My last spring break as a teacher (at least for a good long while) is over. On one hand, this means that I won't have to experience the way a week can stretch infinitely at the end of a quarter while you pray you survive long enough to be free of the children for at least a few short days of travel. On the other hand, it means I'm going to be too broke to actually have a few short days of travel...unless I break my piggy bank. This is something that I'm trying to avoid, but after a year Stateside I may be desperate enough. I have hope that Minneapolis will be lively enough to keep me from noticing all the places I haven't gone.
Ever since the Evil One moved to Armenia I've been intending to go visit. After all, we were practically neighbors...or so I told myself.* I was aware, on some level, that it was trickier to get to the other end of central Asia than I was telling myself, since Her Evilness and co. came to visit two years ago, but you have to actually EXPERIENCE it to realize the truth. I've said it before. I'll say it again, especially since it may be the last time I do so for two years: getting there is NOT half the fun. See, flights into Yerevan are sporadic. What the Evil One did - and what she suggested to me - was to fly through Istanbul into Tblisi, which is in Georgia. Four hours away from Yerevan. Which either meant another flight - if there was one when I needed it (there wasn't) or ground transportation. She suggested a taxi. I said a bus was fine (I am not living on a state department salary, after all). And then she booked and paid for a taxi anyways, and had it take me directly to Gyumri - the first place that I mentioned wanting to visit - and met me there, claiming that it made it easier for her (because it did - no worrying about me while also avoiding a 8-hour drive round trip).
I was struck pretty hard through the drive by how similar Georgia (and later Armenia) felt. Topographically as well as the nature and some of the buildings gave me the impression that Mongolia and Greece got together and had a love child, then gave it to Russia to raise. My driver rushed along nice, smooth roads til we got to the border crossing - I think my fifth time crossing by land.** Since these days we mostly travel internationally by plane, it's easy to forget that you typically have to pass immigration twice - as a departure and as an arrival - but it was kind of a trip to be dropped off by the driver, walk through Georgian immigration just a few hours after they stamped my passport at the airport, drive over a river, get out and walk through Armenian immigration with my luggage, because this time I also had to go through customs. Not my weirdest land crossing, but definitely interesting.
The taxi made a brief stop for food (ie, snacks) and the bathroom just past the border, and then we wound through a canyon pretty much all the way to Gyumri, another 3 hours. The views were stunning and bleak by turns - I would have loved to make the driver stop at several points for photos, but since he was getting paid as a taxi driver, not a tour driver, I went easy on him.
Finally I made it to the old town, where the Evil One had booked us into the Grand Apricot hotel. She and her spawn came out and retrieved me from the driver and escorted me along a walking street before giving me the "grand tour" of my hotel room, which had been ransacked for pillows by the Lesser of Two Evils. After a short break, we all went out wandering.
The Armenians are amazing stone workers, and if I'd had more time, I would have taken her Evilness up on the offer to find me a carving class to take. Instead, I just had to admire it and take photos ad nauseum. The stone many of the buildings and carvings are made from is called tuff, a kind of sedimentary stone made from volcanic ash. Apparently the city planners of Gyumri - formerly known as Aleksandropol - had an emo streak, because they primarily used the black tuff for their masonry. And since I have a bit of an emo streak myself, of course I loved it...now I just have to figure out how to work it into a piece (maybe embossed paper???)
My first morning in Armenia I woke up bright and early for the thing that had brought me to Gyumri - dolls. Of course. The Family Evil slept in while I walked past churches to buy a loaf of bread and sit in the fresh morning air eating a snack, then wandered the rest of the way over to Naro Dolls.
It was a little off the beaten track, but 100% worth it! I loved meeting another craftsman - she hand sews and stuffs the dolls, using some cloth accessories as well as the painting. She even had a "big sister" doll based on the same design that I chose, which I really loved. Although it was different from the dolls I usually make, it was fun and I learned a new technique for the hair that I might have to try with my own dolls someday. And her hospitality was so sweet - when I told her I didn't drink coffee or tea, instead she brought me a cup of water in one of Gyumri's special crafts - a metal cup that sings! It was a pretty long workshop, and by the time Anahid (as Evil named her) was finished, it was about lunch time, so I got to try my first lavash, too, and it was delicious.
