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In the spirit of xkcd, I have constructed a graph:

I’m supposed to be studying today. But I couldn’t get into it. My brain kept pulling cruel tricks on me. So in the end I started doing procrastination cleaning. And to accompany my cleaning? Some music! I should turn on my stereo every so often, after all. Ooh! And look! I have shelves full of CDs! Why don’t I put one on?

Hmm, the pillows! Bloody hell, when was the last time I listened to them?

I’ve been living on a musical diet of Triple J and whatever I can hear from my housemate’s bedroom lately. I haven’t had iTunes on in a while and even then I’ve kept it to the whole playlist, rather than the Japanese or pillows-specific playlists. Kyo-kun hasn’t even been charged in the last ….three months, maybe?

As soon as the CD started playing though, I instantly felt happier. Cleaning and sorting the laundry was fun, I had something nice to eat and I could settle down at my laptop to do a bit of study.

I probably haven’t been the easiest person to be around recently. If I’m not bitchy and hermit-y then I’m stressed and slightly hysterical. Apologies to my friends and family who have had to put up with me this semester. It hasn’t been an easy one. Nearly over though.

And now I know the real cause behind my bad moods! It all became so clear this afternoon, listening to My Foot…I haven’t been listening to enough pillows!

Hahaaahaaahahaha!! That must be it!!! All better now!!!

Probably will be better still when my exams are over and I get a decent grade for them, but for now the pillows is the panacea.

Meanwhile, the procrastination cleaning, then drawing up this graph and blogging about it means I’ve wasted three hours that I could’ve used studying.

But at least I feel better about it!

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So!

Waaaay back in 2006, while I was still living in Yokohama, I convinced my then housemate that she needed to call in sick one Sunday so that we could go to Harajuku and the Tokyo Anime Fair. Which we did.

We got up pretty late though and only managed to get to Harajuku at about 1pm. Did our thing (I think L may have bought some GothLoli stuff) and then we tried to navigate our way from Harajuku on the west side of the Yamanote Circle to Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba. Which is an impressive piece of architecture but bloody annoying to get to.

I think that the commute took us about an hour, but I thought we’d be okay since we left Harajuku at 3.30pm and closing time at TAF was 6pm.

Or so I thought.

We arrived at Tokyo Big Sight where there were surprisingly few people around…suspicious. Walking to the entrance took another 15 odd minutes from the station. We eventually arrived at the gates to the fair and said “Two, please”

“Ahh! Ehhh….no”

“Huh?”

“etou…No more”

“Ehhhhhhh?! It’s sold out? Closed? But it’s supposed to close at 6! It’s only 4.30pm!”

But we weren’t allowed in. I was hella annoyed. I had my Urahara hat on and a wallet full of yen and I wanted to get inside to spend it, dammit! L was distressed too. She told the guy at the gates - and I’ll never forget how she said it - “But we’re from England!”

Wrong, but it seemed to work! The guy at the gate shoo-ed us inside. Then L said in an outraged voice: “He smacked my ass as we went past!”

Bwaaaahahahaha! I told her that she took one for the team, now let’s get shopping!

The place was empty. We were wandering up and down empty aisles - which in a way, was kinda cool, since we didn’t have to fight against crowds of people. Plus we had gotten in for free!

But nothing was happening, the screens were all being turned off, the displays were being dismantled. Only one stall still had merchandise for sale but they were in the process of packing up so I only managed to snatch a few Fullmetal Alchemist items before they too closed.

Why the hell is it closing so soon? Eventually we were told that because it was the last day of the fair, they closed earlier than usual to get a start on dismantling everything.

Admittedly they had a lot to dismantle. I managed to get some nice shots of a huge-ass Ichigo and life-sized Ed, Al and Naruto statues.

A booth babe handed us the last of the showbags and there wasn’t much left to do but leave. I think we were inside the fair for about 15 minutes. Maybe 20. I was kinda pissed about it. We got up too late and spent too long in Harajuku. But then again, it was my fault for not clarifying the closing time.

L and I promised each other that we’d fly back to Tokyo to attend next year’s Tokyo Anime Fair. Heh, that never happened, did it L?

Anyway, that was a fucking long prelude.

One of the showbags we managed to get our hands on had this printed on the side:

Le Chevalier d’Eon

I remember thinking: I’ve never heard of this anime before, but simply based on this one image - I wanna see it!

I still have that showbag too.

Anyway, on Monday I finished the second of my exams. Decided that I’d go home, bloody clean the place and make my housemate some dinner since I’ve been ignoring both her and the house while I’ve been studying. Finally, at around 9pm, I collapsed in front of the pay TV that I hadn’t really used even though I’ve been living here for nearly 3 months.

