Do you remember the 400g pasta that I couldn’t eat completely? I also bought 400g tofu on that day. I would leave the Fuji area today, so I have to eat the tofu for breakfast. I put it in a pan, added soy sauce and voilà, an improvised breakfast. (I had also bought two apples, and I forgot one in the fride). I packed, and managed to go to the bus stop 5 minutes before departure. The bus provided free wifi, but it took me some time to got it working. We arrived with a delay in Tokyo due to a traffic jam.
As I had no concrete plans for today, I just walked around Tokyo station. I remembered one guy in the Anne hostel saying that he liked Akihabara, and I could go there by foot. By chance I saw some food stands and got curious. I walked around and saw some kind of stage. It said the next show would take place at 2am. I just had to wait 10 minutes. A group of 8 girls (maybe between 15 and 18) performed wood stick fighting movements. They moved synchronously (making some war screams from time to time). A woman announced the next play for 2:30am. I wondered whether they would do the same show again, and waited. A short while later they carried some traditional Japanese instruments on the stage. Another group of young (high-school?) girls played very skillful these instruments!
I decided to stay and see the rest of the unexpected festival, the Nihombashi Kidai-Matsuri (日本橋 熈代祭). The festival had an official video which run on the screens every ten minutes or so. My camera indicated an almost empty camera, so I asked one guy of the staff whether I could charge it somewhere. In the meantime I searched for something to eat. Unfortunately they offered only things with meat or fish.
I stopped charging after almost an hour, before the next performance started. Three Japanese women with artificial blond hair played on two kotos and one flute. Apparently they played on a professional level, but I liked the music of the group of school girls better. The next performance would take place in an hour, so I walked around to find something to eat. I found a kind of restaurant in a supermarket by chance. One of the sellers recommended noodles and vegetable tempura (deep fried in oil). The tempura tastet very good!
It started to become dark. I heard drums on my way back to the festival, so the next show had already started. Three guys from the drummer group Kodo (鼓童) played the drums. In the first part of the show they played a big drum, a two-sided drum and some kind of bell. I got caught by the rythms. Later they switched to three huge drums, which changing positions and excessive arm movements. At the end one could see the sweat running over their faces. Their performance looked like sport! (video from a different performance)
Afterwards I continued my walk to Akihabara. Night had fallen, but the lights of the shops illuminated my way. I walked through some shops (amongst them a six floor figure store). I took a JR train to Shinjuku and searched the night bus station. For dinner I tried baked natto (fermented beans) and a noodle soup with a half-raw egg and some pickeled vegetables. I somehow managed to sleep on the night bus, with two night pillows, one sleeping mask and earplugs from a Japanese pharmacy. I do not like the fact that I couldn’t put my feet up.