On April 17th, I joined Shannon, Chelsea, and Maria for a trip to the small island of Okunoshima. The island was formerly a secret chemical weapons testing facility during the Russo-Japanese War and World War II. What brought us to the island was not it's history, but it's current attraction, bunnies! After the wars and demolition of the chemical weapons, the island was populated with rabbits! The origin of the rabbits is unknown, some initially believed they were used for chemical testing and let loose after the war, but historians have refuted that claim. Another popular theory is the island was populated by middle-schoolers releasing rabbits on the island. Either way, due to it's remote nature (and rules against bringing pets) the island is now full of the fuzzy creatures.
Before we set off on the small ferry to the island, we bought rabbit food from the ferry dock. Due to the abundance of tourists, the rabbits are incredibly tame, and early approach the sound of rustling paper bags in the hopes of grabbing some treats. The island now has a hotel, golf course, tennis courts, and some easy walking trails, which makes the island a nice weekend getaway. We set off on the walking trails, which encircle the island and lead to the old military ruins. All along the way we were accompanied by furry companions, who provided endless entertainment.
On the southern tip of the island we found and old lighthouse with spectacular views of the Itsuki-nada sea and its various islands. The wind was quite strong on this side of the island, causing the foliage to be quite animated.
Other parts of the island were much calmer. And among the trees were ruins from the wars, which are being overtaken by nature and quite cool to explore. Running over the island are massive transmission towers, which I imagine head to the much larger Omishima Island from Honshu. You can get right next to them, and they hum. We ate lunch at the top at a small park which had some interactive educational attractions which allowed children to spot the height of the towers from their focal point.
Throughout the day, as expected we had a ton of fun feeding the adorable, friendly bunnies! What we were pleasantly surprised by was how beautiful the island and its vistas were. In that respect this little day trip exceeded our expectations! And I can happily report that I was able to make it to the bunny island, which was high on my list of places to go in Japan!
On Saturday April 9th I set off to Osaka to see a concert. After wandering Osaka's equivalent of Akihabara, Den Den Town, I went to Shinsaibashi to a small venue called Ruido. Quite literally a hole in the ground, this basement level venue was just as compact as some of Denver’s lesser known concert venues. Here I waited anxiously with a packed venue of other fans for a fantastic performance. In line I met a cool guy from German who was on vacation in Japan, and just so happened to hear about the band performing after arriving. I helped him get a ticket so he could check out show as well.
The band we were awaiting to perform was Jupiter. They are a relatively new band made up of the members of Versailles, abet with a new vocalist. Versailles holds a special place in my music library as the first Japanese band I stumbled upon, way back in high school. So for me, this concert was equally about nostalgia and experiencing something new.
Despite the small venue the performance was polished. The complex lights were synchronized, the audio was clean. Most interestingly, unlike heavy metal concerts in the US, there was no rabble here. Instead the crowd was conducted by the lead singer, complete with specified, choreographed reactions to different parts of the songs. The crowd would sway their arms during sweeping scales, pound their fists perfectly with the meter of a chorus, and hold their open hands up in the air during a guitar solo, as if in reverence to the artist.
The band took their performance as seriously as their getups, yet in the few interims would joke with each other and with the crowd, which was a fun contrast and added to the closeness of the event. Speaking of their appearance, Jupiter is a notable band within the Visual Kei genre. A comparable genre from America would be glam rock. Visual Kei bands have adopted the glam rock aesthetic, but taken it further. In Jupiter's case, they added Victorian influences and effeminate features, the latter being a cultural rejection of the stiff "Japanese salary man" masculinity quite common in pop culture since the early 2000s. As a point of clarification, all of the band members of Jupiter are men in the 30s-40s. Many Visual Kei musicians also carry on the tradition established by the likes of David Bowie and Alice Cooper by creating a stage persona (in addition to the heavy makeup). They build followings around their "character", which enables them to have successful solo careers, collaborations, and carry their fanbase when changing bands.
Jupiter played two encores in addition to their lengthy set. Their performance emphasized the guitar solos heavily, giving a huge distinction to the guitarists during their many times to shine. While I was not permitted to take any photos or video inside the venue, I have included one of the band's music videos (below) so you can experience their aesthetic with perfect audio quality, as well as footage of one of their live performances (up above). I recommend looking at the crowd in the live footage to see their coordinated efforts. The guitar solos are also jaw-dropping.
