Shibuya!

[oyceter]

First day in Tokyo! It's a bit overwhelming. Our flight was first delayed, and although we managed to exchange our travel vouchers for tickets for the airport bus to our hotel and get our rental cell phones, Narita's 2nd terminal is not particularly easy to navigate. We then headed to Asakusa to get even more train tickets (for Nikko), in which I got lost about eighteen times in the subway station and managed to get in to buy our passes five minutes before the office closed. Go me and my sister, but that took a lot more time than anticipated.

Then... Shibuya! I think I am still a bit shocked by just how big Tokyo is; no wonder last time I was here, I basically just spent all four days or so around Shibuya. I was startled in Seoul by the size of Myeongdong, which I feel is about four times the size of Ximending, but Shibuya is at least two Myeongdongs, to say the least. Also, it started raining. We had our umbrellas, but still!

So far, I love all the random little eateries underneath highway and subway overpasses, but I have to say, Tokyo's subway system is about ten times more confusing than Seoul's. First there's the fact that there are three separate lines, and I'm still not quite sure how transfers work between them (I heard it was more expensive). And then, the signage is really not very good. My sister and I stared blankly at the ticket screen, and all the exits and maps are extremely confusing. This is particularly weird when compared to Seoul, where I felt like everything made a lot of sense and I almost always knew where to go as long as I was within the subway system.

Thankfully, I managed to find Book Off in Shibuya without getting very lost—like Seoul and very unlike Shanghai, things on the map look far in Tokyo but are actually extremely walkable—and Book Off, like everything else in Tokyo, was far larger than I had expected. Can I say that I continue to hate the Japanese system of shelving comics? It probably makes a lot of sense when you read comics from the monthly or weekly magazines, but when you have no idea what company published which author's whatever series, it takes a lot of time to hunt through stacks of manga to make sure you didn't miss anything! I so wish things were just shelved by mangaka. As such, I didn't get any loot in Book Off and wandered off with my sister, slightly disappointed. But Mandarake was next on the list!

OMG people! How have I managed to never go to Mandarake before in my life?! And I thought Animate in Akihabara was awesome when I first went way back when! I didn't explore it fully, but Mandarake has rows and rows and rows of doujinshi (none of which I bought, since I have no idea what circles publish what and already felt bad dragging my sister through who knows how many miles of comics). And manga! And they arranged the manga by author so I finally managed to find the republished version of Mizushiro Setona's 1999nen shichi no tsuki Shanghai! FINALLY! Well, just part two of two, but still.

AND AND AND OMG!!!!!!!

I now own vols. 1-4 (of 8) of Takemiya Keiko's Kaze to ki no uta (I did not realize it was so long, woe!) and Hagio Moto's Heart of Tomas and November Gymnasium! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! I have been looking for these ever since UNDERGRAD!

... and now I am not sure if I was just always looking in the wrong place, because they're published in a smaller format than most manga, or if I just needed to go to Mandarake. And they had a TON more Takemiya Keiko and Hagio Moto that I did not buy because the series were too long and I was already buying a lot as it were! But still!!! Magnificent 49er manga FINALLY! And all for less than $40!

Also, we went to a cat cafe for half an hour and watched a bunch of cats eat and chase each other around! They were so cute! I only wish we could have stayed longer to pet them more. Then on to dinner at an Okinawan restaurant with my sister's co-worker, in which we had this pork with the cartilage still in, cooked so that it was a soft, mochi-like texture. Also, we randomly had takoyaki under a highway overpass in Asakusa and a chocolate taiyaki in Shibuya!

So far, I am actually not sure if I love Tokyo as much as Hong Kong or Seoul, which surprises me a bit, but some of it is probably the size and the sheer overwhelming-ness of it all. And we have really only gone to Shibuya! Tomorrow, Shinjuku and Harajuku and Omotesando and Aoyama, or however much of it we make it through.

(I am SO TEMPTED to go to Mandarake in Ikebukuro to see if I can pick up my missing volumes for Takemiya Keiko and Mizushiro Setona. We will see how much my sister can take being dragged through bookstores where she does not read the language.)

Comments

[laceblade]

OMG, I went to the Mandarake in Sapporo when I was there. IT IS WHERE I BOUGHT DOUJIN, but also a Rose of Versailles tome. I COULD HAVE SPENT 9 HOURS IN THAT PLACE. I'm kind of strongly tempted to place a large order with them online.

Takoyaki! Now I want some!

[oyceter]

AWESOME! I wanted to spend 9 hours there just flipping through the doujinshi! Someday I will have to go with fannish people so I do not feel bad dragging my sister to these places.

