My 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! 

So, wow, Yuriten 2018 in Tokyo was fantastic! 

Backing up, my day began too early, when I realized I had forgotten something important and jolted myself awake at 5AM. Whee!  By 10, I was ready to go when Uchida-san from the host company for Yuriten, Village Vanguard, came to get me. First off, I cannot thank Uchida-san enough, she was a superhero! Interpreting isn’t easy and a lot of our discussion was complicated and otaku-ish. She was brilliant.

We headed over to Aoyama, then wandered through the byways until we came to Lightbox Studio.  As we stood there, the line got longer and actually wrapped around itself. The place was pretty full the entire time we were there. There were slightly more men than women, but Uchida-san and I both noted that it was a young crowd, and fairly mixed crowd. We were both pleased by the turnout. (In the windows, just peeking over the boards for the art, you could see lilies. It was really sweet. The camera couldn’t get it, though.)

I loved the venue! It was so much more pleasant than a department store space might have been. We walked through the exhibit, speaking of the various series. Uchida-san was not originally a Yuri fan, but she started to read Yuri when she was put on this project, so it was fun to talk about the  some of the series presented to us. She and I then wandered the exhibition. (All my unlabeled, unsorted, unedited pictures can be found on my Yuriten 2018 photoset on FB.)

The event poster had been signed by some of the artists.

This drawing by Canno is the same couple in the Yuriten main visual photo, as adults – you can tell because of the bracelets. I thought that a nice touch.

Uchida-san and I laughed a lot. She was so cute and funny, especially when she didn’t so much like a series, she was very circumspect, but (of course) I would rant. ^_^ I had a funny rant when we got to Citrus because I started talking about Yuzu’s life after Mei, how her next three girlfriends would be like “Stop talking about your sister, I get you loved her, move on, get some therapy!” ^_^

Here is a very small selection of pictures. I took more than I uploaded to FB, but it’ll have to wait until I get home for full upload.

This was a piece of original art, not a reproduction, by Shimura Takako-sensei.

Of course they had a poster for the just-announced Yagate Kimi ni Naru anime! 

They had the standee from the Kase-san movie, of course and the movie poster…and fliers…and the video of the trailer…because a theatrical release is a big deal for Yuri anime!

When we got to Miman’s Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto desu! section, we talked about the official comic on the B-side of the Yuriten flier (which you can read on the Yuriten home page, scroll down past the main visual) and how we were sorry that they didn’t actually have a Yuri cafe…this time. Next year, I hope. ^_^

At the end, there was a table with original drawings by a few artists. Itou Hachi-sensei cut out the negative space on hers for a really beautiful 3-d effect, that I think my camera just caught it.

The shop was as large as the exhibit space. This is only a shot or two, but almost every artist that had been exhibited was represented by stuff. I bought a bunch of stuff for lucky boxes and presents and got myself an After Hours t-shirt. I’m still waffling on getting that Aoi Hana print shirt. The shop had 3 or 4 registers, all of them were had lines.

After buying a bag full of Yuristuff, we headed backwards through the exhibit, so I could look at everything without taking pictures.

Then I was invited out to lunch with Kawamoto-san from Kadokawa, Uchida-san and Morishima Akiko-sensei.

I have an important announcement to make, Kawamoto-san is the true Yuri master. His knowledge surpasses mine. He showed me his prize possession of the earliest Yuri doujinshi ever. I was blown away. After lunch, we talked about publishing, and Yuri and…stuff….

One of the things we discussed  was that goods and information are how some fans engage with the media. I mean, people who can create their own stuff do, but not everyone can.  You know I talk about how there’s a level of fan who just likes to watch or read or whatever, but then there is a level where uppercase ‘F’ Fans want to be part of or engage with the story, which is where you have derivative creative work, cosplay and fanart and fanfic and AMVs, etc. Some people don’t have that kind of creative drive, but they still want to have a deeper connection to the work, so they collect goods and/or information as an expression of that connection. Some fans hoard that information, to use as status. “I know more than you about….” which can become toxic. (And sort of feeds back to the conversation I had with Kat Callahan, because the more passionate one is about that information, while the passion is admirable, the opinion is perceived by those who do not share it as, well…ridiculous. And if the fan is obsessive and inflexible, they come across as an asshole. That’s where toxic fandom festers. I’m right, you’re wrong, I’m so right that I have to attack you to prove how wrong you are… etc, etc.)

Yuri fans have not had the opportunity to be goods and info hoarders so much, which is why Yuriten is still fun. Sure, it’s a blatant commercialization of Yuri. So? ^_^ 

We went for coffee and talked about publishing and Yuri and stuff for a few more hours! Morishima-sensei drew a little comic about this, and put it up on Twitter. 

We talked about the history of Yuri, about Yuricon 2005, and the day we all said, “this is Yuri.” And here were were 13 years later surrounded by all this Yuri! 

I learned a new word, tottoii, which means “precious” but like to an obsessive amount.  I failed at sharing common new slang from America, because I have no teens in my life right now. :-(

Oh, I was asked again about the reason I picked “Okazu” for this blog name. It’s because it means little dishes, you know, like in a bentou box, but also because it’s not a full meal, it was slang for lesbian sex which isn’t the “main course” in straight porn. You understand? So, it turns out that Galette magazine has that name because a galette is a full meal! Wow, really?! Food and sex and Yuri. I approve.

When we broke up for the day, Morishima-sensei and I head back to Ikebukuro, she wanted to buy a Kase-san movie ticket for the postcards. (She drew one of the postcards, and they didn’t send her a set?!?) So we went to Yurimate together. The Ikebukuro station was a madhouse (first Saturday of Golden Week at dinner time, so many people!) and it was hard to see the signs, but I know it pretty well, and lead her through to Sunshine-dori and down to Animate. (I do not object to this dashing idealized version of me!)

We browsed Yurimate and she drew a little comic for their message board. I really wanted to tell the girl behind the counter she had Morishima-sensei right there, make her sign things! but I didn’t. Such restraint. 

After making our way back to the station, Morishima-sensei and I parted. It was so great to spend time with her! And Sensei, I cannot wait until get to read your new work in Galette!

Thank you to Uchida-san, Kawamoto-san, Morishima-sensei and everyone at the Yuriten 2018! It was an absolutely lovely event. I’ll go back again before I leave for more pictures and goods.