Afterward the concert no one left, but actually stuck around to take a Polaroid photo with one of the guitarists. Of course I did the same. A good number of people in the crowd were also dressed in the same Visual Kei style, touching up makeup for just a low quality photo.
I had an absolute blast at the show! I am glad to have been able to see not only a live performance in Japan, especially from one who I have listened to for about a decade.
I ended the night grabbing some ever elusive Mexican food from the nearby El Pancho. And the next day I wandered a huge park in Osaka full of families and track clubs running and playing sports. Before I caught my bus back, I saw yet another large group meeting up to practice dancing, this time in from of the bus terminal. The shiny metallic walls of the courtyard provide a mirror-like surface for the dancers, who had congregated in rather larger numbers. This had to have been the third time I have seen such a meetup in Japan, so it is clearly a popular thing to do among Japanese youth.
At the beginning of April, I joined in on a bit JET event in the nearby Okayama prefecture for hanami (cherry blossom viewing). We all planned to meet up during the peak of the brief season at Tsuyama's castle ruins, the most renowned spot in the prefecture for hanami. The ruins are a multi-tiered structure at the city center, with hundreds of cherry trees on every level and an impressive view of the city. I couldn't imagine a better place to experience hanami.
People in Japan use the brief window when cherry blossoms bloom as an opportunity to meet up with friends for picnics under the trees. The cities accommodate for this by setting up food stalls and performances at the popular venues. When we arrived the castle grounds were already bustling with people, and multiple parking lots were already full, and roads were closed to redirect traffic. After making it into the area we met up with a good crowd of other ALTs, which only grew as the day went on. Hanami is definitely a social event, best celebrated with friends. We had fun grilling, snacking on festival food, socializing, and taking pictures of the stellar scenery. The size and number of trees is staggering, at the top tiers looking down it feels like staring into a sea of petals. As the sun set, thousands of lanterns illuminated the castle grounds. The lantern's light completely changed the vibe, facilitating a more cozy, warmer atmosphere.
That evening the city set up a projection mapping performance against the top wall of the ruins. It was an entertaining show with a little bit of everything. The projections factored in their environment, creating the illusion that the castle wall was crumbling and transforming. Actors interacted with the images on a stage aligned in front of the wall. And near the end the lighting extended up into the trees, creating a surreal firework illusion. Thankfully there were plenty of cameras around, so you can experience the show for yourself!
That next day I joined Maria in Sakaiminato, a man made peninsula in western Tottori, to check out some of the local sites. Our first stop was the nearby Diaba Park. It is a popular spot in the area for its plethora of cherry blossom trees. Our timing was great, because as we arrived a taiko performance was beginning. The group was incredibly enthusiastic, clearly enjoying the event. The leader of the crew was particularly energetic and a bit silly, making the performance even more fun! Surprisingly enough, one of the group members was a student of Maria's.
We soon left the park and drove across the the water through a small coastal fishing village which had a nice shrine before winding our way up to another old lighthouse overlooking the Sea of Japan. The view was impressive and the sea breeze, refreshing.
We then picked Chelsea up and drove across the peninsula to the artificial lake created by Sakiminato's construction. We crossed a bridge to an island in the center of the lake, home the Yushien Garden which famous for peonies. Being a big fan of Japanese gardens, I enjoyed walking around the meticulously maintained scenery.
A unique part of this garden is their peony room, and indoor section where the flowers can grow year round. Far from being merely a room with these flowers, they had managed to create an outdoor scene within the building, complete with small waterways and a very cool overgrown wall. The garden also had some small waterfalls, a pond, and a striking rock garden. The entire establishment was classy, and furthered my appreciation for Japanese landscape design.
The day after AnimeJapan, on Easter (3/27) I set out to explore some scenic spots in Tokyo that I had yet to visit. In the morning I stopped by a bakery to get some breakfast, and was surprised to see hot cross buns for sale. These buns are an Easter food popular in New Zealand and Australia, so in the spirit of things I got one for myself.
I first met up with Maria and Serena at Asakusa, Tokyo's spiritual center. The area felt like a condensed version of the shrines I have visited in more remote areas of Japan. They somehow managed to create a similar reverent atmosphere in the middle of the city.
In a rare occurrence, the garden in Asakusa was open to the public for an ancient Japanese art exhibition. It was a fantastic exhibition. I was most impressed with the massive wood carving canvases, which created amazing sense of depth using mere inches of carved wood. We then wandered the garden grounds, relaxed and drank some green tea in the tranquil environment.
