For all the folks who love electronic doo-dads, video games, model building, and kinky S&M sex shops, Akihabara is THE place for you! Also known as “electronic city”, it’s the part of Tokyo where you can satisfy all of your electronic needs and other um…needs. We found it so strange by how many 18+ shops were mixed in the slew of this nerd nation. At first it was fun checking out all the animé porn, “hentai” is the correct term but then it just got weirder and then a little disturbing. I won’t get into any details, but you get the picture.

Later, we went to fulfill our most anticipated activity of the week, the Oedo Onsen (onsen meaning natural hot spring). We wished we had known about this place sooner because it was literally an adult amusement park for relaxation and spa treatments. It was quite an ordeal getting in here at first because about 98% of Japan’s onsens prohibit people with tattoos from entering since it is considered Yakuza affiliated. Lucky for us, our lovely friends back home A and S didn’t let us leave Canada without a ton of bandaids. So we taped up all of M’s gangster worthy tattoos (I heard the Butterfly gang is not to be messed with) and snuck into the onsen without a scratch. At first, we were a little irked by having to bathe in the nude and it was almost impossible to ignore the Amazonian jungle sprouting from everyone’s cootch (apparently Japan isn’t as advanced in the personal grooming area yet). There were multiple pools to choose from, each ranging in different temperatures and depth but we opted for the outdoor ones because it was nighttime and we couldn’t risk exposing M’s true identity. But that was probably the best choice for many other reasons. Somehow just sitting outside in a mineral hot spring in the dark surrounded by lush flora and the sound of crickets made you feel so zen and carefree. It was amazing and I truly recommend this experience to anyone who ever gets the opportunity.

It really looks like an adult amusement park!

Those “smooth” looking stones embedded into the ground are meant to stimulate to soles of the feet to relieve fatigue. That’s because the stones are actually the most painful thing to walk on, it was no wonder, it can wake anybody up!

Me in one the many choices of yukatas provided at the onsen.

We even tried a fish foot treatment. The Garra Rufa fish from Turkey is the biggest craze in strange Asian beauty treatments. As soon as dipped our feet into the little pond filled with these little fish, the water around us began to vibrate as the they made their way to our feet. It was the weirdest sensation ever because you can feel all their tiny mouths gnawing at the dead skin on your foot. It took us a while to get accustomed to the awkward feeling but after a while, you just got used to it and you’d have to ignore the fact that there are fish exfoliation your feet. The results? As M said, “they could’ve done a bit more”. I believe it was because we only signed up for 30 minutes which may not have sufficed.

My satisfying bowl of Japanese curry topped with cheese at Sukiya restaurant.