procrastinator's trip report
If you are in a hurry, let me sum up this trip for you: We went to Japan. We shopped. Then we were done shopping. We flew home. The end.
If you have some time to kill (mangaroo dubbed me official trip chronicler, so this is going to be VERY VERY LONG), let me invite you to share all the details of our lovely journey into the world of shopping.
Our story begins with some empty shelves:
So sad! So lonely! So tragic! So flippy! I decided to go to Japan to buy them some nice book friends. Delta had other plans for me; they thought I might like to buy books in Grand Rapids instead of Japan. [Overheard after landing in Grand Rapids: "We might as well have just taxied up 131!"*] Silly Delta! GET ME TO JAPAN, NOW.
*This might only be funny if you live in southwest Michigan.
And, some 25 hours later I made it to Japan, yay! This is the view from our hotel window. (OK, it was night when I got there, but just go with it, OK?) By the time I got up to the hotel room it was 8:15. I had been texting sara_tanaquil (ST) on the bus from the airport, so I knew already that she and mangaroo (M) had gone for a quick K-Books run before they closed at 8:30. I didn't see much point in rushing out for 10 minutes of shopping, so instead I hung out with spacealien_vamp (SV) and watched a random festival that happened to be in the plaza in front of our hotel. When ST and M returned, though, I realized I had made a bad decision; it turns out K-Books closed that night, and would remain so for the next week (*gasp* *shock* *rending of garments*) while they moved to a new location. But K-Books is our favorite store! Where would we shop??
Saturday, 8/6 - Day 1 (Shopping)
Luckily, we are resourceful shoppers. We started the day at Tora no Ana, where I snagged a couple Tiger & Bunny doujinshi (criteria for judging quality: does it have a stuffed bunny on the cover?) and the all-important Comiket catalogue. (Note to self: DO NOT buy the Comiket catalogue except on the last stop before returning to the hotel, because it weighs at least 80 pounds.) We then headed to Animate, where we expected to stock up on Tiger & Bunny goods, but were shocked to find that there weren't any. Well, there was a clear file (sold!) and some stickers (at ¥999 for 2, pass), but that was it. Also, the section for BL goods was shockingly small. After a lunch break, we went to K-Books (doujinshi branch), where I bought a huge stack of original doujinshi (mostly Fujii Mitori). Our next stop was Mandarake, where we parked ourselves in the BL manga aisle (all four of us) and basically didn't move for an hour or so. Eventually, ST, M, and I decided we were done (done shopping! forever!) ready to check out and headed up to the cash register (SV's basket wasn't full yet, so she elected to keep going). There were a couple girls in front of us, and I noticed the line got a lot longer by the time we got to the front of the line. The three of us then proceeded to monopolize the only open registers for the next 10-15 minutes (since we all had full baskets) as about a million fujoshi got in the growing line behind us. Er, sorry?
Back in the hotel lobby, an ice sculpture! Why? Who knows! But it was pretty, and they kept the lobby extra cold while it was around. Dinner was at Monjaya (okonomiyaki!). We had planned to go to Tobu World Square on Sunday, but after dinner we decided to postpone it because the weather forecast called for 80% chance of rain. Besides, we'd barely scratched the surface of our shopping lists
Sunday, 8/7 - Day 2 (Shopping)
Happily, M found her big quest item (Yoneda Kou's World with Color doujinshi) at Lashinbang. We love Lashinbang! We did some other shopping elsewhere, but it's sort of a blur. (Note to self: Ikebukuro Mandarake opens at 12:00, not 11:00. No wonder we always went to K-Books first.) More importantly, we started watching Tiger & Bunny that afternoon, since SV and ST hadn't seen it at all. Around dinner and some naps, we made it up to episode 11 that day.
I discovered this yummy banana parfait thing; basically a banana with a bunch of whipped cream on it. Amazing.
PS - remember that rain forecast? It rained for about 15 minutes around 5:00. Boy, that sure would have inconvenienced us! Good thing we stayed in Ikebukuro.
Monday, 8/8 - Day 3 (Shopping)
A little more Tiger & Bunny in the morning to finish off the first arc, then off to Nakano to check their branch of Mandarake. We shopped, took a break at McDonald's, then shopped some more. I passed on an outrageously priced Madoka Nendoroid, which I later regretted, but later still I realized it wasn't officially released yet, hence the outrageous pricing, and would be able to order it from home for a less outrageous price. Anyway, we had planned on going to Nataraj for dinner (since it's near Nakano), but sadly, we didn't shop long enough after our break to get hungry again, so we headed back to Ikebukuro, thinking we could go to Tsuki no Shizuku (a restaurant specializing in tofu) in Ikebukuro instead...but then we were too tired for that.
Tuesday, 8/9 - Day 4 (Urayasu Sightseeing, Disney)
We headed out bright and early on the subway. In one car, we spotted this sign:
Look closely!
How many couples can you slash in this picture? This is how we entertain ourselves, OK
We arrived in Urayasu around 9:00 and did a little sightseeing. It was a lovely bus tour!
Look, an elephant!
