Hadaka Mairi Matsuri (insert "Chariots of Fire" theme)

Japan is the land of the weird and wonderful, but even weirdness can push the limits sometimes. The other night a bunch of us drove an hour or so to the village of Yanaizu in the western part of the prefecture where the annual Hadaka Mairi Matsuri, or Naked Running Festival was happening. Before you get any ideas, only men take part in this festival (though I read that there are female versions, albeit a bit rarer) and they wear traditional underwear called fundoshi for modesty. I reckon it's for protection too, because they have to climb up a rope to get to the rafters of the local shrine, and rope burns on your privates is no laughing matter, unless you're into that sort of thing. That aside, it truly is an endurance event, because the guys have to run from somewhere in the town in the snow, up several flights of frozen, slippery stone steps to get to the shrine. I can only imagine just how cold it really is, since I'm with the rest of the townspeople bundled up in scarves and parkas. We got there just before the event started, so we stuck around the shrine where everyone (who was dressed) was. At 8:30 the signal was given so the fundoshi brigade could finally head up to the shrine for a little warmth.  

... and there was much merrymaking. The participants ran the gamut (hah pun!) from 7 to 70, from students to office workers to farmers. I was quite surprised that it was the old guys who got up the rope really quick compared to the young'uns. Guess old folks here are pretty spry. Though you can't see it clearly in the video, a lot of the guys had wishes written on their back or arms, for such things as passing high school entrance exams and an end to animal testing. I suppose the custom is that if they make it up the rope, their wishes will come true. They'd better, considering the freezing conditions that night. Possibly the worst off were the kids, who didn't have the benefit of massive quantities of alcohol to dull the senses. Poor things. XD After a couple of hours of yelling and climbing, all the guys got a small token of appreciation from the shrine (nice lavender fundoshi, ojii-san!), and a good long soak in the local onsen to stave off hypothermia. No pics of that of course, since I wasn't allowed in. I tell you what, I've never been less turned on in my life, but at least it's something that you don't often get to see, even if you live in this country long term. Methinks I'll have to do some more research into that other festival where they carry giant wooden wangs through the streets in some fertility ritual. Hurray for cultural exchange!

omg snow! part 3

Yes, I'm not over the snow thing yet. I came home to this after my Tokyo trip:
Thar she snows!! Even the birds got into the act:
Of course, I should have expected it, because halfway through my bus trip back it came bucketing down and I was treated to frozen and snowy landscapes all the way back to Tohoku. Pity it hasn't really snowed much since; I was really looking forward to pitching a few more snowballs around...

Winter Comiket 2007 Cosplay Album Part 3 (image intensive)

Even more costumes, this time from various series I may have watched before:

Wow, people are still playing Utena...

Never thought I'd see a cosplay of Kurama. Whee!

Ooh, memories from my first real manga.

I reckon her eyes aren't big enough, considering the game art.

I don't know where this is from, but the attention to detail!

Now this is what I call effort. Full cloth, or whatever you call it, down to all the tooled details.

I remember seeing a really expensive figurine of this chararcter in the shops.

Ah, nostalgia. Sure is nice to hark back to the time when I was really into stuff like this. I sort of miss being able to put together costumes of my own, even though it's a huge time sink. A trip to Tokyu Hands later made me realize just why the costumes here are so good, because everything from chiffon and imitation leather to plaster of paris and wire mesh was there in one place. Not to mention the monthly magazines here that provide pattern pieces and assembly instructions for the costumes of the latest and most popular characters. I feel creative just looking at them. *sniff*

Finally, while I was leaving the place on the second day I spied a whole lot of people looking at some billboard with their mobiles at the ready. I have decided to name this picture "Japanese Salute" in their honour. ^^

Ok ok, they were actually reading one of those fancy square barcodes that contain a mobile internet address, but I thought it was funny...

Winter Comiket 2007 Cosplay Album Part 2 (image intensive)

More cosplay goodness!

From Harukanaru Toki no Naka de and its sequels:



From FF and its spinoffs:

Uh huh, Cloud has boobs thar...

Sephiroth did a better job of hiding them though.

Yes, Lulu is hot. XD

Fullmetal Alchemist is still popular:

Cosplay aside, I thought the guy playing Hughes was rather cute ^^

Armstrong was so into it he deserves two pics, and photoshopped sparklies too!

