This morning dawned with the kind of weather I associate with March. Cold, raw, steady, drippy rain. It was absolutely blecch. A perfect day to head out to Big Sight and visit the Tokyo Anime Fair.

The Ariake station and approach to Big Sight was creepy and sodden, since every other time we had been there it was full of people, now it was just full of water. Where Comiket fills all 6 East Halls and all 4 West halls, TAF fills East Halls 1-3. It was exactly as I expected, a trade show for anime – many of which have been previously announced, so are not new news. We watched the trailer for the CGI Captain Harlock movie which was so good we wanted a cigarette after it, and I got a few Pixel Maritan character figurines among lots of pieces of paper announcing series available for licensing? Want a laugh? Rose of Versailles was listed as available for licensing. Hee. (If you don’t know why that is funny, don’t worry about it.)

We met up with some great folks, Ana and Mari and the Otakon folks and translator Bill Flanagan and some of us went to lunch and had a nice chat. I love industry gossip. :-)

After we had seen all that there was to be seen and gotten all the random items we wanted (we passed on the 4-foot tall Heroman bags) Bruce, the wife and I headed home, stopping for murasaki (purple) sweet potato treats at the station.

We flattened out a bit until we got a call from Mari – she and Ana wanted to have some tea with us, before they headed out to the TAF Gaijin Dinner (to which I was invited, but passed. If I had been by myself, I mighta gone, but with the wife, I felt it was unfair.)

We had tea and some okazu – mine was smoked daikon with cream cheese – and then we parted – my party went to Animate to do a little shopping for a few folks and they headed off to dinner.

Tomorrow, we’re going to hit Akihabara, finally, for a little surprise for Bruce. :-)

Today’s Random Junk Food Item: Pumpkin flavored Crunky. It wasn’t as pumpkin-y as the pumpkin seed bagel I had for breakfast (pumpkin bagel with corned beef, mayo, onion and lettuce.) And the sweet potato sweet, which was full of sweet potato-y goodness and was very purple. D’oh – forgot to take a picture. ^o^

Despite the threat of bad weather the entire time we’ve been here, today is the first day we’ve had really crappy weather. It’s cold – a degree or two colder and the rain would be snow. Right now it’s sleet/hail.

Bruce decided that it would be a good day for a train ride and the wife and I decided that it was a good day for a museum. We headed out to Ryogoku to visit the Edo-Tokyo Museum. And in doing so, we zigged where we shoulda zagged.

You know how sometimes there’s a choice of road and you pick the wrong one and have to retrace your steps? Well, yesterday we learned that the day after we leave, the third Girl’s Love Festival will be held in Tokyo. When I booked this trip, there had been no date for it and no hint it would be this coming weekend, so I didn’t learn until yesterday it was gonna be on Sunday. Sigh. Today we walked around Akihabara station looking for food and ended up eating sandwiches at a Tully’s coffee, when it turns out that right outside the Ryogoku station was an awesome selection of delicious looking places to eat. You know the feeling…zigging when you shoulda zagged.

The museum is very nice, with an Edo period side and a Tokyo period side. There was a nice mix of life, culture (high and pop), history and geography. I’d recommend it.

We then slogged over to Nihonbashi, because we never had made it over there before. In the cold rain, it maybe was not as beautiful as we’d like, but it was still fun to be at Mile 0.

We stopped at the train station for a new extra bag as we always do and then up to the Post Office in Metropolitan tower for Leiji Matsumoto and Shonen Sunday stamps. Now we’re back in the room having a nice hot bath after being soaked by rain, watching Sumo until Bruce comes back and we go out to dinner.

Random Junk Food report: Banana Milk Crunky did actually taste like a bowl of cereal with milk and banana. (Everyone else is writing about Banana Kit Kat, so I thought I’d be different.) And soy and mayonnaise flavored potato chips taste slightly of Japanese mayo.

Tomorrow, Tokyo Anime Fair.

Because we’ve been so busy, we really hadn’t had a chance to seriously shop for anything yet. So today we decided to just stick close to home and hit up Otome Road.

Animate, K-Books, Toranoana felt our whirlwind consumption. It’s weird, because for the very first time, we really don’t have a lot we want. I’m pretty caught up on what I want and don’t have old series with holes that needed to be filled. And this month there was very little out I wanted – and hardly any light novels with Yuri recently. There’s a few things in my Amazon JP cart that I picked up, but mostly, I just browsed. (Don’t be fooled, I picked up piles of stuff. It’s just much less than usual.)

We’re repacking tonight to see what can be squeezed into our luggage and if we need another bag or not. I’m betting not.

Dinner was at a restaurant called Baquet, which I think was supposed to be Baguette, as they specialized in bread. I had chicken katsu with cheese and red sauce – i.e, chicken parmesan. It was made with panko coating, American cheese and a sweet thick red sauce. :-) Close enough.

Today’s random junk food choice is Ramune ice and Vanilla ice cream flavored ice cream – “ice cream float flavored.”

BTW, all the pictures my wife has taken and some of mine are located here, if you care to look. The wife updates it mostly every day:

Tomorrow Bruce is off on a solitary journey and the wife and I have no plans as of yet. We might actually get to a museum or something. :-)

Oh, and my overall assessment of Yuri in the stores – each store handles it differently. Some have a small section, some arrange it strictly by publisher. But in every case, new publications are just piled up with the other new pubs, so the new Comic Lily, Yuri Hime S, Tsubomi, Aoi Hana or Sasamekikoto are just wherever the new books are. There’s no ghettoing or hiding any of the Yuri. Not surprising, really.

So, today was kinda special. We hopped an early train out to Fussa, where the US has the Yokota Air Force Base, where we met with Ana Moreno, a few of the guys that worked on Strike Witches and Pixel Maritan and voice actresses Kadowaki Mai and Akiyama Kaoru (who were cute as proverbial buttons.)

We had a tour of the commissary (which smells and functions much like a K-Mart) and had lunch in the food court which was oh-so-cool for the Japanese folks. To avoid Taco Bell, I had a Philly Cheese steak, because Akiyama-san convinced me to – I convinced her to get the deluxe. We shopped a bit, then had lunch, then shopped a bit more. I told the seiyuu about how I laughed so hard listening to the third Pixel Maritan CD that I had to pull over on the side of the road because I was crying I was laughing so hard. We discussed the StoPani helicopters and the beginnings of our Yuri army. Ana had introduced me as the Yuri Joutei, the Yuri Empress. I tried to say no, but it stuck. -_-;;

Afterwards, we (the American contingent) decided to stop by Nakano Sun Arcade and throw money a it. We met with one of Mari’s friends, who is absolutely lovely, had some okonomiyaki for dinner. Bruce, Mari and Jun went out for coffee, but my wife’s broken foot and my no-arches were not having any, so we crawled back for a bath.

Tomorrow, more shopping.