Finally I headed back to the hotel to force the sleepyheads to get moving. It was Evil's birthday, after all, so even if a lie-in was called for, we definitely needed to go see something. We discussed what we should do next, and after wandering a bit ended up at the Black Fortress.
Once upon a time, of course, it was an actual military fortification. The hill it sits on gives a strong advantage, with views of the countryside (ie, the Turkish border) all around...not to mention a lot of steps, if you count that sort of thing. But these days, it's used primarily for performances. I checked out the acoustics, much to the mortification of the Lesser of Two Evils, who refused to sing songs from Frozen with me, even though we were about the only people there. As we were about to leave, the caretaker came and offered to show us the museum, as well - apparently it kind of opens on an as-needed basis. We also got a nice view of Gyumri's Mother Armenia statue.
And that was about it. The next day, we visited the Museum of the Two Sisters - an art museum showcasing the work of two women from Gyumri - and stopped at HayAr jewelry on our way out of town, where I got to buy a beautiful pomegranate necklace made of recycled bullet casings. Then we were on our way to Yerevan.
*Yes, we physically lived closer to one another her first go-round - her in India, me in the Emirates - but Mongolia and Armenia feel closer on a mental level. Yes, my brain is a crazy, crazy place.
**I've also crossed US-Canada in 1989, South-North Korea in 2007, Greece-Turkey in 2008, and China-Nepal in 2013
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.
3 nights' stay at the APA Hotel and Resort:
$231.45
Admission to the world's largest hobby figure trade show:
¥2500.
Being one of the first people in the world to see your current anime obsession take 3D form:
Priceless.
Since the school closure started time has gotten a little wonky, kind of like it does on vacation. There's little to differentiate one day from the next. A day and half into this strange state, it occurred to me that if I was ever going to rectify the lapse in judgement on which I based my decision NOT to go to WonderFest the last two years, there was no time like the present. Although my school is still working, we're only in the building a few hours each day, since our classes take place online, thus I figured there was no reason why my admin would say no.
Well, it wasn't quite as simple as that, but it's amazing what you can claim as professional development when you teach art. Since I am not above using such flimsy excuses for my own evil means,* bright and early Friday, February 7th saw me cursing humanity on an early flight to Tokyo. There are all sorts of things written that tell you what WonFest is all about, so I'm going to skip the in-depth explanation of the figure industry and garage kits in favor of telling you about my experience.
I didn't go early. I considered it, but there wasn't anything I felt like I'd die if I didn't get, and I knew I was going to torture my feet enough as it was. So instead I walked across from the hotel at 10 and got in line...eventually. It was a little tricky figuring out where to start. There's a system of elevated walkways around Makuhari Messe , and after crossing over the street I could see the mob trudging forward, but wasn't sure how to join in. I ended up walking through the top part of the exhibition hall (a sukoshi bit jealous of the people who were already inside) and out next to hall 5, where I took the escalator down to buy my "ticket," a 2kg book of all the exhibitors, from whence I joined the horde.
I'd seen photos on Twitter of the diehards standing in a line wrapped all the way around the building and it gave me pause, but I really wasn't standing around long. I didn't slow down til I got to the back of the building, and by the time I'd read one page of the homework I'd been putting off for two weeks, my wait was over. I was being shuffled into the industry side, which was halls 1-3, and it only took a moment for me to spot GoodSmile's banner, way in the back, and start my beeline there. The cat was out of the bag as far as discovering Hanako-kun was going to be a nendo, thanks to social media, but I had to see him IRL. Before I could track him down, though, I found another treasure - a 1/7 scale figure of Hyakkimaru. I'd seen images of this sculpt last year on Twitter and mourned the fact that he wasn't for sale, so this was a big shock - so much that for a minute I thought he was the sample Figma.
