Archive for the Tokyo Journal Category


Ginza and Akiba, Dinner and Karaoke

March 22nd, 2010

This AM was the wife’s turn to geek out. We headed to the Ginza to hit up Itoya, a stationery, pens, etc store. I adored Itoya, because it had chairs. There is nowhere to *sit* in this city and standing around is just not something I can do for more than a moment or two.

After we spent too much on paper goods, we headed down to Hibiya to find another Inari shrine. On the way there, we found a different shrine, and while my wife went through the steps of ablution and prayer, a woman came up behind her and filmed her. Bruce and I watched, laughing. We all bowed and went our separate ways, smiling. I took a picture of the woman filming the wife – and also people taking pictures of some cat on a pole that some guy randomly walked up, lifted the cat onto the pole, then walked away. People flocked to the pole to take photos for some reason then, about 15 minutes later, the guy reappeared, took the cat down and walked away. It was “life in the big city” bizarre.

I left the wife and Bruce at Ikebukuro and headed over to Akihabara to have dinner with Rob Pereyda from Crunchyroll, translator extraordinaire Mari Morimoto and Erik Ko of Udon. Dinner was superb – I am so going to try and find a recipe for the tofu cream cheese croquettes – but after it was over….karaoke. Rob sang me a song from Rose of Versailles, I murdered “Alsatia” from Rin and Erik and Mari both sang really well. Thanks to Rob for being a great host and a good singer. :-)

I really need to come back next lifetime with an entirely different set of attributes – good feet, no jet lag, ability to drink and to sing.

Tomorrow the sixth volume of Sasamekikoto comes out. I’m on a mission.





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.





Tezuka Osamu and Ancient China in Takarazuka

March 18th, 2010

gubijinSo, yesterday, we packed ourselves up and went out to Takarazuka, where it was my incredible pleasure to meet Komatsu Mikikazu-san, the writer of the ULTIMO Spalpeen blog. Komatsu-san and I have been corresponding for some years by email, but to be able to bridge the ocean and meet him face to face was a incredible pleasure.

We went to the Tezuka museum, which was edifying and interesting and quite a lot of fun. I was about the only one in the group who had *not* grown up with Kimba or Astro Boy, and had only started to be aware of his works as an adult. It gave me a completely different perspective of his writing.

From there we went to the Takarazuka Theater and had a special lunch created for the show we were about to see. I took a picture. :-)

We parted ways with Komatsu-san and went in for a Chinese historical piece (虞美人, Yu the Beautiful)  that, while it was indeed colorful and shiny, and well executed, the story was a snooze.  ^_^With my inadequate Japanese, I was just able to follow the story. Mari understood it just fine, and poor wifey and Bruce sat for 3 hours guessing.

At the end, I had wanted to turn to them and say, “So, now, which one was the good guy again?” (Because it was Chinese and therefore both sides were ambiguously good and bad and everyone died at the end) but when I tried to talk, nothing came out. They all started to make fun of me and I started laughing and couldn’t stop. As people were filing past us – I was in the aisle seat – there I am laughing so hard I’m crying, while the three of them are cracking jokes about the gaijin who was moved to tears by the performance. It’s good to have friends.

We then went to Osaka for dinner where we met Geoff Tebbets from Anime Boston. I instantly liked Osaka in a way that Kyoto has not touched me. I’ll definitely go back to visit more.

We have to pack up and head out to the Abe no Seimei shrine this AM, so..see you later!





Shinkansen to Kyoto

March 16th, 2010

The Prince Sakura Tower Tokyo in Shinigawa is totally worth every penny for the bathtub alone. Not *just* that it is a Japanese soak tub – a nice big one – it’s got jacuzzi jets, too. The room we had was humongous, with a lovely view of the gardens.

When had a nice relaxing walk around the gardens this AM; a few of the 200 cherry trees were rushing to bloom for us and the plum were already in full flower.

The Shinkansen is fun, without being super exciting, because you’re just moving so darn fast. :-)

And the hot mascot of the day appears to be Tony Tony Chopper from One Piece – there are a ZILLION Chopper toys, candy, straps everywhere, with Chopper in a variety of excruciatingly cute outfits, riding other animals (and occasionally, fruit.)

Kyoto. Well, I kind of think of it as the Philadelphia of Japan. :-) We took a brief walk and are now sitting around waiting to be joined by translator extraordinaire, Mari Morimoto for a walk around the giant mall that is the train station, because why not.

Tomorrow, Fushimi. See you then!

Oh, I forgot to mention that today’s random candy choices were Orange M&Ms, which tasted like creamsicles with cheap chocolate, Haribo gummi grapefruit slices, which tasted like grapefruit and sugar, and Sakura/Grren tea Kit Kats which tasted, bizarrely, of cinnamon. They were quite good.