No manga, no life.

[wednesday_10_00]

Trip report (finally--mangaroo, you can stop holding your breath now. Are you still alive?)! There are a couple pictures in here that I've already posted, just for posterity, but I tried to keep them to a minimum, or just link.



Day 0 (August 9th-10th)
After a flurry of packing the day before, I left Kalamazoo without any problems and met sara_tanaquil in Detroit. (Yay, flying companion!) The flight was quite empty and we had a whole row to spread out in, which was nice. Delta (I miss Northwest ;_;) somehow lost my reservation for a vegetarian meal, which was not nice. (According to the flight attendant, you now need to confirm the meal reservation 24 hours in advance.) We arrived at Narita without incident, collected our (very light!) bags, exchanged money and jumped on the bus to our hotel (Sunshine City Prince, natch). Our flight arrived early enough that we had time to do some token shopping at Animate and K-Books after checking in, including snagging an actual Comiket catalogue (rather than the CD-ROM version, which is very important when you are traveling and have no printer). Returning to the hotel, we found spacealien_vamp waiting in line. We grabbed some food at the wonderful, wonderful Family Mart and headed up to the room. It wasn't much longer before we all turned in.

Day 1
And so, of course, we woke up bright and early. I think I pretended to sleep until about 4:30 and then finally got up. We were just settling down to breakfast when we were surprised to feel an earthquake. It was fairly weak (the epicenter was in Shizuoka), but lasted a long time. It was the first of three earthquakes that hit while we were there, but the only one I actually noticed. (I think the second one hit while I was in the elevator...) While we were waiting for K-Books to open, a guy from housekeeping stopped by to empty our trash. When he saw my piles of doujinshi (which I had brought along to sell), he asked if we spoke Japanese (yes, I just asked you to take out the trash and told you we didn't need our towels changed...), and then said 観光もしてくださいね ("Please do some sightseeing, too.") We laughed and assured him that we would, but...uh...well...Big Sight counts as sightseeing, right? Right?

>.>;;

Anyway, we headed out to K-Books promptly at 11:00. I'm not sure how long we were there, but our baskets were all quite full by the time we checked out. (In fact, I think ST actually stopped because her basket wouldn't hold anymore...) We went back to the hotel room, double-checked our shopping lists, and then headed out to Mandarake to fill more baskets. We celebrated our first full day in Japan with okonomiyaki for dinner, then wandered around Tokyu Hands a little (I must have really been tired, because I don't think I've ever before left that store after buying so little) before heading back to the room to crash.

Day 2
It was around here that our jet-lagged schedule became dangerous, because SV and I (ST was too busy reading Fujimi Orchestra) started reading experimental purchases to decide if they were worth keeping or not, and cries of "awww!" and "oh, oh, look!" would fill the room until our shopping lists all got longer and longer. (But then, some of these finds were among my favorite manga of the entire trip's haul, so I have no regrets.) Since Animate opens at 10:00, we headed there first and browsed the goods--along with seemingly every other fangirl in Tokyo. That floor was crowded to the point that you could barely move by the time we left. We didn't buy much, but then SV spotted the Otome Road shirts (BEST SHIRT EVER) on the way out, and we all snagged one of those. I then went back to the room to grab my bags of doujinshi I'd brought along to sell, and we headed off to K-Books. I was relatively successful there, but still had some left, so I decided to take the rest to Mandarake. After some confusion about the process (first you fill out the form, then you take a number, and THEN they call your number and you go to the sell back counter), I managed to get my name in the queue. Alas, I thought I must be mistaken when I first heard them call number 25 (my number was 87), but no. The numbers were not called exactly in order (there was definitely some skipping around and going backwards in there), but I still was hanging around for, I think, close to two hours...and ended up getting like $15 for my trouble. I don't so much regret trying to sell the doujinshi, but I really wish I hadn't done it two days before Comiket.

I was totally wiped after standing around staring at the same books I didn't want to buy for two hours in the 90 degree store, so I went back to our room to join ST and SV (who had already made another trip to K-Books in the meantime). We lounged around for a while and then went to Nataraj for dinner.

Day 3
I spent most of the morning complaining about how late Animate opened because I wanted to run over and buy the second volume of Seven Days after foolishly finishing the first volume by 7am or so. (Then, as we browsed the other floors of Animate, "Are we DONE yet? I have reading to do!") At this point, I think we were trying to avoid the Comiket-related crowd that had descended on Otome Road, so we made only a brief stop into K-Books in the afternoon, spending the rest of the day reading and perusing the Comiket catalogue. We went to a soba shop in the mall for dinner, which was tasty, but the staff really cracked me up. I ordered ten-don (tempura served over a bowl of rice), but without the shrimp tempura. Our waitress was very concerned and had to ask someone else if this was okay. How hard is it to leave off one piece of tempura?

