Day 39

Started the day early by cleaning up the room a little. Went out to send out some parcels and get some food. Let me tell you about the typical residential area in Tokyo where the guesthouse is located. Within 5 minutes walk, there are about five convenience stores, all open 24/7. There are at least two post offices nearby.

On the shopping street there're two super markets right next to each other, one having some items cheaper than the other and vice versa. I usually go to this one, Tomie Store, to stock up on drinks. Here, they cost about 100 yen for a 500ml PET bottle, which will save you quite alot than if you bought them all at convenience stores or vending machines for 150 yen.

Right next to the supermarkets is a book store with the latest magazines on display. In Japan, it's OK to read in the stores. This is called "tachiyomi", and literally it means "standing reading". Though some stores like to wrap everything up in plastic.

This is a very typical shopping street in a residential area of Tokyo. And every shopping street got at least one pachinko, which makes alot of noise everytime anyone walk past and the automatic doors open. You cannot make money from pachinko itself. The system is that when you've got a certain amount of balls, you can trade it in for a little toy. Either you keep the toy, or head over to the store right next to the pachinko who will buy the toy from you. The store knows how many balls are needed for each toy, and will pay you thereafter. This is how people make money from pachinko. You'll hear about people losing more often than winning though, easily spending over 10,000 yen in 15 minutes.

At the corner there's an Origin Bento, where you can chose a lunch box and they will make it for you while you wait. Also open 24/7, which is great when you're hungry in the middle of the night.

This is roasted chicken bento, for a mere 390 yen.

Since Kurisu was on day duty at Tokyo Dome today I decided to head out there. First I stopped by at Ochinomizu to get the Oogoe Diamond shot I missed earlier.

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Upon arriving I changed my mind about getting the night pass. 3000 yen is kind of overkill for just a trading card, especially considering I recently was there and Thunder Dolphin was closed due to maintenance. So I just went around the park to get the Shukan AKB shots.

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Sometimes you need to eat healthy food. They're having a campaign now in which you get a free strap if you buy a LL set (large fries and large drink).

There's still a couple of shots I wanna get from Tokyo Dome, so I will return when there's another of my oshimen's day duty.

Day 36

In the evening I went to Tokyo Dome with a friend to check what the AKB day duty thing was about. And to ride some roller coasters. Today was Nakata Chisato's day duty, but after talking to the girls at the information desk, the only thing you can really do is a stamp rally and watch some promotion video. If you apply for the stamp rally you get a trading card, and if you collect all the stamps, you get a QR code to download a wallpaper for your cell phone. Also, you get a lottery ticket which if you win will get you a pin badge.

First we went on the Tower Hacker which was really fast. I can tell how Sayaka was feeling in the recent episode of Shukan AKB, but wouldn't imagine her crying for that.

Then went on the Thunder Dolphin roller coaster which is 80 meters tall. The first part, going up, is the scariest, since it's really steep and it really feels like you're going to fall backwards.

Had a hamburger for dinner from one of the resturants in the Tokyo Dome area. The prices there are pretty crazy seeing as how you can get the same type of meals at the regular streets for half price.

We bought a ticket which would let you ride five times. For the last three rides we went on the Thunder Dolphin one more time, Linear Gale, which pretty much just went up and down, and finally Wonder Drop, a water slide. I didn't get wet but my friend who sat in the front got soaked.