Later that morning, we arrived at Disney (Maihama, get off the JR line at Maihama) only to find a long (hot) line just to get our tickets into the park. We all missed the nice cool Urayasu tour bus! (Note to self: they sell tickets to the park at the Disney Store in Sunshine City. You know, the mall attached to the hotel we always stay in? BUY TICKETS THERE NEXT TIME.)
obligatory shot of Mickey!handle on the monorail
Other than the torture of the hour wait in the Jungle outside Indiana Jones (the line was two hours, but the last hour was inside in the air conditioning, which made the line almost fun), I think we had a good time. Since we had been sightseeing in the morning, we only had time to get two fast passes (Journey to the Center of the Earth and Tower of Terror); other than that we went on Storm Riders, Indiana Jones, and Sindbad. (Side note: People discovered my Sindbad secret! Usually I go there to rest, because it's inside (=air conditioned), you can walk right up to the ride, and you get to sit down and relax for 15 minutes. But so many other people were there! We had to wait for like 20 minutes to get on?)
Fire! OK, terrible picture, but fire from the volcano! Of all the times I've been to Disney Sea, this is only the second I've actually seen the volcano "erupt." (And, actually, the first time I didn't really see it, I was just walking through the volcano and it scared the crap out of me.) I always thought they canceled it because of wind or something, but it didn't seem any less windy that day, so maybe I've just always happened to be in a ride or something?
Also, note for future reference: Zabini Brothers has vegetarian pizza and yummy fried burdock.
Wednesday, 8/10 - Day 5 (Shopping)
Day 5 shopping destination: Shibuya! At the train station, we all laughed at this:
It's a real estate agency, hence "home." So not really a Fushigi Yuugi reference, but we thought it was funny, anyway.
obligatory Hachiko picture
obligatory picture of super-busy crosswalk
Of course, our main purpose was to to check out the Shibuya Mandarake. (Must check all Mandarakes!) We also stopped at Book-Off, which had a pretty good BL section. (side note: we only went to two Book-Off locations--Shibuya and the new one in Ikebukuro--and both times I was surprised at the quality of the books. Have Book-Off's standards gone up, or have mine gone down?)
After a rest back at the hotel, we went out to Tsuki no Shizuku for dinner. With no idea that they'd moved, we stumbled on their new location by accident, and were then confused again when we sat down, as they'd changed to an electronic menu system. Although it was really convenient for ordering, it meant they didn't allow ANY changes to menu items. Which, when your group has two vegetarians and one person allergic to shellfish, is kind of a problem. The plus side is that everything on the menu (including drinks!) was ¥284, so it ended up being cheaper than we expected. Still, squid guts on the potatoes? Ewwww.
That night, SV, M, and I played BL Fish (new rule: make a story connecting the pictures in your matched pairs) while ST packed.
Thursday, 8/11 - Day 6 (Shopping)
Two exciting things for the day! 1) According to a poster spotted earlier, there would be new Tiger & Bunny goods at Animate, and 2) K-Books would reopen in their new location! The Tiger & Bunny part was amazing (fans! mini clear files! belts! mugs! shot glasses!); the K-Books grand opening was...not so grand. (There were flowers outside?) It's nice that the new store is closer to the other shops on Otome Road, but I'm pretty sure it's smaller than their previous location. Also, there were a lot of books we had been unable to find elsewhere and were counting on K-Books as our last hope, and they ended up not having most of them.
One NOT exciting thing for the day: due to circumstances at home, ST had to leave early. After saying goodbye (*sniffle*), the rest of us had lunch, and then I did non-manga shopping while SV and M did laundry. (I actually brought clothes for the entire trip, which my shopping companions thought was crazy. When I got home and mentioned this, my mom was like, "But you didn't even bring that many clothes!" I guess now we know where I get my packing habits.) Too tired to do anything special for dinner, we managed to drag ourselves to Miami Garden (in the mall) for a pasta dinner.
The also had this grenadine float, which was AMAZING. (Except for the ice. Who puts ice in a float? Next time, I will ask for no ice, no lemon.)
Back in the room, we started strategizing for Comiket, but quickly ran into a problem: we couldn't find the Tiger & Bunny section. We went through the entire catalog (twice), but no luck. Finally, we figured that the registration and printing process takes long enough that there was no Tiger & Bunny section. It was just too new of a fandom. Eventually, I found a blog listing some circles that would have Tiger & Bunny doujinshi, and we decided to look for those. The good thing about this was that we had expected Tiger & Bunny to be on Saturday (and that was the main thing we were interested in on Saturday), so since there would be some on Friday, we decided to skip Saturday altogether.
Not like this story isn't long enough already, but I'd like to digress for a minute here to talk about Comiket. If you've never been to Comiket, it's bigger than you think it is. I don't care how big you think it is: it's bigger. Here is a nice map that I stole of the East Hall of Big Sight. There's also West Hall, which is a little smaller. (Keep in mind each one of those numbers is divided into two tables, a and b.) It's not a place you can just wander around aimlessly; if you don't have a catlog/map, you're lost. When we first started going to Comiket, we would pick a section that looked interesting ("Look, here's Harry Potter!") and just wander around. We learned the hard way that this doesn't work because if you spend too long browsing, the circles you actually care about will pack up and leave by the time you get there. (Comiket opens at 10:00, and I have seen a number of tables leave by 1:00, or even noon.) So now we are very careful to target just the tables we care about.
Anyway!
Friday, 8/12 - Day 7 (Comiket)
We arrived around 9:00 and made it in by around 10:45. We hit up tables for Yoneda Kou (am I going to have to start watching Giant Killing?), Inariya Fusanosuke (I got a tote bag!), G-Defend, Koori/Silver Diamond, and Tiger & Bunny. We quickly noticed that (I guess since it didn't have a section?) Tiger & Bunny was EVERYWHERE. (T&B doujinshi by both Yoneda and Inariya? Check.) To the point that we joked about tables not having it being "defective." Also, cosplay spotted: Dragon Kid, Fire Emblem, Barnaby (all street clothes), Origami Cyclone, Blue Rose. No Tiger. ;_; We were done by around noon, and headed home to shower and rest.