Before bed that night, we counted up all our purchases so far.

Day 4 (Comiket: Day 1)
After a quick stop at Starbucks, we headed off to Comiket, arriving there a half-hour or so before it opened (10:00). Our part of the line got shunted around to my favorite line area, in the back of the building where you can feel a nice breeze off the bay. I have been to Comiket enough to have a favorite waiting spot, whut It was a fairly light day, as Comiket goes, though for some reason I felt tired and cranky and tried to force myself to be patient while my companions browsed. (I cheered right up when SV found the McShep doujin, though. Hee!) I waffled a while over the homemade kumahachi plushie, but in the end it was too adorable to resist.

After lounging around and recovering some that afternoon, we decided to check out Junkudo, a bookstore near the Ikebukuro Station, on the recommendation of momiji_mii, so we could look for a few things we hadn't been able to find. (Notibly, they had several copies of Unmei wa Boku no Tonari (with special booklet), which SV had been looking for but hadn't seen, and I had become interested in after seeing her art in the Comiket catalogue. I had read a review on Amazon that claimed the book was four stars, but the special booklet made it five stars, so we were all looking for the booklet version.) On the way home, we were discussing what to do for dinner when we stumbled across a branch of Tsuki no Shizuku, a restaurant specializing in tofu that I've been to several times in Chiba. The food there was totally amazing, even if our waitress-call button was broken and we had some trouble getting service.

Day 5 (Comiket: Day 2)
We tried to leave a little earlier for Comiket, knowing that it would be busier today, but (because they made us walk all the way around the building) only officially got in line just before 10:00...and then it was around noon before we actually made it into the place.


Line of Doom

The wait was miserable and hot and we all ended up with sunburns. I'm not sure the tiny amount of stuff I bought was really worth all that wait, but ST was like a kid in a candy store in the Phoenix Wright section. I don't think we did anything that afternoon/evening but strategize for our last (and biggest) day of Comiket. well, I guess there was some reading...

Day 6 (Comiket: Day 3)
We left quite a bit earlier in the day, so even though the line was just as bad as Saturday's, we were much closer to the front and got in much earlier. That didn't totally save us from the pain of sold-out circles (Takanaga Hinako, I'm looking at YOU. I was at your table an hour after the doors opened. AN HOUR!), but, overall, things went relatively smoothly. We split up, hit our assigned tables (special appreciation should go to SV for waiting in Yoneda Kou's ridiculously long line (over an hour, really?) when she's not even a fan--THANK YOU, since Onodo/Deguchi is clearly the best thing ever), met up (after a minor snafu with the phone service being overloaded) and headed out again. The most exciting thing we did for the rest of the day was to take pictures of our entire doujinshi haul:



I think this was also the night we went to Denny's for dinner (or was it Day 5?). SV had a really amazing-looking french toast and ice cream thing, while ST and I had fries with what seemed to be a fish egg sauce (ew?). Then ST and SV made another trip to Junkudo while I went back to our room.

Day 7
After a slow morning, I took two bags of DVDs I had brought with me to K-Books. But despite the fact that I'd had no problem selling my doujinshi (Mandarake did tell me to bring my passport in the future, but), I was told that I needed to have a permanent address in Japan. I was pretty bummed, as I was hoping to make a decent chunk of money from these (hahaha!), but figured things would work out somehow. After dropping my bags of DVDs back at the room, we quickly checked K-Books and Tora no Ana to see if they had any of the Comiket doujinshi we missed. Luckily Tora no Ana had a big stack of Miroku Kotoko's doujin, so we all snagged a copy of that. That pretty much made my day, since I was more sad about missing that than anything else (after we went to all the trouble of buying the manga ahead of time so we would know if we wanted the doujinshi!).

We then hopped on the subway and made our way to Ginza. After getting slightly turned around, we managed to find our way to the main shopping drag. Our first stop was Wako, where it was fun to look at the $6000 purses and $300 dollar fans, but nobody was tempted to buy anything. We contemplated going into Wako's "Chocolate Salon," but weren't sure we really wanted to pay the rather steep prices and ended up skipping it. (Now I'm going to want to go back next time so we can actually try it...) Next we headed to Mitsukoshi, which is a nice department store with fairly reasonable prices. We had a lot of fun looking at the kitchen and bath things on the home furnishings floor [Side note: It's true! Japan doesn't have a total monopoly on Cute; the heart ramekin is also available right here in the US], and even more fun browsing their two floors of food. We each picked up an exotic cheese (curry cheddar, basil gouda, and mango stilton), which we took home to try for dinner that night...after a quick stop at K-Books, although some of us were probably more intoxicated than is advisable for shopping or defending one's manga from evil manga grabbers. (It's OK, I rescued it and took it home and love it more than she ever would have.)

