Words simply cannot describe...
Today I went to Nagoya as I had been planning to do, in order to find the store where I intend to go to buy Xenosaga on Thursday. It turned out to be the best frickin' day of my life. Okay, that's probably an exaggeration, but I must say that my entire trip to Japan has been leading up to this, as I have found heaven on earth. Basically what happened was I was taking the subway to the station closest to Gamers (the store where I plan to go to for Xenosaga) but I wasn't feeling too well and I accidentally got off at the wrong station. That proved to be a most fortunate mistake. The station I got off at put me at the Okazaki Central Park...which in itself wasn't terribly impressive. It just had a fountain, and some trees, and a miniature version of the Tokyo tower. But as I exited the station, I decided to turn right, and right there...there it was... Forget all logical and reasonable argument against the existence of a god....there is a god in heaven and he/she/it put it there, and he/she/it loves me and guided me there ;) Like I said...words simply cannot describe how amazing this place was.
The other day my dad complained about me talking too much about anime in my entries. Well, he can just shove it, because he could never in a million years understand how amazing this place was for someone like me. It was five floors. When I first entered they had just started playing the Dragonball Z themesong over the speakers, and I just could not help humming along, while trying to hold back my tears. And after that they continued to play anime music the whole time I was there of course. On every floor they had several shelves of used manga much of which was very rare, much more so than anything you'd find at Book Off...although they also had more common things. And then along all the walls containing huge varieties of incredibly rare things such as first edition Gundam mangas, or cels from Studio Ghibli films and things like that. Again I stress, incredible variety. There was also a floor with all sorts of video game rarities, DVD's, and CD's (all anime-related of course). So in short, it was the ultimate manga/anime/video game store. And I do mean ULTIMATE. I'd like to say more about it, but I just don't know where I'd begin. It was like the matrix...words cannot explain it, you have to see it for yourself. I will be back there. And obviously I couldn't leave empty handed. They had a lot of Maison Ikkoku stuff, and Maison Ikkoku being my favorite manga/anime ever, and being that they had more Maison Ikkoku stuff than I could have even dreamed of existing, I decided to get something of that. There was lots of stuff I couldn't afford, like this gigantic vinyl scroll with the picture from the manga (in color of course) of Kyoko in her wedding kimono. That was about $100 US. I eventually went with a fairly big poster of this picture (which I used to have as my desktop background for a while actually):
I don't know why this copy of the picture shows up so red too. My poster isn't like that. The colors look right. The poster was 3000 yen. The guy actually asked me if I wanted to barter for it, but I was like "No really, that's okay, I was happy enough just to find this." Then guess what else I found there! The Limited Edition of the Love Hina game that I've been looking everywhere, and vowed I would find before leaving Japan. It was only 3000 yen as well, but it didn't have the game itself, just all the extras. That's okay because the game itself is easy to find. I can get it chuuko at the video game store just down the street. And it would be silly to buy right now since for some stupid reason I didn't bring my dreamcast (at least I lent it to Diego so at least it should be making somebody happy, at least it better be >:| (how's that for repetition?)). So the extras included a Tama-chan plushie, one of those wooden cards you write a wish on and hang at Shinto temples, except it has a picture of Naru on it and says "ganbatte," a Love Hina hotspring towel (that unfortunately doesn't fit around my waist, but that's okay), and a Love Hina wall clock which is really nifty. All in all it's not *that* exciting, but still cool to have. And the box is really cool too. Has a picture I had never seen before of all the Love Hina femmes in wedding dresses, and it is now proudly crowning my box collection. In fact it was almost worth 3000 yen for the box alone, since it's so big and works a poster as well. Ahhhh.... That store is so wonderful. I could've spent hours in there, but I had to get out before I had a seizure of burst into tears or something. Oh, and did I mention all the employees were in costume? The girl who got the Love Hina game down from the shelf for me was dressed as the Sakura from Sakura Wars. She was wicked cute. The place is actually a chain called Mandarake. The website for the Nagoya branch is here: http://www.mandarake.co.jp/english/shop/nagoya/index.html They have a branch in Shibuya, but despite being in Shibuya it probably couldn't be much cooler, except for being in Shibuya. The website has some pictures, but like I said, you have to see it for yourself to truely understand the coolness.
Then I got the hell out of there, and right next door there was fantasy art gallery, with a bunch of Yoshitaka Amano. My mom has been telling me to send some post cards to some people, but I hadn't been doing it because I didn't have any good post cards. Well, I went in there and got one of the 3 different packs of Yoshitaka Amano postcards they had there. It's just such a shame I'm gonna have to send some of these away to people. I just hope they appreciate these drawings as much as I do.
