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| Quite random if you ask me |
Showing posts with label manga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label manga. Show all posts
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Tokyo loots
At the end of the day, aside from the memories and such, what we have are physical results.
Most of these are used. Sorry for being a cheapskate. The new ones are the dengeki magazines that comes with the little Kirito figures, and a small manga volume with chapters from various series under that label. There are three volumes (out of 8 in the series) of the Hanbun Tsuki ga Noboru Sora (半分月がのぼる空), the Kogado game, some nendroid petit of Kyouko, Homura and Mikoto. There is also that plastic grief seed and soul gem. The fan was a promotional freebie, and the plastic file was a bonus from a Cospa purchase I made for a friend. Not very much, since I was on a tight budget. Sorry for the lousy background, but I was too lazy to flip the covers of the bed.
Tokyo Adventure: Akihabara
Getting into a habit of posting regularly is difficult. I will try to update this weekly from now on. That means there will probably be a quick review or two of the anime I am watching.
Akihabara, the heaven of otaku, the land of maid cafes, the archive of doujins, the never ending fountain of magazines and tankobon. It never sleeps. Oh wait, it does. Most things in Tokyo go to sleep at 8pm. If I believe in heaven (Western or Eastern), Akihabara would probably be it. I can't find the word to describe this overwhelming feeling of goodness flowing from (almost) every centimeters of shelves and cases in (almost) every building along this street. It would triggers any otaku inner Rena, without fail. It is an absolutely blinding sight to see all the fresh magazine lined up on the shelves and tables, stacks upon stacks of light novels and manga, floors with all sorts of goodies from key chain to folder to t-shirt to towel to pillow covers, and shelves upon shelves of figures, small to big, of (most) things existed. Anything and everything are so shiny that it is oppressive. Every time I walked by Akihabara I was at low stamina and my feet hurt from walking all day long, but the feeling of a mouse in a cheese storage room kept me going, and going, and going...If there is a heaven, it would probably be like Akihabara. It is so good that it hurts. Sorry for the lack of photos.
Going to Akihabara without a specific goal is suicide. Or just extremely inefficient. Fortunately, I had an ancient game by Kogado Studio in mind, which made the trip much more fulfilling and entertaining, as I got a good idea of the less ostentatious stores here. Big stores separate their goods into floors, usually CD/DVD, character goods, Shonen manga, Shoujo manga (or BL at some places), Games, Doujin (game and book), and a few have an adult floors. These often have a 2x2m elevators with a similarly small set of staircases leading up to as high as 8 or 9 floors. Most of the times I used stairs, which contributes to the terrible foot pain experienced throughout my time in Tokyo. It also made me seriously question the stereotype of the big fat sweaty otaku. Everyone around (not just Akiba, but Japan in general) seems to be lean and healthy (on the outside, of course). My target being an ancient game (and only upon finding it do I realize it is DVD sized, not enclosed in huge boxes with extras like most other well-known galges), it took me some ten hours of ploughing through shelves and shelves of games to find it in a small corner on the second floor of a small secluded shop. At least I found it. For your information, not all galges have nice bright covers like Key's or Circus' or August's. Some gave eye cancer and some shelves can downright faint the uninitiated. To paraphrase xkcd, the distribution of this sub-culture is fractal. There is no limit to how deep you can fall.
Not only the main street with big, multi-storey stores and arcades, the side streets of Akihabara also contain many shops with desirable goods, unfortunately I didn't have the time to went through all of them. Like most other Japanese arts, it takes months, may be years of constant patronage to have a decent grasp of the stores and their specialties. The side streets stores are much more crowded, as they try to cram as much as possible into their small limited spaces. They are a lot more shady too. The one thing I love about this culture is that everyone keeps their stuff so well, that used products look as good as new, especially when it comes to book. I bought four volumes of Hantsuki light novels used in Japan, and they all look as if they were just taken off the shelves. Akihabara goes to sleep early. Around 7 or 8, the streams thickens as people started to go home and shops started closing. Walking through Akiba after dark is relatively more pleasant due to the lack of the Japanese summer sun, and all sorts of lights brightening up the places from all kinds of signboards, lamps, stores and such.
That was the essence my Akihabara trip. The loots will come in another post.
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| The streets of Akihabara |
Akihabara, the heaven of otaku, the land of maid cafes, the archive of doujins, the never ending fountain of magazines and tankobon. It never sleeps. Oh wait, it does. Most things in Tokyo go to sleep at 8pm. If I believe in heaven (Western or Eastern), Akihabara would probably be it. I can't find the word to describe this overwhelming feeling of goodness flowing from (almost) every centimeters of shelves and cases in (almost) every building along this street. It would triggers any otaku inner Rena, without fail. It is an absolutely blinding sight to see all the fresh magazine lined up on the shelves and tables, stacks upon stacks of light novels and manga, floors with all sorts of goodies from key chain to folder to t-shirt to towel to pillow covers, and shelves upon shelves of figures, small to big, of (most) things existed. Anything and everything are so shiny that it is oppressive. Every time I walked by Akihabara I was at low stamina and my feet hurt from walking all day long, but the feeling of a mouse in a cheese storage room kept me going, and going, and going...If there is a heaven, it would probably be like Akihabara. It is so good that it hurts. Sorry for the lack of photos.
Going to Akihabara without a specific goal is suicide. Or just extremely inefficient. Fortunately, I had an ancient game by Kogado Studio in mind, which made the trip much more fulfilling and entertaining, as I got a good idea of the less ostentatious stores here. Big stores separate their goods into floors, usually CD/DVD, character goods, Shonen manga, Shoujo manga (or BL at some places), Games, Doujin (game and book), and a few have an adult floors. These often have a 2x2m elevators with a similarly small set of staircases leading up to as high as 8 or 9 floors. Most of the times I used stairs, which contributes to the terrible foot pain experienced throughout my time in Tokyo. It also made me seriously question the stereotype of the big fat sweaty otaku. Everyone around (not just Akiba, but Japan in general) seems to be lean and healthy (on the outside, of course). My target being an ancient game (and only upon finding it do I realize it is DVD sized, not enclosed in huge boxes with extras like most other well-known galges), it took me some ten hours of ploughing through shelves and shelves of games to find it in a small corner on the second floor of a small secluded shop. At least I found it. For your information, not all galges have nice bright covers like Key's or Circus' or August's. Some gave eye cancer and some shelves can downright faint the uninitiated. To paraphrase xkcd, the distribution of this sub-culture is fractal. There is no limit to how deep you can fall.
Not only the main street with big, multi-storey stores and arcades, the side streets of Akihabara also contain many shops with desirable goods, unfortunately I didn't have the time to went through all of them. Like most other Japanese arts, it takes months, may be years of constant patronage to have a decent grasp of the stores and their specialties. The side streets stores are much more crowded, as they try to cram as much as possible into their small limited spaces. They are a lot more shady too. The one thing I love about this culture is that everyone keeps their stuff so well, that used products look as good as new, especially when it comes to book. I bought four volumes of Hantsuki light novels used in Japan, and they all look as if they were just taken off the shelves. Akihabara goes to sleep early. Around 7 or 8, the streams thickens as people started to go home and shops started closing. Walking through Akiba after dark is relatively more pleasant due to the lack of the Japanese summer sun, and all sorts of lights brightening up the places from all kinds of signboards, lamps, stores and such.
That was the essence my Akihabara trip. The loots will come in another post.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Tokyo Adventure: Ikebukuro
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.
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.
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 |
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.
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