Archive for the Tokyo Journal Category


The Day After

April 19th, 2005

What *does* one do on the day after a revolution?

If I was feeling obnoxious, I’d say, “I’m going to Disneyland,” but since there’s NO way I’d do that, the answer is – one takes a day off to recharge and reboot.

We decided that, as it was Sunday, to take in the waves of humanity at Harajuku. The last time I was there, it was New Year’s weekend and while mobbed, had a noticeable lack of youthful color. This time, on a beautiful warm April Sunday the gothlings, punklings, goth-lolitas, fruits and sundry were out in little clusters of twos and threes. No one had the guts to be cool and different by themselves – the majority of the pairs were girls, with the very occasional boy/girl pair where the guy had the distinct look of someone trying desperately to impress a girl. The guys tended to clump in hip-hop or reggae cool, and of course there were gaggles of school uniforms wandering around. Navy blue, can you believe it?

We watched a bench press contest for a while. They weren’t actually bench pressing, but they were dead lifting a fair amount of weight.

Here’s a woman deadlifting what we figured was about 45 lbs:

Here’s a foreigner being interviewed by a TV crew. We don’t know who she is, offhand, but we guess she’s an idol type:

This guy has a unique style of his own:

And this seemed to be the dominant meme, along with Hot Topics-like punk (which I adore, so I was happy.):

Goth Lolita seems to be morphing into a punk that is heavily influenced by The Nightmare Before Christmas. Since one of my best friends dresses like that all the time, she’ll be pleased to be ahead of the curve for a while.

These two girls were done up to the nines:

We wanted desperately to be thin enough to buy clothes in this heavily Takarazuka influenced store:

After a few hours of that, we were frankly wiped. P and my eyes were strobing and we were dizzy from too much visual stimulation. Donna was feeling poorly, too, so we opted to crash back at the hotel before attempting some kind of dinner plans.

There was a wedding at the hotel, below our room:

Now, a very dear friend who I have seen exactly twice in my life, had informed me that she would come to Tokyo to see me. We met four years ago when Ogata Megumi came to New York and I geeked out and joined the tour. Masako-san and I hit it off pretty quickly and we’ve been emailing sporadically since then. What an amazing person she is! Not only did she travel for hours to see someone as unworthy as myself, she graciously allowed all my ducklings to come with us. So it was that 10 of us went out for a nice intimate reunion.

This is what I have come to think of as a “random Ikebukuro moment” and things like this appeared much more often than you’d think:

Lorelei, our youngest Yuricon member and Masako-san hit it off really well:

And they both made friends with this giant panda:

We had been seeing a goofy movie poster over two slacker types on a motorcycle, dressed up in a sort of wacky faux Edo period get-up all over town, and when we hit this window exhibit and the light bulb went off, I coveted the t-shirt mightily:

The deal is, that they are Yaji and Kita, the original wandering comedic pair, only this time, they are doing a x-country on a bike, it seems. I want that shirt!

Masako-san and I discussed very profound things like squid and Marimite – and she confirmed what we all know: Saying Sei is your favorite character is like saying the sky is blue. :-)

Masako-san and myself:

The evening was spent wandering around Ikebukuro and scattering cash over random stores. Too soon Masako-san had to go, and we crawled back to the hotel and slept like the dead.





The Revolution is Nigh…Day 7

April 15th, 2005

And while it may not be televised, it does look like it will be covered by press on both sides of the ocean.

To say that this whole thing has snowballed out of control is a *major* understatement. But I get ahead of myself.

Morning came early, with the child next door slamming doors and stomping around. We slouched around the room, had sandwiches for breakfast and went down to the lobby as usual. Today I wanted to geek out and spend money, so back to Nakano and all the nifty-shifty and slighty seedy stores at the Broadway shopping arcade.

This is a gratuitous “wacky” shot of a palm tree at a gaming place we saw on the Nakano train platform:

We played some games in an arcade – here’s Erin mastering the Taiko game:

And here’s Pattie taking a rest with Ronald McDonald:

P and I both bought doujinshi, I got some manga I would have bought anyway, but this way I saved the shipping, and I got some very nice ROD The TV gashopon. I saw a set for Mai Hime but it was sold and I never saw the separates anywhere else. And no Shizuru. If I can’t have the cool psycho lesbian with the big-ass weapon, then what would the point be?