Day 8
(Extremely!) tired feet notwithstanding, we trooped off to DisneySea bright and early in the morning. I did my best to, uh, tone down my usual frenetic Disney pace, but I think we still managed to get on all the main rides. (We didn't bother with any of the shows.) [Side note for traveling companions: my brother tells me that the gyoza dog is amazingly delicious.] For maybe the first time on the trip, I did the most shopping, though SV had the heaviest merchandise and had to suffer from non-manga welts. [Side note for mangaroo: Tokyo Disney totally has trading pins now. The employees still won't trade with you or anything, but at least you can buy ones that are specific to Tokyo Disney.]


With Bernard and Bianca. They were so adorable! Except that I had to follow them for like five minutes before I could get a picture with them.

Day 9
After lounging around and lunch at Ducky Duck (where I had a cold pasta with basil sorbet--yum!), ST and SV headed off to the laundromat while I relaxed in the room (I had a sore spot like a pulled muscle in my leg, though it was fine later in the day). That evening, we met up with akujunkan, did some shopping at K-Books and Mandarake, and then had okonomiyaki (again) for dinner.


I made a kitty! but then I ate it :(

We then made one last trip to Junkudo. I seemed to be suffering from some sort of "Oh no, I'm leaving Japan in two days!" panic and was suddenly spending rather alarming amounts of money. (Either that or I had a secret subconscious desire for my packing to not be easy.) Back in the hotel room, we drank plum wine (note to self- plum wine with brown sugar: AMAZING) and chatted.

Day 10
We started out the day back in Animate, then headed to the K-Books goods store, so I could make another attempt with my DVDs (A kindly agreed to let me borrow her address). However, I only sold about half of the DVDs and experienced a sort of reverse sticker shock at how little they offered me. We then went on to Nakano, where I dropped another alarming chunk of money down at the manga store. We had sushi (arranged like flowers, so adorable!--why didn't we take any pictures?) for lunch, and then I went in for attempt number three with my DVDs. Did I mention my sticker shock from K-Books? Well, that was a fortune compared to what I got for the rest from Mandarake; I practically gave them away, but honestly I just didn't want to have to worry about taking them home. It was too bad, really, I never would have taken them if I'd had any idea how little I would get. (Also, the cashier's "sample version" story seemed a little sketchy, but what do I know?) Finally relieved of my burden, I checked out a toy shop to get some Transformers for my brother (sticker shock again (the regular kind), but I got what he wanted, like a good little sister) and then on to the doujinshi shop, where I spent just a little.

Shopped out at Nakano, we moved on to Akihabara, where we (wisely, I think) invested in a coin locker and then moved on, picking up a few things at Tora no Ana, Animate, and (finally!) grabbing Gyakuten Kenji at a used game shop (LE for me, normal version for ST). We made a quick stop at K-Books (mostly a bust, except for a really hilarious "BL pose" book that SV found) and then on to Book Off.


We saw this sign while we were shopping. Seems appropriate.

We stopped at a cute little bakery for dinner (the bread was good, but what I really loved was my blueberry yogurt drink) and then moved on to Yodobashi, where I resisted buying new headphones and mostly got more presents for friends and family. On the way home, I stopped at Starbucks to pick up another present, and tried to stop at Tokyu Hands, but they closed at 8:30 rather than 9:00 like I'd thought, and it was about 8:40 when I got there. I decided I could make a quick stop the next day after they opened at 10:00.

Back at our room, we rested briefly and then counted up all our purchases. Final count:

sara_tanaquil: 242 books (novels, manga, etc), 112 doujinshi
spacealien_vamp: 187 books, 67 doujinshi
wednesday_10_00: 161 books, 34 doujinshi

So despite my last minute shopping frenzy, I never caught up. But honestly, I had enough trouble packing as it was, so that was probably a good thing.


My books, as they were stacked up in the hotel.

