Cabbage Over Untroubled Water

Posted on 16/01/2023 by Luke

With just two wards of Tokyo left to write about, today is the day I will complete my tour of this great city. I start my day in Nerima, the birthplace of animation. Located in western Tokyo, Nerima is known for its residential atmosphere. Outside of its connection to animation, there isn’t much else to see here.

As I make my way through the streets, the presence of the anime and manga industry is strong. The ward is home to many studios and other companies involved in the production of these popular forms of entertainment. My first stop is the Oizumi Anime Gate, where I am greeted by a number of bronze statues of beloved anime characters.

As someone who is not a fan of Japanese anime, I only recognise one of the statues, probably because there once was a statue of the same character outside my old house in Taito Ward, that of Yabuki Joe, the main protagonist of the anime “Ashita no Joe.” This character is one of five depicted in statue form at this location, revered for their role in bringing Japanese anime to the world stage.

As I continue my wanderings through Nerima, I pass by a sign that reads “No more war! Stop Putin!” Eventually, I come across a map and see a sign pointing to a Cabbage Monument. Intrigued, and with little else planned for Nerima, I decide to go and check it out.

Hidden alongside the tranquil waters of the Shakujii River stands a monument of concrete adorned with an aluminium alloy sculpture of a cabbage. Erected in 1998 by the hardworking farmers of Nerima as a tribute to their resilient cabbage crops. An inscription on the monolith tells the inspiring tale of how these farmers triumphantly overcame pests and other obstacles as they transitioned from cultivating radishes to cultivating cabbage. Twice a year, these cabbages, known for their sweet and crunchy goodness, are harvested and proudly grown in Nerima to this day.

As I head towards the train station, I am struck by the delicate beauty of Shakujii Pond. This massive body of water is so still, it almost resembles a swamp. The surface of the water is completely calm and placid, not a ripple to be seen. It’s a strange, ghostly scene, made all the more surreal by the row of pagodas shaped like swans that line the pond.

With my tour of Nerima complete, it’s time to visit the final ward of Tokyo: Suginami. As I’m riding the train, my friend Marc messages me and asks what I’m doing that evening. I tell him I’m planning to visit Koenji, and he excitedly tells me that it’s his favourite place in Tokyo. He agrees to join me, and we meet halfway and get chatting on the train, accidentally missing our stop. So instead, we get off at Kichijoji, a neighbourhood that is consistently voted as the most desirable place to live in Tokyo.

As we stand at Kichijoji Station, we decide that it would be a shame not to take a quick look around the area. Marc tells me that everyone in Kichijoji exudes the scent of capitalism. We wander from the station towards Harmonica Alley, a shopping district named after its harmonica-shaped pedestrian walkway.

This crisscross of alleyways is home to a number of small independent restaurants and bars, and as we wind our way through the cramped streets, I really enjoy the experience. Although not all of the shops are open, I get a good sense of the area – the small stalls selling food, the bright red lanterns, and the narrow streets all contribute to a Blade Runner-esque vibe. We explore the labyrinth of old-fashioned stores and soak up the atmosphere.

After immersing ourselves in the sounds and music of Harmonica Alley, we head back to the station and finally make our way to Koenji, a district known for its vibrant, youthful atmosphere.

Marc takes me on a tour of the area, passing through the main shopping arcade. Despite it being early evening, I’m surprised to find many of the vintage clothing shops to be open. We pass by retro sweet shops, retro toy shops, and shops selling life posters from the 1950s. On the other side of the station, the nightlife scene in Koenji is lively, with many clubs and live music venues that attract young people from all over the city.

We don’t do much else of note here though, aside from trying out a few bars. As the night wears on, we move on from the trendy bars to an izakaya-style Japanese pub. We stay a while chatting, drinking Suntory whisky highballs while snacking on raw octopus, skewered meat, deep-fried tofu, and crisp, sweet cabbage from Nerima. The warm atmosphere and lively conversation make time seem to fly, and before we know it, the last train home looms near. With a sense of reluctance, we make our way back to the station, passing by out-of-season Christmas trees on the way.

As the train carries me home, a friend asks me what I’m doing on Wednesday and if I’d like to join her on a 42 kilometre walk around Tokyo. Fresh from my goal of completing the city, I am tempted by the idea of revisiting Tokyo’s streets in a different way. I agree to join her, ready to explore the city once more, entirely on foot.

AnimeJapan 2015

Posted on 26/03/2015 by Luke

Today is AnimeJapan 2015, the largest convention for animation in Japan. This year, one hundred and twenty thousand cartoon enthusiasts are expected to visit the event. Luckily, a friend of mine has saved me the effort of having to pay and has managed to get me a free ticket; a saving of ¥2000. Three giant stages, 132 exhibits from the large anime companies, plus a mix of lesser-known stands hosted by various Japanese universities.