[emceeaich]

I remember going to the Bookoff in Shibuya in 2007. They had a display of SF novels up front in honor of the WorldCon. There were some Tiptree and Sense of Gender nominated books in the display. cynthia1960 and I were pleased.

[oyceter]

Oh awesome! Sadly not when I was there, but that would have been really cool to see.

[andrew_jorgensen]

Do take time when you change trains in Utsonomiya to take advantage of being in the gyoza capitol of the world. And if you're bothered by a surfeit of money, the best steak in the world is at a restaurant halfway up the hill to the Hotel Kanaya in Nikko.

[oyceter]

Will try, thanks for the rec! Am hoping my dad feels like splurging, hahaha.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

LOOT! HAGIO MOTO! *squees vicariously*

If you do think you'll be giving in to the temptation to visit another Mandarake location, I can give you some pointers to good Saiyuki DJ circles to look for... ^_~

[oyceter]

HAGIO MOTO OMG!!!!!

OOOO give me pointers! I have no idea if I will make it, but pointers are always good!

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

OK, amazing general reference first -- ditch_gospel's massive listing of Japanese Saiyuki fanart sites (http://ditch-gospel.livejournal.com/47092.html), which includes webpages for tons of doujinshi circles. This is an older post so some of the websites have gone dark since it was posted, but it's still an amazing reference if you want to pick up some names to look for; the list is broken down by pairing and/or character focus.

For personal recommendations -- bear in mind that I mostly collect 585/10K books, and the occasional gen-ish title that's mainly focused on Hakkai and Gojyo or Tenpou and Kenren.

Sezuka Ai -- does a mix of very soft/romantic 585 yaoi and unbearably cute gen stuff with chibi versions of the ikkou. Gorgeous art, seems to be fairly prolific.

Honey -- does both 39 and 58, often in the same book; fairly prolific. Some of the most gorgeous, professional-quality DJ art I've ever seen, her style is damn near identical to Minekura-sensei's own work. Alas, she's also rather fond of the pushy-seme/weepy-uke/dub-con yaoi dynamic, which makes it harder for me to enjoy some of the titles that go beyond angsty UST. (The icon I'm using here is cover art from a Honey DJ.)

Mikaduki-chop! -- currently inactive (last time I checked she'd shifted fandoms to Tenipuri), did a couple of interesting K10 and 58 books, the two I've managed to find so far were both plotty, softer yaoi. Art style is kind of quirky -- Tenpou in particular seems to have the face of a twelve-year-old girl -- but it has a strange charm that grows on you, IMO.

Lunaria -- I've only found one book by them but it's AMAZING -- lavish full-color 585 (and occasional gen-ikkou) art, non-explicit and subtly romantic, much of it in gorgeous historical costume or wafuku, pearlescent cover stock, just a stunningly gorgeous physical object.

EGS/Egoistic Guess -- fabulous art, at their best I'd rank them as second only to Honey in terms of similarity to Minekura's own work. Very prolific 58 and K10 focused circle, with works ranging from fairly soft yaoi to explicit smut.

Treasure -- this is the primary circle that I collect, and just about the only one I've seen who does 85/10K where Tenpou or Hakkai are seme for a change! Art is a bit stylized, in a pointy-chinned early-90s-BL sort of way, but still very nice; the color covers in particular have a very unique, recognizable style. Plotty, romantic softer yaoi with MASSIVE amounts of crack -- Treasure books have some of the weirdest, most id-tastic/AU-plots of any Saiyuki DJ I've seen. (The prize of my small collection, for instance, is a historical AU where Gojyo is a cross-dressing tayuu, the main attraction of a Yoshiwara brothel run by Sanzo -- Hakkai is his sinister attendant and Hazel is their confused and weirded-out would-be client.) The books aren't quite as exceptionally lavish as the Lunaria one, but still have excellent production values -- colored endpapers, satiny cover stock, even the interior pages are often on subtle colored stock like very pale green or creamy ivory rather than stark white.

(Also, while Lunaria and Mikaduki-chop! seem to be fairly obscure, I know at least two other people who actively collect Treasure, and books by Honey, Sezuka Ai, and *especially* Egoistic Guess seem to move fairly quickly on eBay or LJ sales posts -- so if you end up not being totally in love with any DJ you happen to pick up, you shouldn't have too much trouble unloading them -- and considering what I've heard of Mandarake used-DJ prices compared to shopping international auctions, you may even be able to make a profit on them, too.)

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

(Whoops, and somehow my icon selection didn't take up there -- that 10K-with-sakura-of-DOOOOOOOOOM! is Mikaduki-chop!, not Honey.)