Hooray for the Cartoon Network and Madman Entertainment, that’s all I can say!

Adult Swim had Le Chevalier d’Eon on that night! Over a year since I’d heard of it an now I could watch it! And luckily it was also the premiere! I could start watching the series at episode one!

Admittedly, episode one in English….but even though I’m a subs-over-dubs anime fan, I could tolerate this dub. Dubs often work well if you know that there’s a particular accent needed, like French. Having Japanese actors speak Japanese in French accent would probably be amusing but it’s not what I’d want to listen to.

Not many characters had French accents in this dub but thankfully they didn’t sound painfully American. They did have some painful timing problems, as is often the case with English dubs, but I was just so keen to see this series that I was going to put up with it this time.

My rant about why Foxtel Digital doesn’t offer multiple audio stream will have to wait for another day!

So! A review of Le Chevalier d’Eon. Or at least, a Chidade-style review. Which basically means, focus on one obscure thing and don’t give any hints about the rest (see my review of Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest for another example)…

…anyway.

The series did start pretty well. I like historical novels and movies so I liked the genre already. It was definitely an adult anime with no dodgy censoring for the kiddies whose parents can’t cope with animated blood. It was going really well for the first 20 minutes. I had it pinned as an action (swordfighting/fencing), crime and espionage, political and historical drama about the times of Louis XV - maybe even something I could recommend to my Dad, coz I’m sure he could enjoy an anime or two if I could just convince him to sit down and watch it!

Then, in the last five minutes of the show, Le Chevalier d’Eon proved that on top of being an action, crime and espionage, political and historical drama - it was above all else, a Japanese animation.

…(spoilers ahead)….

A zombie appeared out of nowhere and the main character passed out and turned into a woman.

Go figure!

Honestly! It’s such an anime thing to do! It can’t be a proper anime or manga unless there’s some kind of monster, or robot, or something weird happening with people’s genitals!

Haha, I love it :D

It’s like that Rodriguez movie - From Dusk Til Dawn. For the first three quarters of the movie, it’s a Tarantino-esque, violent crime movie. Then, suddenly, there’s a bunch of vampires everywhere! Still an awesome movie though, heh.

I’m still liking Le Chevalier d’Eon, despite the obvious genre change. I probably won’t be recommending it to my Dad, though.

Also, I did a bit of research. The anime was originally a manga (common enough) but the manga was actually based on a novel. And the character of d’Eon was actually based on a real historical figure - Chevalier d’Eon who claimed to be born a woman and actually spent the second half of his life living as one!

Truth is stranger than fiction, people. Despite how hard manga and anime try, hehe. I learnt my lesson.

Still, I highly doubt than Hollywood would ever try anything like this. Maybe Rodriguez and Tarantino would - it seems up their alley. But they’ve long said how they appreciate anime and Japanese filmmaking.

This is why I love anime. It’s gives something new and different.

Le Chevalier d’Eon: 7/10

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That’s……that’s John Howard…..Prime Minister of Australia…..holding….holding an XBOX 360 CONTROLLER?!

Buh…buh…buhh…*brain asplode*

So it seems like the “biggest entertainment launch ever” even infiltrated as far as Australian Federal Politics. What craziness. I only know about the existence of the Halo 3 launch because I’m a gamer that reads gaming news sites. My housemate had no clue about it and only had a vague idea that Master Chief was a character from a game since she reads a lot of webcomics that parody this kind of thing. I think that this “biggest entertainment launch EVAH!” claim may be a slight exaggeration.

For the record, we don’t own a 360, nor any version of Halo and probably never will. Chick gamer here. Bring on the RPGs, kthnxbai.

Having John Howard pose with a Microsoft franchise figure seems strangely fitting actually.

But more generally…he’s…holding a 360 controller…and CORRECTLY! And he seems to be smiling and enjoying himself gaming! GAMING! JOHN HOWARD GAMING!

Somebody hold me.

Found at Kotaku

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I always seem to mix up Nagano and Nakano. Note to self: Nakano was never an Olympic city. It IS, however, an awesome mix of Harajuku and Akiba.

Got up early, determined to find Ragnarok Online volume 2 figures that day.

…what? You thought I came to Japan for the temples and castles and assorted culture? Ahahahahahaha! Fools! Not while I’m in Tokyo, hehehe.