Then after I short walk (as the station I meant to get off at turned out to be just two blocks away), I found Gamers (the store I intend to buy Xenosaga at). I was excited about going to Gamers as they're a pretty famous chain (their website is http://www.broccoli.co.jp. Yes, broccoli. Gamers was cool, but honestly it just was not half as cool as Mandarake. It's just because Gamers was all new stuff, that isn't terribly rare (when I say it isn't rare, I mean it isn't rare in Japanese manga/anime/game stores. There's still tons of stuff though that you could spend days at a time searching for in the US (as well as online and eBay and stuff) and not be able to come up with). But that's besides the point. I actually forgot my original purpose of going in there, and didn't ask if they were going to have any copies of the Xenosaga Limited Edition...but I don't really care anymore anyways. I just want it. If I don't get the Limited Edition at first, I can still scour for it later on. After spending about half an hour wandering around Gamers and arguing with myself over it, I finally couldn't stop myself from leaving there empty-handed even though I'll be back there Thursday for Xenosaga. All I got was this cloth with a print of Naru, Mutsumi, and Sara from Love Hina on it, and it was cheap. Also at gamers every floor had tons of the vending machines with little anime toys in them. I got a little Mutsumi figure from one! :D:D So I guess today was "let's buy Love Hina stuff!" day..and the Maison Ikkoku poster. When I went to pay for the Love Hina cloth I also noticed at the counter booster packs of the Suikoden trading card game. YES, the GensomotherfuckingSuikoden trading card game. I didn't even know there was such as thing. Although I shouldn't be surprised since there's a trading card game for EVERYTHING here. I left the cards at home so I can't remember everyone I got in that pack, but I know I got Gremio :D:D:D:D.
Then I went home.
Sigh.
At both those stores there were of course a LOT of otaku. And they almost all had glasses. And were unshaved. And a lot of them smelled bad and had bad acne. But not all of them at least. I talked to some guys at Gamers. They were talking about the new episode 3 of Read or Die which just came out after I had waited forever for it. One of the guys had already gotten it, and I asked him if it was good, and he said it was great. Then I asked if they were excited about Xenosaga and of course they were, and I said I was too. I wanted to say more, but my lack of Japanese caught up with me, and I ran out of words and bid them farewell and walked away a bit red in the face. Still, they probably thought it was just as cool to talk to an American otaku about how cool Read or Die and Xenosaga are, as I though it was to talk to Japanese otaku about how cool Read or Die and Xenosaga are.
Sometimes I wish I were ugly, and not terribly smart either, so that I could invest all my energy in otakudome. But alas I'm not, and I have divy up my energy between my hobbies, and my interest in having a girlfriend, and education. Of course that does at least make me a better rounded human being.
On the train on the way home I stood next to this cute girl in a grey seifuku, but with red fishnet stockings, long black socks, and black shoes with that bulbous anime-character look to them. She was wicked cute...but she seemed really tired, and occupied with her keitai, so I didn't talk to her. I just did sukeibeina things with my eyes ;) Ah well, maybe next time.
The other day my dad complained about me talking too much about anime in my entries. Well, he can just shove it, because he could never in a million years understand how amazing this place was for someone like me. It was five floors. When I first entered they had just started playing the Dragonball Z themesong over the speakers, and I just could not help humming along, while trying to hold back my tears. And after that they continued to play anime music the whole time I was there of course. On every floor they had several shelves of used manga much of which was very rare, much more so than anything you'd find at Book Off...although they also had more common things. And then along all the walls containing huge varieties of incredibly rare things such as first edition Gundam mangas, or cels from Studio Ghibli films and things like that. Again I stress, incredible variety. There was also a floor with all sorts of video game rarities, DVD's, and CD's (all anime-related of course). So in short, it was the ultimate manga/anime/video game store. And I do mean ULTIMATE. I'd like to say more about it, but I just don't know where I'd begin. It was like the matrix...words cannot explain it, you have to see it for yourself. I will be back there. And obviously I couldn't leave empty handed. They had a lot of Maison Ikkoku stuff, and Maison Ikkoku being my favorite manga/anime ever, and being that they had more Maison Ikkoku stuff than I could have even dreamed of existing, I decided to get something of that. There was lots of stuff I couldn't afford, like this gigantic vinyl scroll with the picture from the manga (in color of course) of Kyoko in her wedding kimono. That was about $100 US. I eventually went with a fairly big poster of this picture (which I used to have as my desktop background for a while actually):
I don't know why this copy of the picture shows up so red too. My poster isn't like that. The colors look right. The poster was 3000 yen. The guy actually asked me if I wanted to barter for it, but I was like "No really, that's okay, I was happy enough just to find this." Then guess what else I found there! The Limited Edition of the Love Hina game that I've been looking everywhere, and vowed I would find before leaving Japan. It was only 3000 yen as well, but it didn't have the game itself, just all the extras. That's okay because the game itself is easy to find. I can get it chuuko at the video game store just down the street. And it would be silly to buy right now since for some stupid reason I didn't bring my dreamcast (at least I lent it to Diego so at least it should be making somebody happy, at least it better be >:| (how's that for repetition?)). So the extras included a Tama-chan plushie, one of those wooden cards you write a wish on and hang at Shinto temples, except it has a picture of Naru on it and says "ganbatte," a Love Hina hotspring towel (that unfortunately doesn't fit around my waist, but that's okay), and a Love Hina wall clock which is really nifty. All in all it's not *that* exciting, but still cool to have. And the box is really cool too. Has a picture I had never seen before of all the Love Hina femmes in wedding dresses, and it is now proudly crowning my box collection. In fact it was almost worth 3000 yen for the box alone, since it's so big and works a poster as well. Ahhhh.... That store is so wonderful. I could've spent hours in there, but I had to get out before I had a seizure of burst into tears or something. Oh, and did I mention all the employees were in costume? The girl who got the Love Hina game down from the shelf for me was dressed as the Sakura from Sakura Wars. She was wicked cute. The place is actually a chain called Mandarake. The website for the Nagoya branch is here: http://www.mandarake.co.jp/english/shop/nagoya/index.html They have a branch in Shibuya, but despite being in Shibuya it probably couldn't be much cooler, except for being in Shibuya. The website has some pictures, but like I said, you have to see it for yourself to truely understand the coolness.
