As usual, Kyle and I ventured out near lunchtime. While it’s
generally not a good idea to waste the limited time available when in another
country, I wasn’t particularly fond of waking up too early when on vacation (a morning
person, I am not!). However, my morning routine did consist of enduring the
sweltering heat for long enough to buy a can of coffee from the nearby vending
machine. The milky (latte) version of Japanese canned coffee made for a nice
morning kickstart. It’s worth noting that Kyle had already banned me from
drinking black canned coffee – Kyle learned a few years ago that the black
coffee did something to produce the worst breath known to man. It appeared that
the stuff was notorious throughout all of Japan!
The plan for the afternoon was explore Kashiwa. Kashiwa had
a large “Hobby Off” (similar to the “Book Off” bookshops) where I would be able
to find new anime figures to add to my ever growing collection. I spotted a few figures I wanted to add to my collection, but knew my suitcase space was finite so priorities were needed. One of the figures was a Figma (poseable) of Asuna from Sword Art Online (before you ask, no, it's not going to be used to set up creepy situations with the Revoltech Woody figure... welll, probably not).
By a stroke of luck, Kyle spotted a Yugi figure from the
Yu-Gi-Oh! “Dark Side of Dimensions” movie. I decided that I should get a Yugi
figure as I already had a few “Dark Magician Girl” figures and didn’t want
people to start thinking I had some kind of Dark Magician Girl fetish. Let’s
just say that character has inspired some, shall we say, “interesting” fan art.
I was going to include an example, but I’d rather not make this blog NSFW.
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| "Dark Side of Dimensions" figure of Yugi - hard to believe Yu-Gi-Oh has been around 20 years! (I'm getting old) |
My plan for the evening was to meet with Yoshi in Shinjuku.
The background, for those who are not aware is that Yoshi was a member of the
Japanese study group (the Sakura Kai) in Leeds and was also a teaching
assistant one year. Those who have followed the blogs of my previous trips will
probably already know that I had planned to meet with Yoshi last year, however,
I was unable to as a job interview came up at the last minute so he couldn’t
make it to Tokyo. While it was disappointing that we didn’t get to meet, I was
happy that Yoshi had been presented with a good opportunity.
Upon arriving in Shinjuku, I started to realize a slight
problem with our plan. We chose Shinjuku because many different rail lines met
there so it would be an easy station for both of us to reach. Unfortunately,
this also made Shinjuku the one of the largest and most complex stations in the
entire network (I sometimes like to joke that an elite exploration team from
Lonely Planet disappeared during an expedition to map Shinjuku station).
I’d arrived at Shinjuku a little early (as a precaution) but
did not know exactly where Yoshi would be. It was the kind of situation where
having the rental phone/SIM proved invaluable. We had already exchanged numbers
so I was easily able to let Yoshi know exactly which ticket gate I was waiting
at. Despite the station being incredibly busy (believe me, UK rail has nothing
on Japan!), we were aided by the fact that (as a blonde gaijin) I stuck out
like a sore thumb.
After Yoshi successfully located me, we went out to a nearby
restaurant. Prior to that day, when he suggested going out for food, he’d asked
me what kind of food I wanted. I was keen to try new foods so Yoshi suggested
oden. Although traditionally a winter dish, it was something that we could
still enjoy in summer.
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| Long awaited reunion |
Over the next few hours, we chatted about how things were
going for each of us in the UK and Japan. Because I hadn’t heard much about
what Yoshi as up to, it was great to find out how things were going for him. We
did most of our chatting in English (as my Japanese was limited, so that would
have made it difficult to discuss complex topics) but I did get a few
opportunities to practice some of my Japanese.
After a few hours of good food, beer and interesting
discussions, it was time to head home. We said our goodbyes at Shinjuku station
and I planned my route back. Although expensive, I opted to return via
Akihabara as the Tsukuba express was the most convenient way of getting back.
Next to Akihabara stations, I could see there were plenty of promotions up for
the new “Kizumonogatari” – the origin story for the Monogatari series. I’d been
a fan of the Monogatari series for a while so Kizumonogatari was something I
was quite excited about.
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| Kiss Shot Acerola Orion Heart Under Blade (do not ask about the name) |
I also happened to notice a street performance from a singer
who appeared to be promoting an album. It was good to see that independent
musicians are still going in Japan and that AKB48 hadn’t completely taken over.
Thanks for reading. Tune in again for an evening of
nomification and graphic design (not in that order though!)
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