The Pilgrim’s Progress

It’s been said that wickedness never was happiness.  After today, I beg to differ.  I suppose the definition of happiness can be debated, but I feel pretty damn satisfied, at least.

I’ve been in Japan for nearly two years without making it to a major anime event.  Not Comiket - that always happens while I’m back in the States.  Same with Jump Festa.  I considered going to AGF - Animate Girls’ Festival - last fall, but in the end I decided it wasn’t really my scene.  I forgot about Wonderfest this season until after it was over, and last spring break I booked my ticket back to Mongolia before I could even think about going to AnimeJapan.  That made this weekend probably my last chance, and I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to carpe this fucking diem.

Well, I say that now, but I actually put off getting a ticket til this Wednesday night.  I get a little skittish here in Japan about my lack of language, and although their website said you could buy tickets at Animate, I wasn’t entirely sure I believed them.  Even if it was true, I was maybe a little scared that I wouldn’t be able to ask for the tickets.  In the end, though, it turned out to be just as easily said as done.  I dropped in on the shop in Kawasaki on my way to taiko class, and even though waiting in line was mendoksai, the clerk understood what I wanted easily enough and I was on my way without any additional stress.

Now, that’s not to say that there wasn’t additional stress about actually going.  I’ve seen the photos of Tokyo Big Sight before Comiket, and although I was sure AnimeJapan couldn’t actually be as bad, one blog said that if you showed up before noon you could be waiting 3-5 hours, but if you came after noon, there was no line.  Now that I do the math, I realize that even if you showed up when the doors open at 10, you'd be waiting less than 2 hours, but there ya go.  Part of me thought that to get the true experience I should go to Odaiba the night before, stay at Oedo Onsen World, and then get in line early.  That part of me lost out to the rather more significant part that has achey feet and hates people, so I walked under those magical pathways - along with the other smart people who were just arriving - rather than waiting within them.

So I was finally there - the largest anime convention in the world.  Except...it wasn't really a convention in the way I've come to understand such things.  I think I’ve seen it called a trade show and that seems to fit better - all sorts of industry representation, big names presenting, but in an open floor space area - standing room only.  And sadly, most everything was in Japanese, so while I enjoyed soaking in the atmosphere, I didn’t get as much out of it.  That said, even if I didn’t understand what they were talking about, I definitely recognized these two seiyuu’s voices - Raphtalia and Filo from Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari. 

There were plenty of cardboard stand-ups, but my favorites by far were the ones done at the Kadokawa booth.  They had four different displays, and each one represented a different season and featured characters from a different anime.  Behind the characters there were video screens which gave an even greater sense of blurring the line between the worlds of 2D and 3D.  They also included objects that surrounded the characters in the scene - branches of trees, or lanterns and windchimes.  And this is to say nothing of the characters.  Anime characters are often portrayed in the same clothing episode after episode, so seeing them dressed in something different, something which put them so strikingly within that location was a real treat.  Especially if they were one of your characters...I couldn’t resist messaging the Kawaii Kingpin a picture of Albedo in her yukata.  Strictly because I knew how much he would appreciate it, you see...not because I was trying to rub in the fact that I was at AnimeJapan or anything.

Many of my favorite characters were around, too.  Toei’s booth had a lot of Gegege no Kitaro features, one of which was a short VR game which I decided was worth standing in line to play.  I was a little worried that the whole thing would be in Japanese and I wouldn’t know what I was doing, but there were subtitles and the assistants knew enough English to troubleshoot any problems (because there were some - my pointer was shooting off in the wrong direction).  I’ve never played any virtual reality games, mostly because they tend to be hella-expensive, but it was really cool, suddenly finding myself in Gegege no Mori so I can see the draw.  I may have to strong arm Sensei and the Director into playing Mario Kart with me at Lazona in Kawasaki in the near future.

This year’s theme was rock, and they had visuals of current anime characters as part of the theme.  These were featured on special guitar pick shaped can badges and ticket holders that you could buy when you ordered your ticket.  Apparently they were also auctioning off this SAO guitar as well, for charity.  I didn’t pay that much attention to it because it was rather poorly located between the cosplay area and the swap meet, which I was surprised to see, although let’s be honest - if you’re going to participate in a swap meet for anime merch, you could hardly do better than here.