Contrasting the garden, we forged our way through the jam-packed crowds at the Asakusa shopping stalls. Clearly designed to trap tourists visiting the shrine, these stalls sold some of the most random souvenirs I have seen, with many of them being completely unrelated to the shrine.
At the front of the shopping arcade is a massive gate for the complex, which has a gigantic red lantern. From what I heard touching the lantern was good luck, which is easy enough to do since it only hangs about 7 feet off of the ground. The underside of the lantern has an intricate woodcarving, so it was worth pushing through the crowd to see this iconic spot.
We then caught the subway to the nearby Ueno Park for the beginning of hanami, Japan's cherry blossom viewing season. All over the park were people camping out and picnicking with friends under the newly blossoming cherry trees. Hanami is quite a big event in Japan. The cherry blossoms only bloom for a couple of weeks, so on those weekends everyone plans to get together and enjoy the great weather and beautiful scenery. Festival stalls pop up in all the parks across Japan, and many parks host concerts and other performances during this brief season.
In Ueno we found some food stalls, of which I am a big fan of, and stumbled upon a traditional Japanese dragon dance performance. A pantomimed slapstick performance, it was quite fun to watch. In another section of the park, near the museums, was also an art exhibition and a big band performance.
Some other interesting sites in the park included a warped tree that makes a circle called the Moon Pine, as well as a big art display close to the museums.
I parted ways with Maria and Serena to meet up with another friend who lives in Tokyo. Together Kirsten and I went to the Imperial Palace. For Hanami, the palace grounds were opened to the public. We had to take advantage of this extremely rare occurrence. Before we were allowed to enter Inui Street, we had to go through multiple security checkpoints that would be at home in a US airport. We were then permitted to walk along the road lining the moat to the imperial gardens. While the trees were not quite in bloom yet, I am glad we got the chance to enter the grounds.
We then hopped into the East Gardens of the imperial palace (which are normally open to the public) The 'garden' is more of a massive grassy open space, which is an unusual site in Japan, let alone the bustling metropolis of Tokyo. Many many years ago the gardens functioned as the city center, crammed full of buildings and the Imperial Palace. We chilled out at the park for a while, basking in the afternoon sun and temperate weather. We left to head to a highly regarded seafood donburi restaurant, but when we arrived there was already a line wrapping around the corner even though the restaurant hadn't opened yet. I'll have to go another time in the future.
That evening before heading back to Tottori, I met up with an acquaintance from my last trip in Tokyo. Surprisingly enough, I joined Hiroki for a Buddhist ceremony to end my trip in Tokyo. It was an interesting experience to go to another religion's usual ceremony.
O and on the night bus back, I went to the restroom at one of the rest stops. I think Japan's toilet culture might be getting a bit out of hand, there was a large digital display of the occupancy status and floor plan of the restroom.
On March 26th, Japan hosts their biggest anime convention. I went early before opening, knowing Japan's propensity for long lines. But I was still unprepared for the massive queue I encountered. The line started far away from the property, all the way at the coast, snaking through a massive parking lot before doubling back towards the event halls. Thousands of people were already there, eagerly awaiting the doors to open. After waiting for about two hours, I was able to get inside. Considering the amount of people, the line actually moved incredibly quickly. I checked into it later, over 135,000 people attended, so I am happy I managed to get into venue as soon as I did.
AnimeJapan's format is practically identical to TGS. This meant there is not much merchandise, and most of the booths were promo displays, and the cosplay section was again tucked in the back. This makes sense to me now though, since people can buy practically anything related to their favorite shows 30 minutes away in Akihabara.
I met up with Jefferey and his friend James. Together we explored the convention. Seeing as Jefferey is a huge Yu-Gi-Oh fan, we lined up to have our photo taken with Dark Magician Girl from the show. I am sure 10 year old Charles would be quite jealous.
The Fate series had a strong showing, with cutouts of characters from the upcoming game, and professional cosplayers posing with decorated sports cars. It was amusing to see the hobbyist photographers layered on top of one another to snap a good shot of the models.
As I wandered around I saw a huge Garo display celebrating an anniversary I believe. I didn’t realize it was such a popular show, especially considering the anime adaptations of the live action series had only begun recently. The booth functioned as a museum of sorts, with props and costumes from the show set up on display, and art from the anime lining the walls.
Some of the coolest parts of the convention for me were sections which featured key frame art from notable series. One booth in particular had iPads featuring art and interviews of famous animators and directors. Another one had screens displaying 4 different periods of production of a show simultaneously, with each quadrant playing a different part.