For dinner we decided to finally go to Nataraj, which meant we might as well stop in Nakano and check out Mandarake. (I think this was when I gave up on buying DVDs--not because I didn't want them but because I couldn't find the ones I wanted--and decided to spend my DVD budget on special booklets instead.) At Nataraj, I tried something called bhuj paneer, which was crumbled cheese in a tomato sauce. So good! I need to find out if any of the Indian places around here make something similar.
PS:
elephants!
Saturday, 8/13 - Day 8 (Shopping)
Our first stop was K-Books, so we could all snag the Takarai Rihito placemat (free with ¥3000 purchase!). Between the manga store and the goods store, I managed to get two, so feel free to join me at my place for dinner. Later in the day, we went to Seibu for (*gasp*) non-manga shopping. (Not surprising for me, but usually I have to go on my own for non-manga shopping.) We decided to shop for dinner in the food market, and we did find lots of yummy stuff, but WHY did all the potato croquettes have to have meat in them? :( While eating we got caught up on Tiger & Bunny (omg episode 19 is THE BEST EVER). Since it airs at 2:00 in the morning, we elected not to stay up and watch episode 20. Especially since we had no idea if we even got the right channel. (We did watch 20 another day, but to be honest I don't remember when. I'm also not sure at what point M and I started converting the files so we could put them on our ipod and iphone for the flight home. Not that we are obsessed or anything.)
Sunday, 8/14 - Day 9 (Comiket)
We arrived around the same time (maybe a little earlier?), but got in a little faster, I think. Our line was moved around a lot before we got in, so there was less sitting in the baking sun and more standing in the baking sun.
This was taken as we were moving into the building--I love how it seems to capture the slow trudge of people who've been dying in the heat for over an hour. Conquered tables are here, so I won't repeat that. We were done earlier than Friday (or would have been, if I hadn't gotten distracted by the pet crafts (so much adorableness!), which some sneaky person put between the BL section and the door). We were all surprised by the shortness of the lines inside--my only long one was Asou Kai--because she had a Tiger & Bunny doujin? Who knows, but it was strange.
Back in Ikebukuro, we started hitting up the stores for our post-Comiket remorse shopping. (lol, us) M pimped Hidokushinaide at me (I had read the first chapter and thought I hated it, but it turns out the first chapter is not at all representative of the rest of the series), so I had to start looking for those doujinshi (and regret not getting the newest one at Comiket, sighhhh). I discovered a bakery in the mall that sells decent bread, so got some for dinner. Then we played the foldy-paper-drawing game Drawing-Writing game.
I think this was the night SV and I decided to pack one suitcase to see what kind of shape we were in, luggage-wise, leading to manga forts:
from above
my complete fort in the foreground, SV's under construction fort in the distance
Monday, 9/15 - Day 10 (Shopping)
While making the rounds in Ikebukuro for post-Comiket remorse, M stumbled across one of my quest items, the LE version of Otona Keikenchi (with special booklet). By that time, I had totally given up hope of finding it, so I was REALLY happy. We then headed out to Shibuya again (remorse shopping, checking for quest items, etc). Back in Ikebukuro, we stopped at Junkudo, where we discovered that Marble comics was having some sort of fair and had several of their manga packaged with cute little mini clear files. I ended up buying two of them, Sentimental Garden Lover and Nobara--both manga that I already have at home. (/sighhhhhh) I gave the manga themselves to M and just kept the clear files.
We stopped at Shakey's for "lunch," (at 4:00). The pizza was OK, but the "spicy" fries were amazing, and the large grape soda I ordered turned out to be GINORMOUS:
next to a normal size melon soda float [or, as Shakey's calls it, "American float"] and water glass
It was like, the size of a super big gulp or something? I've NEVER seen such a huge drink in Japan before. Also, it was not Fanta grape, it tasted like it might have been Mitsuya? Which surprised me. But yum!
Tuesday, 8/16 - Day 11 (Shopping)
Originally, we had planned to go to Fuji-Q Highland (watch out for the autoplay video, sorry!), but our dwindling funds made the cost (¥5000 round trip for train ticket + ¥5000 entry fee) somewhat discouraging, and, frankly, I was getting really sick of the heat and wasn't looking forward to baking in more lines for hours on end. Instead we shopped around Ikebukuro (more non-manga shopping for me) and then headed to Nakano for a third time. And of course we went to Nataraj again; I meant to order a different curry but ended up with the bhuj paneer again, oops. (Note to self: rice might be the only thing at Nataraj that isn't amazing, go with naan instead.)
Wednesday, 8/17 - Day 12 (last-minute shopping PANIKKU)
Well, to be honest, we'd done so much shopping that it didn't feel very panicked. But anyway, in Animate, I found my FAVORITE thing ever, namely, a Bunny T-shirt:
It even includes my favorite of the preview introductions (the "member of Tiger & Bunny who owns five pairs of the same glasses" one--hee!) I was worried about the size, because normally I wear a men's medium and it's a large, but it turned out to fit just fine.