It is unsurprising really, but each of the individual exhibits heavily features women dressed in cosplay, otherwise known as booth babes. These often attractive young women are here to lure in men. Almost entirely female, controversial promotional models are often considered to be sexually objectifying to women, and it is a practice that has since been stopped in all other countries. In Japan, however, this style of promotion is still considered to be okay, and at AnimeJapan, these women are everywhere.

I wander through the exhibition halls and make a stop at the Hi-Animation stage to witness some virtual reality. The people here, who have been queueing for three hours, are trying out the latest product from Sony, the HMZ-T3W; a direct competitor to Oculus Rift. This wireless headset allows participants to watch a live concert performed by characters from Cinderella Girls, a simulation-based game where the player takes on the role of a music producer. Sony offers the live concert in full surround sound, with total immersion, and three-dimensional imagery. Despite this being AnimeJapan, it seems that video games are the most popular attraction today.

The next stand is another video game, Girl Friend Beta. Originally a dating-based smartphone game, it is now being adapted into an animated television series. Rather than showcase the game or show previews for the series, a special dance-based game has been set up here, and a huge crowd has been drawn in to watch as two women dressed in school uniform demonstrate the game on a giant video screen.

I skip the chance to get on stage and play the game and instead continue my mindless wandering. At some stands, original drawings can be viewed, at others, previews and trailers are displayed showing new releases for the anime season which is due to start next month. At almost every area, a chance to interact by playing video games is on offer. The event seems to heavily feature interactive content, to give visitors a more hands-on feel. Perhaps this approach is a clever way to make people more interested, or perhaps, a lot of places are short of ideas to keep people engaged.

Despite the flashing lights, multiple television screens, video games, cosplaying girls, and promotional models, it would be a fair assessment to say that unlike other events I have been to at Tokyo Big Sight, AnimeJapan is most definitely the loudest. I have walked around for only twenty minutes, but already feel myself getting a headache. What certainly doesn’t help matters is the multiple people pushing promotional flyers into my face as I walk, or the men that have no concept of distance and will happily shout through a megaphone whilst it is inches away from my ears.

I take a look at the charity auction. Anime originals and various signed products can be bid on here, and all the money will be used for charities pertaining to earthquakes and disasters. ¥14,000,000 was raised from the auction last year, and a similar amount is expected to be raised again today. The winning bidders will cross over to another dimension, or so the sign misleadingly states. What it really means though, is that the winning persons will be illustrated and added as side characters in various popular anime.

I check out some of the more amateur booths and those run by the various universities. These stalls are a lot smaller than the mainstream booths and often feature an array of original frame drawings to browse through. Hand-drawn and excellent. One such stall is the Yoyogi Animation School, the largest school for animation in Japan, and perhaps the best. Here, a presentation is being watched by five people. Standing guard is a man dressed as a giant blue chicken.

My overall impression of this event differs from my expectations. Surprisingly, there are a lot more women here than I expected, thanks to a rise in animation depicting male characters performing sports. The most popular of such shows is a new cycling anime featuring men and bicycles. Productions of other popular animation depicting sport include those with themes based around Mahjong, golf, figure skating, and fishing.

I wander around, passing queues that seemingly lead to nowhere, demonstration booths where I can watch people create plastic figures, paint, and draw original frames by hand. I see cakes in the theme of characters, sake depicting anime characters, all sold out, and various other shops selling toys and figurines. On one of the stages, a loud announcement is made, much to the delight of the thousands of spectators. An eerie ripple of clapping fills the halls for a brief moment, before stopping suddenly, as if someone was messing around with an applause switch.

After exploring the exhibition at great length, I discover that there really isn’t a lot here that excites me. Having never really bothered watching anime, I suppose it would obviously be hard for me to enjoy the event. For the thousands of fanatics here though, they all seem quite happy to queue for hours to speak to a voice actress for thirty seconds, or spend huge amounts of money on a signed frame from their favourite show. For me, these things don’t really interest me, and I become disappointed through no fault of the event.

As I push through hordes of excited zombies, flitting from booth to booth like bees to flowers, I decide that enough is enough. On my way out, my headache intensifies, and I realise that AnimeJapan might have been a bit too much for me. Bright lights and loud megaphones, each booth with huge flashing screens blaring out trailers and noise. Far too much noise.

It appears I am not the only one suffering, though. The exit is blocked by passed-out people and sleeping otaku, drained from a long day of all things anime. I actually have to step over people to reach the outside of the venue. I breathe a final sigh of relief when clean, fresh air returns to my lungs before heading for the train and getting as far away from Tokyo Big Sight as possible.

