A side-trip to Akihabara Shrine
Activity > Tokyo > Sightseeing > Akihabara
I had an errand in Akihabara so after finishing my errand I took a stroll in a direction I had never been and visited Akihabra Shrine (in Japanese; 秋葉原神社, Akihabara Jinjya). This shrine is interesting because you will see "figures" in the shrine (figures as in Godzilla, Batman, Pokemon, etc.) Sometimes at Japanese shrines you will see dolls (as in childrens dolls) because Japanese believe that dolls have a "soul". We can't just throw away these dolls so some of the dolls we hold special to our hearts we will leave at a shrine. The shrine (and Shinto Monks) will prey for these dolls to "pull out the spirit". Akihabara is the town for "geeks" so instead of mainly childrens dolls, there are many "figures".
After visiting the shrine I was just meandering around Akihabara a bit and came upon an interesting Lawson Shop (Lawson is a big convienience store chain in Japan). It looks like Lawson opened a "Dragon Quest Collaboration Shop" in Tokyo near Akihabara. Well, it's not a "new" shop but rather they decorated the shop with Dragon Quest" stuff and it is about a 7 min. walk from JR Akihabara Station. The outside of the shop is decorated in Dragon Quest-themed "Castle" imagery, and original Slime bags will be given out to customers (if you spend more than 500 yen). I researched on Google a bit and it seems this is to help promote a new game release of Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King for 3DS. The store will also sell Dragon Quest goods, including face towels and mugs, WebMoney cards, and more. I don't know how long this will last but it was interesting so I took a few quick pics.
Lawson Sotokanda Sanchome Shop (in Japanese; ローソン 外神田三丁目店, Lawson Sotokanda Sanchome Shop) or the "Nickname" of this Lawson shop is "Dorakue Konbini Akihabara" (in Japanese; ドラクエ コンビニ 秋葉原, Dorakue Konbini Akihabara). Address: 3 Chome-1-10 Sotokanda, Chiyoda, Tokyo 101-0021, Japan.
