Hey Hive!
If you missed the last few posts, I started sharing about our anniversary trip to Tokyo back in Feb 2023! It'd been at least 3 years since we visited Tokyo and the last time was pre-covid so we decided to go back and find some new places to explore while revisiting our favourite hot-spots.
Last week, we finished our second day by visiting the Gundam Factory in Yokohama! We were very fortunate to be able to catch it just one month prior to it closing forever!
It's such a shame too, since the exhibition section or Academy in the Factory talks about how they put so much effort into designing and creating this giant moving humanoid robot. I'm not sure why they closed it exactly but I think it's largely due to maintenance costs. Of course, it has been said that the Gundam itself was lost after the battle between Earth's humans and spacenoids.
I think it was initially not designed to be around for a long time as well, since it is housed outdoors and the climate in Japan can be quite volatile. The Factory itself is right on the pier too, and sea air can be quite corrosive.
I'm just glad we got to catch the performances because it was so cool!
Anyway, on to the next day!
4 Feb 2023. Saturday.
Since we had a long tiring day previously, we wanted to take it easy today and just relax. So we took some time to explore Ginza for a bit. It's not usually our scene since Ginza is full of luxury brands so weren't actually going into any of these stores.
There was one store we did visit though; UNIQLO!
This wasn't the biggest UNIQLO in the world, the famous 12-storey UNIQLO building on the main street of Ginza. But it was still fairly large.
This UNIQLO outlet, spans 5 floors with each floor dedicated to different consumer groups.
But what was interesting was the first floor, where apparently they sold flowers too?
There was even a UNIQLO Coffee shop which I think the giant flagship store might have too, but it was cool to see it here as well.
We took a look around the regular apparel as well to see if any good deals caught our eye.
Other than the regular deals though, UNIQLO prices tend to be quite universal so there's not anything too different. They did have this collection from an independent designer though.
Even though this wasn't the flagship store, it was still pretty extensive and each floor was spacious and packed with products. There was even a sitting area on the Womens floor.
There was some interesting streetwear from the UT collection as well.
We were surprised with how empty the store was even on a Saturday. I guess everyone just goes to the giant UNIQLO store that this one gets overlooked?
They even had a sizable UT section just like the flagship store.
We've been trying to find this shirt that Sean unfortunately missed out on a few years ago, when they didn't have his size. I have a matching Sally (from LINE Friends) one so we wanted to get the Brown one for Sean and unfortunately they don't make them anymore.
But every time we're in Japan we always check out the UT section in UNIQLO in the hopes that we'll get lucky and find a straggler here even though it's probably been discontinued for years.
As with the bigger UNIQLO stores they also have a custom design section where you can print your own shirt. I was sorely tempted to print a merch shirt but unfortunately their printing services were quite limited.
The first floor also had this LifeWear Square which had some special exhibits I guess?
They did have this humongous version of the Ultra Light Down coat though, which was quite a sight indeed!
After we were done looking around, we headed out to take the train to Akihabara! If you've been to Tokyo before, you'd know about this place.
If you haven't, it's basically THE go-to place for anime, merchandise and games! It'd been a while since we've been here and maybe I'll recognise more things now that we watched a few animes.
We're not even outside the station and already we saw an anime pop-up store selling merchandise for this goofy-looking anime with a very buff man.
Neither of us have heard of this anime before, but just looking at the protagonist you can tell it's pretty goofy.
It must be pretty popular too since there were so many figurines of the guy in various costumes for sale.
Of course, there were some spicy ads with anime waifus on display as well. They were advertising for this game called Blue Archive which I've seen some of my streamer friends playing.
We left the station and walked down this familiar pathway with snack stalls on one side and Yodobashi Camera on the other, with a long line of gachapon machines.
At the end there was also a pop-up organised by Yodobashi showcasing some games on PS5.
I think the only game we'd heard of was Gran Turismo 7 and Street Fighter 6. I was kinda curious to try the other games but there were also people waiting to try and I figured the sales people would probably try to talk to me in Japanese so we just took a look and left.