Fins Can Only Get Batter

Posted on 31/12/2014 by Luke

Today, Christine and I head over to Tsukiji to visit a fish market. Outside the train station, the outer market is crowded with mostly tourists. It is fair to say that along the small streets lining the market, we are literally packed like sardines. Many small food stores sell fish caught fresh this morning, and the smell of fish is pleasant and anything but overpowering. The freshness of the food here can really be noted.

Buckets of huge tuna sit soaked in blood and ice. Live crabs try to escape their fate by crawling from weighing scales, and the hustle and bustle of the market is present at every turn.

We wander the outer market and into what looks like a giant warehouse. This is the wholesale section of the market, and the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world. People carrying huge white polystyrene boxes of frozen fish cruise past on electric bikes. Tuna that costs more than a house is on sale and on display. People are rushing. Market traders are yelling. It is all a bit overwhelming.

We wander the entire length of the wholesale market, which takes about twenty minutes at a hurried pace. At the other side of the market, we wander into a shrine to receive our fortune in the form of a sacred lot. One of the traditional cultures in Japan that you can experience at Japanese shrines and temples. We both pay ¥200 and both receive a ‘Very lucky’ fortune. We wonder if they are all the same.

After Tsukiji, we take the train over to Tokyo Big Sight. Outside Tokyo International Exhibition Centre, there are about one thousand people in cosplay, dressed as their favourite comic book characters.

Men dressed as women pose for photographs for a queue of excited otaku. A guy in a schoolgirl outfit follows us as we enter the main building. Today is Winter Comiket, a comic market event with a focus on independent manga artists. Ninety percent of the people here are men wearing glasses and conform seamlessly to the stereotype of a comic book fan.

Entry is free. Inside the West Halls, there are rows upon rows of small stands, each selling individual comic books. There is no stage. No other entertainment. Only comic books. I can understand the appeal to those who read manga, but for me, the event gives me very little satisfaction. In fact, Christine and I agree that it is all a little too much. The crowds are insane, and oddly, most of the comic books seem to feature covers that can only be described as pornography.

After ten minutes of wandering along endless rows of comics, we decide to leave. On the way out, we bump into Jeff. He is standing around playing with his ‘selfie stick’ with a disappointed look on his face. He only bought the stick today, but already, it has broken; perhaps through overuse, perhaps it was cheaply made.

We leave Tokyo Big Sight and walk across the Dream Bridge and the Teleport Bridge before arriving at Decks, Odaiba. We grab some cheap food at Yoshinoya, one of my favourite chain restaurants because it sells grilled eel with a bottle of beer at an extremely low price. After food, Jeff heads off, and Christine and I explore the area.

We are handed a flyer for the Tokyo Trick Art Museum. It looks interesting enough and is only ¥900, so we decide to take a look.

The flyer says, ‘Do you want to play with Japanese ghosts and monsters? You can take funny photos. Don’t be scared. It is fun.’ The queue is mostly populated by families with children. Perhaps this isn’t for adults at all. Trapped in the queueing system, there is no going back, and eventually, we’re inside and being given a guided group tour of the museum, in Japanese.

We wander through the Edo area and the ninja house. At one point, we have to find a secret door; perhaps the most interesting thing in the museum. We take photographs in various positions, but they all turn out looking poor. We solve optical illusions, look at drawings from different angles, and get eaten by a whale. The best illusion is one of a vampire with a wine glass.

After the Tokyo Trick Art Museum, we head back to Asakusa, to Cafe Byron Bay, to drink wine. We opt for a relatively early night, tired from five days of constant walking around and sightseeing. Tomorrow, an eagerly anticipated trip to Tokyo Disneyland awaits.

Tokyo Game Show 2014

Posted on 22/09/2014 by Luke

Today I grab my friend Dagmar and we head three trains to Chiba, to Kaihin-Makuhari Station. The station is full of posters advertising Tokyo Game Show. Outside the station, Rockstar Games are handing out flyers advertising Grand Theft Auto V, despite not even having a stand at this year’s event. I notice the flyer only mentions the PlayStation 4 release; any mention of the Xbox One (which first launched here two weeks ago to spectacular failure) is quietly left out.

We walk ten minutes to the Makuhari Messe Convention Centre, pay the ¥1200 entry fee, and enter the event.

The Tokyo Game Show is an annual video game convention featuring over four hundred exhibitions this year. Over the past few years, the event has expanded to become one of the world’s biggest video game shows, with an expected attendance of over 300,000 people this weekend. It’s truly massive.

