Whatever Floats Your Boat

 AKA, the things that kept me going through this long, bloody pandemic.

There are five weeks of this shittacular* school year left.  There have been ever-present temptations to murder the nearest dumbasses for nearly a year and a half now, but surprisingly enough, I'm still sane.  This week, I thought I might share my coping strategies.  So here goes.

1. Danmei:  Okay, so I flirted with the dark side before, but for the most part I was in denial about my potential to go full-on fujoshi.**  See, I watched Yuri on Ice to see what all the fuss was about, and had to admit it was cute.  A while later I watched Banana Fish for much the same reason, which turned out to be a mistake, because the ending REALLY pissed me off.  Between that and all the female fandom's weird, non-canon shipping, I was convinced that the BL genre had nothing to offer me.  But then last March, out of boredom and the fact that anime was having a dark age, I caved and tried a little Chinese animation called Mo Dao Zu Shi.  I spent the next week caught up in the lives of the two protagonists, progressing from the animation to the manhua and finally beginning the webnovel (because as it turns out, if one beautiful male character is good, two are even better).  And then I read the rest of the author's oeuvre.  And re-read it.  And eventually broke out and started reading other authors.  So while the fact remains that I have a complicated relationship with China, I've got to admit I find their boys' love more compelling than Japan's.  Sadly it will probably be a while before I get to live out my dreams of wandering the jianghu, but for now, I don't know how I would have gotten through the last year - particularly the last month or so - without danmei webnovels.

2. My flute:  This is not a euphemism (no matter how many times my Dark Lord and Master may have made insinuations about band camp).  I started bringing my flute with me after the year we did Kiss Me, Kate, but just started playing it with any regularity since the pandemic started.  And more specifically, since I got into Mo Dao Zu Shi.  This is relevant because one of the two main characters controls zombies animated corpses with a flute, and maybe about that time I found myself wanting to cultivate my own flute skills.  Okay, sure, mostly I just cultivate anisongs, but you know what?  It keeps the time moving.  

3. Crafting Projects: This should come as no surprise.  I AM the person who spends her vacations sewing dolls, after all.  However, my projects have gotten more and more intense.  A year ago I spent weeks on end creating a 3' x 5' Space Invaders-themed latchhook rug.  FYI: latchhook is easy.  Designing it was easy.  Cutting the yarn was easy.  But actually making the damn thing was TEDIOUS.  

I wanted to continue the gaming theme with a Tetris afghan, but I couldn't stand yarn anymore by the time I finished the rug (I've actually only just started messing with crocheting, and I can't get the damn squares the same size).  Instead, I made plushies.  I tried some different designs because I didn't have skin-tone fleece for a while, made a kappa, a mokke, and even a little goldfish (okay, so the WHOLE year of anime wasn't complete garbage).  When my summer course was over I finally let loose and sewed my two MCs from Mo Dao Zu Shi, learning that Chinese traditional clothing is more of a pain to sew than a kimono.  I feel like I really hit my masochistic peak when I decided during the first lockdown that I should make a Tomioka-san plushie, which meant that I had to print his haori by hand, and THAT meant I had to cut stencils (because of COURSE I had to do it the traditional way).  I've gotten to the point where I made silver vambraces using aluminum pie tins, warazori out of one of the nendoroid tatami mats I bought my last time in Osaka, and - oh yeah - I started playing around with epoxy resin.  

Sadly, most of these projects are still unfinished.  I'll figure them out someday.

4. Online Shopping:  When I lived in Mongolia before, I was an amateur when it came to shopping.  Thanks to the pandemic I have leveled up.  It started with Taobao...there were a couple of nendoroids made by GoodSmile Shanghai I really wanted, but their price was crazy.  Someone mentioned getting them on Taobao, and I thought, "Oh.  China's like, right there.  Are there Mongolian Taobao agents???"  Well, it turns out there are, so I got my nendos.

THEN the shopping became a solution to holes in my shoes and jeans, but since getting anything from the States was a gong show  - shipping was expensive or unreliable*** - I had some degree of restraint.  Eventually, I started buying stuff so that I'd have something to look forward to when I got home, and THEN I was introduced to an air freight service named Hotel4Box, and.  Well.  The meme there to the left is all too accurate.  Suddenly everything that I have thought would be convenient to have was absolutely necessary to my well-being.  I needed fabric.  I needed new clothes.  I needed an alto flute and a clothes drying rack and inkjet iron-on transfer paper.  

I regret nothing.

5. Mug Brownie Sundaes: As cringey as it can be to video chat, my friends have kept me going.  Last fall during one of my chats with Baby Chicken Wing, she said, "Wait, you like brownies, right?"  I gave her the long history of my students hitting me up to make brownies and how I seem to always overcook a pan, and then she hit me with her recipe for a brownie in a mug.  It was heavenly...but there wasn't enough of it.  I solved that problem by making it with tablespoons instead of teaspoons (it gives you 3x the brownie) and topping it with ice cream, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that it actually doesn't make any difference what brand of ice cream you use - the shittiest Russian vanilla tastes just fine, because it's really all about melting into a gooey mess (although my personal favorite is the walnut maroo GoodPrice has been importing from Korea).  And that gooey mess gives me something to look forward to even on the shittiest day.

6. Content creators: You know what sucks about being an adult?  Finding other adults to geek out with.  Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have survived the last 6 months without dinners with Engrish between lockdowns, but it's not like she has an appreciation for the 2D world.  I honestly don't know what we did before social media, but sometimes - just sometimes - something good floats to the top of social media, like gold in a pan (apparently algorithms sometimes get things right).**** My 3 favorite treasures are the animatics I found by Limeizuan on YouTube, MorallyGrey's Tiktoks (literally the only reason I go on Tiktok) and incorrect_mxtx - the best thing to happen to Instagram, ever.

So there you go, guys.  Insh'Allah we are on a course bound for normal life, and "coping" will become a thing of the past, but these should keep me going til then.

*I believe this should have two t's - feel free to fight me on it.

**Japanese word for female fans of stories about gay male relationships.  Probably TMI, so sorry :-o

***No, really.  I ordered a nendo part on Etsy last February.  It got here back in January.

****Usually, though, they just insult me by suggesting that I need old lady bras.

This Hina's Ningyo

It's been almost four years since I started making hand-sewn plushies.  They show up in my blog every once in a while, but I haven't dedicated an entire post to them since 2016, back in my tender youth when I hadn't even won a plush prize yet.  Well, a lot's changed since then, and since yesterday was Hina Matsuri whether it's celebrated here or not, I decided it was time to do an update.