That afternoon, while M and SV were out buying more books (I was in I CAN'T BUY ANOTHER BOOK MY SUITCASES WILL EXPLODE panic mode), I decided to pack my suitcases up. This was, honestly, the best decision ever, since I find packing very stressful and I'm probably not much fun to be around. Partway through, I realized that there was NO way to fit all my stuff in my suitcases--even ignoring the weight limit (and, the first time I weighed my big suitcase it was over 70(!) pounds, which would have meant a $200 fee*), the stuff just didn't physically fit. So I packed up two boxes, one of my shounen/shoujo manga and some novels (shipped surface, *sniffle*, hope to see you in a year or two), and one of toys for my brother which were lightweight but rather bulky. It turned out to be a pain and a half (had to buy shipping materials, the post office didn't take credit cards so I had to get cash from an ATM, etc), but I really had to do it. In the future, if I have a list with a bunch of shounen and shoujo on it, I think I'll try to buy it and ship earlier in the trip, so there's less separation anxiety (not to mention less packing stress). Also: bring tape, scissors, maybe some old boxes? Space is certainly not an issue on the way in.
*Overweight baggage fees on Delta: 50-70lbs = $75; 70-100lbs = $200. $200 being the same as the fee for an extra suitcase.
Anyway, it was a huge weight off my back once I had everything packed. We headed out to eat (stopping at the usual stores on the way, where I discovered a copy of the LE Otona for M) okonomiyaki one last time.
Last-day tradition: kittymiyaki!
After dinner, we went into the arcades to take purikura and (for me) play a couple of UFO catcher games. (Looking back, I sort of regret that we didn't do more than one sheet of purikura. We had all pretty much forgotten how to do it (or else the machine we used was really terrible), so some of the pictures were kind of hilariously bad. I was looking back at my collection this weekend, and mereflair and I used to be total pros at it. We took some really awesome shots! I think we could have done a little better if we'd done a couple more sheets. Oh well.)
Back at the hotel room, SV and M put me to shame with their speedy packing. Do I have that much more stuff, or am I just really terrible at packing?
Thursday, 8/17 - Day 13 (Goodbye, Japan ;_;)
Despite thinking I was done packing the day before, I still had some stress that morning getting the last of my clothes and toiletries into my suitcase. (And had to arrange one last time to keep my big suitcase under 70lbs.) I cheated the system by filling a tote bag with manga and setting it on top of my wheeled carry-on. (This is in addition to my backpack, mind.) If anyone called me on it, my plan was to stuff part in my backpack and part in my carry-on (which has a pocket I don't used because it's where the suitcase rests while in the overhead bins). Thankfully, nobody said anything to me about it, but I felt guilty for having an extra carry-on.
Before leaving, I made a quick stop in Animate, because the day before I had registered my new point card, so I could actually use the points I'd been earning, but was then told that I couldn't use the points until the next day. I picked up a few last souvenirs, including (don't laugh) a backup Bunny shirt.
Our (extremely heavy!) suitcases, ready to go on the bus.
You have to click and zoom in to tell, but our bus had, of all things, hieroglyphics embossed on the steps.
After a bus ride that seemed to go by really quickly, we parted at the airport (since SV and I were on Delta, but M's airline was in a different wing). When checking in, SV and I realized that our flights were both delayed by almost two hours. (We would later find it that it was due to a flight--or flights?--from China being delayed.) So we had plenty of time to hang out in the airport and chat.
Eventually I boarded my flight, which was pretty uneventful. I sprang for comfort economy and I'm glad I did, because it was really nice to board early and have plenty of time to get my bazillion carry-ons situated in the overhead bins. And the extra legroom was nice, though honestly I wouldn't say it made the flight comfortable. It just...made it less uncomfortable. More importantly, the guy sitting next to me was SUPER annoying. He didn't seem to have any concept of keeping his arms in his own seat (not only did he have his arms all over the armrests, a couple times he even elbowed me in the side), AND he was a leg bouncer, which I find annoying even in the best of times, forget when we're crammed into a plane like sardines. UGH. I did get actually get a vegetarian meal, though, which...I honestly don't remember the last time that happened.
Getting luggage in Detroit was a complete mess, though; everyone was extra-impatient because our flight was so late, the stuff was on two carousels so nobody knew where to look, one of the carousels kept stopping (I think because it was so full the stuff kept jamming in the corners), which meant people would circle around it like vultures until it started up again. I swear my bags were the last off of the plane, and I didn't see it happen, but I think someone took one of my suitcases off the carousel, which made me have a HUGE freak out. (What happened was this: I saw my overweight suitcase coming around, but it was behind another suitcase, and so heavy I couldn't pull it off. So I decided to wait until it came around again, hoping that someone else would pull the other suitcase off, making mine easier to get to. And they did--that I saw--but my suitcase didn't come around again. So I freaked out and circled the whole carousel without seeing it--or anyone else with it. But the second time around, I DID see it, so it turned out OK. But holy crap, what do you do when someone steals your suitcase full of hundreds of dollars worth of porn?)
I got bumped to a later flight to Kalamazoo, of course, but that was fine. Well, except for the fact that I was sitting in the first row seat (so, no under the seat storage) and had to put all my carry-ons in a bin almost to the back of the plane, which then meant I had to wait for everyone to get off to get my stuff. I mean, really? The seats that need the most overhead space, and you stuff those bins full of flyers and stuff?
Finally at home, I unpacked and organized all my stuff, and then finally:
My shelves aren't lonely anymore! Don't they look happy together?
Since I hadn't posted them before, here are most (some were put away already) of my goods:
bags, clear files (mini ones are in the next picture), pencil boards, and the K-Books placemat
aaand, everything else (Oh look, my stack of doujinshi is hiding in the background.)