As much as I love video games, I’ve never been to a convention of this magnitude, and I’m not entirely sure what to expect. Inside, it’s a bustling sea of people—some sporting video game-themed shirts, others taking photographs of things that don’t particularly interest me, and many pushing and shoving through the crowds. Each video game company occupies its distinct area. The cacophony from numerous television screens across the many exhibitions is deafening.

Our first stop is at the Square Enix area. This weekend, Square Enix has unveiled Shinra Technologies, a new cloud gaming platform named after the fictitious Shinra Electric Power Company from Final Fantasy VII. Director Hajime Tabata presents the eagerly anticipated new trailer for Final Fantasy XV. They offer playable demos for several other games including Bravely Second, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, Final Fantasy Explorers, and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn for the PlayStation 4. Additionally, Square Enix boasts a merchandise section selling music from the Final Fantasy series, but the queue is incredibly long.

Microsoft has Mackenzie Crook persuading attendees to embrace the Xbox One, and his surprisingly fluent Japanese impresses the crowd. Dell Inc.’s Alienware showcases their new Steam gaming console, the Alpha, for the first time, offering hands-on trials, but the queues are, once again, too lengthy for our taste. The convention also hosts leading gaming companies like Capcom, Sega, Nintendo, and Konami. However, Japanese company Bandai Namco has taken a unique approach. Rather than showcasing trailers for their new games, they’ve opted for a cosplay showcase.

Cosplay is a Japanese performing art, akin to fancy dress, where individuals dress up as characters from their beloved manga, anime, and video games. For some, it’s a display of adoration for a favourite character, while others fully embody the character while in costume. This event is teeming with participants dressed predominantly as video game characters, to the extent that the Tokyo Game Show even boasts a dedicated cosplay area.

The show spans nine massive halls, featuring some exhilarating showcases this year. Among them is the newly announced VR prototype from Oculus Rift, the Crescent Bay, available for testing if one can withstand the hours-long queues. Thousands of playable demos for new games await, though enjoying them requires enduring the extensive lines. A live Winning Eleven 2015 football tournament is showcased on a colossal screen—a competition I would have eagerly joined if only I hadn’t arrived too late.

Among the crowds, there are numerous enthusiasts here—so passionate about manga, anime, and video games that the Japanese language has coined a term for them: ‘otaku,’ akin to the English ‘nerd.’ Some exhibits showcase women in cosplay, like modelling headphones, attracting these otaku who eagerly flock to capture photographs. It’s a surreal experience.

One of my favourite sections at the Tokyo Game Show is the Sony-sponsored Indie Game Area. Here, we get the opportunity to try out demos of upcoming games from lesser-known developers, and the queues here are notably shorter than in the main areas. There are around thirty different games featured here, conveniently positioned next to Square Enix. This year, Sony has generously covered all the exhibit costs for independent developers, providing them with an outstanding platform to showcase their new games to an audience of passionate video game enthusiasts.

Amidst the hands-on gaming zones and video game trailers, developers take to various stages, delivering live speeches and engaging in Q&A sessions. One of the most anticipated talks this weekend is from Konami, led by the legendary game designer Hideo Kojima. He’s here to unveil Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain. Regrettably for me, but understandably, the speech is delivered in Japanese. Following the presentation, a twenty-minute gameplay footage video graces a massive screen, sparking sheer delight among the crowd of thousands.

Tokyo Game Show is incredibly overwhelming. Beyond the array of video games showcased, there are software companies unveiling new products, a section dedicated to mobile game developers, mobile phone companies, a sprawling food court, and an expansive merchandise hall. Renowned video game producers sign autographs while others distribute free magazines and leaflets advertising their games. I’m handed a glossy Japanese magazine adorned with captivating Square Enix game advertisements, each showcasing incredible artwork—a delightful keepsake.

As for the major games, the action-packed Bloodborne, from the creators of Dark Souls, boasts the most available playable demos, yet it also commands the longest queues, set for release in February 2015. Final Fantasy XV is restricted to trailers, with Square Enix confirming the release of its first playable demo in March 2015. On the other hand, World of Warships presents the most lacklustre display—an artillery turret where two women pose throughout the entire day.

The show remains open until 5 p.m., and Dagmar and I stay until the very end. As the crowds gradually disperse, two sumo wrestlers take advantage of the extra space and engage in a match, which delights me. Post-show, we indulge in some tempura before boarding a crowded rush hour train bound for Tokyo Station. As the train zooms past Tokyo Bay, we witness a beautiful sunset from within a carriage filled with Japanese otaku.

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Tag Archives: Anime

Cabbage Over Untroubled Water

AnimeJapan 2015

Fins Can Only Get Batter

Tokyo Game Show 2014