So last month I had the once in a lifetime (though hopefully not) opportunity to go to Tokyo, and luckily enough, despite the super-short 4-day business trip, still had time to roam around the city, especially on the first and last day of our trip. If you’ve read my blog post more than a month ago about this short Tokyo business trip, then you’d already know my adventures and mis-adventures on the first day. What I’m about to tell you, is what happened on the last day.

The Black Butler was all over Akiba, sorta.

It was a Saturday; our flight was not until 6pm, so we still had time to do One Last Shopping Trip in the morning and a bit in the afternoon. The whole trip would be in vain if we don’t get to Mandarake or Animate (or so that’s what I say, being the rabid fan that I am) at the very least, so I made it a point to go to at least one of them. After much deliberation (with myself), I decided to just visit Mandarake and spend the rest of my time and monies there, knowing well that this store alone could get me totally sucked in and probably never return to where I came from if possible. This store might not have the novelty items like Animate has, but it has mangas, artbooks, novels, games, OSTs, etc. sold at discounted price, even the new stuff. But I digress.

Our plan was to leave the hotel before 9:00am, so that we’d get to Akiba by 10:00am, but because of my sleepy-headedness, we weren’t able to leave till it was like… almost 10, because I only woke up at 9:00am!! =__=; So thanks to me, the one who’s supposedly most eager to go to Akiba and had a whole LOT of agenda there, we lost like an hour of shopping time, hurray~! \o/

Aside from that, we also had to leave our luggage in the station, since we can’t roam around Akiba with the tons of stuff we’re carrying with us to the airport (duh). We sought for the most cost-efficient way possible to fit all our luggage, so that entailed a couple more minutes, which means, more shopping time lost! orz. Not to mention we still had to find our way to Mandarake, since no one among my colleagues has ever gone there before.

Before heading to Mandarake, we decided to stop by Kotobukiya first, since one of my colleagues was looking for a seifuku, for whatever future cosplay plans she has, and that’s the shop my other colleague was fairly familiar with. I had no idea what was in store for me in Kotobukiya though, so my mind and body wasn’t prepared for the ‘horror’ awaited me — zomg plushies, mini figurines, kapibara and San-x stuff — irresistibly adorable items, the bane of my existence >_>;

The moment I set my eyes on the cute Code Geass zodiac mini figurines, uh-oh… point of no return. I was g-geassed *__*! I grabbed 6 of ‘em like some auto-response mechanism, failing to realize that they’re “holy crap 315 yen each!” (the normal gashapon toys are only 200 yen) I was planning to give them to some of my officemates and other friends, not really to Catch ‘Em All, so I was still sane… somehow, or just totally silly and/or generous. But the story doesn’t end there, sadly. Kotobukiya is evil, and knew well that I had a penchant for all things cute, and when I saw these Kapibara and San-x Relax Kuma stuff… I guess you can imagine what happened next. Kapibara magnet getto! Bag-transforming plushie Kuma getto! Tonari no Totoro magnet getto! Chii’s Sweet Home cellstrap getto! orz. There could’ve been more, had I not managed to restrain myself from grabbing other stuff in the shop. I can’t believe this segue shopping spree already cost me around 8,000 yen, UNPLANNED EXPENSES!

You think we headed right to our supposedly destination Mandarake? Well think again. As we were finding our way to the Mandarake Complex in Akiba, I can’t believe what I saw right around the corner… it’s an Animate!! Like a lover from your past that you’re supposed to have forgotten and set aside for ‘personal reasons’, it appeared… right then and there. Who am I to refuse?! I’m just a silly gaijin looking for animu stuff to splurge my money on, despite not being wealthy! And there, I became, yet again, a willing victim. First thing I did was to look for ToraDora keychains, but before I reached the floor where it was I stumbled upon the area where the ‘new stuff’ are, novelty items of Hetalia, Kuroshitsuji, etc etc. I almost bought this HUEG Hetalia desk mat, but I regained my sanity by taking my time, contemplating and ‘reflecting’, before finally heading to the cashier, whew. I ‘accidentally’ bought this one Kuroshitsuji mini figurine though, something I totally regret buying because it turned out to be a character I don’t even know and I doubt I’d like in the series (it’s another butler), and it cost me a painful 500+ yen, ouch.

