Archive for the Miscellaneous Category


Shopping Without A Vengeance

March 23rd, 2010

Because we’ve been so busy, we really hadn’t had a chance to seriously shop for anything yet. So today we decided to just stick close to home and hit up Otome Road.

Animate, K-Books, Toranoana felt our whirlwind consumption. It’s weird, because for the very first time, we really don’t have a lot we want. I’m pretty caught up on what I want and don’t have old series with holes that needed to be filled. And this month there was very little out I wanted – and hardly any light novels with Yuri recently. There’s a few things in my Amazon JP cart that I picked up, but mostly, I just browsed. (Don’t be fooled, I picked up piles of stuff. It’s just much less than usual.)

We’re repacking tonight to see what can be squeezed into our luggage and if we need another bag or not. I’m betting not.

Dinner was at a restaurant called Baquet, which I think was supposed to be Baguette, as they specialized in bread. I had chicken katsu with cheese and red sauce – i.e, chicken parmesan. It was made with panko coating, American cheese and a sweet thick red sauce. :-) Close enough.

Today’s random junk food choice is Ramune ice and Vanilla ice cream flavored ice cream – “ice cream float flavored.”

BTW, all the pictures my wife has taken and some of mine are located here, if you care to look. The wife updates it mostly every day:

Tomorrow Bruce is off on a solitary journey and the wife and I have no plans as of yet. We might actually get to a museum or something. :-)

Oh, and my overall assessment of Yuri in the stores – each store handles it differently. Some have a small section, some arrange it strictly by publisher. But in every case, new publications are just piled up with the other new pubs, so the new Comic Lily, Yuri Hime S, Tsubomi, Aoi Hana or Sasamekikoto are just wherever the new books are. There’s no ghettoing or hiding any of the Yuri. Not surprising, really.





Pixel Maritan Lunch

March 21st, 2010

So, today was kinda special. We hopped an early train out to Fussa, where the US has the Yokota Air Force Base, where we met with Ana Moreno, a few of the guys that worked on Strike Witches and Pixel Maritan and voice actresses Kadowaki Mai and Akiyama Kaoru (who were cute as proverbial buttons.)

We had a tour of the commissary (which smells and functions much like a K-Mart) and had lunch in the food court which was oh-so-cool for the Japanese folks. To avoid Taco Bell, I had a Philly Cheese steak, because Akiyama-san convinced me to – I convinced her to get the deluxe. We shopped a bit, then had lunch, then shopped a bit more. I told the seiyuu about how I laughed so hard listening to the third Pixel Maritan CD that I had to pull over on the side of the road because I was crying I was laughing so hard. We discussed the StoPani helicopters and the beginnings of our Yuri army. Ana had introduced me as the Yuri Joutei, the Yuri Empress. I tried to say no, but it stuck. -_-;;

Afterwards, we (the American contingent) decided to stop by Nakano Sun Arcade and throw money a it. We met with one of Mari’s friends, who is absolutely lovely, had some okonomiyaki for dinner. Bruce, Mari and Jun went out for coffee, but my wife’s broken foot and my no-arches were not having any, so we crawled back for a bath.

Tomorrow, more shopping.





Taking a Walk Around Tokyo

March 20th, 2010

So this AM we decided to start the day with a short walk.

And by “walk” we meant, “going shopping.” So we headed down Sunshine-dori and over to Otome Road, where the K-Books stores are spreading like fungus. Then we hit a few floors of Animate, where they were playing “Erica’s greatest anime hits” over the PA. They did have a small GL section, which was nice. It’s about one set of bookshelf’s worth, then the next shelf over is “Yuri-ish” stuff, with series like Hidamari Sketch – you know, stuff Yuri fans slash, but have very little *actual* Yuri. The next set of shelves are even thinner Yuri-ish, but popular series, like K-On!

