Category: Miscellaneous

The Other Side Of Infinity

June 5, 2009

Yesterday (and today) we’re a bit worn out. Plus the rain had returned, so we went for a day of shopping in Ikebukuro. This also included a trip to the planetarium on the top of the Sunshine 60 building, and during the show (in Japanese) both of us were nodding off to sleep!

(As I type this, the next morning, we’re watching a TV show about taking a female construction worker and giving her a beauty makeover. The ‘after’ is, in my opinion, much worse than the ‘before’!)

Actually that reminds me of a few asides… things I’ve been meaning to mention:
– The other day we watched a show on TV using three cute girls and a scientist to teach simple wave mechanics (interference, wavelengths, coherence etc) using cellphones and mirrors…
– One day this past week in a McDonalds we saw two schoolboys sit down and consult the menu via their cellphones before deciding what to purchase…
– Japanese cell phone cameras are up to 11 megapixel size, and include all the latest features of digital cameras in the USA (face recognition, moving focus, HD movie recording)

< Kapibarasan

Anyway back to Ikebukuro… um, we shopped! And bought some good souvenirs… especially for that one person who requested origami paper! Some things we observed in stores:

That’s Mr Bacon and Dacky the Healing Partner. (Almost) from the same marketing firm that gave us Homo Sausage?

< Sunny-chan

From a distance I assumed these sunflowers (at a stall in Ikebukuro station) were fake, but (of course) they were real!

Three products observed in a cosmetics shop. The ones on the sides are uniquely asian.. but the middle one is just weird. As KLS said, it’s for when the aliens arrive 🙂

< Kabuto-san

Yes, a pet beetle. Toys’R’Us had quite a selection, in sizes up to almost as big as your hand. Pet beetles have always been popular in Japan, but it used to be you trecked out into the woods and caught them yourselves. Now (I bet) they are farmed and sold in pet stores…

< (silence)

For the rabbit that has everything perhaps?

< Wow

If I was a rich man, I would have purchased this for my brother. It’s a super-detailed super-fine scale metal model kit of a blimp (minus the cover). Seems like you’d need the patience of a saint to assemble it, but it looks truly amazing once done.

< Look closely

The red lines under the ‘do not walk’ symbol? They are a timer, that tick down and tell you how much longer you have to wait. Such an obviously good idea, why hasn’t every country done this years ago?

As for lunch yesterday, well for a change we’ll let KLS have a turn!

Beware Of Hawks

June 4, 2009

Legend has it that Enoshima Island, on the coast about 80 minutes south of Tokyo, was the summer palace of a trio of female gods. Now it happily exists as a tourist destination, and if any of you ever plan on going to Japan put this place very high on your list of sights to see.

Such are the sights of the three shrines (and surroundings) on Enoshima.

Although an island, Enoshima is connected to the Shonan mainland by a landbridge (about a 5 minute walk). The island is hardly flat, and to fully explore you need to be able to navigate a great many stairs. After Takao, we were a little concerned. But we prevailed!

< No!! More stairs?!?!

About halfway up the island there is a new ‘attraction’ at one of the shrines, a large loop made of reeds, which apparently needs to be walked through in a particular pattern to ensure luck?

< Eh??!

Of course I had to do this, and the results were astounding as this video shows!

There’s also a ‘love-love’ shrine halfway up, with the requisite charms available for sale…

On one of these plaques, I found a little red tick-spider thingy:

< Tick-Spider Thingy

And, as she does, KLS made me pose like a fool in front of the demon statues:

< Unstoppable?

At the summit there is a little collection of restaurants and an arcade with ancient games. There is also an octopus-flattening shop:

She takes two complete octopi (about 10 cm in length each) and places them onto a large hot press, then closes the top and ratchets it down with a crank. After a minute or so she opens it and removes a nice crispy octopus disc like you can see in the second picture. The poor things are flattened utterly into a giant chip! (Yes, they are dead first by the way)

The path continues to the other side of the mountain/island, down some steps and onto a rocky shelf behind. This place is popular with fishermen, who cast into the rough waters behind the island. It’s also home to a most unusual form of crustacean.

They vary in size up to about 5 cm (the one in the photo was about 3.5), move quickly and – as you can see – resemble pillbugs. They seem to be land-dwelling things, and KLS was apalled by their very existence. The rocks behind enoshima are home to large colonies of them, and they scuttle away like cockroaches when someone approaches. Interesting little guys they are…

Getting back off the island required climbing the hundreds of steps we took down to the rocks, which was a torturous and near soul-destroying ordeal. But (of course) we made it (helped by a delicious ice cream) and happily, on the way off, found one of our favourite Japanese stores – the ‘tiny glass animal shop’:

< ZOMG!

Some of you reading this can look forward to a trinket from this place…

Getting to Enoshima in the first place requires riding the famous Enodan train line from Kamakura station, which we had done in the morning and did again on the way back in the afternoon.

