Ok, after much procrastination, I am now finally sitting down to write about my time in Japan thus far. If I haven't mentioned it in my previous posts, I am currently on a study abroad program in Kyoto for the fall semester. Our group from Colgate stopped at Tokyo for one week, and as you have guessed, that's where all the fun and silly adventures came from. The world is big, and this vague, dark and scary hole called fandom is truly bottomless.
On my second day of arrival in Japan, our group got the morning free, so I went to Ikebukuro to check out the Animate and Lashinbang shop recommended by my friend. I was stopped by a friendly police asking for my identification. It's a strange world. The train system in Tokyo is really confusing at first, since they used price instead of destination when buying tickets. There are also multiple train systems ran by different companies around Tokyo, so getting the exact station AND line is crucial for navigation. Of course they have a convenient Suica card that lets you tap and forget about buying tickets, but getting on the right track can be quite troublesome at times, if you can't or don't want to ask for directions.
Arriving at Ikebukuro around 10am, it hit me that most shops were still closed. The famous setting for Durarara!!! was not as glamorous as it looks in the night, although the street was still quite crowded and the sun was already blazing down on us pedestrians. Trusting my intuition (and not downloading the map onto my iPod), I started walking along the streets of Ikebukuro. Sure enough, after ten minutes, I arrived at a (relatively) deserted arcades, movies and shopping areas. Here and there some people were waiting in line for the shops to open. Again it hit me that waking up so early wasn't such a prudent idea. To worsen my premonition, I walked for 15 minutes without finding that Animate shop. Finally, I gave in and decide to find an internet cafe, and ended up stumbling into a small manga cafe tucked away on the second floor of a building in the side street.
My first Japanese interactions since the airport went relatively smoothly. The price was, well kinda high for what I did, 200 yen for half an hour, but if you are planning to shutting yourselves in for a few hours, or even days, the price gets lower, and it is a relatively cheap, considering the prices of other form of entertainment in Tokyo (excluding, of course, window shopping, which may not be ideal if your idea of 'malls' is Akihabara). Here's the shot of a reading room.
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| TV, PC, PS2, drinks and wifi |
The room is quite small, just enough to have a table and a chair, and some leg room. The facilities include soft drinks, coffee and a shower. I guess you can marathon stuff like Dragon Ball or Ruroni Kenshin without breaking a sweat (thank god they have air conditioning in this blazing hell of Japan summer). I only stayed long enough to download a working map, and the journey continues.
Even with the newly updated map data, I still couldn't find the required building. On the way I stopped at a few arcade to check out the games. They have full floors dedicated to fighting and gundam machines, with some awesome looking cabinet. A shame I didn't take any pictures of those. Speaking of arcades, I tried my hands at the Project Diva and Jubeat Copious. Eventually I got myself a profile card (that lets you save play data) for each of them. The arcade is also a reasonably cheap place to bust some stress if you have the skill. An hour would cost some 500-700 yen on music games. One thing I must mention about the arcade in Japan, they have AMAZING etiquette. There are seats for popular games, and people usually step down if they see others queuing for the machine. Took me a few minutes to realize that. Queuing is a part of the culture.
If you are looking for used manga or light novel, Book-off is the first place you should try, before Mandrake and smaller shops. Even though I said used, the paperback sold are kept in pristine condition. Covers are clean, pages corners undamaged, and the whole book felt just like new, saved for the smell of newly printed paper. The shops has an amazing 105yen section, where you can find some popular novels and manga at a price that cannot be beaten elsewhere. (Amazon.jp has lots of used books at 1Y, but the shipping cost is around 250Y). The only thing missing is probably the feedback slips. They also have some artbook for sale at 50%-70% the original price.
With ALL of that commotion out of the way, I reached Animate and Lashinbang some one hour and a half later, after noting the critical landmark that was the high rise road. Animate has a huge 6-storey building, while Lashibang is smaller with only two floor.
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| Animate Ikebukuro |
As with most other high buildings selling anime related goods, the floor are separated into Commics, Character goods, Shoujo, Shounen, DVD and CD, and Games. Some have Doujins and Adult floor as well.
As I had a few things in mind, the trip through Animate was brief, but it was truly a sight for sore eyes. Shelves and shelves of anime goods, DVD, CD, games, manga, novels and all sort of trinkets just lie there staring at you (or being stared at, I can't tell). If people show me a picture of these stores, they have a 100-fold chances of convincing me to believe in heaven.
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| Lashinbang |
The neighboring Lashinbang is more of used goods and doujins. I found some 100yen light novel in their baskets and the whole collection of Toradora for only 1500 Yen. The first floor was strictly BL. That's where I first learned the lesson of looking at the customers before stepping into a shop. The second floor had some pretty figures and games.
I forgot to mention this is probably pretty close to what they call 'Otome Road', since I found a nearby Mandrake store specializing in BL (again). A stores hidden behind a tall resident building, accessible only through a winding flight of stairs leading down from street levels. This time it took me 5 minutes of wandering before realizing the truth and hastily got out.
Just before heading back, I wandered into the Toranoana store. Their adult floor gave me shivers at first sight. Nakige is clearly not the only genre to visual novels. I shan't entertain you with a picture of the place.
And that pretty much sums up my misadventures in Ikebukuro. I bet there are shopping and drinking places as well, but I wasn't too interested. The first experience of Tokyo (and Japan) was quite satisfying. I will post some on Akihabara later.