After the official count, we began the (painful) packing process. SV and A went to bed fairly early on, but ST and I were up until about 1am. I wish I'd had a tape recorder to preserve ST's running commentary as she packed. (*looking at pile of manga* "There's no way. I am so shipping." *pause for more stuffing books into suitcase and/or weighing suitcases* "I don't care what they charge me, I don't want to be separated from my manga!" *looks at pile of manga that hasn't been packed* "I'm doomed. I'll have to ship." etc, etc) Believe me when I say I have NOTHING but sympathy for the agony of packing, I have been there, SO many times, but the circular train of thought was really hilarious. (If you don't follow ST's journal, you may be interested to hear that she DID actually manage to get her 300+ books into her suitcases, though she had to pay some pretty steep fees to Delta.)

Day 11
We woke up around 6am to say goodbye to A (who had to get back home in time for work) and I think everyone else stayed up (packing and/or reading) while I slept for a few more hours. The night before, I had packed one of my suitcases heavy, thinking I would just pay the $50 fee, but as I was eating breakfast, I read an e-mail from my mom warning me that they were charging Delta fees, not Northwest, which would make it $90 for an overweight bag. (Actually, we would later discover that $90 is the domestic fee. The international fee is $150.) So I began furiously rearranging my bags to avoid this. ST's and my flight was scheduled to leave at 3:30, so we were planning on taking the 11:20 bus, but it was after 10:30 before we started hauling things down to the lobby, and almost 11 when we checked out. I left my bags with ST and SV in a mad dash to Tokyu Hands, because I had been too shortsighted to have bought my dad's present when I saw it earlier in the week. I made it back with time to spare, but ended up totally drenched with sweat, just the way one likes to be before 20+ hours of travel.

After an uneventful bus ride, we arrived at the airport to find a long and slow line at the checkout counter. Then, between arguing with the ticket agent about fees and me having to repack my bags (again) to avoid an overweight charge, it took ST and I (SV was in a different line) about 20 minutes to check in. We grabbed some food at Lawson (since I'd forgotten to "confirm" my meal reservation again), met up with SV (who had been in a different line) and arrived at our gate just in time to get in line to board. The flight was crowded, but ST convinced the girl next to her to trade seats with me, so we at least got to sit together. We watched the first movie (Star Trek!) and then I slept for most of the rest of the flight.

I lost ST in the hustle and bustle of Atlanta (mostly because my carry-ons were back at my old seat), and made it to my gate just in time to board. Short jump to Detroit, rinse, lather, repeat, short jump to Kalamazoo, wander around parking lot trying to figure out where parents parked, car, drive home, get smothered by cats. It's good to be home! even if I miss the shopping a lot

Full spread of loot (except for the Otome Road shirt, which was in the wash):


How'd I end up with so many towels?

Minor annoyance: I noticed after I got home that I was missing (as in "forgot to buy," not "lost") a volume of both Sensei! and 1/2 no Hero. Bah! :/


Choco surveys her domain.


And then Wednesday gets in on the action.

Last night I got sick of having all my pretty new books spread out on the floor and totally rearranged my shelves to make room. That is, they're not mixed in with the other books (because they're not in the database and they haven't been reviewed yet, etc), I actually cleared off a separate shelf for them. I am just that crazy.

Comments

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

You got the bunko editions of Sensei! They have such pretty cover art.

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

I did, and they do! I wasn't sure which versions I was going to get, especially when the Otome Road shops didn't have a full set of either. Luckily Mandarake in Nakano had all of the bunko, or so I thought until I got home and noticed there was no 8. (orz) I'll probably pick that up before I read it, knowing the way I tend to marathon series.

[mangaroo.livejournal.com]

*sniffle* I've never been to DisneySea.

Kitties! (I think Choco is all "I remember this. Are we going home now?")

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

Awww. I would say we'll go next time, but then we don't get teacups... we could go to both

Even if Choco misses Japan (misses my kotatsu, more likely), she definitely does not EVER EVER want to get on a plane again.

[collarnojutsu.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the report! Sounds like you guys had fun. :}

[insaneneko.livejournal.com]

Sounded like a fun trip! I can so relate to the agony of packing and trying to figure out whether to ship or try to cram everything in the suitcases.

And I totally want to check out Tsuki no Shizuku next time I'm in Japan. Looks like there's one very close to the hotel I'm probably going to stay at!

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

Tsuki no Shizuku is totally amazing. My favorite was the avacado and...maguro? (I got it without the maguro) roll (rolled in yuba). We got two orders and were still fighting over them. XD I went with my students one time and they ordered a fresh block of tofu (I missed some of the discussion about it (due to my jet lag exhaustion), but apparently it takes a long time and you have to order it right away when you get there?) and it was by far the best tofu I've ever tasted.

They have non-tofu food there, too, but I have no idea if it's as amazing as their tofu.

