WARNING: Spoilers Ahead
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:
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
Up…down….up…..down
- Have to get up at 6am…downer
- Cat cuddles up to me…upper
- Find Eilix and Bato playing Hexic against each other at 7am….wtf
- See ducks sitting on neighbour’s roof as I pull out of the driveway…upper
- McDonalds breakfast…upper for the tastebuds, downer for my arteries
- Find out that my train is an express…upper
- Train is five minutes late and chock-full so I can’t play my DS…mild downer
- Realised that I just wasted money buying a ticket because I already had one…downer
- Arrive at uni, greeted by friends, do well on the newspaper quiz…mild upper
- Sit through the intelligence-insulting lecture that forces me to be on campus at 8.30 in the freaking morning…downer
- Get worked accomplished in intelligence-insulting tute so I can leave early…mild upper
- Don’t have a break and need to get to the next class…downer
- Realise I don’t have my tablet pen to take notes with…downer
- Lecturer makes me want to fall asleep…downer
- Sleepiness accentuated by lack of sleep last night…downer
- Stomach is dissolving in it’s own acids but don’t have a break until 3.30pm…major downer
- Consider skipping classes and going home to catch up on meals and sleep…upper, although it shouldn’t be
- Realise that I can’t go home even if I want to because I’m having dinner in the city with an old school friend…downer, although it shouldn’t be
- Skip second half of the lecture in disgust so I can at least eat something…downer
- Subway lunch with extra cookies…upper
- Need to take a cash advance off my credit card to pay for lunch and tonight’s dinner…downer
- No money left now until next week’s pay day…downer
- Feel very unhealthy walking up the stairs to class…downer
- Late for class…downer
- Get to class only to find that I have no bloody clues about this subject…major downer
- At least I don’t get pestered my the tutor about my lack of work…mild upper
- Get to next class and can actually make valid contributions…upper
- Battery on laptop went flat…downer
- Suddenly saw a puffer fish on the window…upper
- Have to consider fare evasion because I don’t want to waste the ticket I already had on a five minute journey…downer
- Organise my club membership and get excited about getting seriously involved soon…upper
- Elevator in the Union Building makes itself my mortal enemy…downer
Uppers: 12
Downers: 20
next…class which is looking promising, dinner which should be good but exhaustion will probably stop me from enjoying it properly, commute home which will only be frustrating and finally an evening in bed dead, exhausted and depressed because there were more downers than uppers today. And all this to the background of family trouble, boy trouble and education disorganisation.
It’s crazy how such…essentially unimportant things can change my mood so drastically.
My mind isn’t very healthy right now. I think I’m struggling. It must be the backwash of adrenalin and happiness from seven weeks in Japan. Been home for just over two weeks and haven’t been particularly happy any day. I’m not doing so well right now.
Back. Bah.
So, back home from Japan now. May catch up on posts eventually. The two main things I want to write about are Hiroshima and Mt Fuji. Whether I actually sit down to belt all that out remains to be seen.
Holiday overall was awesome, however the last 30 odd hours were freaking painful. Left hostel in Tokyo at lunchtime on a Friday. Didn’t arrive back home until 9pm the following Saturday. Had a 2-hour delay in Brisbane and a 5-hour delay in Sydney.
Moral of the story: DON’T FLY JETSTAR.
It’s almost like Australia didn’t want me to come back home. This opinion is further compounded by the realisation today that, when I move out of home in two weeks time, the only person that will feel the teeniest bit sad about it is the lady from the milkbar.
I miss my mum.
[Day 12-13] Nikko
Nikko was slightly ruined by the fact that I wanted a sleep-in. Hence, I didn’t arrive there until about 2pm and therefore my first day was, more or less, a write off. I had already been to Nikko once and had seen all the World Heritage sites, which are beautiful temples and shrines nestled in amongst cedar forests. But Nikko is also famous for its nature - the mountains, lakes, forests and plateaus in the Nikko National Park. And this is what I wanted to focus on this time.