After the quick look around Akiba I had on Friday, I didn’t feel confident about finding some there. It does tend to be the newest sets available in Denki Town, and generally the same ones available in each shop (although Aso Bit City had both Volume 1 and 3 in stock, which were released between 1 and 2 years ago). But I figured I’d give Akiba a quick look before heading off to Nakano - where Nakano Broadway is famed for having the largest range of rare, out-of-print and second-hand otaku goods in Tokyo.

Arrived in Akiba and checked out the larger shops (there’s just too many small shops hidden away in office blocks to explore). As expected, I couldn’t find any Volume 2 figures, just a few Volume 1 and 3 boxes. Did find a few good second-hand shops though, which had a nice selection of CDs and DVDs plus a few collector items. Must restrain myself until my last week in Japan though. Then I can blow all my cash. I might need it until then for things like food, heh. Made a few small purchases for the Lucky Dip Of Doom and after a Mister Donut lunch (gods bless Mister Donut), I jumped onto the Sobu-Chuo line to Nakano, marvelling at how the two best geek places in Tokyo are within 20 minutes of each other on the same train line.

Aaah, Nakano. This place is truly a mix of my two favourite places in Tokyo, but with slightly less style. On the plus side, there’s a lot less people, too. On weekends, the Harajuku kids can also be found out here in full glory (but generally unwilling to pose for photos - I guess that’s why they escaped to Nakano) shopping for cheap manga, cosplay outfits and other geekery.

Not many around on a Monday though. So! Off to Nakano Broadway - 4 floors of assorted stalls and shops selling retro toys, second-hand books and magazines, electronics, cosplay outfits and the like. Here you can find shops that have already opened boxes or capsules with figurines and sell them individually, or will group together an entire set and sell that in, basically, a plastic bag. This is probably a huge time and money saver since the capsule machines and figurine boxes are generally a lucky-dip. When I first bought Ragnarok Online figurines, I got Roan the first three times >.<

Found a good second-hand CD store two where I dropped about $150 on the pillows, BEAT CRUSADERS and Lupin III tributes, heh. Retail Therapy = Awesome.

Most of the character and figurines shops didn’t have any Volume 2 characters, some didn’t even have Volume 1 or 3. Asking the staff, they seemed to know what I was talking about, but they all made emphatic ‘no’ noises. I was beginning to think that both Nakano AND Akiba were going to fail me. Every shop is a jungle full of small plastic things though, so they really need a thorough examination. Every shop averaged 15 minutes of my time, and were usually fruitless.

Was getting frustrated, but I made my way to a store in a back corner that I remembered from my last stay in Japan. I had bought figures of Squall and Cloud as well as full sets of chibi Fullmetal Alchemist characters. They weren’t big finds either then or now, since all of it is fairly readily available, but because of those purchases, it probably qualified as my favorite shop in Nakano Broadway.

Walked in, scanned over the walls of little plastic packages that had individually wrapped figurines, didn’t see anything promising. Looked at the figures in the glass cases in case they’re so limited edition that they might not be for sale. Still nothing. Scan down near floor level in the baskets full of miscellaneous toys. Spot the Volume 3 boxes for sale. And perched on top….

!!!

Blue boxes! 2 blue boxes! Quick! Grab them! Holy crap, I actually found two Volume 2 figurines! I knew I could depend on this shop! Yay, Nakano! Ask the staff if there are any more. No, and completely expected since searching half of Nakano had only turned up two. But still! I have 2 figures! Quickly buy them and open them. An axe Blacksmith and a sword-wielding Knight. I don’t think either of those are the rare characters and I think (although I won’t be sure until I get home) that I already have the Blacksmith. But they could still be used as trades, should I find anyone else with duplicates! And now I know that they can actually be found in Nakano, so I’m keen to keep searching.

Wandering around some more and I spot a familiar font - FRUiTS! Hooooooooooboy, there’s a lot here! Hooray for the Japanese and how the never throw anything away! Even old issues of magazines can be found for sale! Bloody hell….issues 9 and 10?! Do you KNOW how much I could get for this on eBay?!

Still, I’m keeping these for my own collection. Any duplicates can get eBay-ed. Glee! I’m not sure which is more awesome! FRUiTS back issues for dirt-cheap and excellent condition or two RO figures? Trip to Nakano is thus far very successful! The woman who ran the magazine shop had such big eyes when I plonked the pile of magazines on the bench, asking if there were any more, heh.

A few more shops left to explore in case I spot any more Volume 2 figures. The magazines are bloody heavy so I won’t try to find any more FRUiTS, but I’ll be back in Tokyo later for that.