But then again, if we’re being honest, I was less interested in old merch than new.  Without a doubt, Goodsmile’s booth was the one I was most looking forward to visiting.  I apparently missed the announcement that they were going to release a line of nendoroids from Tate no Yuusha, because it was a pleasant yet frustrating surprise to see the finished prototype of Naofumi on display (pleasant because unexpected, frustrating because he wasn’t yet released so I couldn’t take him home with me).  There were several other upcoming releases on display including Mai, your Bunny-Girl Senpai, complete with bunny suit parts, although sadly, the Hyakkimaru prototype I lost my mind over about a week ago is apparently on display at the Dororo cafe in Animate Ikebukuro.  Goodsmile did have a limited selection of merchandise for sale, and I briefly considered buying a Tate no Yuusha key ring, but it was about that time that I realized I hadn’t spent any of my budgeted money and that I’d be passing through Kawasaki on my way home, which seemed like a sign that I shouldn’t waste money on key rings that I definitely didn’t need when I could put that money toward gorging myself on yakiniku and buying something I’ve been thinking about for a while.

As an art teacher I had to admire the skill and creativity that went into all of the displays.  One booth showed their characters as photomosaics made up of hundreds (thousands?) of stills from their anime.  This one had an artist (or possibly THE artist...not sure what this one actually is) creating a huge drawing of the character in pastel.

But without a doubt, the artistry I was the most in awe of was this display of dolls from Thunderbolt Fantasy.  I’ve never even heard of it, but they made me feel natsukashii for the dolls from AnimeIowa’s MiniFestival.  Which of course made me realize what - in my opinion - was really missing from AnimeJapan: the opportunity to participate.  Shopping is great, as is walking around in a wonderland, but there were no prizes to win, no opportunities to show off mad skillz, or to lead a panel or three on relevant topics.  And fair enough...this is the big leagues, not some backwater like Tatooine.  Or, you know, Iowa.  But I still couldn’t help feeling like there’s no place like home.

The lack of a contest didn’t stop me from bringing my favorite sensei with me for the day, and since the Boku no Hero Academia display didn’t have Aizawa in it, I felt pretty justified in my choice.  If you’re really sharp, you may have noticed that’s Eraserhead I’m casually cosplaying in that first photo.  If you ask me, cosplay casual is the only way to dress for these things.  You’ll be free to enjoy yourself without having people constantly wanting to pose fo photos with you, and you don’t have to stress for months ahead about your costume.  I prefer to save my stress for my dolls’ costumes.

In the end, I spent most of the afternoon enjoying the sights, then limped my way back to the Rinkai line ahead of the masses to catch the train back to Kawasaki.   I’ve made a habit of stopping into the BookOff there before my taiko classes to check out their selection of anime swag, so after feasting at the Gyu-Kaku a block away I went in and indulged.  After all, I may have been eating more red meat, but my blood is as pink as ever.

Holes in the Story

Stop me if I’ve told you this before: one thing that makes Japan unique is its manhole* covers.  Almost anywhere else in the world you go, these discs of iron are relatively plain, utilitarian items.  Japan, on the other hand, has a sense of aesthetics to maintain.  Throughout its artistic history Japan has never been satisfied with simply making functional objects, when they can make them beautiful as well.

Nowhere is this as evident as right by your feet as you walk down the sidewalk.  On my walk to church each Sunday I pass a variety of sizes of sakura manhole covers.  It has probably occurred to me - about the time I was working on mixed media - that it would be really cool to take rubbings of the different sizes and use them to create a huge, mixed media piece.  I haven’t been as enthusiastic about this idea since I discovered that plum blossoms were WAY better flowers, but I haven’t entirely given up the idea of making some collagraphys, either.

Now some of these covers are plain metal, but not all of them.  Some are inlaid with enamel, making them even more eye-catching.  And one of the best things about Japan’s manhole covers is that each city has its own designs.  Those sakura covers are only found in Tokyo, as far as I know.  Yokohama has the bay bridge on theirs.  Himeji’s has their famous castle.

