Maguro is:

1) Japanese for tuna

2) The name of an upcoming J-Drama about life on a fishing boat

3) All of the above.

The correct answer is – 3.

Some other TV comments. Couple of nights ago was one of those brilliant variety shows where they make stars do stupid crap. It was a “hidden talent show.” Eight boy band guys were made to do a very energetic and athletic Chinese Lion dance. They were simply spectacular, especially considering they had weeks to practice. The show host ended the show by playing the William Tell Overture on a xylophone. One female star did a kama routine and Beat Takeshi tap danced brilliantly. Is there NOTHING Beat Takeshi cannot do??

Today began very relaxedly, with a few episodes of Major, a baseball anime, then we wandered over to Shibuya to meet Bruce and head out to geek.

So, here was the deal. I was completely convinced that I wouldn’t be buying anything. I mean – I already spent a fortune on doujinshi, what was left?

Then I hit Animate and remembered – light novels. Bruce had suggested we use his room as a HQ in case I bought more heavy anvils than I could carry around. When I staggered out of Animate with a pile of novels, I suggested we drop the anvils back at his room. :-)

We had a short break (shopping takes work, you know it does!) and headed over to where the Shibuya Mandarake is located. On the way we decided to stop at a ramen place, because I haven’t had ramen yet in Tokyo. I’m not sure why I haven’t yet since I like ramen, and I was suddenly in the mood. So we stopped at a place that had three seats (lunctime in Shibuya…you find three seats) and the guy behind the counter, in very good English, explained what I could read on the sign – what ramen was what and which was most popular. We ordered three bowls of the most popular, which was exceptionally yummy.

Then we hit Mandarake. And I remembered that I have several other problems besides doujinshi and light novels. There’s my thing about gashopon…and Drama CDs…I couldn’t stop myself. LOL

For a person who wasn’t going to get anything, I bought an awful lot. Got some light novels, a few manga, some doujinshi that filled in a few holes, the KnM and Onegai Friends Drama CDs, and some of the Marimite soundtracks, all of the last used, so for cheap. Which didn’t make the final bill less gag-a-riffic. LOL

We then headed out to the Meiji shrine, since Bruce hadn’t ever been. To say it was mobbed would be horribly understated, but there you go – it was mobbed. Pattie and Bruce threw money at the god, then we rode the people ride for a while, Bruce tried a stick of dango at the inevitable foods tents, and we crossed the Jingubashi to Harajuku to go to Book-Off. On the way, we passed a zillion food booths, and wifey and I shared a chocolate and sprinkles covered rainbow banana, and I made Bruce drink sweet sake, which tasted like a sake shake. It was kind of weird, and kind of good. (I’ve figured out how to make Bruce do stuff. All I have to say is, “it’s traditional to xxx at yyyy” and he says, “Oh, then I should do it” and does.)

The crowd was incredible, but we finally made it to Book-Off. Where my poor wife crashed. She sat around while Bruce and I shopped, but they really didn’t have anything I wanted. We cut our shopping time, because she was really having issues walking, so we rode the people ride back into the station.

Wifey continued on to our hotel, but Bruce and I went back to his place to get all my anvils, where he (nice guy that he is) pretty much asked if he could accompany me back to help me carry stuff. I carried my own stuff, but he brought a big bag of his own to ship out from here tomorrow. We decided on a combi dinner – those two had curry nikkuman and curry rice and I had the most awesome pasta salad w/peanut sauce and pork.

There is a NY-style bagel place downstairs, so tomorrow for brekkie we’re going to try bagels and coffee NY-style. Bagels are my breakfast every single morning at home, so it feels kind of comfy to contemplate a bagel here in Tokyo.

We started to fade and Bruce left, leaving us watching yet another crack-TV show. Today the stars are cooking (Maguro!, no kidding – it’s a promo for the drama) and one of the women was also on the hidden talent show where she had done that blindfolded kama routine. Now she’s cooking something elaborate and doing a bang-up job. Kama and cooking – I want to marry her. :-) Aoki Sayaka. Expect a proposal shortly. There’s also a woman on this show in kimono and a mohawk. I like the look.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten about a million things I saw today, but this TV show is taking over my brain.

Tomorrow, more geeking and one last shrine. I’ll tell you why tomorrow. LOL

Today, we did not do the following:

Visit the Tobacco and Salt Museum (and not just ’cause it was not open)

Buy any otaku related stuff

Purchase any number of expensive “lucky bags” of trendy clothing in sizes that would have been humorously nowhere near their American equivalents.