I thought the other day about all of the ideas I've had over the years, and the tricks I tried to make them work.  They range from giving Aizawa hair that flips up when he uses his quirk to accessories (shoes, hats, goggles, swords, etc) to different kinds of ears and facial features.  I wrote about the Cricut that a friend gave me last year, but it wasn't until my sister-in-law suggested it that I decided to try using iron-on vinyl for my plushies' clothes.  I happened to be in the middle of Tsukishima at the time, which was perfect.  Originally I was only going to paint on his number, but when I realized I could get every element of his uniform cut out perfectly and ironed on together, I went all in.  It was so easy I realized I could make up the uniforms of all the Karasuno boys, and if I ever get to the point where I sell at a con, it would make stocking that much easier....instead of bringing x-number of each design, I could just bring the number of bodies I hoped to sell, and assemble the uniforms and hairpieces as they sold.

AnimeIowa gets a shout-out every year around July, so you six faithful readers probably know that I've won prizes the last three years, for Sesshoumaru, Kuriyama Mirai, and last year Sugimoto and Asirpa.  But last year while I was waiting for news about AI 2019 I discovered a "craftalong" for Desert Bus for Hope (a fundraiser for Child's Play - a charity that improves the lives of kids undergoing medical treatment or living in domestic violence shelters).  I decided I wanted to participate, and ended up donating Link and Zelda plushies I'd made.  I thought they would be auctioned off and might raise a couple hundred dollars at most, but instead, they were used for a "raffle" kind of prize.  During one hour of the fundraiser, each donation of a certain amount (and multiples thereof) resulted in an entry, and at the end of the hour a winner was drawn.  I couldn't believe that Link and Zelda raised just over $2200, but I was really happy that my hobby - which, let's face it, is kind of silly - was able to contribute in a pretty tangible way.

Giving might as well be my theme for this year in plush.  Back at Christmas I decided to surprise The Evil One by showing up in California during her home leave, in spite of telling her I just wouldn't be able to make it.  My dastardly scheme involved a phantom package with gifts that I was supposedly sending to her parents' house, one of which was a plushie for her spawn, who loves Darth Vader.  I haven't made that many of these guys specifically to give away, but there's just something about this kid who loves Lord Vader that warmed the cockleburrs of my heart, so I spent the first week or so of vacation posting pictures of the progress on Instagram and apologizing that the package wouldn't be there when they first got there (part of my deception, you see).  And then I showed up at their layover in Denver and went on to celebrate with them in sunny California.  Which was all the better, because it meant I got to see her reaction to Little Lord Vader - she kept turning to me in the car and talking about his features, and saying, "I like him.  I love him!"  And when Evil sent me this photo of her daughter snuggled up with the Sith lord, I swear my heart grew three sizes.

One of the ironic things about the fact that I'm pretty much stuck at home with nothing to do while Covid-19 rages on is that there have been times when I wished for nothing but time to watch anime and sew.  As the weeks have dragged on, it's kind of gotten old.  However, it has given me the ability to focus long enough to solve some design issues I'd been grappling with.  About a year ago I decided to try making a sitting plush, but gave up when I couldn't figure out how to make Kitaro's shorts fit.  Since I threw away the body when I left Japan, I had to re-engineer his pattern before getting to the shorts, but during our Tsagaan Sar (but-not-really-because-the-government-said-No) break, I worked most of it out.  It's a design I want to play with a little more, because he doesn't quite sit up on his own, but at this point I'm more concerned with finishing his hair and drilling the holes for his geta, because he may become an entry for this year's Mini-Festival.

So what's next?  Well, first I have to finish my waifu, Hinawa (the other contender for this year's Mini-Festival entry), and then we'll see.  I have an outfit for a plush that I've been tinkering with for at least two years, but when I lost interest in the character my motivation also waned.  However, now I'm thinking that he might end up being my first ever art abandonment project - I could leave him in Ikebukuro somewhere and I'm sure someone would find him and appreciate him.  Like I said, this year's plushie theme is apparently giving.

Gateway Drug

Mention anime figures to a certified normie, and you might get a look of disgust.  Everyone knows what that person is thinking of: attractive, big-busted (possibly underage) women, scantily clad and in anatomically unlikely positions.  Well, there’s a reason why that’s a stereotype.  There are an awful lot of bishoujo figures out there.

That is not, however, all there is out there.  Figures come in a variety of formats, and at different sizes.  But the best, in my humble opinion, are the nendoroids I mentioned in my last post.  These are figures with exaggerated, “chibi” proportions - huge heads with small bodies.  They have interchangeable parts, allowing you to do more with them.  They’re smaller than a lot of figures, which means they'll be easier to pack up to your next port of call.  Of course, some people think they’re expensive, but those people probably collect Funko Pops (which there’s nothing wrong with, even if the quality of the two can’t even be compared).  Plus you can pose them and change their expressions, and even (if you’re tech-savvy and don’t have other things to do with your time) create stop-motion animation using them, as seen in the video below by Dan Von Carr.

However, my favorite thing about nendos (as we hip kids call them) is the fact that they demonstrate greater gender equality.  I’m much more likely to find a nendo of a character I like than I am a scale figure.  Hell, I think they may actually be planning to make every damn Touken Ranbu character there is, and that’s saying a lot.  GoodSmile, the company that makes them, has a tendency to make whole series of characters from given shows.

For example, every one of the Generation of Miracles, from Kuroko no Basuke.  One Saturday morning in May, I missed my planned Saturday outing because SOME idiot (ie, the one who writes this blog) volunteered herself to chaperone a 5th grade sleepover.  As I sat in the Denny’s near Omori Station, fighting unsuccessfully to get to Asakusa for the annual Edo Firefighter’s Memorial, I checked Goodsmile’s Twitter feed to see whether or not they had FINALLY released any news on the upcoming Hyakkimaru nendoroid (pictured at the top).  What I found instead was that there was an event happening in Akiba - WonHobby Gallery 2019.  Since I had serious doubts that I was, in fact, going to make it to Asakusa in time, I decided to just stop when I got to Akiba.  I’d kinda been meaning to go there soon, anyways...although it perhaps would’ve been better to wait til payday.

The event was like a smaller, less crowded, free version of the Goodsmile booth at AnimeJapan, offering a glimpse into what was coming up from the company.  I was a little disappointed that they didn't have any life-size nendos or Nendoroid plushies, until I figured out that their previous announcement was an  April Fool’s Day joke.  Still, they had a pretty impressive range of upcoming releases to show off.  If it weren't for the fact that I don't think I can handle sewing that small, I might even be interested in one of their Nendoroid doll bodies.  Since I'm kind of burnt out on sewing at the moment, it wasn't a hard temptation to resist.