Have you ever thought about what you would do if you could commit one crime without any consequences? Well, I figured out my answer that day. I'm not sure if I would have stolen Hanako-kun's prototype or Hyakkimaru's, but I definitely would've walked away with one of them. Sadly there was no way I could've pulled it off, so I'll be waiting another six months (if not longer...thanks, coronavirus), but I guess that's better than prison. Probably.**
There were other interesting announcements - mostly things I knew the Kawaii Kingpin would be glad to hear about. Inuyasha's nenoroid prototype was there, but I was more interested in the noodle stop FuRyu's releasing as a prize in September. At first I thought it was a scale, that's how badass it looked. They finally had a prototype of Hyakkimaru from ther f:Nex line as well, but that was such an utter disappointment, especially since GoodSmile's was of such a high quality. MegaHouse had their Kimetsu no Yaiba prototypes on display, including some very kawaii little chibi Hashiras, but I was bitter that they hadn't painted Tomioka-san in the two and a half months since I caught my first glimpse of him online.
I also felt a strange mix of indignation and satisfaction over two of GoodSmile's displays. The first greeted me at the entrance to their area: their range of Fate series figures arranged like a Hina matsuri display. As you might remember I did that with MY nendoroids last March. THEN I came across FOUR new Bungou Stray Dogs nendoroids...the same four they've already made, but dressed up like their key visual for the Narita Anime Deck promotion that begins next month. What you may not realize is that when they announced the rerelease of Dazai and Chuuya I was a little cranky. Dazai was my one valuable nendoroid, and by flooding the market with more of him my net worth plummeted. So I commented on the announcement that instead they should have released him in a different format, suggesting the Black era, so my investment portfolio wouldn't suffer, but they'd still make money hand over fist. Well, here they are. With all these ideas of mine they're using, they really ought to be paying ME, not the other way around.
After making my way around the industry area (giving the +18 caves a side-eye and a wide berth...my curiosity wasn't worth standing in line and then being stuck in an enclosed space with a bunch of hentai dudes), I began my trek through the jungle of garage kits. The exhibition floor is a teeming mass of humanity, strewn with islands of amateur figures self-produced in small quantities,*** and most mortals have no hope of discerning whether they are passing the same big-breasted, scantily clad anime girl for the third time. Once upon a time my friend Raycie taught me the survivial skills necessary for such life or death situations in the bead-encrusted corridors of Dongdaemun's fabric market. A plan of attack is crucial if you want to make it out alive. But even knowing this, I almost got sucked in and lost my way. Doubting even my own mind, I somehow found myself at the furthest corner and began circling each table. After making it the width of halls 7 and 8 I became confident enough to adjust my tactic, bobbing back and forth between the two sides of the aisle in order to cover more ground. It. Was. Madness. I loved every second of it, even if my feet hated me by the time it was over.
Still, it was not an endless parade of bishies and ikemen. I'd been following #wf2020w for two weeks on Twitter, hoping to discover what I would blow all my yen on, but I'm sad to say the industry still caters primarily to men. Most of the really nice garage kits were of female figures. Most of the male ones depicted OP, repulsively muscular dudes. And of course, a bunch of these - in my humble opinion - really tacky plastic monster things that for some reason Japanese guys dig.**** And that's sad because there was a definite female presence - both shopping and selling.
For example, my must-buy Twitter find was sculpted by a female artist. She made alternate hair parts for Hyakkimaru's nendoroid, to depict the bandage he wears around his head after he gets his hearing back. She was admiring my Boku no Hero skirt and when she realized I was buying her work, got excited and shook my hand, coronavirus be damned! Her neighbor stall, also run by a woman, was selling custom nendoroid legs. That probably sounds a bit weird, but there aren't enough sitting nendoroid parts, and since I'm delving deeper and deeper into the black hole of customizing, I figured I'd find a use for them at some point. There were clothes for a whole range of ball-jointed dolls, although these I resisted, my previous purchase of two nendoroid dolls notwithstanding. Finally, just as my strength was about to give out, I came across a guy selling - I shit you not - a small kit of Wotakoi's Hirotaka in his online game avatar. For only 300 yen. So I snagged that, too.