We had sandwiches for lunch – I still have NO idea what was in mine at all. It gave me a stomachache later, but the wife says it was nerves. Our feet gave up at 3 or so and we crawled back to the hotel to crash. I drank the energy drink Rica made me buy – it tasted gross, so it probably worked just fine.

We met our staff in the lobby and took what *should* in theory be a 30-minute trip, but is, in reality, more like an hour, to Shinjuku 3choume station, which is right around the corner from the Cocolo Cafe.

Staff floated in and, like some kind of stupid joke, *everytime* I tried to do introductions, we were interrupted. It got pretty funny when we were interrupted three times trying to do a kampai.

Eventually we were all in place, dinner was served and we had a really, really nice time. The two hours flew by. The lighting in the restaurant was the worst possible lighting ever for photos, so all these have a weird surreal look, which I quite like. lol

This is a picture of Catherine taking a picture of me taking a picture, so of course, my picture didn’t come out. lol

From the left: Ive, Serge, Donna, Pattie, Kelli, Takami, Rica (waving):

From left to right: Catherine, Sparkle, Trevor:

I LOVE this picture! From the left: Dillon, Mr. Sakuta, Mr. Horai, Bruce. Aren’t they adorable?

The inevitable Takami and Rica eating picture:

And, at last, proof that I was really here and that I really am not photogenic. From the left: Takami, Rica and myself:

I think the energy drink really did work, but since we’re going to have such a long day, we’re back in the room, relaxing and martialing our energy for tomorrow.

Special snaps for Rica Takashima, who has worked *way* too hard on this and is doing an amazing job.

In the last few days, we’ve gotten some new guests, including Mr. Ito Bungaku, who originally coined the phrase yurizoku (“lily tribe”) almost 40 years ago. I think that this event is a tribute to him, and to Yoshiya Nobuko. I’d like to think that she’s with us in spirit.

Don’t expect updates tomorrow, kids – it’ll be a looooong day, ending in hours and hours of karaoke. Maybe I’ll be able to pull myself together for an entry on Sunday, but I promise nothing. ;-)





Yuri Revolution, Day 6, Part 2

April 15th, 2005

Here’s the very few pictures I took yesterday.

This is the entrance to the Hanazono shrine. I’m exeptionally fond of this shrine, as it’s tucked into an amazingly busy corner of Shinjuku, and because it features prominently in my fave girl-gang manga Hana no Asuka-gumi.

Here’s the shrine itself. Frankly, if it comes down to shrines and temples versus anime stuff, I’d take the shrines. One of my favorite things about Japan are the shrine and temple complexes. I like being in a country where Christianity isn’t the dominant meme.

Last night a bunch of us went to Nakano to try and get to Mandarake (a sprawling series of anime stuff stores) but dinner took so long that the stores were closed by the time we got done. P asked me to take this picture of these “charming” candy creatures with the comment, “It’s amazing what you can do with gumdrops these days.”

It’s another beautiful day out, and I’m really in the mood to get geeky, so I think that we will try to get to Mandarake today and make it an all-day-er.

Tonight is the staff dinner at Cocolo Cafe, so I will get to meet all of our Japanese staff for tomorrow! Oh my god…is the event really tomorrow?





Yuri Revolution Day 6, Part 1

April 14th, 2005

At last my internal clock has reset itself correctly! Hurrah! I feel as close to human as possible. And it’s gorgeous out, the Hanazono Shrine is really cool and the meeting with Ichijinsha went really well.

The scoop is, Yuri Shimai will be back, hopefully in July. So, yay for yuri fans everywhere! The editors, Nakamura-san and Umezawa-san, were exceedingly nice people, and the meeting couldn’t have gone better, really. I look forward to developing a relationship with Ichijinsha to bring good yuri manga to the English-speaking world. :-)

I feel like we turned a major corner today. Maybe it’s the weather, maybe that the meeting went so well, but for a short moment, I am no longer nervous about Yuricon on Saturday. The translation issue may be awkward, but we’ll be okay. I believe that. (Partially because I finally gave the Hanazono Shrine the money I promised it.)

There are so many things I haven’t written about at all, because I’ve been so tired and unmotivated. The hotel is packed with a variety of people…everyday the lobby looks like the UN is convening. This is a little strange for Tokyo, although at home I’d hardly notice. (Actually, this time I’ve seen alot more foreigners in Tokyo, everywhere. So obviously, last time it was the holiday – everyone was gone home, wherever that was.) The other morning, two fabric salesmen had emptied their sample cases in the lobby and were re-arranging them. Yesterday, there was a ton of luggage in that space, and this morning it was two tables, with old guys sitting and answering questions. You just never know what you’re going to find.