Then over to Shibuya, to briefly meet translator extraordinaire Mari Morimoto, then wander off to spend more money. I managed to keep my purchases down to minimum, but poor Bruce looked like a pack mule by the time he was done. The Animate in Shibuya doesn’t have a Yuri section, so you have to know what publisher/title you might want. Oddly, there’s very little I want/need right now, which is why I was able to escape nearly unscathed. I was only momentarily tempted to get the $400 Sailor Uranus henshin wand at Mandarake.

We then met Mari again for coffee, then parted once more. We headed down to Harajuku, because Bruce had never been. It was a beautiful spring Saturday night, so it was pretty mobbed. I bought a few gifts for friends, then we headed back to our hotel to dump the bags and rest our feet before dinner with another translator, Ana Moreno (Whom you may remember from Strawberry Panic.)

Our short walk ended up covering three major parts of Tokyo…..

My feet hurt. :-)

Today’s random junk food was a stretch. It’s getting harder to find stuff that looks challenging, so I settled on “Biz” which I think should really be “Bits.” They are cookies and cream flavored I don’t know what and puffed rice.





Home, sweet Ikebukuro

March 19th, 2010

So bright and early in the hazy Kyoto morning, we joined the commuters on the subway line out to the general area of the Imperial Palace.

Being us, we did not go to the Imperial Palace at all, but instead headed out into a residential area where the shrine to Abe no Seimei. It was a great shrine, very neat, tidy, and not all that surprisingly new, since I imagine that they’ve had a new well-spring of interest since the Onmyouji movies came out. While we were there, there was a steady trickle of people. Which brings me to something critical – everyone prays differently. The guidebooks say that there is a specific order to how you approach the shrine, pay, bow, ring the bell, clap, bow. But I spent about 30 minutes watching people and you know what? They all do it differently. HAH.

We loaded up on nifty Seimei goods (perfect for pagan friends. The pentagram of Onmyou isn’t the pentacle of western paganism, but the goods look cool.) I got an eco-bag with cute mascots of the Five Elements. Bruce says the five elements on the bag are: Fire, Tofu, Eggplant, Diamond and Vegetation of some kind. lol

Then it was time for the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. While waiting for the train, we stopped at a kiosk that had had a line *every* time we passed it. They sold gyoza, shumai and nikuman. A few times, the lines at this place were really long. So, we decided to try these really popular items for lunch. The kiosk is called 551 Horai. The nikuman were good, the shumai were excellent, but goodness, were the gyoza amazing. Totally worth waiting on line for.

When we got into town, we hopped the Yamanote and headed out to Ikebukuro. The hotel we stay at has a great location, although it’s a little worse for wear these days. A little walk over to the Lawson, (so Bruce could get a bag from the store…if you get why, then you get why.) I took a few pictures of junk food we didn’t try, but was photo worthy.

Today’s random junk food: Calbee Consomme flavor potato chips, which is a total cheat, because I knew I liked those, so there was no challege there. :-)

Oh and in keeping with tradition, there is a band at the hotel with us. The Kimiku middle school band is here. A little less famous than the St. Petersburg symphony orchestra, but still, it’s a tradition.





Fushimi Shrine

March 17th, 2010

I’m sorry I don’t have the strength for uploading pictures, my legs are shaking too hard…

Fushimi shrine is incredibly interesting and beautiful and has lots of shops where my wife threw money at the Japanese economy. We did not make it to the very top. My wife has a broken foot and we still managed about 2/3rds up the hill, so no shame here.

It slayed us.

So much so, that I have blown off social things for tonight and am now back in my room, enjoying the throbbing of every muscle in my body.

Really, even if I did show you the pictures I took, you’d be like – what the hell is wrong with you? I don’t take normal pictures.

We stopped by the Tezuka World gift shop with statues of characters right at the foot of our hotel. The wife got a picture of me and Safire from Ribon no Kishi. I’ll show you later.

Today’s random junk food report: Calbee Jagariko Carbonara flavor. Potato sticks that taste like bacon tomato sauce. Inexplicable, kinda good, also not good at all.

Tomorrow – well…I’ll tell you tomorrow. :-)