For reference:
quote list (locked)
mangaroo's report (locked)
spacealien_vamp's report
sara_tanaquil's book haul (locked)
If you have some time to kill (mangaroo dubbed me official trip chronicler, so this is going to be VERY VERY LONG), let me invite you to share all the details of our lovely journey into the world of shopping.
Our story begins with some empty shelves:
So sad! So lonely! So tragic! So flippy! I decided to go to Japan to buy them some nice book friends. Delta had other plans for me; they thought I might like to buy books in Grand Rapids instead of Japan. [Overheard after landing in Grand Rapids: "We might as well have just taxied up 131!"*] Silly Delta! GET ME TO JAPAN, NOW.
*This might only be funny if you live in southwest Michigan.
And, some 25 hours later I made it to Japan, yay! This is the view from our hotel window. (OK, it was night when I got there, but just go with it, OK?) By the time I got up to the hotel room it was 8:15. I had been texting sara_tanaquil (ST) on the bus from the airport, so I knew already that she and mangaroo (M) had gone for a quick K-Books run before they closed at 8:30. I didn't see much point in rushing out for 10 minutes of shopping, so instead I hung out with spacealien_vamp (SV) and watched a random festival that happened to be in the plaza in front of our hotel. When ST and M returned, though, I realized I had made a bad decision; it turns out K-Books closed that night, and would remain so for the next week (*gasp* *shock* *rending of garments*) while they moved to a new location. But K-Books is our favorite store! Where would we shop??
Saturday, 8/6 - Day 1 (Shopping)
Luckily, we are resourceful shoppers. We started the day at Tora no Ana, where I snagged a couple Tiger & Bunny doujinshi (criteria for judging quality: does it have a stuffed bunny on the cover?) and the all-important Comiket catalogue. (Note to self: DO NOT buy the Comiket catalogue except on the last stop before returning to the hotel, because it weighs at least 80 pounds.) We then headed to Animate, where we expected to stock up on Tiger & Bunny goods, but were shocked to find that there weren't any. Well, there was a clear file (sold!) and some stickers (at ¥999 for 2, pass), but that was it. Also, the section for BL goods was shockingly small. After a lunch break, we went to K-Books (doujinshi branch), where I bought a huge stack of original doujinshi (mostly Fujii Mitori). Our next stop was Mandarake, where we parked ourselves in the BL manga aisle (all four of us) and basically didn't move for an hour or so. Eventually, ST, M, and I decided we were done (done shopping! forever!) ready to check out and headed up to the cash register (SV's basket wasn't full yet, so she elected to keep going). There were a couple girls in front of us, and I noticed the line got a lot longer by the time we got to the front of the line. The three of us then proceeded to monopolize the only open registers for the next 10-15 minutes (since we all had full baskets) as about a million fujoshi got in the growing line behind us. Er, sorry?
Back in the hotel lobby, an ice sculpture! Why? Who knows! But it was pretty, and they kept the lobby extra cold while it was around. Dinner was at Monjaya (okonomiyaki!). We had planned to go to Tobu World Square on Sunday, but after dinner we decided to postpone it because the weather forecast called for 80% chance of rain. Besides, we'd barely scratched the surface of our shopping lists
Sunday, 8/7 - Day 2 (Shopping)
Happily, M found her big quest item (Yoneda Kou's World with Color doujinshi) at Lashinbang. We love Lashinbang! We did some other shopping elsewhere, but it's sort of a blur. (Note to self: Ikebukuro Mandarake opens at 12:00, not 11:00. No wonder we always went to K-Books first.) More importantly, we started watching Tiger & Bunny that afternoon, since SV and ST hadn't seen it at all. Around dinner and some naps, we made it up to episode 11 that day.
I discovered this yummy banana parfait thing; basically a banana with a bunch of whipped cream on it. Amazing.
PS - remember that rain forecast? It rained for about 15 minutes around 5:00. Boy, that sure would have inconvenienced us! Good thing we stayed in Ikebukuro.
Monday, 8/8 - Day 3 (Shopping)
A little more Tiger & Bunny in the morning to finish off the first arc, then off to Nakano to check their branch of Mandarake. We shopped, took a break at McDonald's, then shopped some more. I passed on an outrageously priced Madoka Nendoroid, which I later regretted, but later still I realized it wasn't officially released yet, hence the outrageous pricing, and would be able to order it from home for a less outrageous price. Anyway, we had planned on going to Nataraj for dinner (since it's near Nakano), but sadly, we didn't shop long enough after our break to get hungry again, so we headed back to Ikebukuro, thinking we could go to Tsuki no Shizuku (a restaurant specializing in tofu) in Ikebukuro instead...but then we were too tired for that.
Tuesday, 8/9 - Day 4 (Urayasu Sightseeing, Disney)
We headed out bright and early on the subway. In one car, we spotted this sign:
Look closely!
How many couples can you slash in this picture? This is how we entertain ourselves, OK
We arrived in Urayasu around 9:00 and did a little sightseeing. It was a lovely bus tour!
Look, an elephant!
Later that morning, we arrived at Disney (Maihama, get off the JR line at Maihama) only to find a long (hot) line just to get our tickets into the park. We all missed the nice cool Urayasu tour bus! (Note to self: they sell tickets to the park at the Disney Store in Sunshine City. You know, the mall attached to the hotel we always stay in? BUY TICKETS THERE NEXT TIME.)
obligatory shot of Mickey!handle on the monorail
Other than the torture of the hour wait in the Jungle outside Indiana Jones (the line was two hours, but the last hour was inside in the air conditioning, which made the line almost fun), I think we had a good time. Since we had been sightseeing in the morning, we only had time to get two fast passes (Journey to the Center of the Earth and Tower of Terror); other than that we went on Storm Riders, Indiana Jones, and Sindbad. (Side note: People discovered my Sindbad secret! Usually I go there to rest, because it's inside (=air conditioned), you can walk right up to the ride, and you get to sit down and relax for 15 minutes. But so many other people were there! We had to wait for like 20 minutes to get on?)
