3days

The day before yesterday I had a wonderful time watching Bowling for Columbine at, of all places, a Japanese Catholic Church. When Alex and I went to the peace rally for World Peace Action Day on the 20th, we met a group of really nice people marching for their church. Even at the time, I found this an interesting contrast to the US, where churches seem to pursue the interests of the republican party. (How our jihad is different from their jihad I don't know... see previous week's post containing quote from our retard of a president.) So I went to the Catholic chapel with my new friend Kyoko-san, took a peep inside and lo and behold, there were pews full of Japanese nuns singing hymns at a pre-Easter mass. That was an amazing spectacle, let me tell you. I haven't been to a church in a long time. Much less a church youth group... and, well, NEVER in a Catholic church. (I was raised Protestant but let's just say I outgrew it.) Honestly, though, I've been missing the church community-- or any sense of community at all-- recently. So I was greatly relieved to be welcomed and happy to meet a number of wonderful people. After the movie everyone sat around and ate Korean food that the elders made, including Kimchee nabe and even sliced horse sausage. That's right, horse. And it wasn't bad. Honestly, I never though I'd add that to my list of have-eatens... but, hey, something new every day, ne?

Yesterday I went to the Tokyo International Anime Expo at the Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba. Odaiba is a notorious date spot and not generally a place one goes if one is not part of a couple. But because, you know, I love me and all that, I figured it would be OK to go and have a good time... even if I'm loser enough that none of my friends would join me. (hee hee) Yes, I dressed as a catgirl, but not for long as there was really no one doing cosplay except for booth staff. It was really noisy at the expo, with every studio trying to drown out their neighbor's sound system and I very quickly got a headache. That, combined with some rather unwanted dirty looks from Japanese parents with children and the thought that maybe my collar was contributing to my headache, prompted me to slip back into incognito mode (err, as incognito as I get in Tokyo anyway) and stuff my getup into my schwag bag.

I have to say I was surprised by the aforementioned dirty looks. First, I am completely aware catgirls are generally not-so-innocent. I understand the sexualized connotation. But I resent the fact that I got dirty looks, when the half-dressed nuns at the Ragnarok the Animation booth and the witch-trio with their panties showing were considered perfectly normal as they came, oh, right out of an anime. Yes, I'd say that even most children's anime these days is half-porn, especially when you look at breast size, costume design and body posturing in character design. My guess is that because I'm foreign, and thus have a more voluptuous figure and all-in-all stand out more, it's just different if *I* wear a tail, ears and a collar. So sue me. Yeesh.

Anyway, the expo was pretty fun, if entirely ear-shatteringly-loud. I watched a lot of cool animation clips from the world over and got the scoop on a lot of upcoming movies in Japan. The new Appleseed movie, released mid-April, looks like it has some beautiful, eye-candy CGI animation. STEAMBOY, a steam-punk, save-the-world anime set in London during the World's Fair and animated by the creator of Akira looks promising but a bit cliche. Unfortunately it, and the new Studio Ghibli/Miyazake film Howl's Moving Castle come out after I leave Japan and I can't bring myself to stay just to watch them in theatres unsubtitled for stupid amounts of money. I enjoyed Innocence, the sequel to Ghost in the Shell, when I went to see it with Alex, but I probably only understood two fifths of it from pure language and another fifth of it from context. Not only is Mamoru Oshii a total crackhead but the genre of film is difficult to understand even in ENGLISH. I'm glad the movie only cost me 1000 yen, versus Alex, who had to pay the full-admission 1800 yen to see it. And lastly, I stopped by a booth where they were promoting the new Card Captor Sakura movie (which is set in America of all places) and somehow ended up winning their raffle for an original animation cell. Lucky me? I'll post the cell when I remember to take pictures of it. The things they animate these days crack me up. >.<

