Archive for the Tokyo Journal Category


100 Years of Yuri Tour, Part 1

September 10th, 2019

Hello and welcome to a story you did not expect to read. ^_^  The day we left for Toyko a major typhoon hit, so the first day of the tour was spent stranded in Narita. The trains were not running because there had been damage to the tracks. We still have no idea why the buses were not running.  Narita closes down at 10PM, did you know that? We were about 20 people from the front of the line, when they closed the bus counter. The airport handed out sleeping bags and crackers. Dinner was some senbei and a packet of dried vegetable chips which were legitimately tasty, so there was that.  ^_^

When they distributed the sleeping bags, we kind of all knew it was time to accept we were stuck. I was actually asleep on the floor when I was woken up by my wife – a new bus had been chartered that would take us to Tokyo Station. We took it and grabbed cabs to the hotel, so we finally got to sleep at about 4 AM. 

Nonetheless, there we all were, the next morning, ready to go!

First stop, we hit up the Yayoi-Yumeji Museum for a historical first step, to discuss women’s lives in Japan a century ago. The current exhibit was about kimono and fashion in the early 20th century. It was magnificent. (I have a few pics, I’ll add in when I have a chance!) There was a corner on author Yoshiya Nobuko and they even had a kimono of hers! The whole thing was a great start to the trip.

Two of our party went to the Swallowtail butler cafe on Otome Road. The verdict was that the food is excellent and the experience is really unique. They won’t let you do anything for yourself, in a kind of over-fastidious approach to service. ^_^

While they did that, the rest of us went to Yamashiroya for shopping. We crashed for a few and then went to dinner with James Welker, who was entertaining and charming as always. 

Day two is going to be a lot of shopping, with Harajuku and Shibuya on the plate. Report later!

 





Tokyo 2019: The Unbaggening

February 22nd, 2019

I’m back from Japan and catching up on sleep, slowly. Before I  go back to reviewing, I wanted to share some photos from the end of this trip.

Sunday night we returned from Big Sight and decided to eat out like humans. We went to a restaurant near our hotel and had a delightful dinner of duck & soba and grilled duck (yes, we like duck). It was a nice way to end the day.

 

 

The next day we headed out to Shibuya.  A few months ago, I had picked up an issue of RICE magazine, for a special Sandwich issue. I wrote down a few places to try to get to. On the top was a French bakery, Brasserie Viron. We tried to get to the one near Tokyo Station but it didn’t happen. As we were walking in Shibuya, we passed Village Vanguard, which handles the merchandising for Yuriten (the 2019 show was just announced, tune in tomorrow for details!) and…Brasserie Viron in Shibuya.

It was magnificent. I had a jambon and cornichon sandwich. The wife had a Pâté de Campagne and cornichon sandwich,  and profiteroles for dessert. So good~~  Also, we are all about pickles right now. (Life advice here – eat more fermented and pickled foods.)

 

 

While in Mandarake, I picked up an issue of Margaret magazine with the original run of Rose of Versailles, because I could. ^_^

We came back to Ikebukuro and did one last pass at Tokyu Hands and Animate.  Here’s pictures of the stash!

 

 

This was, undoubtedly, the most exciting thing I bought. I was beside myself with joy that I was able to get this. I’d seen an ad back at New Year’s and resigned myself to never having it. This is a brand new Sailor Moon Girl’s Day release and I was basically dancing as I bough it. ^_^

 

 

Here’s both sets, my wife and I got these for each other as Valentine’s Day gifts. ^_^ I love that Haruka and Michiru are being marketed this time around as an established couple, along with Usagi and Mamoru.