This element of collectibility, where you have to catch them all as you travel, has led to a class of beings called...I kid you not...manholers.  I first learned about this pastime through This Is Colossal, although there have been several news stories about them over the last several years.  And since Japan loves its festivals, it should come as no surprise that someone eventually thought to capitalize on it and create a manhole celebration...and in fact, that is exactly what Tokyu Hands in Shinjuku did about a month ago.  They brought examples of different manholes from all over Japan as well as all sorts of merchandise for the hardcore manholer to enjoy.

After my relatively recent encounter with Golden Kamuy macarons I had to try these beautiful treats (sadly, they were not even on the same level).  Even more, though, I enjoyed their hands-on activity - the opportunity to finally, FINALLY, print with one of these bad boys.  I’ve been dreaming of printing something with a Japanese manhole cover ever since I read about some Germans who were printing with far less fancy covers (but who, sadly, never responded to my teacherly query about what kind of ink they use).  Now I have a nice canvas tote bag with that Tokyo sakura cover printed in green.  What I need another tote bag for beats me, but it was totally worth it, especially since it put me up to the 2,000 yen needed to draw for a prize.  I got exactly the prize I wanted, too - a button that proudly proclaims that I’m a manholer.  Because who wouldn’t want something as perfect as that???

*if the word ”manhole” makes you snicker every time you hear it, that might explain why we’re friends.

Barbie Girls

You can tell when winter is almost over.  The plum trees start to blossom, and suddenly there are hina dolls displayed everywhere.  I saw these in the middle of the train station in Shiroishi last month, and saw a similar display in Yokohama Station a week or two ago.  That doesn't mean that winter is quite over, though.  It's been raining throughout the last week, which pissed me right off and was one of the reasons I decided against going to the Nagashibina.  I loved the ritual last year but standing in the cold rain did NOT seem like a fun way to start my Sunday.

This time last year I was filled with unspeakable rage because my fellow Americans were being a bunch of lunatics.  This Hina Matsuri - a festival dedicated to the prosperity and protection of girls - I'm raging again, but you'll have to wait a few months to hear that particular rant.  Suffice it to say that the timing of a holiday concerned with those blessings of prosperity seemed somewhat ironic this year.  (As far as protection goes, nothing makes me feel as safe as toting around the bachi I use for taiko class - and hey - bonus! I can practice while I walk!)

As far as I'm concerned, there was never any question as to whether or not I was going to mark Girls' Day this year with a blog.  (Seriously, people, I make dolls for my hobby.  This was always going to happen).  That said, I did try to find new things to see.  I knew there were several displays around Tokyo, and although I passed over my first choice because I didn't have time after painting on Saturday,* my second choice, though, was just a couple of stops away in Shinjuku.  Keio Plaza Hotel had a special display of tsurushi hina, hanging decorations, along with some works of art that made me think of the paintings Maria's students always paint around this time of year.  Except, you know, better (technically, at least.  I'd argue that a lot more heart goes into the student work).

Just as hina dolls evolved from the doll floating rituals, hanging decorations are an Edo-era tradition that emerged from the desire of less affluent families hoping to participate in the holiday.  Turns out the full hina display is pretty damn pricey, and not everyone could afford them.  Instead, the women of the family would come together to craft small decorations that hung from red cords.

The ones at Keio Plaza were made of kimono silk by quilting artist Mitsuyo Matsuo and her artist group, Himawari.  I've bought a LOT of fabric scraps in the last month or so, and it made me think about how cool it would be to make my own tsurushi hina...but since I already have a backlog of sewing projects I want to make, this probably won't happen anytime soon.  Making my own display, on the other hand, seemed relatively straightforward and not too time consuming.  I've been thinking about using my nendoroids to set up a hina matsuri display ever since I read about the Hatsune Miku hina doll made by Mataro last January.**

I learned a lot about the meanings behind the dolls when I visited the Ando Doll workshop in Kyoto last fall.  I tried to keep it in mind when I made my own Hina Matsuri display, but I didn't have dolls that fit.  The top step is supposed to be the emperor and empress.  Since I didn't have any nendoroids that are couples, I just chose my favorites.  The next step is supposed to be the three court ladies, but I only have two female nendos.  Instead, I made this the warrior step and included my sword boys and Roy Mustang.  The third step is supposed to be the musicians, so I went with a general ntheme of entertainment and called it good.  You might notice that I'm lacking most of the furnishings that go along with the set, but with a move looming there was no way I was buying more crap to pack up.

