{"id":34137,"date":"2014-07-03T22:43:15","date_gmt":"2014-07-04T02:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/?p=34137"},"modified":"2014-07-03T22:43:15","modified_gmt":"2014-07-04T02:43:15","slug":"tokyo-revisited-day-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/tokyo-revisited-day-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Tokyo Revisited Day 12"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Nakano_Broadway_shop\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve mentioned before that my fascination with anime culture and collectables is so intense that I\u2019m entirely happy to just surround myself with fictional alternate rainbow-colored worlds and smiling cartoon girls. Not everyone \u2013 in fact \u2013 most people probably wouldn\u2019t empathize with my obsession for more than a day or two, and certainly not two weeks. But my vacation is for my own amusement, and if visiting anime shops brings me the most pleasure, then that\u2019s what I\u2019ll do during my vacation. Because my temporary room-mate had to go to work for the day, and I knew that I wanted to pick up some goods for a friend back in Florida, I returned to Nakano Broadway.
\n
\n\"Nakano_Broadway_entrance\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Arriving a 11:30, I realized that most of the mall\u2019s anime shops don\u2019t open until noon. I stepped into one rental cube shop that was open. I was primarily hunting for Godzilla<\/em> & Ultraman<\/em> vinyl figure toys for my friend back home who specifically asked me to hunt for cheap and obscure monsters. In the rental cube shop I spied a small gasshapon figure of GINO<\/em> priced at only 100 yen, so I asked the clerk to extract the figure for me to purchase.<\/p>\n

\"open_at_12\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With nearly 30 minutes to spare, I decided to purchase a soda and relax. Beverage vending machines are ubiquitous in Japan. Oddly, they don\u2019t appear in anime remotely as frequently as they appear in real life (while, similarly oddly, mikan<\/i> crates appear in anime all the time, yet I\u2019ve yet to see a single one since I\u2019ve been here in Tokyo.) There\u2019s even minor competition between machines. Typical vending machines now charge 160 yen for a drink, yet occasionally one will come across \u201cspecial value\u201d machines that offer the same size and variety drinks for only 100 yen. I also think that it\u2019s neat that the Suika train passes can also be used to purchase drinks from vending machines or pay for goods at convenience stores since the Suika cards are essentially just debit cards. Just wave a Suika card across the scanner on a soda machine and push the selection button for the desired beverage.<\/p>\n

\"soda_machines\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The variety of beverages here in Japan is practically overwhelming. Vending machines serve up typical flavored waters, fruit juices, fruit sodas, and assortments of coffee. And some beverages seem quite odd to American eyes.<\/p>\n

\"American_Coffee\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"King_of_Zero\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Salt_&_Fruit\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To my dismay, I discovered that the change in my pocket would only total up to 160 yen if I included the pennies \u2013 the 1 yen coins that vending machines don\u2019t take. So from the fourth floor I tread the steps all the way down to the basement, which is a sprawling underground complex of small restaurants, butcher shops, drug stores, and grocers. I found a small grocery store that had bottles of Coca-Cola and Diet Coke, but no other sodas, available at 100 yen including tax.<\/p>\n

On Nakano Broadway\u2019s first floor I passed by Okashi Machioka, a convenience store-sized shop that sold nothing but snacks: candy, chips, cookies, soft drinks.<\/p>\n

\"Okashi_Machioka\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With my fresh bottle of Coke \u2013 and I\u2019ve noticed that Coca-Cola in Japan has very slightly less carbonation than American Coke, making it a bit easier and smoother to drink – I trod back up to the fourth floor where I sat on one of the corner padded arcade stools. The sit-down 2D fighting games were all shut down while an attendant waited to turn them all on at noon.<\/p>\n

While sitting across from a row of vending machines, I consciously realized for the first time that Suntory\u2019s new C.C. Grape was the grape-flavor sibling to C.C. Lemon. It\u2019s an obvious parallel, but I just never deliberately thought about it. Since I love C.C. Lemon, I realized that at some time during my remaining stay I\u2019d have to try out C.C. Grape.<\/p>\n

\"Suntory_CC\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One could literally spend days intently examining all of the anime collectables available in Nakano Broadway alone. I discovered, to my surprise, that the \u201cMacross Gold Book\u201d still retails at a hundred bucks here. I anticipated that it would be more by now.<\/p>\n

