Looking for the “Hand” and Led Me to Anime Alley and Maid Cafes

Before going to Japan, my friend was already talking about this hand model that was the hype for artists.

That hand model was not available in the Philippines, so my friend was eager to buy it in Japan. Luckily, the store was near Dotonbori, which at the same time was our plan for the day.

This hand model was in an anime alley called Den Den Town, which is like the Akihabara of Tokyo.

Wow, it was a win, too, even though I already have 13k steps on my step count, haha. 😆 I saw these posters and thought, yeah, we were in the right direction. 😁 And what the heck are the “love toys,” haha 😆 Maybe for naughty activities.

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We went to this store with narrow stairs leading to the second floor. It was tiny so I was careful not to break anything. I just noticed that Haikyuu was everywhere. Some cards and plushies for grabs too.

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Aside from anime toys and merchs, the store had also some game consoles. It has a warning “do not push”, I assume it meant to mean do not squish the boxes. Cool stuff like alarm clocks, ice start and mugs in PlayStation form, hehe. 😊

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These are cards for when you want to order a figure. On the card, you can see the pose and expression of the character. If I were to pick, I would pick Gojo and Kaneki.

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Ghibli themed pins, chopsticks, socks, and towels.

Woah, 550 Yen for No Face socks… that was a bit pricey for me, but it could be a souvenir or a nice gift. Calcifer’s bright orange hurt my eyes but was soft to the touch, haha. 😁

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Calcifer tumbler might be a good investment but I have a lot of them back at home already. I have to close my eyes on this aisle for a minute. 😅

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These were tiny figures in a clear, acrylic box. I had to zoom in to get Totoro’s face.

I would say the pieces were about two inches, so I assume they were delicate which was why it was inside of a box.

Jiji and his girlfriend, Lily.

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Aha~ The hand model‼️

I did not know it was a hype item for serious artists until my friend introduced it to me. It has three colors, orange, gray, and white. What’s special about this model is that it can mimic articulate hand positions.

See, hands are very “specific”, what I mean is, that movement and pose are organic. For me, it is hard to imagine hand gestures as they can be easily messed up. But this model would be a great help- just look at the craft that had gone through this piece.

Now here is the bad news. 🥲

What I understand from the staff’s explanation, the model was just released at that time and not enough stock was available. Though that was the case, reservation was available. The item can be delivered in a week. Now, it just so happened that in a week, we had to depart. Ending was, that we did not get the hand model. It was a letdown to my friend. I cheered my friend by saying that, by the time we go back, it would be half the price, haha. 😅

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We got nothing to do here so we just wandered around and took pictures.

I noticed a lot of mecha anime figures too. I am not familiar with most of them as I do not often what mecha-themed anime.

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These figures inside the glass boxes were freaking sick!! 🔥 The figures were super detailed! 😩 I wonder how much would it take for them to be done, plus the craftsmanship and the expense that went into it. These are not just toys but collection-quality figures.

I just thought of @jude.villarta when I saw these types of anime, haha. 😁 I know you would go crazy when you see these in real life. My camera is not enough to give justice to what they really look like, haha. 😆

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It was around 6-7 pm-ish already and I noticed that more maids from maid cafes were on the side of the road handing some flyers or some menu of sorts to invite people to come to the cafe.

They were in dresses of ribbon and frills in a cute way or sometimes, I can say, in a provocative way. Of course, expect a higher price for every drink as it comes with the entertaining services.

As we walked to the train station to go back to the hotel, we got some refreshments on 7-11 instead of those over-priced coffees, hehe. On the side was a ramen shop too, but we skipped on that for now.

It was both a good and bad day, but~ I would highlight the good day, by thinking positively. I was lucky to see an anime alley and maid cafes while I was in Japan!

Thanks for reading! ✨

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That is it for this blog. I will see you at the next one!
📸 All photos are owned and taken by me, otherwise credited. ©️jijisaurart