give me some time to sort thru the photos, as the total count ended up being close to 4000 photos.

but here's a few tidbits to keep you satiated....

me getting literature being handed out by the cosplayers in akihabara

me slurping down some udon at hanamarou

a cosplay parade/rally spotted as we left akihabara:

ps. i've got video of this in all it's glory. again, give me time to process it.

more pics of the cosplayers:

first off here's Kent. He's here stressing at San Antonio Airport over the 20+ hours of traveling we've just started. We're at the gate, so we've already been at the airport at least an hour, just checking in and going thru security. Oh, and this is the first time he's flown IN HIS LIFE because he's afraid of flying. Japan was just enough reason for him to brave it.

fast forward those 20+ hours, and we're in japan.
Here' s mike on the bus into town from the airport. Narita, the international airport, is about 30-40 mins outside of Tokyo. They've got a smaller airport closer in the city, but we would have had to take another flight from narita to get there.

we arrived in tokyo, and caught a cab to the hotel. Now I don't know if you've heard about the cabs in Tokyo, but they are very nice. The cabbie helped us load all our luggage in the car, and we all got in the cab. inside, the cab has all the usual cab stuff including a GPS. We started rolling, but apparently one of the doors was not shut all the way. well, the cabbie pushed a button and one of the doors opened and shut automatically. then all the others. remote controlled doors. fancy. also, you don't tip in japan. they consider themselves professionals in their field and it's considered rude if you do. So we arrive at the hotel, checked in, and relaxed/showered breifly before heading out for food. It was dark by the time we set out on the street in search of food.

our first time buying food in japan was, well, interesting. we couldn't decide where to go, since we had almost no idea what most of the places were. my companions were thinking about mcdonalds (which we walked by soon enough) but I insisted our first meal in japan NOT be mcdonalds. so we found a little takeout place that was very affordable. we muddled our way with what little japanese we already knew, and got some pretty decent fried fish and rice.
we eat, we sleep.

I grumbled, or said something, or something. anyway, i pull myself outta bed and get to my door.

noone there.

But i know it was a knock. I start getting ready, as i see there's already light outside and i figure kent is ready to go out shooting.

actually, kent had gone out to shoot after knocking on my door, and after about an hour, comes back and gets me. we go wandering the streets to photograph.

here's the first shot out of my camera that morn:

It's kinda hard to describe what it was like walking around downtown tokyo that morning. everything seemed so different from the night before, even though i recognised some places we had passed in the night. After walking a little while we turned down a street and i snapped this.

I thought the crosswalk signs looked pretty neat in the fact that they also looked quite old.

notice the powerline-on-crack that is common in tokyo. Here's another street shot that gives you a better idea.