tokyo days 5 and 6
Day 5 and 6! Since I don't have that many pictures for these days.
On Day 5, I headed for Ikebukuro to investigate the doujinshi shops :3 I found the Mandarake first (across the street, above the star on this sign) but it didn't open until noon (as I'd forgotten from Nakano), so I headed further down the street to find the K-Books Doujinkan (the yellow K). The Johnny's stuff was on the third floor (the store entrance is on the second floor), where there were about 30 or so SMAP books and FOUR ENTIRE BOOKSHELVES OF ARASHI holy crap :o Anyway, the SMAP stuff looked to be mainly 2tops as far as I could tell and nothing particularly caught my eye, so I headed back towards Mandarake to buy lunch from the combini nearby (onigiri and milk tea #4) and linger with the gathering crowd.
At noon, I headed down the stairs in Mandarake (it's in the basement) and checked out the Johnny's section. Only one bookshelf of Arashi here! And about 50ish SMAP books with a little more variety. I saw some looks doujinshi and took note of the prices to compare with the Nakano store (yes, I'd already decided to go back again XD), and after a brief glance at the Persona 4 doujinshi, headed back into the daylight to find the remaining shops on my list.
The next place I'd heard about was Rashinban, and after some aimless wandering I found an animate store and Rashinban shops #1, 2, and 3, none of which had any doujinshi. However, a flyer showed the location of the fourth shop, which was where the doujinshi was at, so I headed off in what I hoped was the right direction.
After much wandering and a brief pit stop in a 7-11 to use the wi-fi (thank goodness for 7-SPOT! It worked the best of all the wi-fis I tried), I finally managed to find the Rashinban doujinkan, next to a much larger and noisier animate store. (Not shown above, sorry :P I forgot the take a picture of the right place.) Unfortunately, I didn't see any Johnny's doujinshi as far as I could tell, so after briefly glancing into the animate store and not recognizing anything, I headed back towards Sunshine City and the main street of Ikebukuro.
Where there was a Book Off! My favorite store~
They had a section for photobooks and magazines (idol magazines, mostly recent) in the back, with a little Johnny's section within that, where I found Nakai's Zoukango #2 and 3 for half price :) They also had a gigantic Hikaru Genji photobook set! Also browsed through the cds and dvds but didn't see anything cheap enough, so decided to pass.
On to Sunshine City! Or actually, Tokyu Hands, which is just to the right of this photo.
There was of course all sorts of cool stuff, like this solar system bag!
You can move the planet pins around the solar system XD A little pricey for what it is, though...
Also, Japanese astronaut food! I'm curious how the rollcake mix works ^^
Also, a very interesting bath salt brand which translates to 'Bathtime Boyfriend'~
You can choose your favorite personality!
After Tokyu Hands, I wandered through Sunshine City and somewhere along the way saw these awesome wallets. They're like string instruments! I play cello so this goes straight to my heart<3 But, not to my wallet. They weren't too bad pricewise but a bit more than I could justify and too big for me to use comfortably. (And I wanted a darker color XD) Ah, well :P
There was also some kind of J-pop event going on, with some kind of lesser known idol group doing performances and talking to the audience.
By then I was pretty worn out from walking around, so I headed home and had dinner with my host family while watching Shimura Doubutsuen :D And we ate the sea urchin gyoza! They weren't very sea urchin-y, but were pretty decent gyoza. I imagine you could get better gyoza for cheaper at the supermarket :P
On to Day 6! In which I headed to Shibuya to see Ocean's Eleven! :DDDDD
I went a bit early to look around Shibuya first. First stop: Book Off! :3 It's a pretty big Book Off, but I didn't find a whole lot of Johnny's or even celebrity stuff in general. The Johnny's stuff was on the top floor, incidentally where all the BL and other 'female-oriented' books are XD I didn't see anything I didn't already have, though, so I wandered back down through the floors to head to my next stop, the Shibuya Mandarake. Which was pretty much across the street XD
Once again, I'd forgotten that it opens at noon, so I grabbed some lunch from a combini (curry bread, something really tasty called naruto kintoki mushipan-- I think it had apples in it?-- and a shio lemon drink which wasn't that great) and scarfed it down across from the entrance. Speaking of which, the entrance is seriously annoying and headache-inducing-- it's several flights of stairs down with strobe lights blinking every so often. Are they trying to get people to fall down the stairs? >:( Anyway, inside was a combination of doujinshi, Johnny's and anime goods, and a male-oriented comic section helpfully translated into English as "hentai comics." I appreciate the honesty. There was a fair amount of Johnny's stuff, with about a shelf's worth (100ish comics) of SMAP, though for the most part I couldn't tell who anyone was from the covers. They did have a gigantic volume of what appeared to be a 2tops doujinshi for only 1500 yen, which I'm tempted to buy if it's still there the next time I visit, just to see what on earth it's like. It had Kimura and Nakai wearing religious-looking robes and the title sounded like some kind of Christian saint's name (can't remember what it was exactly), but as far as my experience with doujinshi goes that may have absolutely no bearing on the actual content.