Pattie and the gang are off hunting kitsune (fox) shrines and taking in Harajuku (goth lolita capital of the world) so I’m just sitting around in the room waiting for them, listening to what sounds awfully like a muezzin calling the faithful to prayer from my window. It’s probably the yakiimo (baked sweet potato) truck outside. LOL Yes…definitely the yakiimo guy. The wind shifted and I can hear the words now.

In Ikebukuro there are two trucks the ride around with sirens and voices yelling at us. One has a man’s voice – I’m sure it’s some right-wing group exhorting us to expel foreigners or something. The woman’s voice truck keeps repeating a phone number over and over. They are both really annoying. (In fact, as I am typing this, the woman’s voice truck just went by….)

One thing I keep wanting to mention is how REALLY nice and helpful people have been so far. The maps rarely have landmarks I can use (or even *find* half the time) and there’s so little orientation that I’ve been asking alot of metro station guards and koban box policemen for directions – and they’ve all been really nice and helpful. It sounds like a stupid thing, but everytime I’ve ever asked a NYC cop for directions, they’ve acted like I was wasting their time – and then they gave me bad directions to boot, because none of them actually live in the city. So yay for the Metro guys and the Koban policemen! (And no – they don’t speak English, but I can say “Which way is whatever-it-is?” and I know right from left. LOL

And on the way to the Takarazuka theater, some random man stopped and asked in English if we needed help. It just proves once again that that old chestnut about cities being unfriendly is wrong. I know plenty of people are helpful in NYC – I know I help people who are lost there all the time. So, pfft on people who think cities are unfriendly.

Okay…I have a Nero Wolfe novel waiting for me. I’ll catch up again later!





Yuri Revolution, Day 4

April 12th, 2005

Sorry for the delayed update – yesterday was awfully busy. All that sitting and grinning and being happy wore me out…but I digress.

The morning began with meeting the gang in the lobby. We had a fair crowd: Bruce, Zeyl, Wing, Erin, Laura, Kelli, Donna and Serge.

We hit the streets of Ikebukuro for a short walk, and then, like the good host I am, I had to bail. Donna, Serge, Bruce and I had a date with Death.

Takarazuka is an all-female musical revue troop (for the geeks out there, it’s the kind of thing Sakura Taisen is based on) that has been in existence since the 1920s. Getting tickets is hard, but Rica got us a few and the show was SO good, I forgive her for killing me the other day!

I recommend you click the above link for the story and pictures (because I couldn’t of course take pictures during the show….) but you HAVE to read the story! Who *knew* that the fall of the Hapsburgs was because Death had the hots for a woman??? I sure didn’t! I’m going to track down my history teacher and complain, because that’s a damn site better a story than boring old socio-politcal forces and changing economics!

I did manage to take a picture of the nice policeman who gave us directions at Hibiya Park:

And the outside of the Theater (all the ladies loitering are probably scalpers):

And this statue at the corner of the building:

But it will take me several separate entries to truly gush about the show. It was perfect! It was everything I’d ever hoped a Takarazuka show would be. Nao Ayaki as Death was great – she moved so cool that Donna and I kept trying to mimic it unsuccessfully – and the music and songs were brilliant. Even Luigi, the stereotypical Italian cum Greek Chorus was fantastic.

Really – my toes wiggled through the whole show it was so good.

And everywhere Death went, “he” was accompanied by a dozen Deathlings (which Donna called the “Deathkateers”. I kept singing, “He’s Mister Death Miser” tunes when they came out – and if you know the reference, you’ll understand what they looked like.

When I get home, I’ll scan in some pictures, just to show you some good bits.

In any case, it was brilliant. It was also 3 hours long. By the time we got back to Ikebukuro, I was wiped but, as it happens, almost everyone had fled. So Donna, Serge, Bruce, P and I went for Italian at the Italian Tomato (I had a spinach pasta dish which was pretty good) we crashed in our room for Doctor Who and Live Action Sailor Moon, then I kicked everyone out and was asleep by ten.

Today (Day 5) was supposed to have been sunny, but is once again rainy, so I think we won’t bother with Tokyo Tower. I’m going to start at Akasakusa and try to get to Kappabashi…and then we’ll see. :-)