It’s the fourth day of our little adventure in Tokyo and we took a trip to neighbouring Saitama prefecture to visit Konata’s favourite Gamers and Animate branches. Long story short: Saitama isn’t a very exciting place.

JR Ueno Station

The location is JR Oomiya Station West Exit (大宮駅西口), about five (long) stops away from JR Ueno via the Utsunomiya Line (宇都宮線) or the Takasaki Line (高崎線). The journey takes around 30 minutes and cost 450 yen on an express train. You can also pay 1280 yen for a one-stop ride on the Shinkansen.

JR Oomiya Station

Immediately outside the exit, face left and you will find this:

Head towards the McDonalds and into the streets behind it to find the old location of Animate’s Oomiya Branch.

The branch has since moved to a bigger location about 10 metres away.

In fact, it even has a second storefront just next door selling character goods. (There’s also a Melon Books above it.)

And a few hundred metres away from Animate lies Gamers. It’s kind of hard to describe its location. In fact, I had to ask a guy in Sofmap for it. Then I asked for the directions to Animate from a Gamers employee. It seems that they do hire real otaku in such places.

The East Exit of the station also happens to be one of the setting locations for School Days, specifically Sakakino-chou (榊野町).

Well that’s about it. We didn’t wander too far from the station because it was already getting dark (at 4pm). We split up and I ended up wandering around some familiar places in Ikebukuro to take pictures and busk in nostalgia.

And by popular demand, here’s a soapland:

And here’s Odex:

Most of the other pictures suck, so I’m not going to bother posting them here. Go look at today’s gallery for more.

By the way, today’s doujinshi haul is as follows:

• Yousei Mangasha – Kaiketsu Ma-ryan (okay)
• Arestica – Sweet Folk Music
• Essentia – Giga Drill Break
• CRIMsON – CRIMsON plus (awesome)
• Rei’s Room & Spread-Pink – Double Again (decent)
• Amekazesyokudou – Clannad (nice cover)
• Arestica – Baby talk (nice)
• Matsumoto Drill Ladoratory – Tamakin (interesting…)

One more day till Comiket.

We overslept and missed Tsukiji, and ended up spending the whole day in Ikebukuro. (Otome Road in particular.) This is what happens when you don’t plan your itinerary in advance.

This is the fourth time I’ve been to Japan, but it’s the first time I’ve stayed in any place other than Ikebukuro. I have stayed in Sunshine City Prince (east Ikebukuro), Hotel Metropolitan (central Ikebukuro) and Grand House Chang Tee (west Ikebukuro) on three separate occasions, so you can say that Ikebukuro’s the place that I am most familiar with in the whole of Japan.

Ikebukuro

Bleach movie

I really want to watch this

This is a small cinema

Tokyu Hands

Sakura Cafe

Entrance to Sunshine City

Fire hydrant

Pepsi

Waiting for Tokyu Hand to open

hikoukigumo

Arcade opposite Tokyo Hand

Gundam P.O.D.

I realize that I suck at taking pictures for introducing a place. But it’s okay because these parts of Ikebukuro are unimportant. By the way, Tokyu Hand is a really cool franchise store that sells all sorts of awesome things from ant farms to plamo to DIY supplies to marble Rube Goldberg kits. Some examples:

Amuro!

I cannot comprehend people’s obsession with Zeon

Tape fixes everything, even broken holy lances

Otome Road

The most important area in Ikebukuro is the Otome Road. It has tons of BL and yaoi (hence the nickname), but don’t let that deter you from visiting this awesome place. (Unless you are a fujoshi, in which case further convincing is not needed.) The shops along Otome Road have awesome deals for secondhand item and limited edition collectibles.

Here’s a map of Otome Road. I will include the locational names in Japanese below so you can compare.

Walking from the south, the first place that you’ll probably see is the main branch of Animate (アニメイト本店), the biggest anime chain store in Japan, and probably the world.

Animate main branch

The main branch had a renovation since the last time I visited over a year ago. They shifted the position of the main entrance for some reason.

Bleach movie ad again

Too many

Way too many

The old main entrance

A few steps further down the road from Animate lies an inconspicuous stairway to Lashinbang (らしんばん). This is a secondhand store that sells doujinshi, event-limited collectibles and various other rare character goods. You can find some good deals here, but it’s hard to say for sure as prices are often set quite arbitrarily and can vary greatly from store to store.

Moving on, we find K-Books’ anime section (K-BOOKS　アニメ館). This is similar to Lashinbang, except that it does not sell doujinshi. The last time I was here, I bought an episode script for Kimi ga Nozomu Eien. (The kind that seiyuu use.) You can get some really rare stuff here if you can afford the premium. If not, look for cheap deals and enjoy the secondhand savings.

K-Books panders quite a bit to the fujoshi crowd, so it’s wise to stay out of any area with suspiciously-pink decor. The next store is K-Books too, this one with more doujin-related items.

Mandarake (the shop is in the basement)

Next we have Mandarake (まんだらけ), a famous franchise store for doujin products. Their Ikebukuro branch deals exclusively with BL, so proceed with caution.

Finally, K-Books has two additional outlets farther down the street. The doujinshi section (K-BOOKS　同人館) deals with BL and yaoi doujinshi (K-BOOKS　コミック館), while the comics section has awesome deals for secondhand manga, often with entire sets up for sale.

Cheap as they may be, manga are absolutely the worst thing you can get in Japan as a tourist due to the weight limit placed on your check-in luggage.

But still, the price is tempting.

Well, that’s about it for Otome Road.

More Pictures

Trees

Tree

We ate at this underground (literally) Chinese restaurant

The waitress spoke Chinese

Spot the Bleach movie ad!