But Akiba being what it is, there's always temptation to be found, especially since I got sucked into a new blackhole:  nendoroid customizing.  See, here’s the thing.  Although GoodSmile often releases a bunch of characters from the same show, this is not always the case.  Sometimes they’re so busy making new versions of Hatsune Miku that they forget to make the other characters in your favorite show, which is why I’m still waiting for a Sugimoto nendoroid.  Although I guess I should be grateful they at least made Asirpa...they’ve never made any of Noragami's characters.  Over the course of my second year in Japan, I've been thinking about this more and more.  Seeing the expansion pieces - Nendoroid More, as they're called - which allow you to dress up your characters differently, or give them different expressions, got me wondering if it might be possible to frankenstein some characters (cobble together a new creation from spare parts - get it?).  It didn't really click, though, until I remembered how cheap I've found some nendoroids in my rambles about town.  I realized that if you could find them for a decent price, it might not be so terrible to take a figure apart, make some color changes, and reconstruct it to create a new character.

Well, as it turns out, that's totally a thing.  When I started trying to figure out whose hair would work for a Shinra nendoroid I stumbled across the community of nendoroid customizers online.  One enterprising couple even created an online shop - the aptly named ChibiChopShop - where they buy and sell parts from nendoroids that have been split up.  I'm looking for such specific things that I've only used them once, but when I discovered them, they had the only things I wanted - the hair and faceplates from nendoroid 151, Moritaka Mashiro.  With the Nendoroid More doctor body I'd already found on eBay, all I needed was a pair of glasses and probably a little paint to make my first nendoroid, Celty, her own Shinra.  He needs a lot of work - the hair’s the wrong color, and the face isn’t right - but once I’m reunited with my supplies in Mongolia, we’ll get there.

And that, of course, opened the floodgates.  I had so many ideas that it was tough to decide which to pursue first...but since the pieces basically fell into my lap I started working on my first anime love, Yato.

I found Takagi Akito from Bakuman (#152, from Lashinbang in Kamata) for his body, and Kuroko no Basuke’s Kise Ryota (#1032, again at Lashinbang, this time the big one in Akiba Culture Zone) for his hair, and was able to sell the rest right away through the facebook group for splits.  Then I hit up the Volks near Yokohama station on my way home from work one night and spent a good half hour deliberating over paints (ie, the ones that are waiting for me in Mongolia now - this post is kind of back and forth all over the place).  Since I really had zero clue what the heck I was doing, I based my educated guess on the name of the paint.  Very scientific, I know.  Then I got to work, in a painstakingly (or paints-takingly) slow manner.  Only to quickly realize the paint was much glossier than I wanted.  Back I went for cleaner and advice.  There’s still work to do on it, but for now, I’m pretty happy with how he’s looking.

In the midst of all this I made what may be the greatest discovery of all: Goodsmile's facemaker site.  This is basically a website that lets you design your own faceplates and have them printed by Goodsmile and shipped to you.  The options it gives you are unbelievable.  I was a little skeptical at first, but a half an hour later I had designed two expressions for Yato that I had to get printed.  The next day I went back to the site, just planning on messing around with it, and ended up ordering two more, I was so impressed with what I’d come up with.  The site is in Japanese but with Google chrome that’s almost a non-issue.  What might be an issue, though, if you’re not here in Japan is the fact that they only ship to Japan.  Both of those issues, however, are covered in this post on Blog DeJapan.

So that’s how I found myself another expensive hobby.  Wotakoi’s Nifuji Hirotaka was my third project, and although I still want to repaint his hair, I’m pretty pleased with what I’ve accomplished thus far.  I haven’t been forced to do any drastic modifications, but maybe I never will.  This past weekend was summer Wonder Festival and GoodSmile announced even more upcoming products - Kaguya-sama, for example, and a painted prototype of both Tanjiro and Nezuko from Kimetsu no Yaiba.  What I was really excited about, though, was that they announced a nendoroid of Natsume from Natsume Yuujinchou.  I’m not sure that I’ll actually order him - one of the rules I had to impose on myself to get out of Japan was that I was only allowed one figure of any character, and I’ve already got a figure of Natsume.*  No, the real value of that announcement to me was, in fact, that there was still hope.  That anime from several seasons back might still have nendos coming...sometimes there are copyright issues, after all.  Sometimes they have to wait and see if it’ll be lucrative enough to justify making those figures (although I would think the fujoshi fan base of Golden Kamuy would make that a yes).  Although it’s nice to rise to an artistic challenge, I’d much rather hold out hope for an official Sugimoto nendoroid, especially with a new season coming up.

If not, I’d settle for a scale figure.  I left Japan with more of them than I was expecting, and when I get my apartment put back together, don’t be surprised when the inevitable nesting post highlights my carefully curated collection.  I get an extra room this go-round and I know just what to do with it.

*As I mentioned before, nendoroids are small enough that it’s relatively easy to pack them up, especially if you’re willing - as I was, in the end - to get rid of the boxes.  So - on the other hand - I might.

This Could Be Love

If you've been reading this blog any length of time, you should know by now that not only do I teach others to make cool ass shit (cause I'm an art teacher, yo), I also make cool ass shit myself.  This is relevant because back in October I got a message from my friend Cori (from the Wayback in Mongolia), asking if I wanted a Cricut Maker.  Her hubby is a mechanical engineer for the company, and during a discussion of anime my name came up and since I'm the target market they offered to send me one if I was interested.

I'm definitely more crafty than tech-y, but I feel like only an idiot lets the opportunity to get new toys slip through their fingers (particularly if you have half-formed dreams of actually making money off your hobbies), so I told her yasss - onegaishimasu!  A few weeks later, a DHL guy was handing over a very large box, and I was facing the fact that until that moment, the whole thing had kind of felt like I'd dreamt it up, and I had some major housekeeping to do before I'd be able to set it up.  I left it sealed in its box as I swept the floors and rearranged my work surfaces.  Then I realized that my iPad is old AF and can't use Cricut Design Space because it won't update to iOS 10.  Luckily my school just bought a class set of iPads, and by promising I was planning to use the Maker for art club and that I would give up my firstborn child* if I broke one, I got permission to borrow one at night or on weekends as needed to get me started.  With that, I was finally ready to break open the box!

It crossed my mind to do an unboxing video for my new toy, but I don't have a cameraman and I've never really seen the point of watching someone else open up something exciting.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that it came with materials for my "first project," so once I got through the intro screens of the app I decided to try it out.