There is one likely-looking shop. I’ve found few Volume 1s individually wrapped and judging by the other characters for sale, it seems likely that this shop could have other Ragnarok Online figures hidden somewhere. This is as opposed to the shops that specialise only in mecha or DragonBall. I ask the girl at the counter if there were any RO characters. She says “Hai!” very confidently (the first store staff to have done that all day today) and bustles off to some drawers full of yet more figurines and pulled out that I hadn’t spotted until now. Sadly, they were Volume 3. But now I had an example to show her of the ones I want!

I reach into the bag to pull out the blue box…aah, dame, that was the Lucky Dip prize I bought in Akiba. Where’s the RO figures? Wait, where’s the bag the RO figures came in?! Wuuaaaaaahhh! Where’s the bag?! I lost the bag? HOW COULD I LOSE THE FUCKING BAG?!

Jesus H. Christ, I searched every damn corner of Akiba, Nakano and Den-Den Town in freakin’ OSAKA to find TWO LOUSY FIGURINES and then I managed to LOSE THEM?!

Head. Wall. Repeat.

At least….at least they weren’t the rare ones. Christ, I hope they weren’t the rare ones. And, at least I didn’t pay more than $8 for the pair of them. But…I lost the pair of them. Head. Wall. Head. Wall. Head. Wall. Fucking hell.

My arms ache from the heavy magazines and my feet ache from walking all day. I find an information booth but nothing has been handed into lost and found. I backtrack to shops where I may have put down the bags for a moment but find nothing. This is like that day I went to Pan no Mimi and managed to lose my camera case. Something about Kyoto makes me lose my camera case repeatedly. This time was a bit more worrying because the spare battery was in it but luckily I found it again. I was hoping I could have that luck again this time. But there’s so many people here with kids, one of them probably picked it up and decided they had found a free toy. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK!

Need to sit down somewhere. Why aren’t there public freaking benches in Japan?! And most of the restaurants here are the eat-at-the-counter types! All I want is something cold to drink and a seat, Nakano! Damn you! I settle for McDonalds. Children are screaming and running around behind me. Shut up, shut up, shut up! And give me back my RO figures you little shits! You took them, didn’t you?! GAAH!

Struggle back to the hostel, arms arching, feet dead, not happy. I have the magazines, which are great, and they weren’t expensive losses - those figures - but I’m still pissed after spending so much time and energy trying to find the bloody things.

It’s either a) been dumped in the trash, or b) been found by children who just scored free toys, never knowing how collectable they are, or c) been picked up by the store owner of wherever I dropped them, who DID know how collectable they were, and have since put them up for sale in their shop >.< Or eBay. Hah.

Wait, I should check the Japanese Yahoo! Auctions in case they put it up! Long call, but hey.

Didn’t find my lost figurines, but I did find someone selling the entire set of regular Volume 2 figures and the rare Blacksmith (turns out that the axe Blacksmith was the regular one, the rare one has a hammer). Make a bid. Have since won it, but it cost a bucketload. Still, day was somehow salvaged.

Nakano is going to get raided when I get back to Tokyo in case someone is selling my figures. Plus I can try and get more FRUiTS.

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Early wake up to get on a train for Kamiooka, my old stomping ground. Arrived earlier than expected, curse my Type A-ness. Still, it was good to wander around Yokohama for the first time in a year. Aah, the More’s Building. How often I’ve emptied my wallet there. Check out the old arcade, nothing worth trying to win this morning. I totally own at the UFO catchers.

Anyway, onto Kamiooka. Oh gods, my old eikaiwa *shudder* Quick, look away! Don’t make eye contact! Yay! T & M! Reunion! Have an ice kohii at there place because even at 10.30am, the sweat is already running down my back in torrents. Damn tsuyu.

Hadn’t really looked at the Lonely Planet’s pages on Kamakura. It’s so close to Kamiooka, I’d been there before during the 10 months I lived here, but unfortunately my camera was stolen soon after and I wanted to get more photos again. T & M wanted to go along because apparently the hydrangeas are in bloom all over Kamakura at the moment. That’s….such a Japanese reason to go somewhere XD

But anyway, I basically thought that all there was to see was the Daibutsu, or Giant Buddha. It’s about 800 years old and quite spectacular. It used to be housed within a temple but a tsunami had washed away the building, leaving only the temple. It must’ve been a heck of a tsunami. Kamakura is on the shore but the Daibutsu is still about a kilometre away from the beach with big hills in the way.

I knew that there were more temples around Kamakura, but I didn’t think they were going to be that special. I had been to the main one at the top of the shopping street which was quite nice but….you know…..just another temple. T had some ideas about where to take me in Kamakura though and I was happy to let him lead. I just wanted to have photos of the Daibutsu and the rest was up to them.

