Shibuya/Kuraneko/Rest Day….
Yesterday, after breakfast at the Ushio house, we rode in to Shibuya on the train for some more shopping and wandering. We went to the HMV first, and browsed around the CDs, DVDs, and vinyl. They actually had the From Monument to Masses CD in stock. There was plenty of interesting stuff there, including Katsuhiro Otomo’s Memories on DVD, which I kind of wish I’d bought now that I think about it. I didn’t end up getting anything there though.
Our next stop was Mandarake, a manga/anime/colelctibles store about 4 stories beneath the ground. This place was even larger than Book Off, and had a wider variety of items. Whereas Book-Off had manga, DVDs, CDs, video games, etc, Mandarake was focused more on manga and collectibles, such as animation cels, action figures and models, vintage video games, posters, etc. The one thing I didn’t like about Mandarake was that almost all the manga was in plastic bags. I hate when shops, American or Japanese, do that. I was doing pretty much the same thing I did in Book Off, which was randomly grabbing things off the shelf on the basis of the spine alone. Again, I almost picked something up on the basis of interesting cover, but decided not to for some reason. Oh well….They had some pretty interesting stuff there though, like some animation cels from Evangelion and other major anime (about 20000-50000 yen for those), as well as other more affordable ones I couldn’t identify (anywhere from 5000 for a cel from Cowboy Bebop, 3500 for a cel from Inuyasha, to a bin full of cels from god knows what, for 100 yen and up.
Across the street was an American comics specialty shop, but we decided to go for food instead, and headed to a little Udon shop (also underground). We passed a Condomania shop on the way over, and of course, got some pictures of the sign.
Next we went back over to Shinjuku, and browsed at a department store aimed at the J-punk and Gothic Lolita subcultures. Emily picked up a pair of hardcore looking boots and I bought a few pins out of the ubiquitous capsule toy vending machines (similar to the trinket vending machines at a grocery store). We then made our way down to the main strip in Shinjuku, and looked around at some of the electronics shops. We were mainly looking for headphones (I needed to replace the foam padding on my iPod headphones, and Emily needed a new pair). There’s an amazing selection of Minidisc players available here. Whereas in America you can get maybe three or four different models, all portable, the Japanese shops have maybe 30+ different portable models, plus bookshelf stereo systems with CD/minidisc built in, and standalone component-type players.
We made a quick pitstop back at the Hub, mainly to kill time, then caught the train down to Seibu, and went to a tiny little place called Kuraneko. Kuraneko is a little gothic-themed bar on the fourth floor of a non-descript building, and it’s about the size of a walk-in closet. There are about 6 seats at the bar and one table in the corner, with a small curved couch for seating. We were the only ones there for most of the time we stayed, but the bar tender was very friendly, and kept making us different types of drinks that he had created. All in all, we probably had about 5000 yen worth of cocktails each during the night. I’ve probably spent more on drinks here than anything else. While we drank and chatted with the bartender, with Robert as our interpreter, the movie the Man Who Fell to Earth, starring David Bowie, was playing in the corner.
When we finally finished, and were getting ready to leave, we realized that Emily had lost the detachable robot that is the face of her watch. We searched all of Kuraneko for it, and figured it might have been lost earlier in the evening at the Hub. Robert was nice enough to ride back up to Shinjuku to ask them if they’d seen it there, while Emily and I waited on the platform at Seibu station. I bought a random manga collection from the newsstand while I was there, just to pass the time. There was a pretty mixed bag of comics in that….the manga collections that sell off the stands here are about 700 page anthologies, with all sorts of stories, including sports, romance. action, supernatural, high school drama, comedy, etc. When Robert arrived back at the station, we hopped back on the express to Tokorozawa.
After arriving and taking a quick rest (it was about midnight at this point), we decided to take a walk through the woods to the other side of town, Shin-Tokorozawa, where there’s a little used bookstore that’s open until 3am. Well actually, when we arrived, it turns out that it was only open until midnight, and Robert had been thinking of the other used bookstore, on the other side of town, that’s open until 3am. Ah well. We had a nice leisurely walk through the woods, and talked about the various woodland spirits and creatures of Japanese mythology on the way. After all, the best time for ghost stories is when you’re in the middle of a narrow road in a pitch black forest in a foreign country….
We were so tired and sore-footed that we decided today would be a day of rest, and indeed it was. We took it pretty easy after breakfast with the Ushio family, and just kicked around the house for a while. Emily read some of Robert’s manga and I leafed through it and read some of my book, and took a nice lnog leisurely shower. Later on, we came back to the Ushio’s for dinner. We had some sort of spicy soup with tofu, tempura shrimp and vegetables, rice, and beer. For desert, we had some cream-filled pastries and green tea. Now we’re just hanging out in Robert’s room. I think we miiiiiight take another trip through the woods to the bookstore tonight, now that it’s open. But maybe not. I’d upload some more pictures, but I left the camera back at the other house. Oops…
Much more later….
