A Very Otome Thanksgiving

Fair warning given:  the next few posts will be a fairly tongue-in-cheek, somewhat self-deprecatory look at just how "native" I've gone.  If you are scared to look into the abyss of exactly how deep obsession may go, then by all means, turn back.  Otherwise, I'll repeat Dante's caveat: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

I'm known for having controversial ideas about how classic American holidays should be celebrated.  For example, if it were up to me, we'd eat Italian for Christmas instead of ham (the pork industry in the States is horrible, and Jerusalem was a part of Rome back then...makes sense to me).  Normally I would say that Thanksgiving is a holiday for Mexican food, but this year, it was a day for curry.

This year I'm giving thanks that I discovered my new favorite anime just before its second season started airing.  In the near future, I'll regale you with tales of how that happened; for now, suffice it to say that every anime I've ever enjoyed has been eclipsed by Hozuki no Reitetsu, an anime about the sarcastic, sadistic asshole who keeps hell running ('nuff said).

I'm also thankful that I FINALLY figured out why people use Twitter.  I happened to pick up a flyer for something related to Hozuki a while back, and when I squinted at it hard enough last week, I realized they had a website and a Twitter.  There may have been some weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth when I realized that I had missed some opportunities in the last few months.  It turns out that it's not good enough to live in Japan - if you can't keep up with all the events that are happening, you'll be kicking yourself when you hear about them later.  Without a strategy, and without the right tools, you won't be able to fully appreciate and embrace the good life.  My strategy and tools had been sorely lacking.

 

Luckily, all was not yet lost.  Animate Cafe in Ikebukuro was currently hosting a special Hozuki theme cafe, and when I went to the website, I found out I could make a reservation for Thursday night.  Normally I hate going to Tokyo on a school night, but Thursday was a sort-of holiday...we had our open house in the morning, but were finished by 1:30, so I slogged my way through the sign up (Google Translate isn't perfect, but it's still kind of a miracle worker), and started impatiently counting the hours.

Theme cafes are kind of a regular Japanese thing.  I've read about Hello Kitty cafes, My Little Pony cafes, and there's going to be one for my first anime, Ranma 1/2, in...January, I think.  Most of them, unfortunately, are for a limited time only.  There's a permanent Gundam cafe in Akiba, but most of these cafes you have to catch at the right time.  And probably that's okay - considering how much anime there is out there, you couldn't possibly keep them all going, or visit them all.  But I personally think it's worth it to try once - I mean, just for the blog, you know, not because I'm obsessed or anything - so once we'd had our post-open house reflection meeting I was out the door and on my way.

The main features of a theme cafe - based entirely on my one visit - are the decorations and the food.  This one also had special, limited edition merch for sale, on which I was happy to plunk down a few yen.  For Hozuki they had life-size banners of the characters hanging all over the walls, and if only they'd been for sale, I would have plunked down a few more yen, because I'd feel way more motivated to cook if I had sushi-chef Hozuki in my kitchen peering over my shoulder.  The life-size Zashiki Warashi figures were adorable, and got me wondering if I could find the right material and alter my pattern to be small enough to make them as plush.

The menu is the other part of the equation.  The cafe offers food, drinks, and desserts based on the show.  Some of them are directly mentioned in the show - I ordered the curry, which a recent episode talked about Hozuki making - and others are loosely based on things like the characters' appearance.  Each item was served with a coaster, but you don't get to pick which coaster you get, which seems like a brilliant strategy to keep people ordering.  I was lucky enough to get the coaster I wanted with my main dish - the girls at the table next to me both got the same two coasters twice.  Apparently sometimes the cafes have cosplayers, too - the list of instructions the staff had in English mentioned them, but I didn't feel like staying til the bitter end to be sure.  After all, it was still a school night, and it's possible I prefer my characters to stay 2D.