After that, it was time to head to the theater! It's on the 11th floor of the newish Hikarie building in Shibuya, so there's a nice view of the city from the surrounding windows.
We're more interesting in this view, though :3
Sneaking a photo from my seat before the performance XD I was in the 14th row in the S seats, right in the middle! Which meant that every time someone on stage (*cough*Shingo~) looked out at the audience it felt like they were looking right at me :3333
Before the show, there was a card dealer on stage explaining the show to the guests in the Las Vegas seats (tables to the right and left of the stage) who I think turned out to be one of the actors in the show? There were also slot machines off to the sides and the sound of coins clinking in the background, presumably to make you feel like you're already in the casino^^
Then, showtime!
And there was Shingo, rising up from a trapdoor in the stage :DDDDD (You could literally feel the excitement of everyone holding their breath, including me.) My first thought was something like 'oh my god, he really is that handsome~' XD I'm pretty sure I started grinning at this point, and didn't stop until the end of the play.
A quick summary! It starts of with Shingo (Danny) in jail, being visited by a lawyer and refusing to sign divorce papers from his wife. He then tears off his prisoner uniform and segues into a dance number about Las Vegas, in which Yamamoto Koji (Rusty) and I think all the other members of the team also participate. He then observes a press conference at the Paradiso casino, in which Mizuki Arisa (Tess) is involved, and meets up with Rusty and starts making plans for a heist. From there, each of the members of the team gets their own introduction song and a scene in which Danny and Rusty recruit them (some more willingly than others), and at some point there's a scene in which Tess is pretty much proposed to by the evil casino guy and is confronted about it by Danny. The team is gathered, more confrontation occurs in the casino, cue a cool dance number which ends with the eleven posing at the front of the stage, and then it's intermission!
(I spent it taking notes and peeking at other people's copies of the pamphlet XD)
Part 2! Tess has a dream with lots of Adam and Eve references. She just wants to promote ecology! But she's torn between evil casino guy and her dreamboat Johnny's idol husband. I guess the professional thief thing is kind of a turn off. Anyway, from there it's on to the heist! But first it's apparently 'explained' by the Chinese acrobat guy in incomprehensible 'Chinese,' which went on for curiously long and made me wonder if it was partly ad lib from the way Shingo kept trying to interrupt. But it eventually starts to make sense as you watch the heist play out. One of the team members pretended to be a rich Russian dude who wanted to keep a super expensive Russian egg in the casino vault. This got the acrobat guy into the vault, where he turned off the lasers and was joined by Shingo and one of the noon boyz as the son of a former member I think? Oh, right, there was a whole subplot with the prima donna of the casino's show being jealous of Tess getting all the attention, and ultimately she had set some kind of weird magic show up for Tess that was supposed to humiliate here. But, it's highjacked by Danny and co. mid-show, and Tess makes her choice to flee with her dreamboat badass husband instead of evil casino guy. A fight scene ensues! Which spills out into the audience, so I got to see Koji a few rows behind me pretending to slug it out with a henchman :D The good guys win, and then Danny and Tess (Shingo and Arisa! Shingo and Arisa!!) appear in the aisles to either side of my section :DDDD I don't remember what they sang about-- I was too busy looking at Shingo (I tried to look at Arisa too to be fair, but Shingo!) but in the end they made up and kissed on stage (really obvious stage kiss :P). Somewhere in there Tess has Danny sign the divorce papers and then rips then up-- I guess to show his willingness to let her do her own thing? Then there's one final dance number reprising the beginning, and it's over!
Except for the bows! And then a speech to the audience from Shingo! :DDDD It was exactly the halfway point, so Shingo made a cheesy speech about having the strength to keep going and made an expression like he was pretty aware how cheesy it was XD Also, he finally actually smiled (since his character doesn't really do big happy grins) and it was awesome to see him go back to being Shingo again<3 We applauded a lot and stood up and applauded some more, and then they waved to us as they walked off so we all waved back with both hands like the happy fangirls we were XD
And then it was really over! Cue mass line to the elevators to get out of the theater and back to the train station.
I rode home in a blissful daze and then was surprised by a visit from one of my host family's sons and his wife. The son made the amazing meal above from random things in the fridge while I helped the wife and host mother make gifts for their actual wedding ceremony.
Then we finished off a thoroughly awesome day with some delicious desserts and tea! I had the peach jelly in the back (jelly #3, if you're curious XD)
Next: A brief trip to Tohoku!