Fire! OK, terrible picture, but fire from the volcano! Of all the times I've been to Disney Sea, this is only the second I've actually seen the volcano "erupt." (And, actually, the first time I didn't really see it, I was just walking through the volcano and it scared the crap out of me.) I always thought they canceled it because of wind or something, but it didn't seem any less windy that day, so maybe I've just always happened to be in a ride or something?
Also, note for future reference: Zabini Brothers has vegetarian pizza and yummy fried burdock.
Wednesday, 8/10 - Day 5 (Shopping)
Day 5 shopping destination: Shibuya! At the train station, we all laughed at this:
It's a real estate agency, hence "home." So not really a Fushigi Yuugi reference, but we thought it was funny, anyway.
obligatory Hachiko picture
obligatory picture of super-busy crosswalk
Of course, our main purpose was to to check out the Shibuya Mandarake. (Must check all Mandarakes!) We also stopped at Book-Off, which had a pretty good BL section. (side note: we only went to two Book-Off locations--Shibuya and the new one in Ikebukuro--and both times I was surprised at the quality of the books. Have Book-Off's standards gone up, or have mine gone down?)
After a rest back at the hotel, we went out to Tsuki no Shizuku for dinner. With no idea that they'd moved, we stumbled on their new location by accident, and were then confused again when we sat down, as they'd changed to an electronic menu system. Although it was really convenient for ordering, it meant they didn't allow ANY changes to menu items. Which, when your group has two vegetarians and one person allergic to shellfish, is kind of a problem. The plus side is that everything on the menu (including drinks!) was ¥284, so it ended up being cheaper than we expected. Still, squid guts on the potatoes? Ewwww.
That night, SV, M, and I played BL Fish (new rule: make a story connecting the pictures in your matched pairs) while ST packed.
Thursday, 8/11 - Day 6 (Shopping)
Two exciting things for the day! 1) According to a poster spotted earlier, there would be new Tiger & Bunny goods at Animate, and 2) K-Books would reopen in their new location! The Tiger & Bunny part was amazing (fans! mini clear files! belts! mugs! shot glasses!); the K-Books grand opening was...not so grand. (There were flowers outside?) It's nice that the new store is closer to the other shops on Otome Road, but I'm pretty sure it's smaller than their previous location. Also, there were a lot of books we had been unable to find elsewhere and were counting on K-Books as our last hope, and they ended up not having most of them.
One NOT exciting thing for the day: due to circumstances at home, ST had to leave early. After saying goodbye (*sniffle*), the rest of us had lunch, and then I did non-manga shopping while SV and M did laundry. (I actually brought clothes for the entire trip, which my shopping companions thought was crazy. When I got home and mentioned this, my mom was like, "But you didn't even bring that many clothes!" I guess now we know where I get my packing habits.) Too tired to do anything special for dinner, we managed to drag ourselves to Miami Garden (in the mall) for a pasta dinner.
The also had this grenadine float, which was AMAZING. (Except for the ice. Who puts ice in a float? Next time, I will ask for no ice, no lemon.)
Back in the room, we started strategizing for Comiket, but quickly ran into a problem: we couldn't find the Tiger & Bunny section. We went through the entire catalog (twice), but no luck. Finally, we figured that the registration and printing process takes long enough that there was no Tiger & Bunny section. It was just too new of a fandom. Eventually, I found a blog listing some circles that would have Tiger & Bunny doujinshi, and we decided to look for those. The good thing about this was that we had expected Tiger & Bunny to be on Saturday (and that was the main thing we were interested in on Saturday), so since there would be some on Friday, we decided to skip Saturday altogether.
Not like this story isn't long enough already, but I'd like to digress for a minute here to talk about Comiket. If you've never been to Comiket, it's bigger than you think it is. I don't care how big you think it is: it's bigger. Here is a nice map that I stole of the East Hall of Big Sight. There's also West Hall, which is a little smaller. (Keep in mind each one of those numbers is divided into two tables, a and b.) It's not a place you can just wander around aimlessly; if you don't have a catlog/map, you're lost. When we first started going to Comiket, we would pick a section that looked interesting ("Look, here's Harry Potter!") and just wander around. We learned the hard way that this doesn't work because if you spend too long browsing, the circles you actually care about will pack up and leave by the time you get there. (Comiket opens at 10:00, and I have seen a number of tables leave by 1:00, or even noon.) So now we are very careful to target just the tables we care about.
Anyway!
Friday, 8/12 - Day 7 (Comiket)
We arrived around 9:00 and made it in by around 10:45. We hit up tables for Yoneda Kou (am I going to have to start watching Giant Killing?), Inariya Fusanosuke (I got a tote bag!), G-Defend, Koori/Silver Diamond, and Tiger & Bunny. We quickly noticed that (I guess since it didn't have a section?) Tiger & Bunny was EVERYWHERE. (T&B doujinshi by both Yoneda and Inariya? Check.) To the point that we joked about tables not having it being "defective." Also, cosplay spotted: Dragon Kid, Fire Emblem, Barnaby (all street clothes), Origami Cyclone, Blue Rose. No Tiger. ;_; We were done by around noon, and headed home to shower and rest.
