The Amazing Kanda Adventure

Posted on 02/11/2014 by Luke

I exit Kanda station and walk toward the area known as Jinbocho. On the way, I stroll along a street featuring thirty-six sports shops, all lined up next to each other. There is also a small festival taking place here, the 20th Kanda Sports Festival. I continue walking until I see a sign that suggests pluralisation came as an afterthought.

Jinbocho is named after Nagaharu Jinbo, a samurai who used to live here in days gone by. Although they took his name, there is little to no information about him on the Internet. Perhaps I can find something about him in one of the many history books on sale here today.

Book Town is great. One side of the street is exclusively used book shops. Little lanterns line the length of the street, and outside the usual stores, a massive corridor of small bookcases stretches the length of the event. On a typical day of book shopping, you would be spoiled for choice, but today, at the 55th Kanda Used Book Festival, the sheer number of used books in one area surpasses that of anywhere else in the world.

There is a shop specialising in only fashion books, another selling just manga comics, and another selling rare history books; they even have one book for sale for ¥350,000. There is something I find calming about walking the aisles of a bookshop. Nobody is here trying to lure me into their shop, nobody asks me to enter when I am already inside, and nobody inside is speaking. The squeaking sound of my wet shoes is the only thing disturbing the silence.

The bookshops seem to stretch endlessly. I notice some arrows painted on the floor, so I follow them to a small charity-run street festival. Rows of stalls offer various foods. One man sits at a table, seemingly designated for people to leave their used plates and cutlery. I glance at the man, and he just shrugs his shoulders; he doesn’t know why he’s sitting there either.

At the other end of the festival, more bookshops await. I browse a little longer before heading in the direction of Ogawa Square for my fourth street festival of the day. Today’s event is the Kanda Curry Grand Prix, where twenty different shops are all selling ¥500 curry in the hopes of attaining the grand prize. A polling station with an honesty policy is in place; if I wanted, I could continuously vote for the same shop over and over.

Kanda boasts over two hundred curry restaurants, making it the perfect choice of location for this competition. Outside every stall, a tout shouts at me to go buy their food. A woman in a maid outfit gives me a smile and points in the direction of the store she is here to promote. Soaking wet mascots wander around, and there is a stage featuring live music. Three young women are signing autographs for middle-aged men. The enticing smell of curry keeps me at Ogawa Square for half an hour before it is time to go.

I walk back to Akihabara and take the Hibiya Line to Minowa. Every piece of advertising space on the train is for the same company. On Japanese trains, there are usually about thirty to forty adverts in each carriage; however, on this train, all signs exclusively advertise an urban park town. Very strange.

I grab some things from home before cycling over to Asakusa, specifically to Cafe Byron Bay for a Halloween party. At the cafe, I put on makeup in the hope of looking like a zombie. Friends come and go, some with costumes and others without. Free Halloween-themed sweets are on offer, and glowing plastic pumpkins litter the cafe.

At one point, I am asked to fetch a forgotten cake from a local bakery. While waiting at the traffic lights, I notice a little child with her mother also waiting to cross the road. They are looking at me, so I make zombie noises at the child; the child screams and hides behind her mother’s leg. All in the good spirit of Halloween.

Back at the cafe, two French chefs are here to cook for everybody, and they are excellent chefs. Canapés, crêpes, and tuna gratin are the highlights. We are then treated to some live music from a local act and enjoy some delicious cake.

As the party draws to a close, a Japanese friend of mine hands me a signed copy of his book. It is my favourite book of his, albeit the only one I have ever read; the others are written in Japanese. I find it difficult to show feelings of genuine gratitude dressed as a zombie, but I will absolutely treasure his gift.

After the party, we head out to another bar for an event known as ‘Trick or Drink!’ I try to stay in character at the bar, bumping into walls, mumbling, and dragging one leg as I walk. Homer Simpson is the disc jockey, and his music choice is better than I would have imagined. My sumo wrestler friend is here too, still taller than me but a lot less drunk than the last time we met.

After getting photographed with a sumo wrestler while dressed in zombie makeup, I decide there isn’t really much else left to do in the world, so I head home to sleep.

The Fat Sumo Halloween Special

Posted on 29/10/2014 by Luke

My day begins with me being completely lost in Shinjuku, searching for an event called ‘Shinjuku Magic of Halloween.’ I was under the impression that the event starts with a massive street parade of people dressed in spooky costumes, but nothing of the sort appears to be happening. I give up searching and head back to the train station.

Outside Shinjuku Station, a television crew and a few people dressed up are standing in front of a big stage. With over two hundred entrances to the station, I have inadvertently stumbled upon the event I was here to see in the first place; and by the looks of it, the show is just about to start. Excellent timing as always. The lights come up, white smoke bellows from machines on either side of the stage, and the band comes out, much to the delight of the ghosts, witches, and Iron Man.

Today, I get the pleasure of seeing Anna Tsuchiya singing live. The former Kamikaze Girls actress-turned-model-turned-singer is simply amazing. I am about six rows from the front of the stage and have a great view. The music is great. The atmosphere is great. The weather is great. Anna sings two songs about Halloween in English before contractually mentioning the video game Psycho Break, the sponsor for the event.

For the third and final song, we get a little bit more from the smoke machines, and Anna sings her third single and first top-ten hit, ‘Rose’.

After singing, she thanks the crowd, and the band leaves the stage. One minute later, the entire crowd has dispersed, and I am the only one standing at the stage. So much for the Halloween parade. I follow the rest of the crowd into the train station and head back to Minowa.