It's a cute card but relatively simple to make.  First I had to load a pen into the tool holder thing, and the Maker took it from there, drawing out the lines that you see.  The fact that they were drawn, not printed was kind of a surprise to me, and had me thinking about what all you might be able to do with a robot to do all of your drawing.  Next it used a blade to cut the cardstock down to size as well as cut out the letters, the tail of the kite, and the places where I inserted the blue.  So far, so good.

That said, the point of having one of these things - for me at least - isn't to make other people's projects, but to make my own.  I decided its first real test would be to cut a pair of glasses for one of my plushies.  Having mislaid my old pattern, I had to redraw it.  Then I had to scan it.  I could have done this at school, but it's mendoksai to use the scanner there, so I used the much more straightforward method and visited my friendly neighborhood combini - all of them have English-speaking copy machines that also print photos (or, you know, the Golden Kamuy paper sumo pdf, which was like Christmas coming early) and scan.  Eventually it made it to the school iPad I borrowed and I uploaded it to Design Space.

When I said above that I'm not very tech-y, I meant it, but as long as it's not too complicated a program, I can usually figure things out.  I think Design Space was created with users like me in mind, because it didn't take too long to figure out how to get it to cut out my glasses.  I was even able to alter the dimensions of it in the program to solve the slight proportion issue my drawing had.  The one issue I had was that I didn't have the right cutting tool for craft foam, so the cuts only went about halfway through...still far enough to be able to "punch out" the glasses.

I had my doll pattern already scanned and ready to go, so I uploaded it and tried cutting out a couple of head shapes.  That went pretty well but I wasn't too sure what to do next.  A week later I had my answer.  After cutting out the head I finally started making my Sugimoto doll, but so far he was bald.  Around two years ago I spoke to my Dark Lord and Master about business strategies** and he'd suggested making kits.  I've been toying with the idea but wasn't sure how to go about doing the hair.  This finally forced me to work on a solution.  I sketched out a pattern for Sugimoto's hair, scanned it in, uploaded it, and set the Maker to work.

At first I wasn't convinced that all the effort was worth it, and for one doll, it might not be.  That said, the pattern was a pretty complex one.  After putting the cutting mat into the maker, it went to work and was beautiful to watch.  Since one of my drawings didn't scan as well as it should have I had a chance to test how the two techniques compared.  After watching the rotary blade make quick work of the pointy bits on Sugimoto's hair I had to sit down to trace and cut the final piece.  I ended up with Sharpie all over my hands and it took probably about the same amount of time from start to finish as getting the pattern into Design Space and cutting it with the Maker.  I can see vast potential for the whole "make a kit" idea with that - I could design the basic hair shapes and customers could choose which one they wanted to make, using their own Maker to precisely cut the design.

With the end of the term and coming up on Christmas break, I didn't get any further than that, but I had plenty of ideas.  Now that I'm back from the holidays, with a new iPad of my very own, and very little motivation to leave the house hopefully I'll start putting those ideas into action.  Stay tuned.

*Joke's on them, though - I'm never having kids!
**Most people pay big bucks for the kind of advice he gives me for free.  What can I say - it's one of the perks associated with the lease on my soul.

Child's Play

Ever since moving to Japan, my adventures have involved riding the rails.  This time around I was staying in one place, and while it is a nice change from several hotels in a week (or a new one every night) I was going to miss long trips on the tracks.  And maybe I even thought I might just take a couple of day trips - there's a cat island out on Lake Biwa, and I meant to take the scenic train out to Kameoka - but it didn't happen.*  And mostly that's just fine.

I also didn't do that doll workshop I mentioned, because sadly, I ain't rich people (we get paid tomorrow and maybe I kept debating up until last night if I could scrape the funds together.  This time maturity won out over my usual impulses).  That said, Ando Doll Shop very kindly invited me to visit the shop anyway and observe.  Since I had a little time to kill before meeting the Kawaii Kingpin this afternoon, I decided to drop in on them.  

The shop was kind of exactly what I would expect a shop selling traditional dolls to be, but haven't actually seen.  They were in the middle of shipping out a huge order when I stopped in, but the lady who had emailed with me about the workshop stopped to show me around, and invited me to take pictures.  The first floor had the workshop where the craftswomen were working on creating the dressing for the dolls.  There were an assortment of different dolls at the front of the shop, but the main showroom was on the second level.  We went up to the second floor and I was blown away by all the Hina dolls, their specialty.  Not only were there different sizes and colors, there were even different styles of faces, some more traditional, others more modern.  While we looked around my guide told me how each level represents something different - the emperor and empress are a wish for a happy marriage, the angry, sad, and happy courtiers on the bottom level, hope for an expressive face, the maidens serving food and drink represent a hope to never go hungry, and the musicians a wish for refinement and culture.  She explained that they currently had a display in a nearby hotel as we stood in front of a display costing 8.8 million yen.  The quality was simply astounding, and made me realize not only why the workshop was so expensive, but also that it was undoubtedly worth every yenny.

When I have money again, I'm totally coming back to make my own doll.  Besides the fact that they were that good, my new friend asked me if I liked anime as we went down the stairs.  She'd noticed Hoozuki hanging from my bag, and we had a bonding moment.  She also told me about the swords of Kyoto exhibit at the National Museum, and if I had more energy at this point in the game I'd definitely be checking that out.

I didn't really intend to turn this into doll week, but it kind of worked out that way.  Heading back from Kuuya-no-taki on Tuesday I passed the Sagano Doll House Museum, and decided I should check it out.

They had a huge assortment of dolls, and I can't remember any of them being Hina ningyo.  Some of them were bigger than actual children.  Others were so tiny I couldn't for the life of me tell you how they put the tiny little kimono together for them.  The ojii-san who sold me my ticket actually came over and showed me their collection of automatons, little mechanical dolls that did simple tasks like tumbling down the stairs.  It was very cool.

The upstairs level had even more dolls, and almost felt like a storage room.  The Japanese have a very broad definition of what a "doll" is - everything from puppets to clay figures could be considered a doll.  The upstairs room was lined with cabinets, and another ring of them divided the outer part of the room from the inner.  Literally all of them filled with clay figures.  Not in a, "Oh look, what a nice display, I can see your collection very clearly," sort of way, but rather in a "I hope you don't intend to bring any more of these home," way.

When you really understand the evolution of Japanese dolls, I think anime figurines actually make total sense.