First, to the most famous hydrangea temple in Kamakura, Hase-dera. Heh, they’d never mention that in the Lonely Planet. No, all that they say about this place is that “it has the largest wooden statue in Japan carved in 912″ - feh! How is that important compared to the hydrangeas?! There were hundreds of small statues of Jizo which were very cool. I took a couple of shots which I’m proud of. May submit one to Metropolis. It also has an impressive view over the bay.

It was CRAWLING with people all over Kamakura, but particularly in Hase-dera. M said that there had been a special on the television about Kamakura’s hydrangeas, and since it was a sunny Saturday, absolutely everyone in the Kanagawa and Tokyo region wanted to see them today *rolls eyes* So there was a 40 minute wait to go for a walk along this Hydrangea Path within the temple grounds. It wasn’t the ONLY place you could see them, mind you. They were growing out of cracks in the pavement! So we decided to skip it and move on the Daibutsu.

Daibutsu, photos photos photos - finally saw a squirrel! I seriously need to smuggle some into Australia. Okay, photos done, NEXT!

T said he wanted to take me to Zeniarai Benten, so off we went - got lost - got lost again - gave up an caught a bus to the station - had lunch - revived - then got proper directions - and finally we walked up this hill to find a great big tunnel bored into the rock with a torii gate outlining it.

This shrine has now been added to Chidade’s Awesome List™.

First cool part is the tunnel in the rock. When you walk out to the other side, there are many red torii gates to walk through, like Fushimi Inari in Kyoto, although not as beautiful. The shrine is in a tiny little gully that is almost completely closed off by hills all the way around. There are two ways to get in: the tunnel, and a back entrance if you climb the stairs over a smaller hill. So the surrounded and hidden feeling to the place is another cool factor.

Finally, you go into a cave carved into the side of the hill where a natural spring wells. And there……you wash your money. Zeni-arai means “coin washing” but these days people seem to wash paper notes. Out of greed? I don’t know but I washed 1000 yen. T & M told me to keep it in my wallet and never spend it, like a lucky charm to make me rich, but I’ve read other sources that say the idea is to spend money that has been washed in the springs and it will return two-fold. I think I’ll just keep it as a souvenir.

Such a unique tradition - washing your money in the spring to bring fortune. And the Lonely Planet never mentioned this! Zeniarai Benten is listed on their map but not described. Odd, given it’s uniqueness and apparently it’s the second-most visited shrine in Kamakura (awesome link found via Frangipani).

Anyway, Zeniarai Benten: now on my awesome list, along with Nijo-jo in Kyoto, Gyokusendo Cave in Okinawa, Zuigudo underneath Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto, Takeshita-dori in Harajuku and all of Akihabara, heh. Hmm, maybe I should set up a page of these places.

The next place we visited was just a short walk away from Zeniarai Benten if you take the back route. It’s called the Sasuke Inari Shrine. Cool, because it does the multiple torii gates thing, has dozens of statues of foxes (because Inari is a god of foxes, among other things), has a cool name, but mainly because, despite being less than 50km from Tokyo, it really seems like you’ve founded a hidden little shrine in the middle of the forest, untouched and unvisited for years. Completely not the case, but the atmosphere is like that.

After that, we headed back to T & M’s for a much needed shower before off to the izakaya for a massive party. About 6 old students, 2 old friends and assorted were there. To summarise the night, I’m going to borrow Circus Girl’s blogging style again:

To the station! I need to pick up S and his mystery friend! You! It’s you! *glomp* I’ll be right back, I need to find S, T keeps me company, he never arrives, never answers my texts, eventually call him and find out he’s already at the izakaya, WTF? Well at least I can make a grand entrance now with all the other guests there, get cheered, take a bow “You bastard, you never emailed me”, debates on email, shut up and order a drink! I’ll have a sour, a sour what, uhhhhh, apple? Yes, Apple Sour, “Minna san! Omiyage desu!”, yaaaaay, boomerang makes me an accessory, canned kangaroo! No really! I think we should open it right now, muaahahahahaa they totally fell for it! Wow, M-chan’s English is awesome now! So is S’s! Heh, so the new gf is a Hong Kong expat too, eh? I detect a fetish. Beer! I don’t drink beer? BUT I’LL DRINK THIS BEER! Wheee, room is kind of spinning, I can haz foowd now pwease? TUNA!!! where’s the salmon? “It’s fish but it doesn’t taste like it”, “K, I’m probably drunk enough now”, mmm, cheezy, what, it’s over already? BUT WE JUST GOT HERE!! Okay, back for some drunken Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Buh-bye some people, I’ll see you in a month! Bottle shop stopover, beer beer beer, girly drink, H lives in that big building? Really? Can I see? Get taken up to the viewing platform, “YOKOHAMA I MISSED YOU!!”, wow don’t want to drop my camera down there O_o, okay, onto T & M’s place, photo slideshow time! Man, I should really do this on my Wii too, catching up, drinking coke and vodka, what a combo, getting pretty woozy now, how did I get so drunk so quickly? *glomps Canadian*, why is the Billy Banks exercise DVD playing? More gossip, YAY! A’s here! Omiyage! “Sorry, I’m a bit drunk”, catching up, ok, so this is how you play Rayman, I love that song, um, are you ok? Sleepy? “Where’s he going to sleep?” (With me!!!) “He should be on the floor in the hallway” (?!) “and A can share with you” (No, he can sleep with me, really!) “Ok, we’ll set up a futon in the lounge room” (Awwww) Brush teeth, “Oyasumi“, unconsciousness.