However, after arriving at Nikko, I was told that it takes about an hour to get to the Senjogahara Plateau (which looked like the most interesting part of the national park) and that the hike was three hours long before you took another hour-long bus trip back. Couldn’t fit that in before the last bus left Senjogahara at 6pm, so I walked along the river til I came to the Kanmangafuchi Abyss (although it was hardly an abyss, just a gorge). I hadn’t visited this part of Nikko the last time I was here. It’s a path that runs along the gorge with many jizo - Buddhist statues - lining the path. The saying goes that there is one particular statue among them that mocks travellers that try to count the number of statues, as it’s said to be impossible, that it’s constantly changing.
That’s probably due to the fact that some of the statues seem to be ancient - some have been reduced to rubble or the heads have fallen off or the statues are missing altogether and there’s just a stone foundation left. There’s still others that are nestled in bushes and you may not even see them. So this statue will mock you because you probably can’t always tell if it’s a statue, a rock or just the foundation that you’re counting.
That, and it seems that Nikko is a pretty boring town, so I reckon that the locals get drunk and start moving stuff around in the middle of the night for a laugh.
I couldn’t tell which one of the statues was the mocking one. Took some good photos, though.
My hostel was the Nikko Park Lodge, which I stayed at - kinda by accident - the first time I came to Nikko. Lonely Planet listed two backpackers hostels in Nikko. One I couldn’t find and the second told me that I couldn’t stay. It seemed like they only accepted big groups, like school students on camp. They were nice enough to point me in the direction of a nearby lodge - the Nikko Park Lodge - which thankfully wasn’t expensive but it is out of the way of everything. There isn’t even a combini nearby, so I knew that this time I needed to get dinner and snacks for the night before going up there.
So heading back to town from the Kanmangafuchi Abyss, I stopped by the budget restaurant that, according to the Lonely Planet, everyone goes to. The walls and even the ceiling are plastered with notes, autographed business cards and graffitied train and airline ticket stubs of foreigners - all singing the praises of this place. It’s a little kitschy but you’ll always have something to read while you eat. I spotted a Metlink card amongst it all.
The mama-san of this place has very limited English ability but she certainly doesn’t let it stop her from bustling around, serving and chatting with everyone. I ordered the Lonely Planet’s recommendation of yakisoba. When it arrived, I had to admit that it didn’t look very appetising. But it did taste really good. It was a huge serving too, I just managed get through it all. Cheap too, at 650 yen. Mama-san talked at length about how the Lonely Planet made her restaurant famous. Personally, I think it has to do with being one of the mere two English-friendly places I spotted in Nikko. There’s isn’t a lot of choice in places to eat here and they’re generally situated somewhere inconvenient. Still, I would probably eat there again if I ever visited Nikko again.
Which I probably will do because I didn’t end up going to Senjogahara Plateau the next day, either.
After spending the night at Nikko Park Lodge (which has changed slightly! It now has snacks available and a bar - still a bitch to get to, though) and meeting a Canadian girl who I found out will also be at K’s House in Tokyo with me, I was dropped off in town. Looked up at the mountains….which weren’t there! Thick cloud everywhere. Nikko seemed to be free of rain but I was sure that the Senjogahara Plateau would be covered in cloud and probably drizzly, which is not good hiking weather, thanks very much.
Well, crap. Did I come to Nikko just to look at a statue that was laughing at me?
Decided to send the day looking through the World Heritage area again. I could refresh my memory and take some better photos than I had last time. One of the most impressive sights in Nikko doesn’t let you take photos - the huge golden statues in Rinno-ji temple. I was hoping to get there early to ninja some photos in while it was empty and no-one was looking. However, there was a man standing at the base of the statues, praying. Hung back a bit, waiting for him to finish and move on. He finished…but didn’t move on. Just hung around, looking at the statues, looking at some artifacts nearby, looking at the walls. I did the same, playing the part of Interested And Respectful Foreigner Wishing To Experience Japanese Culture (Then Secretly Desecrate It By Taking Photos).