What I loved the most about the museum was the air it had that reminded me of my Great-Mom's house, specifically her doll room.  Inside the museum time felt as if it were standing still.  The dolls were not new, but rather were old and showed wear.  I think I was the only patron during the time I was visiting, so the silence was thick and had a tangible sound.  The outside of the building was a traditional Japanese garden and you could wander around the grounds.  The plot behind it was a graveyard, adding to that slightly spooky sense of forgotten places.  It was perfect.

I had one more run-in with dolls, also - strangely enough - in Arashiyama.  Thursday morning I decided I would take the so-called "romantic" sightseeing train to Kameoka.  After riding nearly an hour out and wading through the tourists shooting in the bamboo grove I found my way to the train station.  Which was packed and I couldn't get a ticket for another hour and a half.  I decided I had better things to do and started towards what Google Maps told me was the nearest bus stop, conveniently outside of the central tourist area.  On my way, I came across Aightowa Doll Workshop and Cafe.  They had a small gallery where you could see their work, and while the cost of admission was 300 yen, you got three postcards with your admission.  Unlike the dolls in the shop or the museum, these weren't traditional Japanese dolls.  Some appeared to be made of felted wool, others seemed to be sculpted with silk, and there may have been some porcelain ones, too - it was hard to tell.

There were two things that particularly intrigued me.  First, the clothes on the dolls appeared to be all handmade, and were an extraordinary range of styles from around the world.  The fabric the clothes were made from seemed to have been collected from all over the world.  Since I went to two different markets this week looking for either a military uniform to cannibalize or cloth that could pass for it, I had great respect for their attention to detail.  The other thing that caught my attention was the backstory of the place, which was started by the owner to become self-sufficient.  It made me think maybe starting a doll business isn't all that far fetched.  In fact, a friend from my early Mongolia days messaged as I was going into the Saga Doll House to find out if I would be interested in a free Cricut Maker.  Apparently I'm their target audience, and I expect I'll experience a huge level up once I master this most powerful new weapon.  So you'll have that to look forward to reading about this winter.

*Because I puttered around too long in the first case, and because I wasn't willing to waste an hour and a half in Arashiyama waiting for my turn to be a bloody tourist.  But in both cases, I did try.  I'm not sure that makes either better.

Third Time's the Charm

It's hard to believe that the summer is already over - vacation-wise, at any rate.  (I won't lie to you and say that I went to all the awesome summer festivals that were taking place this weekend because it was still Too Darn Hot.)  I'm sitting in my classroom wrapping this up during lunch of the second day of our teacher orientation, but I'm definitely not ready to deal with children who don't share my bloodline yet.  I meant to do some blogging while I was home but then I started binge watching Supernatural and it was all over.

Before that happened, I made my annual road trip to observe the ebb and flow of American otaku-ism...AnimeIowa.  Now you may be thinking to yourself, Didn't this bitch spend the last year living in Japan?  Did I really need to drive two and a half hours to see what America does to the fandom of my choice, particularly given the fact that I've already gone to AnimeIowa twice?  That's a question I struggled with myself.  I considered running a panel, but ultimately never submitted a proposal, and I was too busy working on my master's and my art to do much sewing this year, so it was May before I finally decided to book a hotel room for myself and my mom (who always goes with me).

In the end, it mostly boiled down to the fact that I love competing in the Mini-Festival with my plushies.  The Mini-Festival was a competition that started two years ago at my first AI.  I'd just started making plushies that spring, and I submitted my entry with trepidation as I sat in the Beijing airport waiting for my layover to end.  Although I didn't win, I found myself fired up by the experience, and brought my best game the following year to win the plushie category.  I spent the last year working intermittently on three dolls.  The day before I left Iowa last summer I finally started working on my Yato.  Shortly after getting to Japan I decided to start Kuriyama Mirai.  And finally, before my first UFO win I'd started working on Hozuki.  At the time I booked our hotel, I hadn't finished any of them.  At the time I left Japan I hadn't finished any of them...but I had decided which one to enter, and that was Mirai-chan.  I figured something different would be good.

This year's competition was different.  I believe there were fewer doll entries and more Gunpla ones.  I was really impressed with one plush doll, and figured she would win the plushie category.  Her entry was larger than mine, and the body was based on the classic Cabbage Patch doll, so much more complex; she'd even sewed wires into the limbs to make them pose-able.  The doll entries were pretty fierce, too - one lady had this absolutely gorgeous jellyfish doll, and I had resigned myself to going home without a prize this year when the judges came back in from their deliberation.  They went through the Gunpla awards, gave the plushie prize to the doll I'd pegged for the win, and seemed to have finished up when they said they had one last prize to award - the best in show.

I was hopeful, but tried not to hold my breath as they mentioned that it had been an easy, unanimous choice, then announced me as the winner.  Elizabeth-san, who I kind of think of as the Mini-Festival den mother, complimented me on just how good I was getting as they handed me several awesome prizes, including a medal for myself and my doll (which is actually my favorite prize - I love that I have two plushies in my bedroom now proudly wearing little medals).  That moment kind of made me feel vindicated for these past few months when I wondered if I could really call myself an artist.  As I walked back to the hotel that evening, I sure felt like one.

As I mentioned, my decision to go was largely influenced by the desire to show off my mad sewing skills, but I think I also just kind of wanted to feel like a part of this fandom.  I may be living that rock and roll lifestyle in Japan,  but I still don't have the language skills, so I still don't feel as connected to it as I would like.  I'm still planning on going to Comiket when I get back next month, and to AnimeJapan in the spring, but I realize it'll be more as an observer than a participant, because someone let herself get intimidated by all the different readings for each kanji.  So yeah.  Part of me just wanted to nerd out in English.

Being an hour from Akiba means that the vendor hall didn't hold quite the appeal it once did, but I was still on a mission.  There were at least two things I wanted that I figured would be cheaper and/or easier to buy here than in Japan.  I haven't gotten too crazy about figures, since the industry really caters more to men than women, and while I enjoyed Free! and Yuri on Ice!! I'm not really into that scene.  I do love me some nendoroids, though, and Goodsmile only released their Naruto nendos in the States (as the Kawaii Kingpin pointed out sometime in the last year when I complained about the price of the one I'd found).  I found Naruto, Sakura, and Itachi, all reasonably priced compared to what I'd seen them going for at Mandarake, but since I was hoping for Kakashi-sensei, I passed.  On the other hand, given the many, maaaaanyyyyy vendors selling Funko Pops, I was able to find myself an Erza.  Goodsmile hasn't made any Fairy Tail nendoroids, so I actually ordered her last November, but apparently I'm currently under an ordering curse, because my package went astray and they had sold out by the time I realized it.  I wasn't planning on buying anything else, but then I came across the TeeTurtle stall.  I got in on the Kickstarter of their game, Unstable Unicorns last year, and instantly recognized their sarcastic/kawaii designs.  Given my current income bracket, I wasn't planning to buy much clothing this trip, but when I saw their kitsune t-shirt that proudly proclaimed, "I Give Zero Fox," my fate was sealed.