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Kudos to Circus Girl. I’m going to steal your blogging style for a moment ;)

Thursday:
Wake up late, sticky, hate tsuyu, oh my gods I need to change hostels, pack bags, pack more bags, what the hell kind of packing is that? Chidade, you’re a Rover, for shame! Empty everything, pack again, actually learn room mates’ names, then leave, heh, backpack, laptop bag, two bags worth of shopping, HEEAAAAVVVEEEEEEEE! holy crap my fingers are dead, should I get a taxi? urk, taxi expensive, how do I get them to go to Gojo? “Gojo House onegaishimasu“, “Wakkanai“, stuff it, I’ll walk, half way there, totally regretting that, fingers now blue, brainwave! bag in bag and now one less bag! still weighs the same /swt, are we there yet? who are you talking to? you! no, you! ok, definitely need food, but baaaaaaaaaggggsss! hey it’s Gojo! omg I made it, stumble in, collapse, “hey”, “hey”, “how are you?”, *gasp* “‘k. I’d like to check in, please!”, “check in isn’t until 3pm”, $%&##!@#^ need shower! “Ok, but I’m leaving my bags here until then”, huunnnngggrrryyyyyy, crap! I left my breakfast in the fridge at K’s House! waaaaaaah, ok, walking back now /sob, so much easier without bags, must be losing weight with all this walking, back at K’s, salmon sushi onigiri breakfast, eat on the steps, numnumnum, so what am I going to do until 3pm? At least the late check-in forces me to do something, CRAP! camera is in bags at Gojo, feck it, I’m NOT walking back there again, what can I do today that doesn’t require camera? Head to Kyoto station to get inspiration, watch fashion show, should I write about this for 3yen? Get bus map, needs camera, needs a camera, needs camera, maybe I’ll just go shopping? Really want somewhere with an air conditioner, OOOOH! International Manga Museum! Sold, buy bus ticket, …..no bus route nearby, MORE WALKING?! This place better have an awesome air conditioner >.< need ramune icypole to survive the trip. gari gari kun is teh awesome, is this it? is this it? are we there yet? It looks like a school, it IS a school! “Konnichiwa!”, that’s like the first time I’ve heard that on this holiday, 500 yen, Great Wall Of Manga, this collection must be James’ wet dream, there’s not actually that much here, any English manga? Just give me some English manga, a seat and a vending machine in air conditioned goodness, wait, a figure exhibition? 500 yen, hahaha Fist of the North Star, wow! Who’s she? KAWAII! bingbingbing 2.40pm blog time. Feet achy. Nearly time to check in but want to revive feet first. English manga!! Read last volume of Battle Royale, so that’s how it ended, time to go back, bus back the long way round, “ok now you can check in”, make bed, collapse, wake up 11pm, combini dinner, collapse again.

Friday:
Wake up, unpack everything AGAIN! repack properly, now only have three bags, taxi to Kyoto Station because I’m not going to be walking again and in the rain, book shinkansen, bakery breakfast, get on Hikari, I think I’ve been in this seat before, Kyo-kun gets a workout, pillows playlist, so many gaijin, too much rain to see Mt Fuji, pass through Shin-Yokohama, TADAIMA!! Arrive at Tokyo, TADAIMA!!! Change train, change train, wow, K’s House Tokyo is really close to the station, check in, SHOWER, I feel human again, laundry, run back to train station and go to AKIHABARA!! TADAAAAIIIMMMAAAA!!!!! Nearly everything is closed though /sob Hang on, what happened to Aso Bit City?! Stress! Oh wait, there it is. Any Ragnarok? Ragnarok, Ragnarok, Ragna- damn, only volume 1 and 3…c’mon Akiba, don’t let me down! None of the shops have Volume 2 /sob but oooh, I found Gorgeous Mysterious Katana-Wielding Woman from the Manga Museum….and for cheaper too! Glad I didn’t buy her in Kyoto *yoink* shops closed, must go collect laundry, hooray for wireless internet in K’s House! Make plans with M & T for tomorrow, watch Naruto and BLEACH on YouTube, eek! 2am! Collapse.