The VERY sweet icing on this year's doll cake was going to the Strawberry-holic buffet at The Strings Omotesando with Sensei and the Director.  About a month ago I decided I needed to eat as many strawberry desserts as I could before the season is over, and having them all at the same time seemed like a good idea.***

Apparently these buffets have themes.  I mean, besides “strawberries.”  There were at least a couple of other strawberry buffets going on recently, one with the theme of cats and another that featured - wait for it! - Godzilla.  This one was, appropriately enough, doll-themed, with so many Barbies scattered around the buffet and tables that they must have visited every Mandarake on Honshu to round up enough to pull it off.  As far as the food goes, there was a token lunch side, with salads, curry, and the best damn mac and cheese I’ve had since I last made it in Mongolia, but I don’t think anyone wasted too much time on real food.  We were all there for the desserts, and they were excellent.  That said, at 4500 yen we were all keen to get our money’s worth, and it’s possible that all three of us ate more than we should.  I definitely wanted to just lie down and have someone roll me home with a stick; as it was, I went into hibernation mode as soon as I got to my apartment.

I was about to say that was how my Hina Matsuri ended, except that’s not quite true.  I’ve been taking a photography course for my master’s this term, and our current project is light painting.  I originally wanted to work with shrine imagery - I still do, and I’m pretty sure this is going to play into my final portfolio - but then I thought about the nagashi hina and decided - since it was just after Girls’ Day - to make my own as a subject for my photo.  This course has been much harder than I was expecting, but at the same time, I’m pretty happy with some of the photos I got.  I’m still hoping to improve on them by taking photos in the stream near my house, but for now I feel like I have a good start.  

*I'm still hoping to write about the place it was later.  I mean, I probably have to write a Shinsengumi post at some point, right???
**I think I'd have a lot of fun designing other pop culture dolls with them, but the clock is ticking.
***Time has proven otherwise.

The Otaku Report: New Year, New Love

Anime boyfriends are the best.  My friends may tease me, but it's true.  For starters, they are literal works of art.  Anime boyfriends don't get jealous.  They can't knock you up.  They won't leave you but if you decide it's time to move on, they'll let you go - no stalking or manipulative threats of suicide.  I know, because it hasn't been so long since I left my last anime boyfriend for my current one, and this post is about the shopping days of a certain anime fan in a certain city.  Because I needed some new swag.

Being away from Japan during Jump Festa and Comiket was torture.  On one hand I was enjoying my time with the fam, but every time Twitter butted in with a notification it was like being stabbed with a needle.  At least a few things were left for me when I visited the Jump Shop my first Saturday back, though.  Til that point I hadn't really thought about the fact that Jump might have more/better swag to sell for their titles in their own shop than Animate.  Normally this wouldn't be relevant but Golden Kamuy (aka, my #1 obsession these last few months), is published in Young Jump.  I managed to walk away with a several things I probably didn't need, but that I justified buying by reminding myself that when I'm back in Mongolia I may wish I'd taken better advantage of living in the Promised Land.

Before that happened, though, I treated myself to dinner with my mostly-completed Sugimoto doll, back in December.  Area Q in Harajuku hosted a Golden Kamuy treasure cafe, and although I took a long time deliberating whether or not I needed to go to another cafe, in the end I decided that I deserved that quality time with my new anime boyfriend, just like I’d deserved it with the old one.  The Golden Kamuy cafe had a special dimension to it - you were supposed to hunt for the treasure using QR codes hidden throughout the cafe.  I came loaded for bear (BOKKI!), with a QR reader on my phone, my pocket router, and a mobile charger, in the end, I couldn’t make the magic happen.  You needed a specific app on your phone, which I downloaded while I was there and tried to start up, but there was either issues with my tech or with my Japanese abilities, so in the end I gave up and just enjoyed the cafe.

