After having gotten a good dose of culture and Ramen I looked up things that might interest me, such as anime and video games as I mentioned in chapter 1, and all signs pointed to the Mecca for such things, a place known as electric city or Akihabara. Taking the train there was simple and fast, being only two stops from my Capsule. Boy was this an experience, even before getting to the station I noticed that many of the passengers were foreigners and Japanese people alike dressed like anime characters, a sight which became inescapable the moment the train arrived. Akihabara is known as the Mecca for all things "Geek" in Japanese culture and for good reason. Think Times Square cranked up to 11 and filled with the most out of this world characters. The feeling you get there is one of pure fantasy, but its edged with a harsh electric assault one cannot ignore or escape. I took advantage of the opportunity though, having found a place I wanted to go before arriving. A place known as Super Potato.
Now, we all know what a Pokemon is right? Or if not these cute little creatures who only exist to be captured and battled against each other forever, then one of the myriad creations of their creators Nintendo, or if not these, then I don't know where you've been hiding the last 40 years, Perhaps anything from Sega, Bandai or Sony? Well, all these major companies and their creations from the past four decades can be found inside the three vaunted floors of Super Potato. Floors which you have to get to by entering a scummy back alley looking passage and either going up two flights of entirely too narrow stairs or take a ride in the iron box elevator reminiscent of The Shining. If I was made of money and had a time and place to put all the things and play them to completion I would have done just that, but none of those things are true, and so I had to settle on gawking at the boundless treasures reverently.
Even if I had gotten one of the many gaming systems or even just one of their games, the fact is they would all be in Japanese, and although I may have been studying the language everyday for the past 311 days, my skills are nowhere near good enough to decipher even a little of what these games offer. You have to understand that the language built into video games is much different than the ordinary type. After all your very often dealing with otherworldly matters such as magic, demons and totally made up things which do not exist in the real world. If I really wanted to torture myself Id buy a original Nintendo entertainment system, more commonly known as the NES, and get any one of the many incredible role playing games they created such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, or Ultima. But again, I’d be banging my head against the wall for no reason save to say that I was able to beat it without understanding much of anything.
What really got my blood boiling was that the fact that out of three floors of treasures there was only thing not for sale, protected behind bullet proof glass and in glorious display at the checkout counter. A yellow gameboy I myself had as a child and then sold for $25 at our yard sale. One of many things I regret parting with. That and a branded Pokemon card book with all my rare cards inside it. Something I also sold for $30, ignoring my moms advice to keep it.
"This will be worth a lot of money one day," she said.
"And? It's nothing but a burden to me now." I replied.
I honor that decision only so far as it helps me sleep at night, but also for the fact that those purges of material possessions allowed me to come back to myself, and do what I came here to do. What is that you ask? Why, BE of course. And through that great and terrible act of none doing and instead of all being, I transcend the Matrix, and shine a light on the world of chaos and those who profit from it. This is not just my job, but everyone’s job once they have stopped doing, and started being. The distinction may be lost on many, but for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, it is the essence of duty and obligation to all creation.
Where does one go and what does one do when the doing is no longer the point? It hardly matters. The point is to be the point. To Be, is not to Think, or to act, but to flow with what IS. Now many of you might look back on your lives and shake you heads, thinking,
"That’s all well and good for a young person finding their way, or for a monk somewhere in the high mountains of Asia whose needs are met by the freely given rice the locals place in their bowls, but not for a civilized, productive member of society. Why, all my favorite things are created and maintained by the doers, the thinkers, the makers and so on."
This point of few is so seductive that it allows the most intellectual and "successful" of us to ignore everything the constant doing has allowed, and what it has prevented. As children we attach ourselves to the pantheon of heroes allotted to us via our cultures, and if were lucky we grow up in a land which allows free access to books and supports diverse ways of thinking. But in general we begin following those who defend the innocent and nature herself, only to wake up one day working at jobs and for industries whose product is only possible because of the systematic raping of nature and the destruction of the innocent, and in truth everyone on earth all at the same time.
Why? How? How does the doer allow for this while the Be'er doesn't? It should be obvious. In any case, lets return to Super Potato, where instead of buying one of the endless items which interested me, I simply walked out with a heavy dose of nostalgia and longing for the early days of life where all I had to worry about was school and playing my gameboy. An experience which was well worth the trip.
Once back on the street I decided to go somewhere to write my next entry, and since I was still pretty tired I went where everyone goes to get a sure fire pick me up. Starbucks, the Mecca of tweak and shaking feet. It was there I found out a very important lesson in Japanese culture, and that is one for deep respect for other peoples property and for their place in line, or where they are. Nothing exemplified this more than a room full of people, many standing eating a pastry and drinking their coffee, waiting for a place to sit, while two seats lay open with nothing but a $3 umbrella hanging from the edge of the table.
For 30 minutes I sat in a baby chair across from this glorious sight, watching person after person pass it by, as it was clearly marked by those who owned the umbrella. Coming from America where such a thing would not only be ridiculous but foolish to follow, where the first person to come around would rather move the umbrella and then apologize to whoever it belonged to when and if they ever returned, than to wait even 10 seconds passing up the empty seats, it was truly something to behold. And this inside a very busy business inside a very busy part of town, in the busiest biggest city on earth...
I wasn't exactly thrilled to be sitting in a Childs seat watching this all unfold, but a warm feeling inside my all to caffeinated heart felt the glory of honor and respect oozing from every inch of that empty table. I came to Akihabara not knowing what to expect from the fabled Electric City, but I left it more convinced than ever that the words Christin from Esalen told me were absolutely true.
"Japan is another world, in another time. It's like nowhere else..." As you’ll see on this journey with me, she was right, in far more ways than one.