 

 

I thought this was hilarious, so I kept it. As we were walking along Takeshitadori in Harajuku some woman gave me this. I didn’t win. ^_^

 

 

Here’s a selection of our Harajuku and Nakano purchases. For years, major Japanese stores have had a policy of refunding tax for any purchases over $50 for foreigners who have their passports. I almost never think to do this, because I honestly believe in paying taxes (and I’m often buying things in small chunks at different stores.) I mean, if I bought a large single item, I might remember. But at Kiddyland, they do it automatically  without making you got to a special Tax counter. When my wife pulled out her passport, she and the woman behind the counter laughed, because there was her receipt from the last time she had shoveled money at Kiddyland. ^_^ 

 

 

Here’s a bunch of gashopon we got, minus the other couple we had put in a different bag. One day I kept getting two balls out of one pull on the machine for some reason. I’m not complaining. ^_^

 

 

Here’s my stash. I was a little shocked to find I had bought 3 CDs(!) including something by Fujieda Miyabi, a voiced doujinshi and a Bloom Into You Radio CD.  Manga,  doujinshi (including Berry Strawberry Shake 4 which made me so happy!) and a bunch of ridiculous Sailor Moon garbage from the cafe last year and the concert goods. And a Eudial pin! 

 

While we were in Seibu at the Loft, we passed a Nakahara Junichi popup shop as we were on the escalator, so I picked up some sticky notes for Lucky Boxes to be added to the Shimura Takako goods and other stuff like the postcards I got after I scan the images into my screen saver. So the next round of Lucky Boxes will be super excellent. ^_^

Thank you all for following along on my trip this time. It’s always a pleasure to have you along with me!





Tokyo Journal February 2019, Part 2

February 18th, 2019

Wow, the last couple of days have been a crazy whirlwind, in part because they included peopling.

We did Akihabara and found that the Shosen Book Tower’s Yuribu has, if anything, expanded. My wife, who had not seen it before, was very impressed.  We followed that up with the Gamers, Animate and Toranoana, which still has a Yuri corner, but has shifted to all doujinshi.

 

 

Note please, the red sign. You will see it repeated here as a Valentine’s collaboration between all the different  Yuribu. 

So, notice that the Animate Yuribu is now in both Ikebukuro and Akihabara.  (This is the back side of the Yuribu table, so ignore the comics. The front side had Yuri. You can check out this picture set on Facebook.) I hit up Comic Zin and Melonbooks and scored Strawberry Shake Sweet 4 by Jesus Drug! Yay!

On Saturday, we spent most of the day with manga artist Nakamura Kiyo and her manager Hsu, two women for whom I have such tremendous respect. I had the hurdle of this ridiculous sandwich to eat. We dubbed it the bacon steak sandwich. How big are other people’s mouths? I had to eat this with fork and knife. Hsu was more successful than I.

After discussing important topics like manga and pie, we headed out to Harajuku to shop. At Kiddyland I found something I cannot *believe* I got. I cannot wait to show you, and a bunch of stuff at the Sailor Moon shop…but not the Sailor Moon frying pan, try as I might, the wife just didn’t want it.

We were going to go see the view at Sky Tree, but were so leisurely about dinner, we missed our chance. Why does Sky Tree close so early on Saturday night? The Empire State Building has last elevator up at 1:15 AM. Sky Tree tickets close at 9 PM? Ugh. other cities…people stay up later than 9 PM.

Sunday was Comitia. I know I’ve talked about it a lot here, because it’s so interesting. Comitia is for original work only. So your favorite circles who have made their name in parody get a chance to showcase their own stuff.  This year was an absolute delight, as we saw that Comitia was shifting way more towards design and art, along with original work and, as a result, slipping a little bit away from porn. (Because, let’s face it, most porn is pretty low on artistic skill and design. Not all…but most.)

Thanks to James, we were able to connect with Grace Ting, who is doing postdoctoral work on Japanese women’s lit, with a queer / feminist perspective and who is, an all-around super person to talk to! We walked through the larger-than-I-have-ever-seen-it Yuri section which took up almost all of ち and た rows. Then we wandered through some gobsmackingly great art. My wife and I bought a stunning Tarot deck and I bought a copy book from Aoki Mitsue, who was sitting in a row we called the “classics” section, as all the artists were older and I recognized some from 20 years ago. I did manage to tell her how much I liked her work.