This guy, however, just wouldn’t move on! He just stood there, he wasn’t even looking at the statues anymore, just generally looking around. A full 10 minutes we were playing the waiting game. I eventually gave up. It’s only so long I can pretend to be interested in artifacts, the signage of which I can’t even read. Hang on, maybe he’s just waiting for me to move on so that he could secretly take photos? What’s Japanese for “I won’t tell if you won’t tell”?
I moved on and left the man behind. As soon as I tuned the corner though, I waited. More statues and artifacts to feign interest in. Oh goody! A gift shop! Okay, that should be about enough - I backtracked to the statues and peeked around the corner.
Dammit, he’s still there! And not even looking at anything! And not taking photos, it seems. Is he on the payroll of the temple? Is it is job to stand there and discourage rule-breakers? Bah humbug.
Moved on to Omotesando, which is nothing like Omotesando in Harajuku.
Nikko is a city of deja vu for me. The last time I was here, walking along Omotesando, elementary school kids (who must’ve been from the countryside because they all had big eyes when they spotted me, the white girl) yelled out “Hello! Hello!” at me and got a kick out of me replying. The same thing happened again on this trip, while walking down Omotesando. Nearly fell down the same steps that I nearly fell down last time. My camera battery went flat in the same temple that it did last time. A lizard crossed my path at exactly the same place one did last time I was here. It was probably the same lizard.
I skipped quite a few things in the World Heritage area this time. Finished the whole thing in under two hours and headed back to the station. Stopped by the Tourist Information Centre where I learnt with some bemusement that a bunch of rock walls holding back the river had been marked ‘Important Cultural Properties’ by the Japanese government. This Information Centre seemed to take it to heart and had video presentations, scale models and informative pamphlets about these rock walls. I don’t know if these walls were Important Cultural Properties as such. They were more like Things That Help Protect Important Cultural Properties, but then again, so is barbed wire.
I think that it was probably just the campaign of some locals to have these walls protected under the Cultural Heritage laws so that hydro-electric plants or similar couldn’t move in. What they have against them, I don’t know. Nikko already has Japan’s biggest hydro-electric plant, I think.
It certainly has a lot of water.
The main river is fed by dozens of little creeks coming down from the mountain, and every path you walk down, there is the sound of running water in the drains beneath your feet. There are special wells that line one particular street, that is meant to give cold water in the summer and warm water in the winter. None of them were working, which was a bit disappointing, but I would’ve been more interested in seeing whether the water was really warm in the winter anyway. Water, I think, is considered quite important to the town’s identity.
It’s quite a holy place, Nikko, even speaking as a non-religious person. You can see quite easily the significance of that mountain that looms over everything - Mount Nantai. There were thousand-year-old relics found on top of the mountain, from the time of hermits and priests establishing sects. The temples are really beautiful here, and even more so for the forests and mountains that surround them. In Kyoto, the temples are generally surrounded by concrete high-rises. The Ichihime Shrine actually has an apartment block built over it’s torii gates, as if the shrine entrance was just the way to the car park! You wouldn’t get that in Nikko.
I’ll probably come back. Not for the temples, because I’ve seen them all now. But I want to have a better look at the mountains, forests and plateaus in all the different seasons.
Urk. This means that there’s only three nights left til I’m meant to climb that other holy mountain….Fuji-san.
Random Tidbits Part Deux
- I replaced the Astro Boy handbag, Maes Hughes sticker and Buster-kun keychain that were stolen from me. Buster-kun, however, is now glow-in-the-dark. I kinda liked the old one better
- Everyone who sees my laptop feels the need to comment on how small it is
- Shinkansen make my ears pop
- I think my shoes may be dead. They certainly smell like a dead thing!
- Baby turtles may be the cutest things in existence
- A Hawaiian saved my holiday from disaster <3
- I never actually tried the Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki…eep
- Earplugs are possibly the most awesome invention, ever
- Shooting past suburbs on the shinkansen, I notice that quite a lot of Japanese homes have solar panels on the roofs. Good on them
- Sawao Yamanaka is a sexy mofo
Nagai Youth Hostel
I’ve been in Nagai Youth Hostel in Osaka for just under an hour now, so let’s list what I already hate about it:
- There’s an 11pm curfew - this may be due to the fact that it’s inside a stadium, and the stadium managment need to shut it down at 11pm, or it could just be one of those stupidities of Youth Hostels.