[momiji-mii.livejournal.com]

"Onodo/Deguchi is clearly the best thing ever"

I really hope I get to read the last installment soon. x_x

"(note to self- plum wine with brown sugar: AMAZING)"

My favourite as well. I'm really glad I remembered to bring a bottle with me back to Sweden this time.

Anyways, sounds like you had a really great trip! Loved the write-up! ^^

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

Oh, the ending is so sweet! I hope you get to read it, too. To be honest, if you want it, sooner is probably better than later, since (according to her website) After 9 Hours and After 10 Hours are totally sold out (I guess that's why they're so expensive now), so it's only a matter of time before Iro no aru Sekai is sold out, too. (It would be nice if she released the whole thing as a collection, though...)

[momiji-mii.livejournal.com]

I actually looked everywhere for her doujinshi when I was in Japan, but I couldn't find anyone who sold it. o_O Not even the first World with Color-installment. Maybe she only relies on online shopping sites? Anyways, buying them second-hand is an option I'm considering for the future, but I dislike the idea of paying an outrageous overprice for her stuff when the money won't even end up in her pockets. -_- And yeah, a collection would be great, especially if it was released so I could order it off Amazon.

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

If you're going through a deputy service anyway, just have them order from here (http://normal.youclub.jp/normal/). (Bah, they won't let me direct link, but if you search for ヨネダコウ or Raw her doujinshi will show up.) At least that way she'll see SOME of the money.

[momiji-mii.livejournal.com]

Actually, I don't use a deputy service. I order stuff to my one-day-to-be sister-in-law and she repacks and sends a package to me once it's piled up too much. (^.^;) I wonder if I can ask them to send the doujinshi in a non-see-through bag or something. But I really want these doujinshi, so maybe...

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

Ah, I almost said, "If you're going through a deputy service or having a friend get it..." Oh well. ^^;;

In my opinion, they're worth any extra hassle to get.

[skeleton-rust.livejournal.com]

11 days in Japan! I am green with envy! But I hope you had a great time, girl! I am also notorious for buying too much at cons. Are you going to Yaoicon this year? I'll be there ^_^

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I'm going to YC or not this year. I'd LIKE to, but I'm not sure I can afford it after my trip to Japan. :/ (And I did have a great time in Japan, thanks!)

[megory.livejournal.com]

Awesome report!!! I'm so glad it worked out for you all to go.

[melf42.livejournal.com]

OMG, cute animal-shaped okonomiyaki! Natsukashii!
I liked the hotel guy that said you should do some sightseeing too, haha.

Japanese crowds give a whole new meaning to the word 'crowd'. You guys are brave. But now you have a very impressive pile of joy to show for it.

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

Aww! We'd just read the quote list for Bunny Week, which part of how I ended up making kittymiyaki.

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

Yay, trip report! Yay, pics! (Your pile looks so... sane.)

(And thank you; your detailed report and s_vamp's helped me to reconstruct my own report after my notes left off. My Quicken file helped, too. Denny's was in fact Day 6, the last day of Comiket.)

That's a bummer about the missing volumes. I was amazed when I counted everything up that I hadn't bought a single duplicate or lost anything.

What is it with kitties and their need to infiltrate book pictures?

That is, they're not mixed in with the other books (because they're not in the database and they haven't been reviewed yet, etc), I actually cleared off a separate shelf for them. I am just that crazy.

Would anyone actually mix in their books with the others before cataloging them? MADNESS.

[spacealien-vamp.livejournal.com]

I was amazed when I counted everything up that I hadn't bought a single duplicate or lost anything.

I discovered that I bought a duplicate novel. It was one of the things that hadn't been on my shopping list, so I didn't have anywhere to check it off.

I'm definitely going to have to edit my post to add links to the trip reports. My week has been crazy, though, with nine solid work days before my next day off on Thursday. I'm not getting as much online time as I would like.

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

I thought Day 6 seemed right, but I wasn't sure. I just remembered that we were all totally exhausted. (That could've been pretty much any day after Day 5...)

With my kitties, it's pretty much that they infiltrate EVERYTHING I do. Right after I got home especially, they were like big furry burrs that I couldn't unstick from my sides. (NICE burrs, but still.) One day I woke up from my nap to find Choco curled up behind my knees, Wednesday in one chair next to me, and Pumpkin in the other. (I don't think Pumpkin really missed me--he's Mom's cat--he was just in his normal chair; but it was still funny.)

Would anyone actually mix in their books with the others before cataloging them?

No, I didn't mean to imply that, I just thought it was crazy that I rearranged my books (all of them) specially to clear off a whole shelf rather than leave my books in a pile on the floor, or in a couple boxes or something.