I was able to find more keyframe art from the Monogatari series, which were different from the material I had seen in Hokkaido. The art was featured side by side with the final scenes, which was a cool comparison to see! There was also Gurren Laggan keyframe art, which is a fantastic series known for it's stylistic flair. Near that collection was full size Gurren statue!
Many other booths had life size cutouts of characters, or replicas of items from the shows. Some things I saw were the Berserk Sword, C.C. Sakura wands, and a real life Koro-sensei! A cool display had a Phoenix Wright and Detective Conan wire-frame illusion statue, which shifted characters depending on the angle. Nearby were also official Phoenix Wright cosplayers to take a photo with!
Another interesting booth featured a manga artist's desk, where an actual background artist was currently producing art! Hanging above were tons of other pieces of background and key art for various movies and series.
There was also a large section with all of the upcoming series posters, which was cool and a bit overwhelming to walk through.
Within the halls I found a booth promoting tourism to Tottori. Our prefecture is known for a famous supernatural manga called GeGeGe no Kitaro, as well as the setting for the popular swimming anime Free! It seems our prefecture is trying to capitalize on this and attract visitors. And of course there was a pear themed mascot in attendance, with lots of paraphernalia which seemed to pull people in, if nothing else just to get some fun swag.
An interesting section, which was also at TGS, was the career development area. Various colleges from around Japan feature their digital art programs with student work and live teaching sessions. AnimeJapan went even further, having career counseling on-site.
Close by to that section we saw a guy narrating manga on a projector. He even did the sound effects!
At one point we walked past the food area of the convention, which, unsurprisingly, had an unreasonably long line. Yet the cause for this line was understandable, as the cafeteria was serving meals straight out of notable anime series! As cool as it would have been to eat a Jack Rocket's Burger from Blood Blockade Battlefront, we opted to actually see the con. And honestly, there is a good chance the meal would have sold out before we even got to order.
Later that afternoon, one of the open stages held a brief concert! This was odd to see, since most of the concerts and panels are lottery based, and have to be entered into months before the event. Thankfully this one was right on the showfloor, which served as a fun distraction.
One funny thing I saw was a small booth for Bananya (the japanese onomatopoeia for "meow" is "nya"). And yes from that description, the character is indeed a cat inside of a banana. Apparently a Japanese stationary company occasionally creates these characters, which spawn massive merchandising opportunities. Cute sells in Japan, no matter how absurd (there is also a somewhat unsettling egg yolk character who is quite popular, so Bananya is not some one-off oddity).
In another section of the massive event center, Good Smile, a figurine company, had a massive display celebrating their popular Nendroid line. The line features characters from popular franchises in an adorable, bobble-head like form. Interestingly enough, not a single item was on sale in the entire booth.
Speaking of missed sales opportunities, there was an entire wall in the the convention aptly described by Jefferey as the Wall of "You Missed it Sucker". Every item enshrined in this display was a product that just stopped or is no longer in production. Japan clearly puts different emphasis on supply and demand. Suppliers never seem to be at fault, with consumers who missed out feeling ashamed for their lack of enthusiasm and prioritization, even if the items were obviously under-stocked.
We stayed until the end of the convention. At closing time anywhere in Japan, the locations will play a particular tune which equates to an announcement of "we're closed, please leave". I have found it both amusing and effective, so I decided to document it this time.
On our way out I got to walk under the architectural marvel of Big Sight. This strange supported reverse pyramid is an iconic building in Japan, but is actually not the main convention space. It is reserved for small, special events, with the more standard open halls being used for the actual bulk of conventions.
My visit to AnimeJapan was a great day spent with good friends geeking out over our favorite media.
Before we set off on the small ferry to the island, we bought rabbit food from the ferry dock. Due to the abundance of tourists, the rabbits are incredibly tame, and early approach the sound of rustling paper bags in the hopes of grabbing some treats. The island now has a hotel, golf course, tennis courts, and some easy walking trails, which makes the island a nice weekend getaway. We set off on the walking trails, which encircle the island and lead to the old military ruins. All along the way we were accompanied by furry companions, who provided endless entertainment. 
Throughout the day, as expected we had a ton of fun feeding the adorable, friendly bunnies! What we were pleasantly surprised by was how beautiful the island and its vistas were. In that respect this little day trip exceeded our expectations! And I can happily report that I was able to make it to the bunny island, which was high on my list of places to go in Japan! 