< Enoden Line

For JBF’s benefit, a video of the Enoden line in action! (Yes, I know I mislabelled the video… I’m tired!)

We didn’t really do much in Kamakura (home of Japan’s most famous Buddha statue) except check out the souvenir shops on the walk to the Enoden station. One of them was home to a stunning selection of (fake) weaponry, including such gems as ‘Staff Of Saruman’, ‘Chaos Sword Odin’, and a highly detailed magic book (for those amongst us disinclined to wield a bladed weapon):

Two food shots…

…and a me sleeping on the train shot…

< Not fake!

…leads me to this striking image (care of KLS):

< ???

The legendary Enoshima Uzumaki spider perhaps? This web was only a centimeter or so in diameter, and hidden under a leaf as it was, extremely difficult to photograph (my camera simply wouldn’t focus on it). I poked around a bit for the owner with no luck. I wonder if it was as beautiful as it’s creation?

Oh yes, we saw a squirrel! Our first Japanese squirrel! But that can wait for another post…

Acrosatan

June 3, 2009

The title is the name of a monster from an old Ultraman series, a tiny model kit of which we saw today in a retro toy store in Akihabara. I don’t remember the cost, although it was probably low (under $20). However the Mandarake in Akihabara sold a Y2,100,000, approximately 20cm tall vinyl toy of another Ultraman monster, still bagged and in great condition. That’s US$21,000 approximately. Even for an unopened toy from more than 30 years ago that seems a tad steep 🙂

Akihabara is where the otaku (maniac fans) go for all their manga, anime, games and toys. It’s also the best place in Tokyo to buy electronics, play video games, or eat at maid cafes 🙂

The ‘big’ franchises these days are Monster Hunter (both the games and the merchandise), which is massive and featured in every store; Neon Genesis Evangelion (yes, even after almost 20 years the franchise is as strong as ever, bolstered by the recent films) and Queens Blade (the series of ecchi gamebooks has spawned a mini merchandising empire).

We checked all the major shops yesterday, and most of the minors, paying particular attention to the figure stores and the game stores. I managed to find the latest volumes of Guyver and Bastard!!, and picked up a Monster Hunter artbook and a slew of TCG cards from such series as Duel Masters (the 52nd expansion just came out!?!), Monster Hunter & Queens Blade (yes every big franchise gets a TCG…)

No Railfan yet Jim, and you can bet we’re looking everywhere. We’ve even discovered there are three games in the series (Japan, Korea and amazingly Chicago!) but the PS3 sections in stores are tiny and the used PS3 sections are tinier still.

In fact game stores are mostly about DS and Wii these days (unsurprisingly), with the next biggest section being PSP. PS2 still has a healthy following, but 360 sections are small and, as I said, PS3 sections so tiny they are hard to find. This will all change in time though, as the system is picking up steam. Not to mention the 800 lb gorilla of FF13 about to be released.

Even so, in most game stores the section of shelves devoted to advertising the upcoming release of Monster Hunter 3 on Wii is typically bigger than the entire PS3 sections!

Above left is a maid, who was handing out fliers advertising the maid cafe you can see in the middle photo. On the right is a shot of a billboard used to advertise all the maid cafes just in the Akihabara region. What was a novelty when we were here in 2006 has become a local tourist attraction, and as you can see there are a great many cafes now. Basically they are (apparently) overpriced restaurants serving average quality food, the attraction of which is the waitresses all dress in maid outfits.

< In Animate

The above was taken (on the sly) on the 5th or 6th floor of Animate (one of the mega otaku shops) and shows just the maid outfits they sell for cosplay. The professionally made Bleach outfits ($100 and up) were much more impressive, but as they were next to the counter I couldn’t get a shot due to the no photography rule 🙂

A couple more random Akiba shots. Once again, I’m guessing AW is boggling at the fact that you can just find gashapon out on the streets here. Put it this way – there are so many in just the few blocks of Akihabara, they have to put some out on the street!

In Japan, ninja slice kebab meat.
In Japan, some drinks are bionic.
In Japan, well I’ll let you work out this photo 🙂

We actually walked to Akihabara via Ueno, and spent some time in the park before most people were up.

This next shot is of the two statues outside Ueno Zoo entrance, overgrown with vines. Can you identify the two animals?

< What are these?

When I review the days shots, especially the ones KLS loves to take of me eating, I’m always struck by how it seems as if I had posed or hammed it up for the camera. The rightmost shot (dinner) is an ‘American Dog’ (which was eaten cold, but was actually decent). The middle shot though is more interesting, since it was a piece of chicken at KFC. And it was great. Here’s proof:

< Mmmmmmmmm

I bet most of you will like this video though!

And what better way to end todays entry that this way?

< Lest you forget

Robot Claw