Other than the dolls and the vendors, there was one more thing I was really excited about - debuting as an otaku flutist.  Each year, AI hosts what they call Karaoke Reverse - a competition to see who can put on the best performance.  The past two years I dithered, unsure how well a flute performance would go.  This year the description definitely mentioned instruments, so I figured, what the hell, why not...but continued to dither until I saw the song list.  They choose five different anime openings you can perform, and then it's up to you to win the audience over, not just with your talent, but with your performance.

As I read down the list, I was a little disappointed, because "History Maker" was the only song I knew, and I figured everyone would choose it (I wasn't wrong - between the fact that it has English lyrics and Yuri on Ice!! is God's gift to fujoshi, I was the only contestant who didn't perform it).  Then I got to the final choice - "Here," from Mahoutsukai no Yome, and knew that's what I would perform.  I'm not going to lie to you - it was a bitch to figure out.  My brother suffered through several rehearsals as I figured out the key changes while my parents were away playing with the grandkids.  Seriously - who writes in F# major?!  By the time my mom and I hit the road to Des Moines, though, I pretty much had it figured out.
It was an interesting mix of performances (song choice aside, anyways).  There were two solo performances of "History Maker."  Another was a group of three women, one who sang as her friends twirled a rainbow flag and a rainbow ribbon.  I thought this was a tiny bit ironic.  Admittedly, Yuri on Ice!! is more than a little gay, but it's boy's love, and the opening from Citrus, a girl's love anime, was one of the other choices.  It seemed like a better fit for them to me.  The last performance was by two guys, one of whom sang "History Maker" while the other one snuck up behind him and pretended to try and hit him...possibly so he would stop singing the same song as everyone else.  That was it.  Most of us got up and sang again, just for funsies, but apparently in years past there were more contestants.

I was pretty happy to be tapped for Judges' Choice, and then again as the first runner-up...although I found the prizes a little mystifying.  I'm not sure who was in charge of buying them, but it seems like if you're going to give away prizes at an anime convention, a Ghibli film or something by Makoto Shinkai seems like a more logical movie than Robocop and Spaceballs.  The two guys won the grand prize, and I was happy for them...until I saw that part of their prize was the Super NES Mini.  The fact that one of them came up to me afterwards to say he'd been a trumpet player in high school and hearing me play me flute was chou natsukashii didn't entirely erase my need to wear my new "Salty Bitch" t-shirt...but it was a nice gesture all the same.

All Dolled Up

So it's been a while since I've finished one of my plushies.  Sadly, but not really sadly, my "free" time has been taken up by my painting class, and most of my creative energy has gone into that.  Probably at some point I'll write about it, but that's pretty far down the list at the moment.  I still get a little work in during church on Sundays (because I'm a heathen and that's how I roll), but that doesn't get them finished, even if I have been staying for the whole 3 hour block of meetings most weeks since I moved here.

Still I haven't forgotten about my old obsession, and when I got an email from our curriculum coordinator a week and a half ago that said one of our students had invited the female teachers over that Friday for a doll festival and Indian food, I jumped at the chance.  If she hadn't been an awesome kid and a member of my new favorite class, it might have been a bit awkward.  Instead, it was one of my favorite experiences since coming to Japan.  It turns out that southern India has a tradition similar to Japan's Hina Matsuri, in which you put up a display of dolls - featuring the Hindu gods - to bless the girls of the house.  It was cool to see all of the dolls, and the way her mom included dolls and toys from a variety of traditions.

It got me thinking about my hobby again.  Over the summer I set up an Etsy shop to try and make a little money off my finished plushies, but so far I've just gotten a couple of views a week and not actually sold anything.  Which I guess is okay, since I'm pretty sure if I can figure out a venue to sell them in, I'd make way more money selling them here.  A venue such as the Ningyocho Doll Market.

I ended this week feeling kind of beat down (#expatrollercoaster) and thought I would just spend the weekend inside, licking my wounds.  And then last night, I remembered that I wanted to check out doll memorials, and that's kind of where this story goes from there.

When I went to AnimeIowa the first time, the panel that I actually enjoyed the most (because I - you know - learned from it) was about dolls in Japanese culture.  Most world cultures have dolls, but the Japanese have a whole set of beliefs about them.  They have a festival that features dolls as the centerpiece.  They believe dolls take on our misfortunes, that they even have souls.  And things with souls deserve a proper sendoff, hence, doll memorials.

Now, today was not one such memorial.  Hopefully I'll make it to one eventually - I was kind of pissed that I missed the ceremony in Kyoto last fall by one frickin' day - but there wasn't one today.  At least, I don't think so.  See, one of the search results Google was so kind as to cough up was Ningyocho's doll market, and the article I read about it mentioned a doll memorial in conjunction with the event.  I found the temple where it supposedly takes place - Okannonji - and there were dolls displayed in the prayer hall, but they didn't seem to be in immediate danger of immolation.  Maybe that was later in the day, though...

Ningyocho is a street that historically had a lot of dollmakers and their shops.  On a normal day, the name is about all that's left of the history - ningyo is the catch-all word for the whole spectrum of dolls, from plushies to puppets.  There are clock towers on the street that have automatons which give a little bit of the history and show off scenes from the old daily life, but otherwise it's just another street of Tokyo.  Most days, at any rate.

This week, though, Ningyocho gets back to its roots and hosts a doll market.  Along the sidewalks vendors have tents selling a variety of dolls.  Some are the kind of cutesy, handmade dolls that you might find in any craft store in America.  Some are very traditional Japanese dolls - the ones for Hina Matsuri, for example - which my countrymen would probably find as creepy as I find their continuing assertion that they should be able to own as many guns as they want, in any variety they want...

...am I still pissed???  Oh yah, you betcha.  As we say in Japan, ばか...

Several of the vendors were also selling pieces of kimono fabric.  I had deep regrets that I've blown through so much of my paycheck already, because I could have gone a little nuts buying cloth, even if I haven't been able to finish a character in several months.  As it was, I was looking at some of the flashiest pieces in one of the last tents when I realized that the next plushie I started wouldn't need flashy fabric - no, Hoozuki would need the black silk that I'd seen at the other end of the street for only 500 yen, so I promptly marched myself back down there to get it.