Saturday in Kamakura and with old friends: much fun an alcohol - next.
Sunday in Harajuku: tale of heartbreak and love - after that.
Monday in Akiba and Nakano: victory and defeat - after that again.

Tomorrow I have a date with the Emperor. Hopefully I’ll actually post about everything eventually.

1am, time to collapse.

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Some background:

Yakitate!! Japan is a Japanese manga and anime which is basically all about baking bread. The title means “Freshly Baked!! Japan” which is also a pun, because “pan” is the Japanese word for bread. Sounds like an odd subject for a series but it is honestly one of my favourites.

It’s about a boy named Kazuma Azuma who wants to create a bread that is uniquely Japanese, much like there is German bread (doitsu-pan), French Bread (furansu-pan) and Italian bread (itaria-pan) - hence the name Ja-pan.

The series is above all funny but it may be better appreciated by those who have watched plenty of anime before, and know the conventions and clichés. A lot of the jokes are parodies of other anime/manga or their genres.

Still, it could be interesting for non-otaku too. The manga actually had recipes of the breads featured in the series, as well as general baking tips. The manga-ka Takashi Hashiguchi hired a bread artisan consultant while writing the series. That consultant’s name is Kouichi Uchimura. He created a lot of the bread that appeared in the series and is apparently really trying to create a uniquely Japanese bread (I personally thought that they had plenty, but anyway). Uchimura has a bakery here in Kyoto called Pan no Mimi (which translates into ‘bread ends’, or ‘bread crusts’) and that’s where I went today!

To get to Pan no Mimi, you need to get on the JR San-In or Sagano Line (Platforms 32 and 33 at JR Kyoto Station at time of writing) and get off two stations later at Nijo Station. Yes, that’s Nijo, like Nijo-jo, or Nijo Castle. The castle is a block away from the station. When you get out of the station (take the east exit, there should be signs pointing to Nijo Castle) and you get to the main road, take a left and walk for a while. You’ll pass two major intersections and about four traffic lights in total. Pan no Mimi will be on this street you’re walking down, on your left. There are only signs in Japanese.

The first thing I thought when I found the place was “Yay! I found it!” because it really was a hike from Nijo Station and I thought I may have missed it. The second thing I thought was “….it’s so tiny”. And it really is. There is barely room for two customers to move around. There is a small display with some Yakitate!! Japan manga and posters explaining how Uchimura was involved, plus a few manga scans and what seems to be a thank you card from the Yakitate!! team to Uchimura.

But that was all that showed that this was anything more than a tiny, local bakery servicing the residents in the less-touristy part of Kyoto. In keeping with its name, Pan no Mimi was in fact selling bags of bread ends and bread crusts on one table….for what I’m not sure. It just looked like duck and koi food to me.

In every Japanese bakery you walk into, you’ll find a pile of trays and tongs at the door so you can serve yourself. Go around the display and place what you want to buy on your tray, then take everything to the counter where it will be bagged by the assistant and totalled.

I decided to go for two very Yakitate!! breads: melon bread (meron-pan) and a French baguette (furansu-pan). Coupled with a bottle of lemon ice tea, the whole thing was less than $6.

If I remember correctly, in the anime, the melon bread that Kazuma made was rather ugly and sickly looking, but then it tasted fantastic. It was the same with Pan no Mimi’s melon bread. It didn’t look anything like the carefully sculptured and identical looking breads that you get from the local combini - but, oh man, when you tasted it……yumyumyum. There was only a hint of melon flavour - it was mainly just a sugar hit, complete with slightly caramelised bits on the edges.

The baguette was slightly sticky and chewy on the inside while being very crusty on the outside - again, just like they said it was in Yakitate!! - and it was also damn tasty. In fact, it was so good that I had eaten most of it before I remembered to take a photo, heh.

I didn’t have extreme and comic reactions to the breads’ taste like the characters in the series, but I did like it enough to decide to go back tomorrow - despite the hike to get there.