[rachelmanija]

You should go to Mandarake in Ikebukuro! Unless I'm mixing it up with somewhere else, the clerks are all cosplayers.

I envy you so much right now!

[oyceter]

I want to! But the parents are arriving tomorrow, and you know how hard it is to get away.

We really should do an Asia Trip Part II in which we go to Seoul and Tokyo! I think Tokyo with you would be AWESOMESAUCE.

[rachelmanija]

We should! I could not agree more!

[estara]

Japan, and manga, and being able to read it in the original = me, green with envy

[oyceter]

I am really hoping the vocab isn't too hard so it doesn't take me forever to read just one page!

[djkittycat]

Am I a dork because I want to go to Shibuya because of this game:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Ends_with_You

Heh.

Eat nommy food for all us stateside!

[oyceter]

Hahaha, well, I want to go to Yokohama just to visit the ferris wheel that was in Honey and Clover ;). Geeks unite!

[bravecows]

Mmm, delicious pork cartilage!

That sounds like the best day! Hope you continue having fun -- though it's hard to see how you wouldn't!

I actually agree on not liking Tokyo as much as HK (dunno about Seoul, not having visited). I like the rest of Japan enormously for travelling in, but I think Tokyo is too big and oddly, lacks character. It is still awesome, though, just not AS awesome as HK and other Japanese cities.

[oyceter]

It is awesome!

But yes, omg, Tokyo is so big. I feel like every time I visit, I'm just skimming the surface of it, and I can never quite put it together in my head. Like, I can think of Harajuku and Shibuya and all the different neighborhoods, but they don't quite form a complete picture for me or something. Whereas HK is... HK.

[starlady]

That's funny to me, because I had exactly the opposite reaction re: the subways in Seoul versus the subways in Tokyo. Seoul is way more huge and confusing to me!

The Tôei lines are the ones that aren't in the Tokyo subway system--they're dark pink, dark blue, and, um, gray? on the map. Changing between them does cost more (and also can be complicated), and of course changing from either subway to the aboveground JR or other lines racks up the ¥ too.

I'm so jealous! That Book-Off in Shibuya is amazing, and so is the Mandarake, but yeah, the Book-Off system is hugely confusing until you get the hang of it. I know I way overpaid for a lot of manga that were available on the ¥105 shelves the first few times I went before I realized that the ¥105 shelves existed.

I kind of can't stand Shinjuku, but Aoyama, Harajuku and Omotesando are probably some of my favorite areas in Tokyo, along with Shibuya. The cafe on the ground floor and the one in the basement of the Omotesando Hills are both delicious.

ETA: The Mandarake in Ikebukuro is a bit of a hike but probably worth it. Also it's right near the best Animate of all, if you like anime goods. (I got a Hello Kitty-as-Ed-from-FMA cell phone charm there that I cherish to this day.)

I'd treasure that too

[lnhammer]

Hello Kitty-as-Ed-from-FMA cell phone charm

!!!

[oyceter]

Hee, yeah. I am just perpetually confused by all the different lines and how to transfer and whatnot.

I am really hoping I can make it to Ikebukuro, but I'm not sure, since my parents arrive tomorrow, and it'll be way harder to get out of family time =(.

[laceblade]

I got a Hello Kitty-as-Ed-from-FMA cell phone charm there that I cherish to this day.

*covets*

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Ridiculously cute! http://www.strapya-world.com/categories/12_28_16_2886.html

And someone is trying to sell one on eBay right now for $199.00. (!) o_O

[laceblade]

IT IS EVEN CUTER THAN I IMAGINED!

[torachan]

The small format is how old manga get republished (often with 2 or 3 of the original vols in one). And they generally are stocked separately from other manga. IME Kinokuniya and Asahiya don't tend to carry those manga in the US. Book Off does, but I don't think there's a Book Off in the Bay Area? idk.

While you're in Japan, though, any bookstore should have a section for those reprints. (Though selection will vary depending on how much manga they stock.)

I hate the shelving by publisher, too.

[oyceter]

Haha, yeah, I finally found that out after who knows how many years! So need to see if the LA Book Off has more Takemiya Keiko or Hagio Moto...

[torachan]

Speaking of LA Book Off, since you don't live down here, I don't know if you know, but the one on PCH and Crenshaw closed and a new one opened in Del Amo Fashion Center. (The one on Redondo Beach Blvd is still where it always was.)

I just happened to go to the PCH one when they were having their closing sale (dollar books half off!), otherwise I wouldn't have found out til I went and saw them closed.