One thing I shouldn't have worried about was not having enough cash. When I left the hotel I didn't know what I was going to find, and wasn't sure the ¥10,000 I had would be enough. Makuhari Messe has ATMs but not currency exchange machines, so I exchanged another hundred dollars to be safe before heading over. And then when I made my first purchase I realized that they took credit cards - a fact that would have been helpful to know beforehand. So there's my "WonFest for Noobs" exclusive.
Apart from the industry announcement and the possibility of buying anything it was personally worth it to me as a creator. At some point during the day I decided that someday I'm going there to sell my plushies. There were very few stalls selling anything soft and cuddly, and none were as adorable as mine (maybe I'm not the most impartial judge of such things, but since impartiality is apparently out of fashion this year, I guess I'll have to live with that). At any rate, I've got a willing assistant lined up for when that day comes, so now all I have to do is learn to use a sewing machine. Because at some point in the last few years I realized that I'll never be able to sell my fuzzy friends commercially unless I mech out.
*Will I use it in class? I give it a 50/50 chance, mostly dependent on how much time I get to spend messing around before fall. Will I give a workshop for our next PD day, as said admin suggested? Yes, but not about WonFest...but that's a subject for a different blog.
**Remember my last post? About rules?? Well, some rules are made to be broken. For the record, I feel like I can justify breaking this rule because I don't technically have my nendoroid yet.
***Apparently I am going to tell you what a garage kit is...blame it on my coursework. I kept getting pissed off because one author kept using a word without defining it, so I'll do you the favor of learning from his fail.
****Or so I assume - I can't imagine girls of any nationality digging these things.
We're three and a half weeks into the government mandated school shut-down, and just found out that we've got another month after this. I'm struggling. I miss my kids, I miss my routine - I have nothing to do! For some reason when I have all the time in the world I just don't feel like I need to do anything. All the sewing and sketching and (ahem) cleaning that I'd want to do while I was at work on a normal day just doesn't feel that urgent. Besides that, all public gatherings up to and including church have been cancelled - they've even called off one of Mongolia's two big celebrations, Tsagaan Sar. So don't blame me for a bit of a puff piece, because I don't really have anything else to write about. As you'll learn in my next post, I recently went through the looking-not-touching-glass (because, you know. Quarantine.) on a magical shopping adventure. But here's the thing: coming back to Mongolia may have brought me a return to disposable income, but I am WAAAY too happy funneling it into the figure industry. The claustrophobic aisles leading between tightly packed shelves are an easy place to lose your way, and a girl needs guideposts to keep from getting lost in the mists of darkness. These are mine.
Rule #1: One character, one figure
This is my most important rule, and some people might disagree strongly with it. It started as a rule of necessity - back when I was leaving Japan I asked myself if I needed BOTH the Roy Mustangs I had, and that made packing easier, if not the actual deciding. Even if I wasn't nomadic, I think I'd stick with this one - the collections I've seen of endless Hatsune Mikus and Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blades are a little creepy. Of course the otome perspective makes this a little easier to live by: rarely do we get more than one or two versions of the male characters we love (if that). I’ve stuck pretty well with this rule, and currently only have two duplicates: my Eraserheads (there was no way I was giving up the Pop my little brother gave me when I got his prize figure. Hell, do Pops even count???) and Levis, but I'm planning on selling his nendoroid when I get the chance. Still, the temptation does come up from time to time, and I've had to make some tough decisions.
Kamado Tanjiro, Deluxe Version. By Aniplex
Rule #2: It's okay to splash out on male figures...
I don't want to talk to you about how much I spent ordering the yet-to-be-released deluxe version of Aniplex's Tanjirou figure. Suffice it to say it didn't come cheap (and it hasn't gotten any cheaper, thank fuck). However, I've seen male figures go for absolutely ridiculous sums of money in the aftermarket - the only reason I was able to find my Yato figure for less than $300 was because he has damage to one of his swords. So I say that if you're buying new, go for it. For used figures, I try to use my best judgement. Sometimes figures get rereleased - GoodSmile does this a lot with their nendoroids - but that seems to depend a lot on how hot the anime is. If it's been several years and there's no whisper of a new season, it might not happen.