His Master’s Voice

Wendy’s

Real movies that are not Bleach

Denny’s

Pachinko parlour

Toranoana’s Ikebukuro Branch

“Christ’s blood will save the world!”

McPork

On a closing note, for those of you who are wondering about the doujinshi…

From left to right, top down:

• Paper Crown – Blade Works (crap)
• T2 Art Works – Entangle
• Kagi No-do – HowTo Hatsune Miku (okay)
• Lost Rarities – Industial (decent)
• Kohakutei & Sakai-Hamachi – EDEN -Rei7- (frigging awesome)
• T2 Art Works – Nekomimi Batoraa
• T2 Art Works – Watashi wa Kyozetsu suru!
• Hiro Suzuhira – Heart-Work 2005
• Hiro Suzuhira – Heart-Work 2007 Summer
• Hiro Suzuhira – Heart-Work 2006 Summer

Total expenditure (food and transport included) today: ï¿¥7,367.

Movie guide sold with all movies in Japan.
As if the movie tickets weren’t expensive enough.

There are a few major differences between the manga and the movie. Shiori is Raito’s girlfriend and Naomi (the FBI agent’s fiancee) plays a much larger role in the movie than she did in the manga. There are also numerous original scenes added, though not all of them suitable. For example, in the manga there was nothing about what happened between the time Raito picked up the Death Note and when Ryuku appeared in his room, whereas the movie fills that part in with some new scenes. Raito Yagami also seems to be a much more… emotional character in the movie than the manga, especially in the first half.

The FBI incident is also changed quite a bit. Naomi follows Raye (the FBI agent) onto the train and witnesses his death. She then vows to avenge Raye, which she does by holding Shiori hostage and threatening Raito to kill her if he wants to save Shiori.

The movie covers the mainly the introduction and the FBI incident, thus you don’t really get to see Misa Misa… As a fanboy that is bad. But she does look cute, almost as close as you can get to the manga version. Misa fans, look out for the second movie because it will cover the Misa chapters. :3

On another note, I’m not sure how many movies there will be, but the maximum number should be three. This movie is 前編 (First Part) and there will be a 後編 (Last Part) coming out in November.

Although our hotel is located in Ikebukuro, it is on the opposite side of the train station from the major concentration of anime-related shops, so we didn’t take the time to visit there until now. (You know, Akihabara and all…)

Tama-nee compels you to read on.

Although Ikebukuro isn’t exactly Akiba, there are still quite a lot of anime goods to be found here. Lashinbang and K-books are not to be missed if you are looking for hard-to-find anime collectibles. From limited edition phone cards to alarm clocks and pillow covers, these shops buy and resell all kinds of limited edition collectibles. If you look long enough, you might find a good deal, such as a secondhand anime OP single for 200 yen or a Tamaki Kousaka wall scroll for 2000 yen. (I bought the only one by the way…) Here’s a picture of Lashinbang and K-books from my previous visit.

I got this Tamaki mug from Lashinbang for 1000 yen. :3

The prices at secondhand collectibles shops are quite unpredictable. Different traders have different pricing based on product rarity, condition and popularity, so it’s better to look around first before buying. For example, K-books was selling a secondhand copy of Rie Tanaka’s Chara de Rie first print for 4000 yen when I found an unopened copy collecting dust in Yamagiwa Soft for the list price of around 2000 yen. On the other hand, secondhand shops are probably the only way you can find items limited to events or preorders, such as limited goods from the latest Comiket. Just be prepared to pay a lot for those rare goods… (6000 yen for a rare phone card of a popular character is not uncommon)

And right beside Lashinbang is the main branch of Animate. Well, you can find one in Akihabara too, but the it’s still nice to visit the main branch. Animate deals manga, anime and character goods, but not much in the way of doujin unlike Toranoana. A picture of Animate main branch from my last visit. (Yes, I’m lazy to take pictures again)

There used to be a Gamers (Dejiko’s birthplace) near the underpass to Sunshine City in Ikebukuro, but it seems to have closed down… Awww…

Anyway, on to Shinjuku. Gah screw it, I’m too lazy, so just look at the pictures.

Kinokinuya here is huuuuge. The South Shinjuku branch has a whole building for itself beside Takashimaya Times Square. The main branch farther northeast has a whole building and an annex of comics and light novels. Interestingly, the annex for the main branch is named “Forest”. Maybe it’s a wordplay of Kinokuniya…? (木の国？)

On another note, I briefly read through a few World War II-related books in Kinokuniya. It seems to me that Japanese accounts tend to focus on either specific battles and the strategic events in the Pacific or the situation of Japan under American Occupation. Out of the entire shelf on WWII, there were only three books on display on the Nanjing Incident. The first book was supposedly an “unbias” account. The second book claimed to be able to prove that the Nanjing Incident never took place using “newly-uncovered Chinese Communist Party documents from Taiwanese archives” (most impartial source of information ever…). The third book was just spouting nonsense about how the entire thing originated from Communist propagandas. Right beside them is a book about how Japanese nationals “forced to remain in Manchuria due to circumstances” suffered in China before finally returning home after many years. And somehow this book is a lot thicker than the other three.

And yes, I was born in Nanjing.

Anyway, enough with the rant, it’s time for today’s loot!

1. To Heart 2 Tamaki Kousaka coffee cup
2. School Days Official Visual Art Works
3. Gundam SEED DESTINY Lacus Clyne Limited Poster
4. Nanoha Raising Heart from Animate (not for me)
5. School Days Sekai-hen novel
6. Kami-sama Game Vol. 1 & 2
7. Hayate no Gotoku! Vol.1

Anyway, that’s all for today~