For dinner we decided to finally go to Nataraj, which meant we might as well stop in Nakano and check out Mandarake. (I think this was when I gave up on buying DVDs--not because I didn't want them but because I couldn't find the ones I wanted--and decided to spend my DVD budget on special booklets instead.) At Nataraj, I tried something called bhuj paneer, which was crumbled cheese in a tomato sauce. So good! I need to find out if any of the Indian places around here make something similar.
PS:
elephants!
Saturday, 8/13 - Day 8 (Shopping)
Our first stop was K-Books, so we could all snag the Takarai Rihito placemat (free with ¥3000 purchase!). Between the manga store and the goods store, I managed to get two, so feel free to join me at my place for dinner. Later in the day, we went to Seibu for (*gasp*) non-manga shopping. (Not surprising for me, but usually I have to go on my own for non-manga shopping.) We decided to shop for dinner in the food market, and we did find lots of yummy stuff, but WHY did all the potato croquettes have to have meat in them? :( While eating we got caught up on Tiger & Bunny (omg episode 19 is THE BEST EVER). Since it airs at 2:00 in the morning, we elected not to stay up and watch episode 20. Especially since we had no idea if we even got the right channel. (We did watch 20 another day, but to be honest I don't remember when. I'm also not sure at what point M and I started converting the files so we could put them on our ipod and iphone for the flight home. Not that we are obsessed or anything.)
Sunday, 8/14 - Day 9 (Comiket)
We arrived around the same time (maybe a little earlier?), but got in a little faster, I think. Our line was moved around a lot before we got in, so there was less sitting in the baking sun and more standing in the baking sun.
This was taken as we were moving into the building--I love how it seems to capture the slow trudge of people who've been dying in the heat for over an hour. Conquered tables are here, so I won't repeat that. We were done earlier than Friday (or would have been, if I hadn't gotten distracted by the pet crafts (so much adorableness!), which some sneaky person put between the BL section and the door). We were all surprised by the shortness of the lines inside--my only long one was Asou Kai--because she had a Tiger & Bunny doujin? Who knows, but it was strange.
Back in Ikebukuro, we started hitting up the stores for our post-Comiket remorse shopping. (lol, us) M pimped Hidokushinaide at me (I had read the first chapter and thought I hated it, but it turns out the first chapter is not at all representative of the rest of the series), so I had to start looking for those doujinshi (and regret not getting the newest one at Comiket, sighhhh). I discovered a bakery in the mall that sells decent bread, so got some for dinner. Then we played the foldy-paper-drawing game Drawing-Writing game.
I think this was the night SV and I decided to pack one suitcase to see what kind of shape we were in, luggage-wise, leading to manga forts:
from above
my complete fort in the foreground, SV's under construction fort in the distance
Monday, 9/15 - Day 10 (Shopping)
While making the rounds in Ikebukuro for post-Comiket remorse, M stumbled across one of my quest items, the LE version of Otona Keikenchi (with special booklet). By that time, I had totally given up hope of finding it, so I was REALLY happy. We then headed out to Shibuya again (remorse shopping, checking for quest items, etc). Back in Ikebukuro, we stopped at Junkudo, where we discovered that Marble comics was having some sort of fair and had several of their manga packaged with cute little mini clear files. I ended up buying two of them, Sentimental Garden Lover and Nobara--both manga that I already have at home. (/sighhhhhh) I gave the manga themselves to M and just kept the clear files.
We stopped at Shakey's for "lunch," (at 4:00). The pizza was OK, but the "spicy" fries were amazing, and the large grape soda I ordered turned out to be GINORMOUS:
next to a normal size melon soda float [or, as Shakey's calls it, "American float"] and water glass
It was like, the size of a super big gulp or something? I've NEVER seen such a huge drink in Japan before. Also, it was not Fanta grape, it tasted like it might have been Mitsuya? Which surprised me. But yum!
Tuesday, 8/16 - Day 11 (Shopping)
Originally, we had planned to go to Fuji-Q Highland (watch out for the autoplay video, sorry!), but our dwindling funds made the cost (¥5000 round trip for train ticket + ¥5000 entry fee) somewhat discouraging, and, frankly, I was getting really sick of the heat and wasn't looking forward to baking in more lines for hours on end. Instead we shopped around Ikebukuro (more non-manga shopping for me) and then headed to Nakano for a third time. And of course we went to Nataraj again; I meant to order a different curry but ended up with the bhuj paneer again, oops. (Note to self: rice might be the only thing at Nataraj that isn't amazing, go with naan instead.)
Wednesday, 8/17 - Day 12 (last-minute shopping PANIKKU)
Well, to be honest, we'd done so much shopping that it didn't feel very panicked. But anyway, in Animate, I found my FAVORITE thing ever, namely, a Bunny T-shirt:
It even includes my favorite of the preview introductions (the "member of Tiger & Bunny who owns five pairs of the same glasses" one--hee!) I was worried about the size, because normally I wear a men's medium and it's a large, but it turned out to fit just fine.