Rule #3: ...But don't buy characters you don't know
If I've never read the manga, watched the anime, or played the game, do I really need a figure of that character? That's another question I ask myself. This meant that when I got back from Kyoto last fall and finally did watch Psychopass that I was kicking myself a little for not buying Ko-chan's nendoroid, but it's also helped me to resist buying Ootengu from Onmyoji and Kaworu from Evangelion because I can't be bothered to play/watch their franchises. Both figures are really cool, but in the end they're just a pretty piece of plastic unless I'm invested in their characters.
Ootengu, China exclusive. By Hobby Max
Rule #4: Don't pay more than $70 for a nendoroid.
Half of my collection is these little bastards. I love them, they're hellacute. But their original prices range around 4500-6000 yen. For me, when the price climbs above $70, they just become too expensive. This is one rule that I haven't been tempted to break, although I've owned nendos that were worth more - Hoozuki, who I ended up selling, can go for around $110, and Dazai even more than that, although since he got a rerelease I'm pretty sure his worth has plummeted...and that's why you don't want to sink too much into them. As mentioned above, they do get rereleased pretty often, so their value can be fairly volatile.
Ranma Q-Posket, for old times' sake. Bought, not won.
Rule #5: Don't win your prizes - Buy them
I'm ashamed of how long this rule took me to figure out. Prize figures are among the hardest goods to get out of UFO catchers. Don't be surprised if after plugging the machine full of 100 yen coins you still don't have that damn Rimuru. If you're in it for the thrill of victory and you actually want to waste a small fortune, well, by all means - dozo. But if you're more interested in the figure, do yourself a favor and see if you can buy it instead. If you're not in Akiba, just find your nearest Bookoff+ and see if they have it. The one in Kawasaki was a great source for prizes, but even my small neighborhood Bookoff had a decent range of figures.
Mika and Yuu, by Mens Hdge.
Rule #6: (almost) Never Order In
I've only learned this rule this fall. Once I had disposable income again I didn’t care if shipping was expensive, especially since that Kogami Shinya DX nendoroid I passed on in Kyoto was only 3500 yen online. But I've come to realize that any deals you might be getting are countered by that shipping cost, so I no longer let myself order old figures for delivery. This also helps to ensure the joy of the hunt for the next time I'm in Japan. There is an exception to this one: rare figures. I wholeheartedly believe if you can get a great deal on the Owari no Seraph boys you should 10 million percent go for it.
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.
It hasn't quite been two weeks, but I already miss Japan. Maybe it was the Time Out Tokyo article about TeamLab's installation at Shimogamo Jinja. Maybe it was scrolling through my Pinterest feed, which is always littered with Japanese places, clothing, and words. Or maybe it was preparing for AnimeIowa last weekend.
For the fourth year running, I made the trek past cornfields to Iowa's one and only anime convention, AnimeIowa. Last year I questioned whether or not there was a point to American anime cons after living in Japan, but ultimately concluded that I enjoy being a part of the English-speaking side of the fandom.* So this year I contributed to it, presenting three panels (the magic number that gets you in for free): a pub-night style quiz, a panel on Japanese art, and one about Japanese religion and spirits. It was a lot of work to get ready for, and at least a little stressful, but actually really rewarding.
Volks' Hobby Center, a block from the station
At the end of the day, though, nothing can compare to the real thing, particularly the heart of Otaku-hood itself: Akihabara. I've been promising you a post about Akiba for the better part of two years now, and although I intended to do it the week before I left, I was so demoralized by trashing my carefully built Yokohama life that I just couldn't do it.