Then I saw the cute Gundam00 wrist pads, and the Moyashimon mouse pad, Toshokan Sensou folder, Hetalia keychain, Nogizaka Haruka cellstrap, ToraDora keychain/pendant, ToraDora “foldable” bag, Nia and Yoko cellstrap, and the rest was history. We were running out of time so I no longer had time to contemplate on whatever I was grabbing/buying that time, and spent a whooping 12,000 yen

I was running out of both time and money and I still had to go to Mandarake! We got there alright, but I was given a time limit of less than an hour… :sob: I was supposed to look for the Legend of Galactic Heroes Handbook, which is out of print and is being sold on amazon for like 5x its original price since it’s pretty much a rare item now, but I never got to the shounen section where the light novels supposedly are. I ended up in the H-section — wrong floor! and I made my exit as soon as possible, ignoring all the boobs and tentacles and whatnot in the place *shudder*

One clear sign that I was in the “right place”

I got to the shoujo section, and luckily, got the Basara artbooks (it’s not Sengoku Basara but the epic shoujo manga Basara) I was looking for (segue pimping: if you’re still reading whatever sissy shoujo mangas (‘popular’ shoujo mangas like Special A and Shugo Chara can sod off really, despite being enjoyable in its own right), drop them first and read Basara instead. It’s a shoujo epic, in the total ‘epic’ sense. I fail so much I still can’t bring myself to write a proper post about this awesome series, but I guess you’ll fail more if you don’t get to appreciate it for what it’s worth. Then again, I don’t think the scanlation is done yet, 21 volumes or so? hmm). And for some reason, this one Gurren Lagann movie fanbook got mixed up with the shoujo stuff, and I immediately grabbed it without thinking twice. I haven’t finished watching Gurren Lagann, but I felt like buying it just because. Ever heard of buying stuff as a ‘future fan’ of the series or something? Like buying a Code Geass artbook even if you haven’t watched a single episode of it (as a ‘future fan’)? Yeah I’m doomed that way.

There wasn’t much shoujo mangas in the Akiba branch of Mandarake, the one in Fukuoka had even more stuff (with this result), but beggars can’t be choosers~ I ended up buying the Hetalia manga because I found the discount too good to resist. I was also looking for Potemayo vols 2+ but then they didn’t have it in stock heh. There were other titles I’m supposed to be looking for, light novels in particular, would’ve grabbed the first volume of Spice and Wolf, also Tokikake and Paprika if I saw it there, also the ARIA artbooks Seleria asked me to buy, but sigh… NOT ENOUGH TIME! And I can only blame myself for getting sucked into Kotobukiya and Animate before heading to Mandarake =__=; But no regrets!

One thing I realized in all this, is how my impulsive tendencies become worse when I’m under time pressure. I have the tendency to get really zealous over the silliest of things, like this uhm, Prince of Tennis umbrella I bought at Jump Shop Fukuoka during my first Japan business trip. I’m not sure how much time I need to discern whether the purchase would be a wise or stupid decision, and I guess it also depends on the circumstance, case-to-case basis. I mean, if I had both time and money in my hands like meronpan over here, I probably would’ve have hesitated to BUT MOAR LOOT. The only thing that would stop me would be the fear for excess baggage. Then again I guess meronpan’s loot all fall under the ‘planned expenses’ category, unlike mine orz. But sigh… I really have to control my impulsive tendencies =__=;;

How do you think you guys would have fared if you were in my situation? Would you have spent MOAR, or Less?

I guess there would be many factors that would come into play in this, not only time, but money, zeal in buying merchandise or what. But anyways, just share about your impulsive tendencies, so we can like form a support group or something, and so that I won’t feel as bad for my unplanned expenses

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