What to Do in Akita? [Part 1]

Well, that is a very good question. I would like to know myself. Now, don't get me wrong... Akita is a beautiful and open place, but it's literally in the middle of nowhere in Japan. There is seriously not much to do except take the semi-free shuttle bus into the city on certain days or go to the mall/movie theater. There is a bus that can take you to Daisen City (remember the fireworks post?), but you'll have to pay for both the bus and train.

Well, our trusty go-to-guy, Phil, has the solution. Instead of just going to the mall for shopping, remember you are in Japan so anything can be found to do. Okay, so those weren't his exact words, but you get the point. This is Japan, make use of what you can. And Japan makes that easy.

This is AEON at night~
Here is the map of AEON mall nearby the campus. It looks small on the outside, but once you are inside, it is pretty huge. There are so many hallways that you can walk down. It's very easy to get lost in there or not to remember where the specific store you want is.

So, I'm going to tell you of the first official time I went to the mall. I was in a party of about 13 people including myself. The people I went with were the usual people (in alphabetical order to mix it up): Gustav, Heather, Kelly (that's me!), Rebecca, Sara, and Thomas. The unusual group we went with were in not particular order: Phil, Sae, Minami, Rena (Rebecca's roommate), Yuko, Natsumi, and some guy's name who I forgot. Sorry man!

Rebecca, me, and Heather <3

Gustav... better known as David Beckham

Sara and Thomas... the hipsters of the group
So, we all arrived at different times. Once all of us got there, we went a conveyor belt sushi place. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of that, which is kind of surprising. As you can tell I like taking pictures of everything and anything. Well, at this sushi place, all the prices you had depends on the plate that you grabbed. If you grabbed a certain place, it costs this much. If you grab the more detailed and fancier looking plate, it is most likely to be the more expensive plates. It was relatively cheap. Heather and I split two plates. On those two plates, we grabbed different types of sushi. They were the same price we we just took one each and switched one of the sushi pieces on the plate (since there were two on each one). Now, I don't normally like sushi, but these are delicious~! ^_^

So, after eating all that sushi (plus two pieces of pineapple), we went to the arcade room in the mall. Now, the arcade rooms I'm used to are small, filled with games targeted for children, and have tickets in which you use to get a prize. They usually include: a shooting game, guitar hero, crane games, and a basketball hoops thing. Those are basically the only things there that aren't just for kids. Even though the crane machine is mostly for children, I noticed a lot of girls looking at them then usually asking their boyfriend if they can win them something. See below for examples of the "arcade places."

See? They are kind of lame... still fun, but not really much to do
Now the arcade room we were in was definitely one of the most awesome ones I have ever seen. Not to say I have seen a lot of them, but from the ones I have. The games we played were a Taiko Drumming game, DDR, and a crane game. But they have so much more than that here. Here are some pictures I took while in the arcade room and pictures of people playing games.

Minami, Yuko, and Phil

Phil and Sae playing the taiko drumming game. Watch the clip below if you are curious as to what and how you play this wonderful game

Mini pachinko palor. If you don't know what Pachinko is, please click the following word: pachinko <-that word, right there. It'll link you to wikipedia. Wikipedia is a reliable source. No, seriously, it is. Did you click it yet? Good.

Adorable crane machines that are rigged to make you spend all your money and still lose in the end. >.<*

Phil and Heather had a Dance Dance Revolution Dance Battle. That's right, a DDRDB!

They were so cute~!!! <3

So after wasting some time in the arcade room, we went back down to the first floor to have some dessert. Yes, all that was to work off some sushi. :p We went to a special store that was the Japanese equivalent of Friendly's. :) Here is a display case of everything they sell~

おいしいそうです、ね？ Delicious, no?
So, because there was many of us, we ordered the house specialty, which is a meter high ice cream~!!!! One table shared the chocolate one (Gustav, Heather, Rebecca, Sae, and Thomas) and my table shared the fruit one (Yuko, Sara, Phil, and myself). Both groups gave the other 4 people (Minami, Natsumi, Rena, and the guy) some of the deliciousness. :9

The chocolate one

While waiting for ours...

Our fruit one~ :9

Excited to eat it!!! Credit: Rebecca ManuelSara Birnbaum!!

Fruit one~ <3 :9 Credit: Rebecca Manuel

Credit: Rebecca Manuel

When we reached the bottom, no one wanted to eat the cubes. So, what were we suppose to do in a place that you have to finish everything on your plate? You have a Man vs. Food challenge! And we literally mean a MAN versus Food match. Only the guys had participated in the match.

It started between Phil (fruit) and Thomas (chocolate)~

Phil was chugging the small flavorless jelly cubes as fast as one can chug little flavorless jelly cubes. Thomas, on the the other hand, was chugging bigger sized but fewer in count coffee-flavored jelly cubes. Good luck, boys!

Phil switched to Gustav won brought home the gold in the chugging. Fruit team won!!!

The Japanese dude (whose name I cannot remember... sorry!!) finished off the coffee-flavored ones.
We felt bad for them because they tasted so bad!! >.<* You did your countries proud, men~!! :D