Pan no Mimi is quite unique among Japanese bakeries. There’s great bakeries here, no doubt. The Andersen under Kyoto Station makes an excellent Polish-style rye, even if they call it “brot” (ie: German bread). But they still seem very…Japanese and like Yakitate!! says, the Japanese aren’t known for bread. Uchimura must’ve trained in Europe or somewhere, because his bread is the most continental of the breads I’ve tasted in Japan, while still being unique and still Japanese. He sells those 3cm-thick-6-slice-loafs too. Those loaves are generally the worst kind of bread you can find anywhere. I think Uchimura’s may be good though. They’re slightly burnt around the edges, I noticed, heh. I wonder if they’re made with wasabi like in the anime?

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As awesome as K’s House is, I’ll always have a soft spot now for Gojo Guest House, since they provide free wireless internet. I’m only here for the night since K’s House is full. I’ll be back at K’s tomorrow (my luggage is still there) but I may come back to Gojo for one last night before I head to Tokyo. It’s cheaper than Tokyo - AND….it has wireless internet :D

Gojo is more traditional than K’s House. The dorm is a 12-mat room with sliding doors which sleeps 6 people on futons. I had hoped to avoid futons on this trip. Futon is Japanese for concrete >.< But it’s amazing what high speed wireless internet will do to your tolerance levels. Gojo is the same price as K’s House and it’s within walking distance of more attractions - notably Kiyomizu Temple and Gion. K’s House, on the other hand, is only really close to Sanjusangendo. On the plus side it’s walking distance to Kyoto Station. Gojo, unlike K’s, will serve you breakfast and dinner for an extra charge, but the centre of Kyoto is only about 30 minutes walk away so there seems little point.

So who wins out of K’s and Gojo? Well, I prefer modern to traditional, unless it’s going to be a high-end ryokan so for now K’s House is in the lead.

Today was spent in Osaka - specifically DenDen Town, which is basically Osaka’s answer to Akihabara. It’s smaller (only about 500m worth of street) and not as great as Akiba in the anime stakes, but I still managed to spend a fair chunk there.

<geek>

Phoenix Wright 2 for the DS (that can be played in either Japanese or English), a few figurines (Rurouni Kenshin and Sanji from One Piece) and a plastic fish.

Look, I was asked to bring random Japanese weirdness home as a present. I think a plastic fish from a capsule machine falls under that category don’t you?

Am having trouble trying to find volume 2 of the Ragnarok Online Trading Figures. Damn those things were limited edition! I can’t even find Volume 3. Plenty of Volume 1 still around though. Will there ever be a Volume 4, I wonder?

Also discovered second-hand CD shops, so now I’ll have plenty of new material for the radio show next semester. Cheap, too!

</geek>

Today I also got reacquainted with a great Japanese food chain today: Pepper Lunch! You get beef on a hot plate to cook yourself, usually with a side of vegetables and rice.Full meal including drink for under ¥1000. Awesome. There was one outside my eikaiwa back in Yokohama. Ah, the good old days.

Speaking of the good old days….I feel like I’m at home. It didn’t take long to get readjusted. Been away from Japan for just under a year and now that I’m back, I have to keep reminding myself that I’m just a tourist, and that all my possessions are in that backpack, not in an overpriced apartment in suburban Yokohama. You are a tourist here, Chidade. Don’t forget it. I know that you know about things like how to sort your rubbish for recycling but that doesn’t make you a local!

Man, I’ve missed this place.

Big party on Saturday night with old students and co-workers. Can’t wait. Very excited. It’s being hosted by T & M who are the coolest 40-year-olds I know. After all, they told me to bring my Wii remote from Australia with my Mii loaded so I can join in on the drunken Wii shenanigans after the izakaya, hehehehe.

Feet aching. Must wear better shoes tomorrow. Must figure out what the hell I’m going to do tomorrow too. Maybe I’ll relax and spend the day sorting out my new schedule and budget. Ooh, and I guess I’ll visit Pan no Mimi! Done.

‘K, oyasumi, then.

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6 hours to go.

Going to be completely on my own this time. No tour company or employer to hold my hand. 20kg on my back for the next 6 weeks, to steadily increase as I find cute toys and gatchapon machines, heh.

I’m such a geek.

Moblog: up
Photo gallery: up
Blog working correctly: well, I hope I don’t fail on some Internet Explorer bugs. IE sucks, you should all know that and should switch to Firefox now. Stuff the IE bugs. It’s good enough for government work.

A Freddo Frog to the person (besides Eilix) who can tell me where the quote in the last sentence is from. Ooooh, trivia!

Feeling somewhat sleep deprived. Well, it is five in the freakin’ am. Think I’ll leave this here then.

Ja, ittekimasu.

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And now it’s time for:

*trumpet fanfare*

Chidade’s Review of Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End:

The tentacles need to be sexier.

The end.

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