The day is still warm, so I decide on a mid-afternoon bicycle ride. I cycle over the Sumida River in a straight line for ninety minutes, stopping off at the odd shrine or temple along the way. Eventually, I arrive at the Arakawa River and cross over into Edogawa. I haven’t been here before today, and I can’t find anything to do. I cycle around for a while until the sun begins to set.

After watching the sun from the bridge, it starts to cool down, so I race back to Asakusa.

Tonight, I have been invited to a party celebrating the one-year anniversary of a sumo restaurant. I have things to do first, though, so I arrive rather late; everyone is already drunk. Blind drunk. A few of my friends from the boat party are here too, and they are struggling to stand. A never-ending supply of glasses filled with a suspicious green liquid seems to be appearing from nowhere, and the familiar drinking chant of, “Yoi yoi yoisho,” makes its rounds. A sumo wrestler consumes a giant bottle of tequila in one go.

My masseur is here too; he tells me that my shoulders were the hardest he has ever had to massage in his entire career. Or at least I think that’s what he said; his slurs are somewhat difficult to decipher. I join in with the proceedings, enjoying the all-you-can-drink spread put on by the owner. Karaoke ends just as quickly as it starts, and bottles of spirits are passed around. I stay, drinking until I am dizzy, before deciding it is time to go home. As I leave, I am handed a gift bag filled with lovely souvenirs to go with my memories.

Bridges and Balloons

Posted on 24/10/2014 by Luke

Today, I head into Asakusa, to the tax-free discount shop, Don Quixote. My plan is to finally buy my own bicycle. After browsing for a while, I decide to buy one of the faster ‘red’ coloured bikes. The woman in the shop calls for an English speaker, and within five minutes, all paperwork including the bicycle registration is completed for me. I pay ¥14,324 and become the proud owner of a bright red bicycle.

I cycle over the Sumida River toward Ryogoku. There is a row of parked bicycles, each with a bright purple sticker featuring today’s date. I want to park too, but for some reason, I can’t find any attendant or any machines. I try a bicycle parking lot, but oddly, the machine doesn’t want to accept my coins. No matter how many combinations I try or how much I hammer the buttons on the machine, a Japanese voice just continually thanks me. Instead, I decide to park inconspicuously by some balloons.

Ryogoku is renowned as ‘Sumo Town’ and hosts the Edo Tokyo Museum. Here, a large sumo stadium stands tall, alongside shops specifically selling clothes for ‘larger’ individuals, and it’s common to spot many sumo wrestlers in full costume casually strolling around. I even pass by one sumo wrestler riding a bicycle, the man’s weight making the handlebars visibly strain and threaten to buckle.

The sumo stadium isn’t open, so I head into the adjacent Old Yasuda Garden. Free entry is a bonus. Originally built in 1688, the gardens have endured numerous changes. They were destroyed by an earthquake, completely remodelled, and marred by pollution from the Sumida River. They reopened in 1971, and the pond has now been designed to resemble the Japanese kanji character ‘kokoro’, meaning heart, mind, or spirit. Although I don’t see the resemblance. Ryogoku Sumo Hall sits idly in the distance, beyond a small red bridge.

I wander through the garden for a while, relishing the escape from the bustling city, before hurrying back to retrieve my bicycle. I’m worried it might get removed, and if it does, a ¥5000 retrieval fee is required, almost half the cost of the bike itself.

I check out a nearby map and notice there’s a Fireworks Museum nearby, so I head in that direction. With fate as malleable as clay, the Firework Museum is closed today—typical. I check another map and find a Stationery Museum. Crossing the bridge back over the Sumida River, I discover that all trace of the Stationery Museum has been erased. My lucky day.

I continue cycling around, passing an amusingly named cafe called ‘Nob Coffee’ and a similarly amusingly named clothes shop called ‘Very International’ before spotting the most premature Christmas decorations I have ever seen.

I found it somewhat crazy when Halloween decorations started popping up everywhere by the end of September, in every shop, bar, and restaurant. However, these Christmas decorations take early celebrations to another extreme. I remind myself that it’s still the middle of October before darting off toward another sign. I’m attempting to find something else to do today—a day that, so far, holds no real plans, meaning, or motivations.

The ‘Kokucho Time Bell’ is marked as a place of interest, about ten minutes away from my current location. Sounds interesting enough!

The bell sits unusually in the middle of a children’s play park, positioned in front of a Nichiren Buddhist temple. There’s a famous Senryu—a three-line poem with seventeen syllables—about the bell that claims, ‘The bell of Kokucho reaches as far as Nagasaki.’ Considering Nagasaki is in Kyushu, over one thousand kilometres away, I highly doubt the accuracy of the poem.

After searching intensely for places of interest, I cycle back in the direction of Asakusa. Along the way, I cross a bridge and notice a plaque with some English writing. Intrigued, I double back to check out the text:

“The Yanagibashi Bridge was first built in 1698, the present bridge was erected in 1929. There are several explanations for the origin of the name, yanagi (meaning willow) bridge. One explanation is that willow trees stood at the base of the bridge. In the 19th century this neighbourhood was a bustling red-light district known in Japanese as Gay World. Yanabashi was the subject of art and literature at that time.”

Once again, the willow is the symbol for a red-light district in Japan. The small river leading up to the bridge is dotted with numerous small boats housing little bars and restaurants. Intrigued, I decide to explore the area around the bridge, only to discover that Gay World and the red-light district have since been replaced by street after street of fashion shops.

As the night draws in, it’s time for me to head home. While cycling back, I make an exciting discovery—the light on my bicycle is powered by a gyroscope. It’s probably the most exciting thing that has happened to me all day.

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: sumo

The Amazing Kanda Adventure

The Fat Sumo Halloween Special

Bridges and Balloons

Tokyo Game Show 2014