That afternoon, while M and SV were out buying more books (I was in I CAN'T BUY ANOTHER BOOK MY SUITCASES WILL EXPLODE panic mode), I decided to pack my suitcases up. This was, honestly, the best decision ever, since I find packing very stressful and I'm probably not much fun to be around. Partway through, I realized that there was NO way to fit all my stuff in my suitcases--even ignoring the weight limit (and, the first time I weighed my big suitcase it was over 70(!) pounds, which would have meant a $200 fee*), the stuff just didn't physically fit. So I packed up two boxes, one of my shounen/shoujo manga and some novels (shipped surface, *sniffle*, hope to see you in a year or two), and one of toys for my brother which were lightweight but rather bulky. It turned out to be a pain and a half (had to buy shipping materials, the post office didn't take credit cards so I had to get cash from an ATM, etc), but I really had to do it. In the future, if I have a list with a bunch of shounen and shoujo on it, I think I'll try to buy it and ship earlier in the trip, so there's less separation anxiety (not to mention less packing stress). Also: bring tape, scissors, maybe some old boxes? Space is certainly not an issue on the way in.
*Overweight baggage fees on Delta: 50-70lbs = $75; 70-100lbs = $200. $200 being the same as the fee for an extra suitcase.
Anyway, it was a huge weight off my back once I had everything packed. We headed out to eat (stopping at the usual stores on the way, where I discovered a copy of the LE Otona for M) okonomiyaki one last time.
Last-day tradition: kittymiyaki!
After dinner, we went into the arcades to take purikura and (for me) play a couple of UFO catcher games. (Looking back, I sort of regret that we didn't do more than one sheet of purikura. We had all pretty much forgotten how to do it (or else the machine we used was really terrible), so some of the pictures were kind of hilariously bad. I was looking back at my collection this weekend, and mereflair and I used to be total pros at it. We took some really awesome shots! I think we could have done a little better if we'd done a couple more sheets. Oh well.)
Back at the hotel room, SV and M put me to shame with their speedy packing. Do I have that much more stuff, or am I just really terrible at packing?
Thursday, 8/17 - Day 13 (Goodbye, Japan ;_;)
Despite thinking I was done packing the day before, I still had some stress that morning getting the last of my clothes and toiletries into my suitcase. (And had to arrange one last time to keep my big suitcase under 70lbs.) I cheated the system by filling a tote bag with manga and setting it on top of my wheeled carry-on. (This is in addition to my backpack, mind.) If anyone called me on it, my plan was to stuff part in my backpack and part in my carry-on (which has a pocket I don't used because it's where the suitcase rests while in the overhead bins). Thankfully, nobody said anything to me about it, but I felt guilty for having an extra carry-on.
Before leaving, I made a quick stop in Animate, because the day before I had registered my new point card, so I could actually use the points I'd been earning, but was then told that I couldn't use the points until the next day. I picked up a few last souvenirs, including (don't laugh) a backup Bunny shirt.
Our (extremely heavy!) suitcases, ready to go on the bus.
You have to click and zoom in to tell, but our bus had, of all things, hieroglyphics embossed on the steps.
After a bus ride that seemed to go by really quickly, we parted at the airport (since SV and I were on Delta, but M's airline was in a different wing). When checking in, SV and I realized that our flights were both delayed by almost two hours. (We would later find it that it was due to a flight--or flights?--from China being delayed.) So we had plenty of time to hang out in the airport and chat.
Eventually I boarded my flight, which was pretty uneventful. I sprang for comfort economy and I'm glad I did, because it was really nice to board early and have plenty of time to get my bazillion carry-ons situated in the overhead bins. And the extra legroom was nice, though honestly I wouldn't say it made the flight comfortable. It just...made it less uncomfortable. More importantly, the guy sitting next to me was SUPER annoying. He didn't seem to have any concept of keeping his arms in his own seat (not only did he have his arms all over the armrests, a couple times he even elbowed me in the side), AND he was a leg bouncer, which I find annoying even in the best of times, forget when we're crammed into a plane like sardines. UGH. I did get actually get a vegetarian meal, though, which...I honestly don't remember the last time that happened.
Getting luggage in Detroit was a complete mess, though; everyone was extra-impatient because our flight was so late, the stuff was on two carousels so nobody knew where to look, one of the carousels kept stopping (I think because it was so full the stuff kept jamming in the corners), which meant people would circle around it like vultures until it started up again. I swear my bags were the last off of the plane, and I didn't see it happen, but I think someone took one of my suitcases off the carousel, which made me have a HUGE freak out. (What happened was this: I saw my overweight suitcase coming around, but it was behind another suitcase, and so heavy I couldn't pull it off. So I decided to wait until it came around again, hoping that someone else would pull the other suitcase off, making mine easier to get to. And they did--that I saw--but my suitcase didn't come around again. So I freaked out and circled the whole carousel without seeing it--or anyone else with it. But the second time around, I DID see it, so it turned out OK. But holy crap, what do you do when someone steals your suitcase full of hundreds of dollars worth of porn?)
I got bumped to a later flight to Kalamazoo, of course, but that was fine. Well, except for the fact that I was sitting in the first row seat (so, no under the seat storage) and had to put all my carry-ons in a bin almost to the back of the plane, which then meant I had to wait for everyone to get off to get my stuff. I mean, really? The seats that need the most overhead space, and you stuff those bins full of flyers and stuff?
Finally at home, I unpacked and organized all my stuff, and then finally:
My shelves aren't lonely anymore! Don't they look happy together?
Since I hadn't posted them before, here are most (some were put away already) of my goods:
bags, clear files (mini ones are in the next picture), pencil boards, and the K-Books placemat
aaand, everything else (Oh look, my stack of doujinshi is hiding in the background.)
For reference:
quote list (locked)
mangaroo's report (locked)
spacealien_vamp's report
sara_tanaquil's book haul (locked)