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Day 5 started with a trip to Harman Japan's offices just north of the Akihabara district. For the next two days, the Harman delegation had scheduled interviews with the Japanese audio press. Since these interviews did not involve me, I had the opportunity to do some exploring of my own.
These next series of photos are street scenes along the side streets leading to Harman Japan's offices.
The first stop was at Hi Fi Do ( http://free.happynet.co.jp/indexe.html ), the premier Japanese retailer of vintage audio gear. Their main store is in Osaka, but they have a Tokyo shop just one block away from Harman Japan. As you can see, it is incredibly small, but stacked floor to ceiling with vintage gear.
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Around noon, I headed back to the hotel to meet Steve K from our forum. Steve acted as my host for the rest of the day and he could not have been more gracious and accommodating. It was a highlight of my trip to spend the day with him. Our first stop was the city of Yokosuka which is around 30 miles (50 km) south of Tokyo. This is the home of Dr. Mikami ( http://www.gokudo.co.jp/index2.htm ) who is an audiophile that has assembled what is possibly the largest private collection of vintage audio equipment in Japan. He has a 4 story building, for which the primary purpose is to house his practice on the main floor. The upper floors contain his audio gear and other eclectic collections. Dr. Mikami was generous in taking time from his busy schedule to personally guide Steve and I through his collection while giving us an opportunity to listen to everything from 1920's vintage Western Electric equipment to his state of the art Avantgarde system.
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After visiting Dr. Mikami, it was back to Tokyo for dinner. Steve took me to a Yakitori owned by a friend of his. Hopefully, Steve can jump into the comments thread and add details on the location and backround of this establishment. I am hopeless in locating specific sites in the vast complexity that is Tokyo. This Yakitori is a wonderful, intimate establishment that is accessed off of a small back alley. As you can see, it only seats around a dozen people. Over the next few hours, I had the chance to sample rare Japanese saki's and dishes specially prepared by the proprietor and his wife. The evening was also spent with great conversation with Steve, and his friend Mark that joined us later in the night.
After dinner, the proprietor's wife led us to her son's shop. The first picture is just outside the yakitori we dined at while the following two shots were at the son's shop.
Afterwards we went for coffee down the street in the Kagurazaka district. The following pictures were taken along the way.