It was fun to see everything that was for sale.  Not sure how I would go about getting in on the action - probably actually learning to speak Japanese would be a start - but my dolls are definitely different from everything else that was being sold.  In addition to the fabric I bought my own hime (princess) doll, so that I can set up a display when March comes around.  I didn't buy a prince doll, though - I'm going to take a page out of my student's mom's book and improvise to give my Hina Matsuri a distinct otome flavor (mwahahaha).  On the way home, I had to make an additional transfer because the local Keikyu train wasn't running and the express didn't stop at Shimbashi.  I was not impressed initially, but when I found the above fountain on the platform when I was transferring back from the Yamanote line, I was so delighted that I decided it was all worth it.  After all, it's not every day you get to see the pissing boy dressed up and on a train platform in Tokyo.

Con Artist

Next time, pre-register, dumbass.

I had all sorts of great things I was going to write when I got home, but once I finished my farewell to Mongolia posts, reality set in.  I was supposed to be taking an IB MYP training - it was too late to get a refund, and I didn't feel like throwing away that kind of money - and somebody (ahem, me) left some work unfinished at her last job.  The rant that was may still be...we shall see.

Instead, let me tell you about my con.  Last summer I wrote about attending AnimeIowa, the anime convention closest to my permanent address.  In April I found myself seriously considering whether or not I could be a professional nerd.  The positives are that I would be awesome at it - I have tons of ideas, and am enthusiastic, particularly (at the moment) about anime.  I don't have much street cred (at least, not outside of Mongolia), but when I arrived at our moms' Peeps Bunco Night,* Baby Chicken Wing (my aforementioned high school rival) exclaimed, "Oh good, now I'm not the only weird person here!"**  On the negative side, I'd be getting a late start and...oh yeah.  I hate people.

But, you know, it takes all types.  Right?

Last year, as I was walking around the exhibition hall, I found myself thinking, "Maybe when I move to Japan," and realized that, for me at least, this was a realistic thought.  One year onward, that's exactly what I'm doing, and it was hard not to feel a little smug and wonder if I was wasting my time Stateside by coming to AnimeIowa.  Why should I shop the exhibition when I'll actually be an hour from Akiba?  I'll be living the dream, after all.  Well, if you are one of my six faithful readers, you know I've spent the last year honing my skillz for what I personally consider to be the main event - the Mini-Festival.

This event started last year, and was one of the things I most enjoyed about AnimeIowa.  If you are one of those people that finds dolls creepy, you'll probably want to skip it.  There's a lot of lore in Japanese culture about dolls, and if you want to learn more, this video will tell you all about it, but the TL;DR version is this: dolls have souls, which may explain why so many people think they are creepy.  But the Mini-Festival involves more than just dolls.  Gundam model kits are also a pretty big part of Japanese culture, and are also a part of the contest.  Last year, there was just one category, with awards given for first, second, and third place.

This year there were four categories, and with probably three times as many entries, mostly in the doll costume and doll customization categories.  There was also a category for plushies - my specialty.  If you haven't been following my descent into madness, I started sewing because nobody was making the things I wanted to buy...and then it got fun.  But since last year's con, I've also had the goal to create a plushie that was capable of competing with the OP level of some of the entries from last year, while still retaining my kawaii aesthetic.

I decided he had to be a bishie, and have a pretty ornate costume, and who fits that bill better than Sesshoumaru-sama?  (Okay, actually I was a little torn - I came up with another character who would work, but decided I should stick with Sesshoumaru this year).  Almost from the beginning he was a pain in the ass.  He has a pattern on his face, which I first made with Sharpie, which promptly smeared all over his ears and hair, so I had to re-do his entire head, making the stripes with an airbrush instead.  I also decided to make him with only one arm, since early in Inuyasha his brother cuts his arm off - and that threw the body shape off.  During the last year I've made a couple of plushies with kimono, so I knew the basics.  However, Sesshy's has a pattern on the sleeves and shoulder.  I considered painting or printing the pattern, but when I found it on a handkerchief I bought in Kyoto last fall, I decided to applique it on instead.  But the true challenge was his armor.  I had silver Sculpey, and thought that would work perfectly, but I had the hardest time attaching the arm pieces to the breastplate without it breaking, so in the end I had to remake them by needle felting.

It was a huge pain in the ass...but guess who won the plushie category?  And when they announced my win, the judge who was the most supportive a year ago said, "You've really upped your game."  All the prizes were fantastic***, but I think that meant even more - she's next level.

Last year she also encouraged me to offer a plushie panel at this year's con, and sometime this spring I decided to go ahead and do it.  I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking - probably that it would be a good way to build up some of that street cred I'm lacking.  Suffice it to say that by the beginning of July, when I realized that if I ever got finished with my curriculum maps and IB training I still had to put together a presentation, I was a little panicky.  And when I went into the room where my panel would be, I was kind of terrified.  Here's the thing: I'm a teacher, and getting up in front of a bunch of people and showing them how to do something is kind of what I do.  But usually those people are less than half my age, and there are 20 or so of them.  When my panel started, every seat in the room was full - 10 at each of 8 tables, plus some around the sides.  I put together a presentation, and that worked alright, but there were things that I would have done better to demonstrate.  I probably should have taken my document camera when I left Mongolia...next time...  This is not to say that it was a catastrophe - lots of people told me how much they enjoyed it, and it was definitely something different.  But I know I could do better.

Before the Mini-Festival a couple of guys did a presentation on Gunpla (Gundam plastic models - that word-shortening-joining thing is very Japanese).  It was really interesting to hear them talk about the different kinds - AND I got a small kit out of it as a door prize.

This year's theme was the Dark Carnival of Pigs.  After taking my first look at the exhibition hall, I had a little over an hour before I was meeting my mom for dinner...

...yes, my mom took me to an anime convention.  Negative one million adult points.

Anyway, seeing that their haunted house was about to start back up, I decided to wait in line and check it out - I mean, who doesn't love a haunted house?  After an hour I'd made it to the front of the line, and was ushered in.  And was a little disappointed, but I'm still trying to sort out why.  AnimeIowa is a family-friendly con, and I'm sure that they could have made it scarier, but it was okay.  I guess it just wasn't enough, and I think that's my problem more than theirs.  I think my expectation is that a convention should be the most amazing thing ever, but after traveling around Japan, I have pretty high expectations for "the most amazing thing ever."  To make me happy, it would probably take an art show by Akane Yano, special guest seiyuu Kamiya Hiroshi, and an exhibition hall reminiscent of at least Denden Town (although I wouldn't give up all the crafty goods, it would be nice if they at least focused on anime).