For the record, I had actually forgotten about to include this little gem in this post until I was sitting at Denny’s indulging in my weekly Coke bender.  I’ve been trying to knock this post out since I wrote about the fox village and I’ve got Hina Matsuri to write about this weekend, so it’s time to buckle down and get shit done.

The thing I was really waiting for didn't happen until school had been back in session for a week.  One theme of this post is the power of Twitter, which is how I learned that there was an exhibition of Ainu art paired with Golden Kamuy at Tokyo Skytree (as well as how I knew about the cafe and some of the other swag I got).  The Skytree is the world's tallest tower, but it's still shorter than Burj Khalifa, so I walked straight past the very long line to ascend to get to the east end of the shopping and entertainment complex.  (Probably this makes me a really bad travel blogger, but in my defense, I was in the early stages of the anklebiter plague and hadn't yet made it home from my monkey trip).  

The Golden Kamuy part of the event actually wasn't that interesting - there wasn't special swag to buy and the "art panels" were just stills from the anime, although I did get a free folder.  The Ainu part of the exhibition, on the other hand, was totally worth going.  Ironically I had just started working on clothing for my Asirpa doll, so it was really cool to get to see specifically how their attush are constructed and decorated.  It had me thinking that I might need to plan on going to Hokkaido on a return trip to Japan, when I actually have enough money to do it properly, with a JR Pass to get me around the whole island.  

There have been a few other things I picked up.  I used the power of Google Translate to order these incredibly tasty macaroons right to my door (hell, I don’t know that I’ve ever thought much about macaroons, and now I can’t get them out of my head), as well as a nice, warm Golden Kamuy chanchanko, leftover from Comiket.  The free hot springs collabo bath salts Animate offered, which tied in with that hot spring episode, were another fierce contender for my favorite.  I also made a side trip to Shosen Grande after a field trip last month to pick up...well, I thought it was a tapestry, but it turned out to be a curtain, and that's okay, because sometimes more is more.  Besides which, I finally finished my second bijinga painting - a nihonga painting of Sugimoto on a small shikishi board, which I very conveniently had a scroll for.  Now, usually the bijinga genre is thou ght of as pictures of beautiful women, but the characters its written with don't specify gender, so I'm subverting it to my own purposes and painting men.  That's just how I roll.

On a separate but related note, I've been forced to reconsider my evaluation of Touken Ranbu (aka, that anime with the sword boys).  I mentioned earlier this school year that I discovered that I had a little otome friend in my grade 4 class.  She asked me if I watched it, and I had to admit that not only had I, I'd also gone to see Mikazuki Munechika at the national museum.  For literacy week she came to school dressed as one of the Toushiro brothers, and when I looked up which one she was, I began to recognize the genius of the anime/game.  See, there's a certain amount of subtext invoked by the usual fans of anime with all male characters, and while I respect everyone's right to enjoy what they enjoy, I get a little pissy when there are multiple figurines of fujoshi-favorite characters but GoodSmile apparently won't make me a Sugimoto n endoroid.

So while I had watched Touken Ranbu, I wasn't obsessed, and on a bad day, I found it irritating and at least a little embarassing.  After seeing how much my fourth grader enjoyed it, though, I decided to watch it again and try to see it with different eyes.  The first thing I noticed was that there is such a variety of personalities, ages, and sizes amongst the touken danshi that there is literally a boy for otome of all ages (or at least there is as long as you don't hate pretty men).  I also decided that the so-called subtext was barely even implied.  After rewatching it, the characters really seem more like best friends or siblings, rather than lovers.  I think it says something sad about our global society that a cartoon about male characters having fun and being caring towards each other (with the occasional battle thrown in to keep things interesting) instantly gets interpreted as being homoerotic rather than as an example of non-toxic masculinity.

It was around that time when I realized that the nendoroids at my Bookoff weren't that expensive and I only had a few months to get my fill of the good life, which ALSO just so happened to coincide with the need for a good old fashioned bout of therapy shopping.  All of which explains how I ended up bringing home my #2 and #3 sword boys this week.  No ragrets.