I didn't really feel at all out-of-place at the expo, even white and female, but it did make me realize how little interest I have in anime any more. Certainly, there are some shows I enjoy, but those that I favor the most I seem to like because they hold some nostalgic value for me. Animation style has really evolved from the 1980s but I'm loathe to say it's gotten better. There's something more authentic about watching an episode of the original Bubblegum Crisis than some episode of god-awful Pretty Cure. Or maybe it's just that my tastes have gotten significantly more sophisticated (picky? narrow-minded?) since my days as an otaku. There was probably a time I could have enjoyed anything that was anime. No, scratch that, I enjoyed ridiculing bad anime but I didn't particularly like it. It's just that I was lucky enough to be introduced to and immersed in the "good stuff" (Ranma 1/2, Project A-ko, Roujin-Z, Bubblegum Crisis, My Neighbor Totoro, Akira, Escaflowne, etc etc) first. I certainly don't know if Sailor Moon falls into the "good stuff" category and it was the series with which I was most OBSESSED... but I was a middle-school girl, for chrissakes. And I rather enjoyed it the same way grown men enjoy pro-wrestling. I knew it was cornball entertainment, but some authentic part of myself identified with it. These days it's just more difficult to find anime I identify with. I'm sick of anime that attempts a mature plotline and dumbs it down with awful villains and stupid gags (see Rurouni Kenshin and Trigun for the aforementioned problem). It's a shame Cowboy Bebop didn't make it here, because that series had it going ON.

Err, anyway. I'm getting carried away about anime, aren't I? The point is, I had fun. Was it worth the 800 yen ticket? Definitely. Was it worth the 1300 yen round-trip total I paid in subway and yurikamome (monorail) fare? Uh, maybe not. However, I did make use of my one-day monorail pass and went to the Odaiba seaside mall afterwards and bought me some Tororo figurines at Toys R Us (this is why Japan is awesome and America is not). I also stopped by the Sony portion of the mall and played with Aibo and Q'RIO for about an hour before heading home.

Q'RIO lines up a shot...

And prepares to take it!

If I haven't mentioned it before, Odaiba is unmistakably From the Future. Like it just dropped out of the sky from 2014 or something. It's ALL NEW... and the buildings look like they're disassembled pieces of the Macross. It's too bad there's not actually anything to do at the building named "Tokyo Teleport." In fact, it would be be creepy if it weren't so cool. Odaiba is excessively entertaining for a part of the city that was built on a landfill. I give credit to the Japanese for making something out of nothing, that's for sure. I guess that's what they call "reclaiming land from the ocean," eh?

Today I went to Shinjuku Gyoen with my host family to ogle the Sakura (cherry blossoms) with, like, everyone else in the entire city. HOLY HANAMI, BATMAN! Not even half the trees are in full-bloom yet, but it was still impressive. Who needs an excuse to sit in a beautiful park on a day of 70-degree weather without a cloud in the sky and drink sake while looking at a sea of pink blossoms? Uh, not me! It was nice to get out for a bit and walk around, if anything.

The BIG MYSTERY of the day is this group of people that we came upon, walking the other direction. Who are they? Why is he wearing gloves and that awful suit? What's in the briefcase? Isn't she a bit young to be clinging to his hand like that? And lastly, what's with the thugs? The only people who wear sunglasses and suits like that in Tokyo on a sunny day are either foreigners or yakuza and I can see that these badasses are neither. Being as there are four(ish) of them posted around the strange folks in the center here, and all were wearing earbugs, I think it's safe to assume that they're bodyguards. Which, erm, still raises the valid question-- WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE???

Japan is an unsolveable mystery... but at least it's seeming more and more normal. I suppose this means one of two things, either I'm becoming more warped or... or... uh... or... nope, I guess that's it.

Anyway, I've been writing too long and it's tedious and boring, so imma go now. Sometimes I really don't feel like sitting in my rather ergonomically incorrect computer chair and typing away. It really hurts my back. Then I remember that I own a twelve-inch laptop that is quite possibly one of the most capable and portable computers in the world. So I go sit in bed and do whatever. Like now. Ah, wireless internet and Apple. How wonderful is the world.