Or, you know, these weirdos.  A year after ASU's first anime night, they put on another activity focused on Naruto.  Every Wednesday during their lunch, they met in my classroom to plan it out, calling them "Weeb Meetings."  On the road back to Glenwood, I found myself thinking next year, we'd have to take the best events from AnimeIowa and make a mini-con...and then I realized that my little weebs weren't moving to Japan with me.  I'm incredibly excited for everything I'm going to get to see and do when I get to Yokohama, but it's a little hollow because I know exactly what I left behind - a good school, great admin, and the best damn students in the world.

*Bunco = some kind of fast-paced dice game.  For the Peeps, it's a monthly excuse to one-up each other, showing off their culinary skills and homes.

** Babysis was offended by that statement, as she had been talking to Baby Chicken Wing when I walked in, but she and I have spoken before about where she falls on the acceptable range of normality, and that is firmly in the middle.

***I came home with a new Nendoroid, a Fullmetal Alchemist cup, a Charizard plushie, and a figurine from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, plus a medal for me and a little one for Sesshoumaru-sama

It's the Wind-Up...Aaaand the Pitch!

So back at Christmastime, at the end of the trip from hell, Five proved the fact that I did not, in fact, plan to never leave Mongolia again by saying that she was thinking of using her Korean Air miles to go somewhere for spring break.  I immediately responded, "If you go to Japan, I'll come with you!"  We discussed what the possibilities were in Tokyo versus Osaka/Kyoto, and she chose Door Number 2.  So here we are.  But here's the thing: I waited until she'd talked to Korean Air, and I bought the itinerary they reserved for her.  When she went to actually book it, they told her that date was sold out, so she had to fly out the following day.  This meant I had to figure out what to do with myself for 24 hours.

Me being me, this wasn't a problem.  For starters, I went to Omi Jingu.  At some point in the last week I was panning over Kansai on Google Maps (this was obviously before I figured out that you could play Ms. PacMan on them) and when I saw it's name, it immediately rang a bell.  Most of the anime I've watched since New Years' has been stuff I've already seen, partly because I've been too lazy to try to find new ones, but mostly because I sometimes miss subtitles when I sew, and it bothers me less when I already know what's going on.  This is important because one of the animes I've rewatched is Chihayafuru, which is kind of like a sports anime, except it has class.  The sport in question is karuta, in which two decks of 100 cards each have, respectively, the first two and second two lines of 100 poems written on them.  The point of the game is to identify the second line of the poem being read and take it before your opponent.  The national championships happen at Omi Jingu, aka, the place I had just scrolled across on Google Maps.  This being one of my favorite anime that I watched last fall, I definitely had to go.

I got to Kyoto around 1:30, and after a quick stop in the train station to exchange money and reserve some tickets, I checked into our hotel, dumped my stuff, and headed out to the metro.  It turned out to be possible to get to Otsu with only two transfers, and along the way there was some nice scenery (although I feel a little cheated...when I went to Tokyo two years ago sakura season was in full swing.  Here it's hardly started).  Otsu is on the shore of Lake Biwa, and it was pretty chilly, standing on the platform of the second transfer waiting for my next train with the wind blowing in, but when I got off at Omi-Jingu-Mae I felt warmer.  The neighborhood was pretty small and quiet, and the walk up to the shrine was through a heavily wooded area.  There was hardly anyone there, which I loved - there's tons of people in Kyoto right now, and I even stumbled across the entrance ceremony for Ritsumeikan University this morning - and it was unmistakably the shrine from Chihayafuru.  Now, I'm not about to go full-blown weeaboo on you and visit every site of every anime, but it was still pretty cool.

So that took care of last night.  This morning I had leftover plans from 6 months ago.  When I came in October, there were two things I was going to do on Sunday, before I found out that the Saigu Procession took place that day.  The first was yuzen dyeing at the Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts.  The museum is free, and for a small fee, you get to use traditional brushes, dyes, and stencils to decorate the item of your choice.  Since making cool shit has kind of become my thing, and now that there were no festivals in my way, I was all in.  The museum was awesome, and made me realize that there are way more traditional crafts to try in Kyoto than I realized.  Probably enough that I could fill up several more trips with them, but we'll have to see where I end up next year, or if I even get a job (it feels a little hopeless right now).  I chose to make a bag because I am getting tired of taking my backpack everywhere with me; it's a little more expensive - 2,000 yen - but they let me put a design on each side, so I thought it was well worth it.  It's an interesting technique.  You basically wipe off ALL the dye, then brush what's left onto the fabric through the stencil using a circular motion.  This means you can get some really cool ombre effects and make different tones...and the fact that I get totally jazzed about experiences like this make me think that maybe I shouldn't give up on the whole art teacher thing just yet.

My second course of leftovers was the antiques market at To-Ji.  These happen twice a month...the bigger one is called Kobo-san Market and happens later in the month.  That was the one I missed by going to Arashiyama.  However, today's market had more than enough to ogle - including one shunga print that I found while looking through a stack of antique ukiyo-e prints.  There was so much stuff - it's fun to look at, even if you have no intention of buying anything.  I, however, had every intention of coming home with something.  I've been envious of my friend Racy LaRaye ever since she brought an antique kimono back from Japan during my final stint in Korea, and I thought that was what I was after today.  

However, at some point since I started making plushies I became interested in making accessories for them.  And by accessories I mean swords.  Is it just me, or are swords the freaking coolest way to kill people of all time?  They are beautiful, they require skill, strength, and grace.  They don't kill by accident.  So yeah.  Swords are cool, and since I'm generally more interested in shounen anime, many of my favorite characters have them, and I've considered making some in miniature.  So when the first booth I walked past had swords and pieces of swords, all possibility of me walking away with an antique kimono evaporated.  Although I did find one place that was selling remnants for 50 yen each, so I bought several pieces.  Because you can never have too much fabric.  I mean, unless you are moving all your shit to some unspecified destination in two and a half months.

Now, if you have never considered making a miniature katana, you may not realize how freaking many pieces they have, especially if you come from a Western background.  It's a lot, and they all have names.  At the To-Ji market, I think it's actually possible to buy everything you'd need to make a Frankensword.  But be warned, each little piece is an antique, and the Japanese are fond of their swords.  I ended up buying the hand guard piece, called a tsuba if Wikipedia can be relied on, and wanted to buy a couple of other pieces, but after spending 6,000 yen on a less expensive one, I couldn't quite bring myself to shell out another 8,000 for the ones I was looking at.  If I had been willing to look a little harder, or try a bit of bargaining, it might have happened, but I was due to pick up Five from Kyoto Station, so I left it at that.