Instead, here I sit in my parents' living room trying to remember everything I was going to tell you, and I'm probably doomed to fail, but ganbatte-masu. The first thing you need to know about Akiba is that it's a teeming horde of anime, manga, and gaming stuff (as well as the electronics that it was originally named for and - perhaps somewhat inevitably - a sex toy superstore). You need to know what you're going for before you get off the train. If you want to just browse, that works, but knowing what you want to get out of your trip to anime's Mecca will keep your bank account from being bullied like the protagonist of a shoujo series.
So - for example - for Nendoroid parts, I liked Volks'. Most places have plenty of whole figures, and some even have parts, but as far as selection goes, Volks' was the best. They also have Goodsmile's playsets, diorama mansions, and pretty much everything you could possibly need to recreate scenes from your favorite anime. They sell model sets and paints and figures and other anime swag, not to mention ball-jointed dolls (or at least the one in Yokohama did...I didn't explore all the floors in Akiba because it's fricking huge) - and if it seems like they offer a lot in the way of making stuff, that's because it's sort of their specialty. Mulan, on the other hand, (pictured above) was a place where I was able to find tapestries I wanted - the first time I went in there, I came across exactly what I wanted, a B3 sized tapestry of Hoozuki.
If you decide to check them out, you should know that Google Maps is lying about the location - they're actually located next to one of the four Sega game centers, on the main strip of Akiba.
And while I'm on the subject, it's worth a trip just for the UFO catchers. Before I left I sort of got my addiction under control (mostly because I realized I could find most of the new prizes at Kawasaki's Book-Off for less than I'd spend trying to win them). For legit otaku prizes, though, it's hard to beat Akiba. I saw prizes there that I didn't find anywhere else (and sadly, I kept pretty close tabs on the game centers, particularly in Shibuya and at Yokohama station). These Kaguya-sama mascots are just one example. You'll still find more Disney crap than you might care to, and Ikebukuro still caters better to the otome population, but playing crane games - or at least looking to see what the current prizes are - was definitely one of my highlights of a trip to Akiba.
Turn the corner at the next intersection and about a block later you'll come to the Akiba Culture Zone. This is a huge building filled with smaller shops buying and selling swag, if you can make it past the first two floors: a ginormous Lashinbang. This was my first stop when I was looking for a nendoroid, as they seemed to have nearly every figure I was looking for.
There is some sort of logic to the way many stores are arranged, which is important to realize if you are, in fact, looking for something specific. Gunpla models pretty much always get their own section - sometimes even their own floor. Nendoroids and Figmas also tend to be grouped together, although this isn't always the case. Merch for major series is usually displayed together - One Piece and Dragonball, in particular, but Touken Ranbu, the Fate/Stay series, and Kantai Collection often have sections as well. The Nendoroids for these characters are sometimes found in these sections, as well, so if you don't find your favorite touken danshi with the other nendoroids, it may be on a shelf next to its scale figure. American media - Disney and various superheroes - are usually together. Beyond that? You may just have to be patient and sharp-eyed to find what you're looking for.
Surugaya Specialty was where I opened my wallet the first time in Akiba. I hadn't actually planned to spend any money that trip, since I hadn't gotten my first paycheck yet, but when I found Levi's nendoroid - pre-re-release - for only 3500 yen (the 3D maneuvering gear was damaged, but I didn't care), I knew they'd got me. They have a pretty good selection and I've found other good deals there, although most of the time I managed to keep from succumbing to temptation.
Closer to the station were a couple of other shops I liked to stop at...and I'm not actually sure what they were called anymore. Probably it doesn't matter. Just because I found Dazai there for only 7000 yen doesn't mean it will ever happen again.
And at the end of the day, you never know where you'll find the treasure you're seeking. For two years I was low-key hoping to find the one and only Yato figure ever released - by Megahouse in 2015. On my very last day in Akiba I randomly wandered into an alley off the main street, a kind of covered arcade that I pretty much walked past every time, and when I recovered from the discovery that Naruto and Sasuke figures based on the kabuki play had been released, I looked down and found my stray god. For 59800 yen. This isn't the most expensive I've seen him online, but it was, nonetheless, too rich for my blood, so I walked...or rather, limped...away in defeat.