Then I got the hell out of there, and right next door there was fantasy art gallery, with a bunch of Yoshitaka Amano. My mom has been telling me to send some post cards to some people, but I hadn't been doing it because I didn't have any good post cards. Well, I went in there and got one of the 3 different packs of Yoshitaka Amano postcards they had there. It's just such a shame I'm gonna have to send some of these away to people. I just hope they appreciate these drawings as much as I do.
Then after I short walk (as the station I meant to get off at turned out to be just two blocks away), I found Gamers (the store I intend to buy Xenosaga at). I was excited about going to Gamers as they're a pretty famous chain (their website is http://www.broccoli.co.jp. Yes, broccoli. Gamers was cool, but honestly it just was not half as cool as Mandarake. It's just because Gamers was all new stuff, that isn't terribly rare (when I say it isn't rare, I mean it isn't rare in Japanese manga/anime/game stores. There's still tons of stuff though that you could spend days at a time searching for in the US (as well as online and eBay and stuff) and not be able to come up with). But that's besides the point. I actually forgot my original purpose of going in there, and didn't ask if they were going to have any copies of the Xenosaga Limited Edition...but I don't really care anymore anyways. I just want it. If I don't get the Limited Edition at first, I can still scour for it later on. After spending about half an hour wandering around Gamers and arguing with myself over it, I finally couldn't stop myself from leaving there empty-handed even though I'll be back there Thursday for Xenosaga. All I got was this cloth with a print of Naru, Mutsumi, and Sara from Love Hina on it, and it was cheap. Also at gamers every floor had tons of the vending machines with little anime toys in them. I got a little Mutsumi figure from one! :D:D So I guess today was "let's buy Love Hina stuff!" day..and the Maison Ikkoku poster. When I went to pay for the Love Hina cloth I also noticed at the counter booster packs of the Suikoden trading card game. YES, the GensomotherfuckingSuikoden trading card game. I didn't even know there was such as thing. Although I shouldn't be surprised since there's a trading card game for EVERYTHING here. I left the cards at home so I can't remember everyone I got in that pack, but I know I got Gremio :D:D:D:D.
Then I went home.
Sigh.
At both those stores there were of course a LOT of otaku. And they almost all had glasses. And were unshaved. And a lot of them smelled bad and had bad acne. But not all of them at least. I talked to some guys at Gamers. They were talking about the new episode 3 of Read or Die which just came out after I had waited forever for it. One of the guys had already gotten it, and I asked him if it was good, and he said it was great. Then I asked if they were excited about Xenosaga and of course they were, and I said I was too. I wanted to say more, but my lack of Japanese caught up with me, and I ran out of words and bid them farewell and walked away a bit red in the face. Still, they probably thought it was just as cool to talk to an American otaku about how cool Read or Die and Xenosaga are, as I though it was to talk to Japanese otaku about how cool Read or Die and Xenosaga are.
Sometimes I wish I were ugly, and not terribly smart either, so that I could invest all my energy in otakudome. But alas I'm not, and I have divy up my energy between my hobbies, and my interest in having a girlfriend, and education. Of course that does at least make me a better rounded human being.
On the train on the way home I stood next to this cute girl in a grey seifuku, but with red fishnet stockings, long black socks, and black shoes with that bulbous anime-character look to them. She was wicked cute...but she seemed really tired, and occupied with her keitai, so I didn't talk to her. I just did sukeibeina things with my eyes ;) Ah well, maybe next time.