A meal at “Akiba” in Akihabara

 

Good evening!
Thank you very much for your vising my blog.
Today’s report is about “2k540” and “Akiba” which are both between Akihabara and Okachimachi.

 

Yesterday, April 2nd, I went to Okachimachi to pick up my new suit which I had ordered.

 

I usually spend my day off at home lying on the bed, so I thought “I can’t waste this precious chance to use my time outside. I got up at 3 p.m. so I need to have some exercise now, otherwise I can’t go asleep at night(- -;)” That’s why I took a walk from Okachimachi to Akihabara before I went to the suit shop.

I was walking along Chuo-Dori street at first, but I moved to the street along the elevated bridge of The Yamanote and Keihin-Tohoku Lines as there were not interesting things in the Chuo-Dori.

After a while, I reached “2k540” which I used to come before I moved to Asakusa.

This place is a commercial complex under the Yamanote and Keihin-Tohoku Rail Line between Okachimachi and Akihabara. There are some shops which deal various goods made by craftsperson.

The name “2k540” comes from a railway term to express the distance from Tokyo Station. According to the website of East Japan Railway Company who is the complex’s governing body, this place is 2 kilometers and 540 meters from Tokyo Station, and it is written as “2k540” in the railway industry. The website also says that the name is supposed to be read “Ni Kei Goh Yon Maru” which is just like each letter are in Japanese pronunciation.

The inside is like this.

Above this building a railroad is built, so you hear the Yamanote and Keihin-Tohoku trains passing by. It’s not a big problem if you are having fun enough with date, or very much interested in the item in front of you at shops.

The following photos are the inside of a shop which I was interested in.

　

The shop’s name is “The metal (“Kane” in Japanese) cat’s (“Neko”) KANEKO”. The board says that they make ornaments of metal cats. Kane-Neko. Kaneko.

There are more;

　

There is a café as well.

And the last stop.

The shop over the road is a supermarket “Hanamasa Meat”.

When I was living in Yushima, I always used this supermarket.

They have cheap and voluminous things a lot.

Thanks to Hanamasa, I survived my life there.

 

Now, if you go across the road in the photo (Kuramae Bashi-Dori), there is a shop like this.

It seems a MARIO CART shop.

Recently it’s a kind of popular.

If you go further,

You see many Mario Carts lined up under the railroad

I actually saw Mario Carts near the metropolitan tax office on the day before, March 31st.

What a coincidence!

 

I was familiar with this place until this point, but there was an un-known building after I went more.

The sign board says “商場 (Akiba. The mean of Chinese character is the Place of trade. In Japanese, “商” is read “Akinai”, “場” is “Ba”. Further, Akihabara(“秋葉原”) is usually called “Akiba”. Japanese like these pun ^^)”.

I checked another poster on the near wall.

It says that the people who want to do “商い” (“Akinai”. “business” or “trade” in English) can use this place.

 

I got curious about this Akiba, but decided to complete this street first and went further (I was misunderstanding that I was still on the way to the end point of 2k540 at that time).

There was a next complex called “Chabara”.

Here there are some restaurants which serve the local foods of different areas in Japan.

You can eat in the restaurants as well. The next photo is the entrance of one of them.

This is “Dining Tokushima” where you can enjoy good foods of Tokushima Prefecture.

For the Japanese sake menu, they have Tokushima’s local sake “Goten Zakura” and the one called “Kamikatsu no Tanadamai to Wakimizu to Makenki de Kosshaeta Junmai Ginjou Genshu” (which means sake made of terraced fields’ rice, spring water, and the makers’ spirit of Kamikatsu Town) which the name itself explains what it is.

I wanted to have a seat there to try the sake, especially the latter one, but I decided to go back to “Akiba” first considering my stomach’s condition.

 

In Akiba.

4 restaurants were open on that day.

The time I woke up was 3 p.m., and it was a little passed 4 when I came to Akiba.

I looked for something light to eat.

This is one of the sign board on the road.

Looks nice.

When I was about to order this, I found another board.

The fried chicken with coriander sauce of the upper right photo caught my heart after all.

However, to tell the truth, I chose this restaurant because I wanted to take a photo of this.

Yes, Japanese sake “Katana” and “Koshino Kagetora Honjozo Super Dry”.

I was a little surprised that such food bar had these sake.

 

The eating space was a big free space like this.

I found a notice saying that the chairs and tables are available for anyone anywhere in the free space.

So, I brought a table and a chair near this notice.

It was outside at 4 p.m. The wind was cold.

 

After a while, a person at the bar brought me the coriander fried chicken on rice.

He warned me that the chicken was very hot, but it was no problem in the cold air.

I tried from the chicken.

The coating was crispy, and the orange colored-sauce had soft sweet and sour taste of vegetables.

It was very nice for a person like me who is in vegetable first-diet because there was much vegetable on the rice as well.

And the coriander now.

I noticed that the rice was thin.

This thin rice is so-called Thai Rice.

Indeed, it was not so sticky as the normal rice I usually eat.

I remember that Japan once imported Thai rice due to sever poor crop of Japanese rice. The people complained that the Thai rice was dry and bad at that time. However, the rice I had there was good, and I wouldn’t have noticed if someone wouldn’t tell me that it was Thai rice.

Well, I don’t have a sensitive tongue anyway^^;

At least, I thought that Thai rice suits more to a dish like this.

 

By the way, Akihabara changes very quickly.

We see the changes in such commercial facilities, and other places such as “AKB Cultures Zone” where interesting shops such as figure exhibition sales shops or various cafes are in. Many different cultures and atmosphere exist in this city, and many creative challenges are made.

“Akiba” brought me a thought that something unique to change the world’s economy will be born in Akihabara.