Archive for the Miscellaneous Category


Zigging and Zagging

March 24th, 2010

Despite the threat of bad weather the entire time we’ve been here, today is the first day we’ve had really crappy weather. It’s cold – a degree or two colder and the rain would be snow. Right now it’s sleet/hail.

Bruce decided that it would be a good day for a train ride and the wife and I decided that it was a good day for a museum. We headed out to Ryogoku to visit the Edo-Tokyo Museum. And in doing so, we zigged where we shoulda zagged.

You know how sometimes there’s a choice of road and you pick the wrong one and have to retrace your steps? Well, yesterday we learned that the day after we leave, the third Girl’s Love Festival will be held in Tokyo. When I booked this trip, there had been no date for it and no hint it would be this coming weekend, so I didn’t learn until yesterday it was gonna be on Sunday. Sigh. Today we walked around Akihabara station looking for food and ended up eating sandwiches at a Tully’s coffee, when it turns out that right outside the Ryogoku station was an awesome selection of delicious looking places to eat. You know the feeling…zigging when you shoulda zagged.

The museum is very nice, with an Edo period side and a Tokyo period side. There was a nice mix of life, culture (high and pop), history and geography. I’d recommend it.

We then slogged over to Nihonbashi, because we never had made it over there before. In the cold rain, it maybe was not as beautiful as we’d like, but it was still fun to be at Mile 0.

We stopped at the train station for a new extra bag as we always do and then up to the Post Office in Metropolitan tower for Leiji Matsumoto and Shonen Sunday stamps. Now we’re back in the room having a nice hot bath after being soaked by rain, watching Sumo until Bruce comes back and we go out to dinner.

Random Junk Food report: Banana Milk Crunky did actually taste like a bowl of cereal with milk and banana. (Everyone else is writing about Banana Kit Kat, so I thought I’d be different.) And soy and mayonnaise flavored potato chips taste slightly of Japanese mayo.

Tomorrow, Tokyo Anime Fair.





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.