We made people laugh every time we came to a screeching halt and said “Wow.”

This table, KSDB, got our award for best presentation of the show. They were so kind to let us take a picture. Check out their work on Tumblr.

We just stopped in our tracks and gaped at the presentation. The ladies behind the counter were excited that we liked it. We were excited that they did it. It was lots of smiles all around. 

My wife reminds me that every time we paid with a 2000 yen bill people just freak out. Our bank just acts like its normal, but no one here uses them and every single time we pay with one, people go nuts. It like “holy heck, its a legendary 2000 yen bill!”

Here’s a picture of the back of my head, doing some shopping.

 

We ended our day with some really lovely food at a local restaurant. I had soba and duck, which was amazing.

 

We have one last full day here and will be in full shopping mode. 

Be back soon with the Tokyo: The Unbagging!





Tokyo Journal February 2019, Part 1

February 15th, 2019

Writing to you from beautiful Tokyo, where I have already dropped some cash on stuff I (and you) totally “need.”

We’re here for business and pleasure as usual. ^_^ Our trip began with a bit of light throwing money at the Japanese otaku economy, as we bought some things we couldn’t live without, but I can’t remember what they are now. (!!) And gashopon. The first day we headed out to Shinjuku to enjoy the “Manhole cover fair” at Tokyu hands. We did, in actual fact, buy some manhole cover design goods. Not these. I’m not paying $13 for a manhole cover coaster, sheesh.

We met James Welker for dinner and once again had an absolute blast. He’s always lovely to speak with over a yummy dinner. Meeting him gave us a chance to shop for Valentine’s Day chocolate for fun. 

The next day we headed over to Nakano to see what treasures we could find. I found a bunch of treasures, including the climax of Rose of Versailles in the original magazine. How cool is that? I also found a bunch of things I was not buying.

And this gorgeous thing that, should I have bought it, would have to remain unworn, because I don’t know why, but I kill watches dead if I wear them. But stilll…….I wanted it so much.

Most importantly….and really, this is quite important, Mandarake in Nakano now has a Yuri section. It’s next to the gay manga section, not the BL section and had a bunch of Yuri porn I didn’t recognize and a lot I did, and whole bunch of older Yuri from Yuri Hime, including all the novels I didn’t buy at the time because they looked meh.

We stayed local that night, but Book-Off *still* doesn’t have the second volume of Shitsurakuen, so I didn’t buy anything. There’s a lot-lot-lot more Yuri on shelves these days, even in the used book stores, but nothing I hadn’t already read, oh well. 

Today we took a trip to the Takako Shimura popup shop and mini exhibit in Yurakucho. It was sweet. there were framed prints for sale and some original works on display, a video of her working on one of the illustrations and a little “tools of the trade exhibit.” I picked up a bunch of stuff for Lucky Boxes of course and a few things for myself. 

 

Then we hit up Tokyo Station’s Character Street, then and headed out to Ueno. After dinner, we decided, because it is Valentine’s Day. we’d go see the Illumination at Shiodome. After watching way lots of light singing “Let it Go” to us, we finally curled up with some Houjicha and Strawberry Tiramisu Kit-Kats. The houjicha one tastes a bit like white chocolate covered ashtray and the strawberry one tasted like strawberry and a barful of alcohol. I think I like them. I’ll probably bring some home.

We’ve got a lot planned for the rest of the week, and I’ll report back in a few days. No YNN report this week, a I’ll be out having fun without you. ^_^

I’ll see you on the other side of Comitia!

 





Yuri Meguri 2018, Part 4

April 30th, 2018

Art by CannoMy last full day in Tokyo had arrived. I’m sorry I didn’t have a chance to catch up with more people, but today it was all business.

