The first article about my last visit to Japan took us up until the end of the first Sunday of the trip. If you haven't read it yet, you can read it here.

On the Monday we headed west of Shinjuku to Mitaka and Nakano. Our first port of call was the Ghibli Museum, designed by the world-famous Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli.

The museum gives a fascinating insight into the influences behind Miyazaki's works, with exhibits that change frequently. This time around there was a display dedicated to Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. It included concept storyboards, character designs and the cell drawings – every single one of them, mostly in a huge pile in the centre of the exhibit. Sadly I hadn't seen this film yet, so there were quite a few spoilers!

Permanent features include a room dedicated to Victorian-style animation machines, the giant robot on the roof of the building from Laputa Castle in the Sky and a cinema room where exclusive Ghibli shorts are shown. We got to see a short that I had seen the first time I came to the Ghibli museum, Water Spider Monmon. What is particullarly fascinating about this film is that there is no speaking; the atmosphere and story is conveyed entirely through the moving picture and music.

Afterwards we walked back through part of Inokashira Park into Kichojoji to catch the train back to Nakano. We didn't stop for long there but whilst attempting to find the station we walked through what felt like the longest store I've ever walked through. The store ran under the railway line which probably explained this.

Our purpose for going to Nakano was for the Nakano Broadway, a shopping mall home to Mandarake and a large number of small stores dedicated to 2^nd hand anime and manga merchandise. Although Mandarake have slowly been moving their operations to Akihabara, there still remains a significant presence at Nakano. It's difficult to tell how long this well last, so it's worth visiting whilst you can.

Although Nakano has a lot of older items that are extremely difficult to find elsewhere, you can also pick up more recent items easily as well. My purchases included Nendoroid Imoko from Sora O Kakeru Shoujo (The Girl That Leapt Through Space), Haruhi-chan/Kannagi DVDs and a few Petit Nendoroids.

Whilst we were at Nakano we decided that we'd eat at a restaurant where you buy a ticket from a vending machine outside for your choice. Once we'd handed the ticket over to the person serving the food, we began to release the choice might not have been the best of ideas. The noodles were slopped out of a greasy vat into our bowls, added to with soup and a strange looking block of food. Needless to say, we didn't each much of it – the noodles were slimy and the block looked like recycled leftovers in batter!

The next day turned out to be even more adventurous for us, though not quite what we expected! My girlfriend had come down with a throat infection, so we decided to try and find an english-speaking hospital to get it checked out. Unfortunately, with it being a hot day and dehydration, we ended up needing an ambulance - not many foreigners can say they have rode in one!

The Japanese were really helpful in getting help in the first place, especially the station staff at Shinjuku and at the hospital. Within about 3 hours everything was sorted out, minus claiming back the cost of the treatment which had to wait until we got home. When you look at the cost of the bill, having the NHS suddenly seems better than the media over here would portray.

With a course of medication, we were all ready to continue our holiday in earnest and make the most out of it. In fact, we even went out that night – not far though, just around Shinjuku to explore a few shops, check out the arcades and chill in Starbucks. There isn't much difference between Starbucks and Excelsior, but I found that Excelsior does slightly richer versions of Starbuck's Frappuccinos.

We spent the next two days exploring one of our favourite haunts – naturally, Akihabara! It's hard for people who have never been there to truly appreciate it but it really is a mecca for anything anime and manga related. You'll have your jaw dropping constantly over some of the great things that you see – but you'll need to remember that Akihabara is a consumer mecca and as such, if you want these things then you're going to need to bring a lot of cash!

By far the best things to buy in Japan are figures and kits. They're much cheaper than abroad, as the shipping adds a significant cost onto them. Also, you'll be able to search for a lot of rare figures that you just won't see abroad. Manga is also extremely cheap but also extremely Japanese. You'll want a good grasping of the language or be a very keen learner. You probably won't want to buy DVDs in Japan though. They're much more expensive than elsewhere and you'll often get only two episodes for the price. It might seem crazy but remember that a lot of anime airs on TV in Japan and DVDs are aimed at collectors.

This trip saw my first visit to Yodobashi Camera. It's a surprise that I hadn't visited before and I'm glad that I did this time. Yodobashi is essentially an electronics superstore on a massive scale. You won't believe just how many different kinds of everything you can buy electronics and computer related. You might wonder just who needs all these things, but that certainly doesn't detract from the impact of the place.

The end of the Thursday saw a trip back into Shinjuku to enjoy the arcades further and take lots of purikura – photo booths where young girls and couples have their pictures taken and can decorate them to their hearts content before printing them out as stickers. Whilst that was fun, I was much happier with my performance on the taiko-drum arcade machines – I managed to get onto the leaderboard!

That takes us up to the Friday, nearly at the end of the first week and a little under halfway during the holiday. We were having a brilliant time as we did before when we were there. However, we'd mostly done things we'd done before – a re-acquaintance with the country in a way. The next article will bring us into some of the new places we went and new things we tried in Japan.

I'll try to get the next one up a bit quicker, too!