What they say is true: there's nothing like new love to make you see your world in a different light.
Okay, possibly I just made that line up. And possibly, by "new love" I'm talking about my new anime obsession, Bungou Stray Dogs. However, the sentiment remains true: I've been seeing Yokohama through rose colored glasses, and if that color is the tinge of blood shed by the Port Mafia, so what? I'm not sure what finally made me decide to watch Bungou Stray Dogs. I believe I first read about an anime set in Yokohama last fall, and even saw some sort of promotion for the movie which is currently out, Dead Apple, a couple of months ago, but I have a certain amount of reluctance to get too caught up in an anime with that many pretty men in it, because traps.
I was not planning to write the second (long overdue) Otaku Report this weekend, but rather about the Koganecho Bazaar. I only found out that there was a stamp rally going on in Yokohama last night, and let me tell you, it was a feat of Google Maps engineering, figuring out how to get there as well as around all the sites that were participating, but that was my plan. I would be a good art teacher, and check out the artist residencies, leaving the second half of the rally for another day. To that end, I spent at least twenty minutes taking possibly the only bus in Japan - nay, possibly the world! - that simultaneously smells of old people and unwashed private parts, just to get to the neighborhood from the Kanagawa Museum of Modern Literature. But when I got to Koganecho it was kind of a bust - there only seemed to be about one gallery open - so here we are, dancing around the fact that I spent my morning collecting stamps like a giddy eight-year old.
That is, essentially, what a stamp rally is. You go around a museum, or a city or whatnot, collecting stamps, turning them in for a small prize at the end. Since Bungou Stray Dogs is set in Yokohama, it's kind of a perfect way to get people excited about seeing the sights. Admittedly, I've been through these sights previously, but not since I started watching the anime, and far be it from me to miss an opportunity to fan girl out.
Stamp rallies can be hard on the feet, and some of them offer special one-day passes that let you use public transportation (in this case, certain lines of it) as many times as you like. Next time I'll definitely buy one. I didn't really think about how many buses and trains I'd be using, and they are expensive enough here that they really add up. Since I didn't end up spending long in Koganecho, I ended up finishing about four hours after I started, at the Animate by Yokohama station, with just enough time to get to my Nihonga lesson.
You may be tempted to infer, based on the length of time it took me to put together another Otaku Report, that the tide of my devotion had ebbed. You would be correct, at least partially. I still keep up
with several shows and manga, but grad school and art have done a pretty good job of keeping me in the real world since Christmas. Add to that the fact that winter just plain sucks - cold without too much going on - and it turns out to be difficult scraping one of these posts together. I do have a couple of things for you, though...
The National Art Center of Tokyo had its first show about an animator last fall, for Shinkai Makoto. I don't want to compare him to Miyazaki, because it's apples and oranges, so let's just say that I've seen a lot of anime during the last few years, but I can only remember the names of two animators, and let you draw your own conclusions. Unfortunately you couldn't take pictures in the exhibition, but I did buy a gorgeous catalog from the shop.
Hozuki has still had a few things going on, but most of them are in Japanese, so I didn't see a lot of point...my study of the language has been more or less stymied by the fact that it's ridiculously difficult. The most exciting thing for me was that, in celebration of the DVD release of the first half of the second season - deep breath - Animate hosted a "Museum of Hell" at 4 locations, which included a drawing contest. Entries were artwork of the cat - often referred to as looking like a curse - drawn by one of the show's antagonists, Hakutaku. If I understand Google's awkward translation right, the winners will receive a drawing, or possibly just an autograph, from Natsumi Eguchi. (I've got my fingers crossed that it's the first - I really want some legit manga art). I spent some time sketching ideas out before deciding on my entry, ganbatte'd my heart out, and brought it in to Yokohama's Animate, the exhibition's second stop. There's still a couple of weeks left before the promotion wraps up in Osaka, which means I'm stuck waiting til then to learn my fate.
My final bit for this edition of the Otaku Report comes to you courtesy of Sensei. She got the coveted tickets for a couple of us to the Ghibli Museum. This is a big deal since the museum is so popular that you have to book tickets in advance, sometimes months.
When I visited Tokyo in 2014 this was the one thing I hoped to do that I missed out on, for that exact reason. It was a great experience, although I didn't get to watch Mei and the Kittenbus. Instead I learned how endearing the struggles of pond life could be...a subject I have no doubt would be far less interesting in anyone else's hands. You couldn't take photos in here, either...these two I snapped while waiting to get in, before I was told the restriction on photography extended to the entrance as well. I'm not totally sure what I was expecting, but seeing the process Miyazaki uses as well as memorabilia from his works was pretty cool. There was also an exhibition about the way food is used in so many of the films.
Well, that about wraps up this edition of the Otaku Report. I'd tell you to stay tuned for the next, but since this one took so long, that might not be wise. Next week I'll be back in the wilds on Mongolia, but if I don't do anything new or exciting there, I still have that back post on my interior decor to finish, and maybe I'll teach you something about painting. So stay tuned anyways.
You may be tempted to infer, based on the length of time it took me to put together another Otaku Report, that the tide of my devotion had ebbed. You would be correct, at least partially. I still keep up
with several shows and manga, but grad school and art have done a pretty good job of keeping me in the real world since Christmas. Add to that the fact that winter just plain sucks - cold without too much going on - and it turns out to be difficult scraping one of these posts together. I do have a couple of things for you, though...
When I visited Tokyo in 2014 this was the one thing I hoped to do that I missed out on, for that exact reason. It was a great experience, although I didn't get to watch Mei and the Kittenbus. Instead I learned how endearing the struggles of pond life could be...a subject I have no doubt would be far less interesting in anyone else's hands. You couldn't take photos in here, either...these two I snapped while waiting to get in, before I was told the restriction on photography extended to the entrance as well. I'm not totally sure what I was expecting, but seeing the process Miyazaki uses as well as memorabilia from his works was pretty cool. There was also an exhibition about the way food is used in so many of the films.
Well, that about wraps up this edition of the Otaku Report. I'd tell you to stay tuned for the next, but since this one took so long, that might not be wise. Next week I'll be back in the wilds on Mongolia, but if I don't do anything new or exciting there, I still have that back post on my interior decor to finish, and maybe I'll teach you something about painting. So stay tuned anyways.
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