\"Macross_Gold_book\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mecha_Godzilla_toy\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Reideen_toy\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"old_robot_toys\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A complete set of 301 Fujiko Fujio Land manga volumes from Mandarake costs $2,500.<\/p>\n

\"Fujiko_Fujio_Land_set\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At the Mandarake toy shop on the second floor, I spied two bins on the floor filled with vinyl Ultraman<\/em> monsters priced at 100 yen each.<\/p>\n

\"100_yen_ultraman_monsters\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At a rental case shop, I (re-) found the selection of used Ultra Family figures for 100 yen each. When I asked the cashier to confirm that the figures were indeed 100 yen each, he assured me then asked which one I wanted. He briefly looked at me incredulously when I said, \u201cAll, kudasai.\u201d He sold me all ten for an even 1,000 yen.<\/p>\n

\"100_yen_ultra_family\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I came across a store that had a neat window display of Blade Runner collectables.<\/p>\n

\"Deckerd_badge\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Deckerd_Special\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"spinner_toy\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I stopped into the Mandarake men\u2019s doujinshi store to see if the shop carried figures. I got absorbed instead into flipping through the 200 yen discounted doujinshi in hopes of randomly finding some old Dirty Pair<\/i> books. I was amazed to find a 400 yen doujinshi with a Hitsugi Katsugi no Kuro<\/i> (\u201cShoulder-a-Coffin Kuro\u201d) cover actually drawn by creator Satoko Kiyuduki. I immediately decided to buy it. I later opened it to find that it\u2019s an all-ages full color collection of illustrations of cute anime girls eating snacks, drawn by a variety of artists.<\/p>\n

\"snacks_doujinshi\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Further down the aisle I was very excited when I noticed that the store actually had a significant sized section for just vintage 1980s & 90s doujinshi. On one hand I was thrilled to discover one vintage doujin with a Dirty Pair cover for 1,000 yen. On the other hand, I was disappointed that I found only one. I did spot the first doujinshi I\u2019ve ever seen based on the Bubble Gum Crisis<\/i> OVAs, but it distinctly looked like a short text story rather than an illustrated comic.<\/p>\n

\"Look_Out_8\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In another rental case store, I spied a gachapon Binchou-tan<\/i> diorama of Chiku-tan<\/i> pushing a wheelbarrow with Binchou-tan<\/i> following behind. I have two of these Binchou-tan<\/i> gachapon dioramas, but not this one, so I decided to buy it for 200 yen. In another case, I spotted a loose Hello Kitty to Issho<\/i> series \u201cMinase Shizuku\u201d six inch tall PVC figure for 400 yen. The shopkeeper extracted both toys for me, first offering both of them to me to inspect closely. Then, after I paid, he carefully wrapped the Kitty<\/i> figure in bubble wrap, then individually bubble-wrapped each piece of the Binchou-tan<\/i> figure set.<\/p>\n

\"cosplay_store\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At yet another rental case shop, this one clearly specializing in antique nostalgia collectables, I spied a 600 yen Bandai Gamera<\/em> vinyl figure that I purchased.<\/p>\n

\"anime_store\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At one rental cube shop, I found a Bandai vinyl Minilla<\/i> figure with no cardboard hang tag priced at 3,200 yen. In the Mandarake toys shop, I purchased a Minilla<\/i> figure with no cardboard hang tag for 1,200 yen along with a 2003 Mecha Godzilla “Link Science” exclusive version with black armor and original hang tag for 3,000 yen.<\/p>\n

\"hamburg_steak\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I arrived back at Jon\u2019s apartment at 4, a half-hour before he arrived home from work. That evening we walked down the block and across the street to the Jonathon\u2019s family restaurant. I had the eponymous anime \u201chamburger steak\u201d with mushrooms and small sides of corn and French fries. I opted for the \u201cA-set\u201d that added a bowl of white rice and unlimited trips to the \u201cdrink bar\u201d for 420 yen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve mentioned before that my fascination with anime culture and collectables is so intense that I\u2019m entirely happy to just surround myself with fictional alternate rainbow-colored worlds and smiling cartoon girls. Not everyone \u2013 in fact \u2013 most people probably wouldn\u2019t empathize with my obsession for more than a day or two, and certainly not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-random-thoughts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34137"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34162,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34137\/revisions\/34162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}