Money Can’t Buy Me Love...

Or that’s what they say at any rate.  After a week’s worth of shopping in Kyoto and Osaka, I have my reservations regarding the veracity of that statement.  Maybe money can’t buy love, but it can buy me new toys, and that’s close enough for me.

When we last left off, I was singing the praises of Nendoroids.  Until about a year ago, these were the anime figures for me.  This is largely due to the fact that the industry isn’t exactly known for catering to its female fans, and I didn’t exactly try to find out otherwise...it was just too depressing.  But everything changed when I won my first scale figure, Roy Mustang from Fullmetal Alchemist, who I snatched with the claw of doom.  Unlike a nendo he was frozen in place, but he was bigger, and had a really cool pose, and maybe he broke something in me, because I started watching for prize figures when I went to the arcade.  This isn’t the cheapest way to build a collection, but through it I was able to add a nice Rimuru to my hoard.

Meanwhile, back in April I refuted the supposition that wickedness never was happiness in my post about AnimeJapan.  I mentioned going out for yakiniku afterwards and buying something I’d been eyeing at Book-Off...an Ichiban Kuji prize of Natsume Takashi.  This was kind of where the dam broke and my money started flooding out.  In quick succession I ordered MegaHouse’s new Kitaro, as well as Kusuriuri, who I’d found at Lashinbang in Akiba (which was convenient, since I sold off a couple of touken danshi nendoroids to pay for him).  And that was about the time I left Japan, and - you might think - stopped “wasting” money on toys.

Foxes and torii from Fushimi-Inari-Taisha

You would be wrong in SO many ways.  Imma put aside the argument right now that these are not mere toys but works of art and investment pieces (or at least, they are when I’m not being self-deprecatory), and I’m not going to go into too much depth about purchasing figures online, because this is a travel blog (sorta.  Sometimes).  Instead, suffice it to say that between teaching and my two courses I’ve been eagerly curating my collection of sacred relics, finally joined by my own personal holy grail, the Yato I was, at long last, able to buy on Yahoo Auctions.  This has been equal parts delightful and frustrating, though, because I keep thinking of cool crap I could use if only I was in Japan, or had access to a real Daiso.  Someday I'll probably write more specifically about my displays.  As far as the shopping part goes, though...well...three weeks ago I decided to throw financialcaution to the wind and make my triumphant comeback.  Convenient, huh?

Gacha?  They gotcha.

Before I could even make it to Daiso, though, I came across another source of treasure - gachapon machines.  I can’t believe I wasted two years in Japan without truly appreciating the genius of their capsule toys.  Before I looked at them as a none-too-reliable source for anime swag.  As a curator, though, I now see the potential they have as accessories for nendoroids.  Mostly I just let myself discover them as I went, but I did have an eye out for two specific things - tiny gachapon machines and a drink vending machine.  The first I found in Kyoto’s Shinkyogoku arcade.  The second I never did manage to track down, although the Yellow Submarine in Denden Town had just about every other gacha I could hope for, and - among other wonderful things - a model kit for a coke machine that made me realize I could DIY myself one, which in the end sits better with my artistic tendencies.

I was supposed to make that trip with the Kawaii Kingpin, but an ill-timed bout of indigestion meant that I had to go it alone.  In some ways that sucked, but it also worked to my advantage, since it meant I could leave super early and indulge in my Saturday morning Denny’s routine, not to mention that I didn’t have to worry about him judging my choices.  Sometimes a girl needs her own bunny figure, okay???  I also didn’t have to fight him for the Goblin Slayer nendoroid I found for 3500 yen, so in the end I was able to forgive him for going and getting sick.*

The natsukashii was thick on the ground, even if I have only been gone three months.  I was kind of looking forward to playing some UFO catchers, but I’ve gotten wiser in my old age, and instead of fighting to get the damn machine to spit out what I want, I hit up the local Book-Off+ and was able to get the most recent Sasuke.  I’ve done a pretty decent job of adhering to my one character/one figure rule, with the upshot being that I resisted the temptation to get scaled versions of my Haikyuu best boys and had both the money to buy Sasuke and space in my treasure chest (carry-on suitcase).

Anyways, the moral of the story is that the Beatles didn’t know what they were talking about.  Money can buy you love, especially if the thing you love is adorable chibi figures of cute boys.  Because at the end of the day, although I love scale figures and have worked hard to diversify my collection, sometimes a girl needs a nendoroid.  Or two.  Or five.

*Also he gave me the drawing he did of Tomioka-san.  And spent Friday waiting to receive Mitsuha and Taki for me, because after we saw Weathering With You, I had to rewatch Kimi no Na Wa, which made me realize I needed their nendoroids.  There’s a reason he’s still my favorite - my disciple is saiko.