Still, even without spending a single yenny, I always found trips to Akiba to be an excellent use of my weekends (or occasionally, weeknights). You'll see banners for new anime, or stumble across events you weren't expecting. Basically it's like an anime convention with a marketplace beyond your wildest imagination, with events randomly happening from time to time, one of which will be the subject of my next post.
*And, of course, winning prizes for my plushies. Asirpa and Sugimoto took first place in the plush category.
A sad reality of my life in Japan is the fact that I never seem to have enough money. Case in point: I have been on vacation for a week and a half but I haven’t left Yokohama. Unless you count Tokyo, which I don’t...who really knows where one ends and the other begins, anyways? And maybe I’m just getting old, but the idea of two weeks of staying up late and sleeping in, and generally just puttering around however my heart desires kind of appealed to me. And that is why after a week and a half of vacation the most I can say I’ve accomplished is drinking enough coke to kill a horse and staying up to date on my photography assignments toward my master’s.
Be that as it may, I felt that I couldn’t, in good conscience, leave my six faithful readers without any adventures to enliven their dreary existences this week. I had a great plan. I was going to go out to Sanrio Puroland, since my suggestion to go there with friends had been shot down by said friends. And then I walked out of the house last Friday to do exactly that, and I realized that it was cold and rainy and I wanted no part of the great outdoors.
Well, that decision made, I started looking for what else I could do on a nasty afternoon. I opened Google maps and started looking at the places I’ve starred over the last few years. I have a tendency to mark places I find out about where I want to go as favorites, so that I can visit them later when I have time.* I had been looking at the west part of Tokyo, and decided to get a little weeb-ish.
One place I marked about a year ago was Shiro-Hige’s Cream Puff Factory. This is a little place out in Shimokitazawa owned by Hayao Miyazaki’s brother, and it’s the home of the most kawaii cream puffs on the face of the planet. I got there around 1 and was really only thinking about dessert until I stepped in the door and realized there was a restaurant with real food upstairs and it smelled delicious. I inhaled the fettuccine carbonara, didn’t ask for a hundred refills of ice, and took my cream puff to go, which is actually pretty good behavior for me, but what can I say? There was just something about the place that made me want to be respectful.
Next I caught the train over to Chofu. At some point since I started watching Gegege no Kitaro I found out that Shigeru Mizuki used Chofu as the setting for his manga. In fact the entrance for the forest is through Fudaten Jinja, so it had a star on it as well. There’s also a Kitaro Chaya by Jindai-ji, the temple I visited last year for the daruma market, but I’d already eaten pasta and a cream puff, and since I shouldn’t reaaaaally be buying anything else, I decided to give the tea house a miss.
I checked out the shrine itself, and then tried to find Gegege no Mori. The back part of the shrine is restricted, but I noticed a row of stone lanterns along the east side of the shrine. I followed them back to a small cemetery, where I could see the back part of the shrine. Mostly it was an empty lot with a sakura tree, which was kind of disappointing, but not altogether surprising. After all, you can’t just leave the entrance to the unseen world lying around where anyone can find it.
Although I may not need any more stuff to pack, I couldn’t stop myself from visiting Nakano Broadway, since I was already all the way out there.** Call it a fact-finding mission in case I decide to sell off any of the stuff I already have and leave it at that. At least on this occasion I successfully resisted temptation. A few days later I was browsing the craft section of my friendly neighborhood Daiso when the opening song from The Promised Neverland - which I’ve just finished binge-watching - started playing over the PA system. It was about that moment that I realized I really, really didn’t want to leave Japan. There are things that bug the ever-loving shit out of me here, not least of which is the fact that it’s impossible to enjoy an art exhibit here (don’t even get me started on my job). That said, it’s going to be really hard to leave it all behind. Here’s hoping I make it back in the next life.
*The flaw in this otherwise brilliant plan is that I don’t always remember why I wanted to go some of these places.
**For the record, Nakano Broadway is nowhere near where I was, other than that they are both geographically west from the rest of Tokyo.
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.