On Day 5, I headed for Ikebukuro to investigate the doujinshi shops :3 I found the Mandarake first (across the street, above the star on this sign) but it didn't open until noon (as I'd forgotten from Nakano), so I headed further down the street to find the K-Books Doujinkan (the yellow K). The Johnny's stuff was on the third floor (the store entrance is on the second floor), where there were about 30 or so SMAP books and FOUR ENTIRE BOOKSHELVES OF ARASHI holy crap :o Anyway, the SMAP stuff looked to be mainly 2tops as far as I could tell and nothing particularly caught my eye, so I headed back towards Mandarake to buy lunch from the combini nearby (onigiri and milk tea #4) and linger with the gathering crowd.
At noon, I headed down the stairs in Mandarake (it's in the basement) and checked out the Johnny's section. Only one bookshelf of Arashi here! And about 50ish SMAP books with a little more variety. I saw some looks doujinshi and took note of the prices to compare with the Nakano store (yes, I'd already decided to go back again XD), and after a brief glance at the Persona 4 doujinshi, headed back into the daylight to find the remaining shops on my list.
The next place I'd heard about was Rashinban, and after some aimless wandering I found an animate store and Rashinban shops #1, 2, and 3, none of which had any doujinshi. However, a flyer showed the location of the fourth shop, which was where the doujinshi was at, so I headed off in what I hoped was the right direction.
After much wandering and a brief pit stop in a 7-11 to use the wi-fi (thank goodness for 7-SPOT! It worked the best of all the wi-fis I tried), I finally managed to find the Rashinban doujinkan, next to a much larger and noisier animate store. (Not shown above, sorry :P I forgot the take a picture of the right place.) Unfortunately, I didn't see any Johnny's doujinshi as far as I could tell, so after briefly glancing into the animate store and not recognizing anything, I headed back towards Sunshine City and the main street of Ikebukuro.
Where there was a Book Off! My favorite store~
They had a section for photobooks and magazines (idol magazines, mostly recent) in the back, with a little Johnny's section within that, where I found Nakai's Zoukango #2 and 3 for half price :) They also had a gigantic Hikaru Genji photobook set! Also browsed through the cds and dvds but didn't see anything cheap enough, so decided to pass.
On to Sunshine City! Or actually, Tokyu Hands, which is just to the right of this photo.
There was of course all sorts of cool stuff, like this solar system bag!
You can move the planet pins around the solar system XD A little pricey for what it is, though...
Also, Japanese astronaut food! I'm curious how the rollcake mix works ^^
Also, a very interesting bath salt brand which translates to 'Bathtime Boyfriend'~
You can choose your favorite personality!
After Tokyu Hands, I wandered through Sunshine City and somewhere along the way saw these awesome wallets. They're like string instruments! I play cello so this goes straight to my heart<3 But, not to my wallet. They weren't too bad pricewise but a bit more than I could justify and too big for me to use comfortably. (And I wanted a darker color XD) Ah, well :P
There was also some kind of J-pop event going on, with some kind of lesser known idol group doing performances and talking to the audience.
By then I was pretty worn out from walking around, so I headed home and had dinner with my host family while watching Shimura Doubutsuen :D And we ate the sea urchin gyoza! They weren't very sea urchin-y, but were pretty decent gyoza. I imagine you could get better gyoza for cheaper at the supermarket :P
On to Day 6! In which I headed to Shibuya to see Ocean's Eleven! :DDDDD
I went a bit early to look around Shibuya first. First stop: Book Off! :3 It's a pretty big Book Off, but I didn't find a whole lot of Johnny's or even celebrity stuff in general. The Johnny's stuff was on the top floor, incidentally where all the BL and other 'female-oriented' books are XD I didn't see anything I didn't already have, though, so I wandered back down through the floors to head to my next stop, the Shibuya Mandarake. Which was pretty much across the street XD
Once again, I'd forgotten that it opens at noon, so I grabbed some lunch from a combini (curry bread, something really tasty called naruto kintoki mushipan-- I think it had apples in it?-- and a shio lemon drink which wasn't that great) and scarfed it down across from the entrance. Speaking of which, the entrance is seriously annoying and headache-inducing-- it's several flights of stairs down with strobe lights blinking every so often. Are they trying to get people to fall down the stairs? >:( Anyway, inside was a combination of doujinshi, Johnny's and anime goods, and a male-oriented comic section helpfully translated into English as "hentai comics." I appreciate the honesty. There was a fair amount of Johnny's stuff, with about a shelf's worth (100ish comics) of SMAP, though for the most part I couldn't tell who anyone was from the covers. They did have a gigantic volume of what appeared to be a 2tops doujinshi for only 1500 yen, which I'm tempted to buy if it's still there the next time I visit, just to see what on earth it's like. It had Kimura and Nakai wearing religious-looking robes and the title sounded like some kind of Christian saint's name (can't remember what it was exactly), but as far as my experience with doujinshi goes that may have absolutely no bearing on the actual content.