- The rooms can’t be locked - What your key is for is a locker, whose number corresponds to your bed number. The lockers are admittedly big enough to take a lot, but it is still annoying as hell to have to hoist my backpack in and out of it every time I want to get something. Also, you are supposed to leave your key at the desk when you go out. Why? So they can look through my things?
- The bathroom is a communal tub, Japanese sento style. I do not like participating in group nudity, I’d like to have a private shower cubicle, thanks very much. There are some shower cubicles here, but there’s a communal changeroom before you can get to it.
- Check-out and get-out-of-the-hostel time is at 10am. 10am?! I get UP at 10am! And you want me out of the hostel by then? I understand that hostels want people to get out during the day so that they can do a decent cleaning job but all the other hostels I’ve been in have an 11am check-out time. They let people back in at 3 or 4pm. And even then, K’s House was lenient and if you wanted to spend all day in bed, it wasn’t an issue.
- The bathroom has opening hours. What. The. Fuck. If I want a shower at 6am because I have to be on a shinkansen by 7.30am then I should bloody well be able to take the shower then, or whenever I want to! This bloody stupid rule probably has to do with the sento style of the bathroom but we already know what my feelings about that are and at any rate, I know of sento that are open 24 hours, so you could actually sleep there cheaply, like a manga kissa!
- LIGHTS OUT AT MIDNIGHT! It seems we’re in the prison system, not a youth hostel where young travellers from all over the world meet each other and chat, drink and socialise, sometimes - shock, horror - after midnight! Am yet to find out whether this midnight curfew also includes the small lamps we each get in our bunks.
- The internet is restricted to two old computers, with no access to USB slots and no free WIFI. This means, that despite the fact that I’m writing this about 1 hour after I arrived at Nagai, I won’t be able to post this or any other posts until after I get out of here and back to Tokyo. Keitai posts only til then. Oh, also, the internet here is more expensive than any other place I’ve stayed at.
- It seems to be in a dodgy area. My roommate told me that she felt like she was being stared at and followed while walking through the park and that two guys had actually pulled down their pants at her. Admittedly, she was dressed like a complete slut but I wouldn’t want the same thing happen to me. Not only is the area dodgy, but it’s also bloody far away from Osaka. It’s near Tennoji, which is a half-hour train ride away from Osaka, where everything is. Couple this with the curfew and it means I’ll have to leave the Tenjin Matsuri festivities at about 10pm, which is probably just when it’s hitting its peak.
- Bed sheets are not included with the room charge - which, I might add, is also higher than guesthouses. The bed sheets are also not standard sheets but this sleeping-bag type thing so not only do they regulate what time I can shower, what time I can enter and leave the premises and where I can keep my belongings - they also dictate how I can sleep. The pillow goes in here and you crawl into this bag bit. So if you’re too hot, or if you want to if you wanted to share your bed, or move your pillow, or even yourself - YOU CAN’T. That, or you can’t have sheets. Bring your own. Pfft.
There are some nice things about this place, but not many:
- It’s in a stadium! That was the main thing that drew me about this place. It’s so unique. The ceiling slopes down to the playing field and it’s located in a large park. But, as I mentioned earlier, that park seems to be dodgy. Homeless people generally set up camp in Japan’s metropolitan parks anyway.
- The bed setup is cool. The bunks are built into the wall and each have a curtain so that you can block out light or have a bit of privacy while in bed. It’s the only thing I wish K’s House did. However, they are numbered and your bed is assigned to you, instead of being able to choose where you want to sleep. I’ve been given a top bunk with a viciously unsafe ladder that is a right pain in the ass to get in and out of.
