broth similar to odeng I used to eat in Korea.

In this capsule I went for the Premium Capsule as opposed to the basic one yesterday. It was a bit more comfy but the smoking lounge was outside so the air was filtering thru everytime the door opened and closed.

Looking at the pics a friend compared this to a morgue where they store the dead bodies in freezer drawers! I dont recall the spas being that great and there were cigarette fumes. It was ok for one night but more basic than last nites capsule so I wouldnt stay here again.