We did walk a considerable amount and hit six or seven shrines, three of which were the seven gods of fortunes’, but we had a moment with them at the Toyokawa shrine) and we bought 7 Gods goods including silk worm cocoons that are, in some way, fortunes. I will figure that out later.

We also met Bruce at the Hachiko statue in Shibuya, and had many moments of quiet geekiness in ways that are quite embarrassing to relate, like smiling at the crows at Hikawa Jinja and thinking of Hino Rei. :-)

Sometime around 3PM, the wife and I fell flat. (Hey, we’ve only been here for two days and we’re up at like 4AM, so it’s not just us being weiners.) We walked a bit around Shibuya, crossed *the* intersection, which I hadn’t been able to do before) and eventually crawled home for cup ramen and inexplicable Japanese variety TV shows.

Tomorrow we do more shrines, and plan on going back to geeking on Wednesday. :-)

Hope you all had a great New Year!

P.S. to Sean – We did not know of it beforehand, or we *would* have gotten you the yaoi A-Team doujinshi. :-)

Our last day in Tokyo.

This has been the most exhausting vacation I have ever had. I long to return to work to relax.

I wanted to go to new and different stores, so we headed out to Shinjuku where we walked a lot and managed to find stores for Donna, Kelli and Serge, but not Erica. Boo hoo. The directions I had were vague and outdated. We found the right area, but all but one store was gone. We ate at an Indian restaurant, which was pretty decent and tried to find any of the stores on my list. It was a total bust.

Random Shinjuku shots:

The one upshot of our fruitless wandering was that I found myself at “Memory Lane,” commonly known as “Piss Alley.” Last time we were in Tokyo Rica took us here for a surreal dinner. Now I know where it is.

Look behind the bus at the whatever-they-ares. I have no doubt that I can learn what they are with a bit if research…but I prefer the mystery:

I crawled back to the hotel for my daily foot rest in defeat, but determined to spend more money.

I took two last pictures of Ikebukuro while wandering around.

The Mona Lisa made of Kanji characters:

This was a sign for a club across the street from Comic Toranoana. Who wouldn’t want to go?

So, for my last night, we headed back into Ikebukuro to launch wopping frodges of money at the vile temptresses of posable gashopon figures and siren call of doujinshi. I am such a sad geek – I hope someone else thinks its funny. ^_^

(The really funny thing is that I never actually looked at anything I bought or read anything, until I got home, because I didn’t have the time.)

Dinner was a subdued affair in the hotel room. P and I wanted different things so we went to Seibu and wandered the food area. I got sushi and we shared a white chestnut and bean rice which was delicious. She ended up with a sandwich, while I cleaned up my email and responded to some of the folks who had attended the event who deserved timely answers.

Sleep never came, for various reasons.

My morning started early. I had a date with Touko_no_doriru, an absolutely LOVELY person. He had come late to the event on Saturday because of work and he made a special trip to the hotel to see me. (He has been posting great comments on this blog for a while, which you should all read! He was the one who turned me on to Hayate Cross Blade.) He came by with a great big bag of gifts which I will review one at a time here so he knows I have actually read each thing. His gifts to me are quite overwhelming, so thank you, thank you Touko_no_doriru-san!

Let me also take a moment to thank Sakuta-san for the PreCure toys and Horai-san, for the awesome doujinshi. I shall share them with everyone at Yuricon.

And thank you Masako-san for the lantern and strap, Sparkle for the t-shirt and Donna and Serge for the calendar!

Hey…I think I like this micro-fame thing. Getting presents is cool. ^_^

For the rest of the morning, we mostly packed and waited for Rica to come by, so we could give her some stuff and she could give us some stuff.

We had a very emotional and tearful exchange in our room. I think that Rica Takashima is quite possibly the most amazing person on the planet. I can say that, because we arm wrestled to see who was more amazing and I won the match (on both arms, thank you) so I get to say that she is the most amazing person ever. I will never be able to thank her enough for all she has done – but I’ll try. I’ll start by making her famous and we’ll see where we go from there.

Now I will finish this blog, and this chapter of history, at the Narita airport. We are about to board the plane to go home, but I think its fair to say that a great deal of my heart will remain here in Tokyo.

One last note: When I arrived in Japan, the cherry trees were blooming. The day I returned to NJ, the cherry trees were blooming. I’d like to pretend that there’s some deep symbolism in that. ^_^