- There’s lots of nearly everything. Lots of washing machines and dryers available (perhaps another one of K’s House failings), lots of tables and chairs, lots of room in the kitchen, lots of vending machines with lots of choice. This is probably due to th fact that it has quite a lot of space. It takes up about a quarter of the perimeter of the stadium. It does also mean that you have to walk a long way if you were unfortunate enough to get one of the furthest-away bedrooms.Oh yeah, there isn’t enough internet access here. One thing it doesn’t have enough of.
- The staff can speak decent English.
So even the few good things have their downsides.
TAKE MY ADVICE, those of thinking of staying in Osaka - DON’T. And certainly not at Nagai Youth Hostel. Stay in Kyoto, which is only about an hour away from Osaka by train (less, if you take the shinkansen or some rapid express service). Kyoto has more interesting things anyway. Osaka should just be done in day trips. It’s also cheaper in Kyoto (most guesthouses are 2500 yen for a dorm) and if you get into K’s House - it’s awesome. The staff are friendly, helpful and great with English, it has no curfew or other stupid rules as outlined above. In fact, due to it’s popularity and success, K’s House Kyoto have bought and demolished the property next door so that they can expand with an annex, which promises to be even more awesome.
This place has shown me the huge difference between hostels and guesthouses. I generally thought they were one-and-the-same, until now. Guesthouse > Youth Hostel. I will not be renewing my YH membership next year.
The only reason I decided to stay in Osaka was because of the Tenjin Matsuri, which is a mainly night-time festival on the riverbanks. I thought that it would be a hassle to have to leave the festival early to get the last train back to Kyoto. But after looking at this curfew and train timetable to Tennoji, it seems like I could stay one hour longer at the festival if I was staying in Kyoto than if I were staying in this bloody Nagai Youth Hostel.
So why am I still staying and not running back to my friends in Kyoto? Ah, well, that’s due the first rule on the list, here at Nagai:
1. Once a payment has been made, it cannot be refunded.
[Day 10] Akihabara and Nakano: Victory and Defeat
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.
You kick the bucket and I’ll swing my legs
Random tidbits of the trip so far:
- Hearing the Japanese say “sankyuu” makes me smile
- Seeing a girl with pink hair and a lip piercing kinda makes me want to do the same
- This guy on the train to Kawaguchiko was absentmindedly messing up and solving a Rubik’s cube every few minutes. After a while he pulls out a textbook on designing computer games. That guy wins.
- Been making friends here, which was totally not according to plan
- French Canadians are as awesome as the regular type
- I’ve been drinking beer D:
- Daruma-kun had his other eye painted in
- Uni results were good
- If my jeans make it back to Australia without falling to pieces, I’ll be happy
- I somehow managed to order two hot dogs instead of one from Beck’s. Kinda like that time in Nice with the margarita pizzas. The pizzas tasted better than the hot dogs though
- Speaking of hot dogs, Kobayashi is still my hero
- The first thing I’m going to do when I get home is visit a Polish delicatessen.
- Song Of The Trip is - amazingly - not a pillows song! It’s been Bucket by Kings of Leon (”This is a cool song, who sings this? Oh, so that’s who Kings of Leon are!”).
[Day 9] Harajuku: Tale of Heart-Break and Love
Oh man, I was looking forward to today.
Woke up late after last night’s Kamiooka shenanigans. Was told that I snore “cutely”, whatever that means. Finally managed to get out and on the train to Harajuku at about 2pm. Quite late, most of the fun would have just finished peaking about now. Still! I’m going to Harajuku dammit!
Pull into the station, tadaima, man I’ve missed you, Harajuku. Make a beeline for the bridge on Omotesando, notice that the construction work they were doing for much of last year is finally finished. Not too many people here, and sadly, they all seem to be visual-kei cosplayers. That style doesn’t really impress me. The outfits are impressive but they the designs were invented by someone else, the band’s stylists. They’re just copying them. And the same bands too, again and again. Visually quite interesting but only if you like repeatedly looking at gothic styles and if you have no idea who they’re copying. Me, I prefer small doses of goth. And I definitely much prefer the highly individual and unique outfits that these kids can make themselves.