First stop, back to Aoyama for another spin around the Yuriten, (photos can be found on the Yuriten photoset on Facebook) The lighting made it a little difficult to get some of the pictures, as it does. What makes it easy to see, makes it hard to photograph. ^_^; I arrived before it opened, and was able to do a quick headcount, the ratio was 30/70 women to men, with a surprising age range in the women. The men all looked young to me, which means nothing, everyone does, now. ^_^ Every box of the next round of Lucky Boxes will have Yuriten goods, you can be sure.

Every day at the Yuriten, there is different signed art by the participants on the table at the end. Today’s, as you can see included this image, is by Canno.

Because my next stop after Aoyama was Harajuku, I decided to walk. It was a very pleasant 20 minute amble through back streets full of galleries and clothes stores.

As I headed down toward Harajuku, the stores shifted not-at-all-subtlely from art and fashion to fashion as art. (On the way to Aoyama that morning, I was on the train standing next to a young lady who was clearly dressed up for the location. She was trying to see the train map, but she couldn’t from her seat; I could see that Harajuku was next and said “tsugi” We both laughed. )

My first stop was Kiddyland, where I was on a mission for my wife. But legitimately, they always have surprising items, this time they had a bunch of Sailor Moon and Card Captor Sakura goods. Picked  up some stuff there, and headed over to Laforet where I spend too much time and money. (And sang along with the music. Can you imagine working in the Sailor Moon store? You’d be so goddamned sick of the Sailor Star Song, or Otome no Policy or whathaveyou, with them playing on an endless loop.)

So, there are two Sailor Moon stores in Laforet. on Floor .5. (This is not a typo – it’s a half floor between the basement and Floor 1. Take the elevator to Floor 1 and walk down the stairs to Floor .5.) One store is high end fashion items, purses for $450 kind of thing and gashopon, because of course, and across the hall is the goods store. 

The goods store has some exclusives, including a series of little teeny senshi dolls that looked like felt outfits on corks. They were both adorable and awful and I fought myself for while and opted to not get them. 

There were a ton of Uranus x Neptune goods, incluing 3 new phone case designs. I didn’t get those, either, but did get a phone charger with this design.

I took Takeshitadori back up to the train station. Have I mentioned that it’s Golden Week? Unsurprisingly, there was a crowd. It wasn’t the worst crowd I’d ever seen, but it was the touristy-est crowd I’d ever seen.

Dropped my stuff off a the hotel and decided to have one, long, lingering walk around Ikebukuro. I went down to Otome Road for the first time this trip. There’s nothing there for me at this point, but I like to experience it anyway. 

I like that I don’t recognize most of the series advertised here or in Akihabara. I don’t play the games, don’t listen to the drama CDs, so they all seem strange and familiar at once. The cafe this time, for instance, was themed for a series called “Hypnosis Microphone” which I have never heard of – I could look of course, but at the moment, don’t know if it’s a game, a book, or what – that Animate expects is popular enough to support a cafe.

Fun, huh? ^_^

(Update: I looked it up, ヒプノシスマイク -Division Rap Battle- is a series of “rap battle” CDs voiced by male seiyuu. Huh, that’s a new one on me. Like Catcher in the Rhyme by voice actors on CD.)

I stopped in Uniqlo and was very thankful there were no Rose of Versailles t-shirts, as I’ve really spent too much already. ^_^; Then over to Tokyu Hands to do some shopping for the wife. And finally Animate, where I managed to find one of the last two books on my list, and had one more spin around Yurimate. I wrestled with myself over getting a ticket to Kase-san, to get the postcards, but I just couldn’t. I only want the images for my screensaver anyway.

This morning I had a quick walk around looking for Pokemon (why are the ones I don’t have so far away?!?) and food and now I am wrestling with packing everything. My poor suitcase.

Thank you Uchida-san, Kawamoto-san and Morishima-sensei, Simona, Laura, Jotaro and James! I had an absolute blast. Mata ne, Tokyo. And, thank you all for joining me on this adventure!