July 6th, Akihabara, Tokyo part 2

Around 5pm, I finally headed back to the Don Quoxote buildling, AKB 8th floor. I went up there to check it out, and see what the hype is about with this group of girls. I have seen video of this group and they can sure sing and dance. The Japanese man, who created this group of girls is a rich rich man, and a genius. Anyways, I finally reached the 8th floor, and browsed around. I bought some souvenirs. After finishing up on my purchases of AKB items, I noticed a small line forming on the other side of the floor infront of the double doors that lead to their concert theater hall. There was a long table with a small stack of Japanese books, apparently autographed by one of the AKB members. It was Mariko Shinoda!, one of my favorite AKB members. I went to the line quickly and bought a book, not knowing what it meant, since it was in Japanese writing, but she signed it. It was for 1260 yen. After buying it, I stood in line for less than 5 minutes. I finally stood face to face with a Japanese singer, who was part of the huge music Jpop group AKB48. She didn't speak any english, so i spoke to her briefly in my limited Japanese conversational skills. She shook my hand with both her hands what seemed like 2 minute. She smiled and said "sugoi" several times, which means "awesome", and she thanked me. It may not seem like a big deal to other people and americans, but for me it was an amazing experience meeting a japanese celebrity, known in parts of Japan, and Akihabara, but for me it was a pleasant happy experience. After meeting Mariko-sama, I headed out of Akihabara and went back to catch the train back to the hotel. By the time i got back it was almost 7:30pm. I dropped my stuff off in the hotel room, then headed back to the akasake mitsuke area to get something to eat for dinner. I got some soba noodles at this one place where you buy a meal ticket first from the vending machine. I got the ticket and gave it over to the man behind the counter, and i got my bowl of soba a minute later. A lot of salarymen and other locals eat here for lunch and dinner. It is a fast and convenient to get a meal. There are lots of ramen, other food places to eat, some convenience stores, hostess bars that cater mainly to the over-worked, fatigued salarymen of Japan. There are also a few pachinko gaming parlours, and other various stores. I then went to the "combini" convenience store, and got some snacks, milk tea, and some pastry for tomorrow's breakfast and went back up to the hotel room (#2234) to turn in for the evening. It was a fun filled down in Akihabara, as tomorrow i will visit my pen pal from Nagoya via Shinkansen train.