The other thing that annoys be about the goth style here, even if it isn’t a visual-kei cosplay, is that you can buy complete outfits at the shops in Takeshita-dori for under ¥6000. That….doesn’t fit in with what I originally loved about Harajuku fashion - that they tried to buck the trends given to them by shops and tried to create something new. Sure, brand names get a look in (Vivian Westwood is a favourite) but rarely ever as you’d see them paraded on catwalks. But when it comes to goth in Harajuku, you can let the shop decide exactly what you’re going to wear, right down to the accessories, and buy it all in one set.
And sadly, it seemed like there were only goths or visual-kei cosplayers on Omotesando today. There was also a large number of foreigners getting dressed up in goth clothing - which kinda…irks me more, even though secretly I want to get dressed up and parade down Omotesando myself. I did notice a pair of decorers, which was a relief, and they happily posed for a photo, but I felt somehow disappointed with Omotesando. I thought I’d better make a push for Takeshita-dori to find the good stuff.
Before I left the bridge though, I found something I was going to look for in Harajuku - two girls bearing a “FREE HUGS” sign. Yay! Free hugs! They thanked me as well, maybe they haven’t been getting many hugs that day.
Anyway, Takeshita-dori.
Some of the more interesting costumes I see on people are while they’re walking down Takeshita, which is a bit irritating because it means that I can’t take photos, unless I manage to flick the camera open and focus and click like a ninja, heh. On the other hand, fair enough. If they’re standing on the bridge at Omotesando, then they’d be willing to have a photo taken of them. If they’re walking down Takeshita-dori, then they’re just trying to get on with their Sunday’s window shopping and don’t want to be harassed by foreigners with cameras.
There were more visual kei cosplayers, including this one all in red which looked stunning. Many, many more foreigners. Here and there a decorer. I reached Bodyline, which I always visited whenever I walked past. L bought her maid outfit from this shop, and I wanted to see if I could get a dress myself.
But…oh my gods, how Bodyline has changed. It used to have an air of an exclusive boutique with only a small collection of outfits available, sometimes spread out on a table. There used to be a changing area with huge red velvet curtains and a massive gilded mirror - it looked like you were in old Victorian England, like many of the outfits they sold.
Now, there are about three times as many racks as there used to be, the changing rooms are gone and have been replaced with yet more racks, the styles of clothes have changed drastically (there were even everyday sweaters being sold now) and have dropped from an average price of ¥25,000 to an average price of ¥5000. The shoe section was now almost non-existent, the music was now blaring Avril Lavigne at top volume and the accessories were mainly made of plastic or cheap metal.
What happened, Bodyline?! Are you going out of business? Perhaps your old model wasn’t the most financially feasible, with a shop in a prime position on Takeshita - but this new model makes you exactly the same as every other shop. There is nothing of interest to me in there anymore.
Stumble out onto the balcony, stare at the masses of people in the street below.
What the hell happened to Harajuku in the space of a year? The individuals and the extremely creative and those with an eye for detail have all but gone. There are only foreigner tourists and goth wannabes left. Even Bodyline has succumbed, no longer a top-of-the-line exclusive boutique for fashion with a Victorian flair. There are prepared goth sets for sale everywhere, every second shop is mainly filled with black fabric. This isn’t the Harajuku I remember.
Maybe it’s because it’s summer and people are on holidays? That would explain th large number of foreigner tourists and the smaller number of locals? Maybe it’s because it’s tsuyu and the Harajuku kids don’t want to put up with the humidity and rain? Maybe I really missed the peak time for people watching because I left Kamiooka so late?
Walking up Takeshita again, feeling moody. What the hell. My overnight bag is getting in the way - I’d forgotten about getting a coin locker - and my feet were beginning to ache. This Sunday…Harajuku day…is beginning to suck.
Suddenly out of the corner of my eyes I see something and spin around: two Japanese girls - probably in high school, grinning and chatting with colourfully dyed hair, plenty of unconventional accessories and wearing what appear to be their pyjamas and tabi boots….
Heh.
<3 Harajuku