And of course, once we saw that classic GiGO sign (that was initially SEGA) we knew we were in the main street of Akihabara.
It was crazy to see two Genshin Impact ads so close together and since I was still playing the game at the time I was honestly quite hyped to see something I actually recognised.
But first, it was time to get some lunch!
We headed to one of our classic go-to spots for cheap eats, Sukiya! Back before they expanded internationally, we'd always make it a point to eat here at least once whenever we visited Japan.
This outlet was actually off the beaten path in Akiba and I think we had to use Google Maps to find it but thankfully we did because everywhere else was packed during lunch hours on a weekend.
We managed to get a table for two with no issues and you order through a tablet on the table which also has English translations so it's no problem for tourists.
Of course they also had some anime collaboration going on with Demon Slayer at the time, but we don't watch the show so it didn't really mean anything to us.
Sukiya specialises in Gyudon, or beef rice bowls that come with various toppings and sets including salad and miso soup.
Of course they also have ala carte dishes you can order like just the beef, unagi or teriyaki, and Sean's favourite - the Sukiyaki pot!
I ordered the Shredded Leek Gyudon with Spicy Red Sauce combo which comes with a side of miso soup and a salad lunch that I changed to tofu instead.
While Sean ordered the beef Sukiyaki pot, which comes with a side of rice and two eggs.
I think the Sukiyaki pot is quite underrated since everyone knows Sukiya for their Gyudon, but we tried it years ago on a rainy winter's night and it was perfect for the weather. Sean's loved it ever since then.
It is a very filling meal that's for sure, with beef, eggs, cabbage and udon along with a side of rice. All for the same price as my Gyudon combo! What a deal!
It was a very satisfying meal and I was stuffed! After that we took a walk back to the main street of Akiba and of course got distracted by gachapon machines.
I saw some Genshin Impact ones and, it being the first time I saw Genshin Impact merchandise irl, I went for it.
To be fair they did look pretty cool.
We also tried some goofy looking dog ones like this cute geometric dog figure.
We saw quite a few SPYxFAMILY ones too that were tempting.
It was such a nice day out so the streets were packed with people this weekend.
On the way back to the main street while avoiding the crowds, we came across this pet shop/cafe called Coo & Riku and decided to stop in!
Immediately we were greeted by cuteness emanating from all these little puppers!
Who can resist those faces! I wanted to pet and play with them so badly.
I guess these puppies were for sale since they had prices next to them and man they were expensive!
There were some kitties as well and they all looked so adorable!
This place looked really fancy, and actually resembled a pet hospital a little bit.
There were some bigger pups deeper into the store and they were so cute too! These two looked like they were siblings.
After that we left before we could get sucked into spending time at the pet cafe since we wanted to see more things. Sean wanted to get a drink so we went to CoCo to get some bubble tea.
It's funny since it's actually a Chinese brand but I guess they expanded here as well.
We bought a drink before heading on and saw more gachapon machines along the street. I feel like the machines on the street tend to not be as good as the ones in the shops though.
Eventually we made it to Donki Hote and if you're unfamiliar it's our favourite discount store to visit in Japan because they have EVERYTHING.
Source: akihabaraexplorer
But of course since this is the Akihabara store, they have a lot more anime-related goods here than any other store.
There was so much merchandise from so many series I've never heard or seen before.
Here's some Attack on Titan stuff that I could recognise.
It was actually quite shocking just how much anime stuff they had, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised since it's Donki.
They even had merchandise from Apex Legends, which I was very surprised by since I didn't even know they made merch.
Of course, more SPYxFAMILY stuff since that was a big anime even then.
This whole section was just anime and there were so many guys around
Donki also sells lots of regular lifestyle goods, food and confectionary, clothes, cosmetics and everything else. But this one definitely had the biggest anime section I've ever seen.
They had some very cute kirby stuff too that I was tempted to get.
And surprisingly enough, a huge Genshin Impact section!
But I think I'll geek out more in the next post! Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #269 (Tokyo): Exploring the Giant Gundam Factory! 🤖