After that, it was time to head to the theater! It's on the 11th floor of the newish Hikarie building in Shibuya, so there's a nice view of the city from the surrounding windows.
We're more interesting in this view, though :3
Sneaking a photo from my seat before the performance XD I was in the 14th row in the S seats, right in the middle! Which meant that every time someone on stage (*cough*Shingo~) looked out at the audience it felt like they were looking right at me :3333
Before the show, there was a card dealer on stage explaining the show to the guests in the Las Vegas seats (tables to the right and left of the stage) who I think turned out to be one of the actors in the show? There were also slot machines off to the sides and the sound of coins clinking in the background, presumably to make you feel like you're already in the casino^^
Then, showtime!
And there was Shingo, rising up from a trapdoor in the stage :DDDDD (You could literally feel the excitement of everyone holding their breath, including me.) My first thought was something like 'oh my god, he really is that handsome~' XD I'm pretty sure I started grinning at this point, and didn't stop until the end of the play.
A quick summary! It starts of with Shingo (Danny) in jail, being visited by a lawyer and refusing to sign divorce papers from his wife. He then tears off his prisoner uniform and segues into a dance number about Las Vegas, in which Yamamoto Koji (Rusty) and I think all the other members of the team also participate. He then observes a press conference at the Paradiso casino, in which Mizuki Arisa (Tess) is involved, and meets up with Rusty and starts making plans for a heist. From there, each of the members of the team gets their own introduction song and a scene in which Danny and Rusty recruit them (some more willingly than others), and at some point there's a scene in which Tess is pretty much proposed to by the evil casino guy and is confronted about it by Danny. The team is gathered, more confrontation occurs in the casino, cue a cool dance number which ends with the eleven posing at the front of the stage, and then it's intermission!
(I spent it taking notes and peeking at other people's copies of the pamphlet XD)
Part 2! Tess has a dream with lots of Adam and Eve references. She just wants to promote ecology! But she's torn between evil casino guy and her dreamboat Johnny's idol husband. I guess the professional thief thing is kind of a turn off. Anyway, from there it's on to the heist! But first it's apparently 'explained' by the Chinese acrobat guy in incomprehensible 'Chinese,' which went on for curiously long and made me wonder if it was partly ad lib from the way Shingo kept trying to interrupt. But it eventually starts to make sense as you watch the heist play out. One of the team members pretended to be a rich Russian dude who wanted to keep a super expensive Russian egg in the casino vault. This got the acrobat guy into the vault, where he turned off the lasers and was joined by Shingo and one of the noon boyz as the son of a former member I think? Oh, right, there was a whole subplot with the prima donna of the casino's show being jealous of Tess getting all the attention, and ultimately she had set some kind of weird magic show up for Tess that was supposed to humiliate here. But, it's highjacked by Danny and co. mid-show, and Tess makes her choice to flee with her dreamboat badass husband instead of evil casino guy. A fight scene ensues! Which spills out into the audience, so I got to see Koji a few rows behind me pretending to slug it out with a henchman :D The good guys win, and then Danny and Tess (Shingo and Arisa! Shingo and Arisa!!) appear in the aisles to either side of my section :DDDD I don't remember what they sang about-- I was too busy looking at Shingo (I tried to look at Arisa too to be fair, but Shingo!) but in the end they made up and kissed on stage (really obvious stage kiss :P). Somewhere in there Tess has Danny sign the divorce papers and then rips then up-- I guess to show his willingness to let her do her own thing? Then there's one final dance number reprising the beginning, and it's over!
Except for the bows! And then a speech to the audience from Shingo! :DDDD It was exactly the halfway point, so Shingo made a cheesy speech about having the strength to keep going and made an expression like he was pretty aware how cheesy it was XD Also, he finally actually smiled (since his character doesn't really do big happy grins) and it was awesome to see him go back to being Shingo again<3 We applauded a lot and stood up and applauded some more, and then they waved to us as they walked off so we all waved back with both hands like the happy fangirls we were XD
And then it was really over! Cue mass line to the elevators to get out of the theater and back to the train station.
I rode home in a blissful daze and then was surprised by a visit from one of my host family's sons and his wife. The son made the amazing meal above from random things in the fridge while I helped the wife and host mother make gifts for their actual wedding ceremony.
Then we finished off a thoroughly awesome day with some delicious desserts and tea! I had the peach jelly in the back (jelly #3, if you're curious XD)
Next: A brief trip to Tohoku!