Time for another break. Last part coming up!

The collective noun for Otaku is... (image intensive)

A throng? An obsession? Perhaps, an annoyance? ^^

As if several jaunts to Akihabara weren't enough, I went to the 2007 Winter Comiket to see what it was like. To be honest, if I'd had the opportunity to go several years ago I'd be like the rest of its attendees, lining up in the chill morning sea breeze to get my hands on exclusive limited edition doujinshi. I think I was over amateur publishing in general before I got here, so nowadays I prefer to shop for doujin at my own pace. I found on this trip that what I'd become more interested in was gag doujin, especially those from one Fuji Shinichi, because I like her art and sense of humour, something I appreciate more than flat out pr0n (which is quite frankly a poor facsimile of the real thing).

Fearing the crowd I decided to go a little later in the day on both days to avoid the crush. It turns out I didn't have to bother, since the Big Sight was packed to the gills anyway. It really says something when the Maccas next door runs out of burgers to serve the masses at Comiket. O.o

Here's an idea of how many people are at this one event:

... and this is only a fraction of the floorspace at the convention (actually about 1/10). It was by some massive stroke of luck that I bumped into the table where a girl was selling some Code Geass stuff from Fuji, so I was very pleasantly surprised. Keep your expectations low, folks, that's the way to go.

The other part of Comiket was of course the cosplayers, who were gathered out on the verandah between the halls. Naturally I went nuts on the photos, so here's a sample of some of the ones I recognized and some really well made ones that I didn't. No smiley faces on these, because these people know full well they are being photographed for whatever reason and that their pictures will be made public. No, I refuse to take pictures of crossplayers, so no Haruhims for you. I'm saving the trauma for later. Click on the pics for a slightly larger view.

From Code Geass:

I do believe that's Suzaku in military uniform in the back...

From Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu:

She even got the expression down right!

I hadn't realized it at the time, but there's Ha'nyuu from Higurashi at the back!

Yuki was excellent. She commanded a huge crowd of very large and very expensive looking cameras. ^^

The main cast of the show, with an extra Kyon for good measure ^^

It's looking to be a rather long post, so I'm splitting it into parts starting here. The rest of the cosplay photos will follow.

Hello, Kitty

Life ain't the same without Kitty. I'm not allowed to keep pets in my apartment (ok, maybe goldfish), so I miss having a warm furball next to me while I'm watching TV or hogging the blankets when I'm sleeping. While I was in Tokyo though, I was brought to the Ikebukuro branch of Tokyu Hands, the top floor of which houses 20 cats of different breeds, all living in the same place. I wonder how they manage it, because cats are territorial loners, but they seem to get along without any major fights.

It cost ¥600 to enter Nekobukuro, but I got a discount voucher to the value of ¥100 for my next visit. As with any responsible animal display area, we were asked to swab our hands with disinfectant gel before we handled the cats. Once inside though, we were allowed to play with the cats so long as we didn't do it too roughly.

The entire place was laid out to provide the cats with plenty of high ground to stalk, and even holes in the wall for them to access other rooms without having to come to ground level. This one however preferred to use the hole in the wall as a pillow:

Since cats prefer running water because they think it's fresher (hah), even the drinking bowls were high tech. That's a kitty fountain you see in the pic below:

Ain't that the life?

Now I mentioned there were 20 cats in the same place, but not all of them are allowed to run free in Nekobukuro at any one time. A few of them were taking a break from the crowd behind glass on the day we went, including a pair of huge Maine Coons and a tiny Singapura. However, I did see signs about the place saying that people could ask for photos with specific cats (requests by name, no less), so I think I might be able to get a pic with the ones that were resting on my next visit. ^^

Here are a few of the characters we did meet:




This guy was asleep through the whole time I was there, even though he was constantly being petted by all the other visitors:

All prime LOLcat material XD

You might be wondering why they all seem to be fairly comatose. Cats do sleep for a majority of the day since they don't need to spend time foraging, so I reckon it's pretty normal. Those that were awake were moved too fast to capture clearly on my dinky point-and-shoot camera, so I gave up after a while.

I kinda wish I was allowed to keep a pet, but seeing as my landlord probably wouldn't appreciate shredded curtains or fixtures marked with piss, it' probably for the best I suppose. Maybe I'll look for one when I actually find a more permanent place to settle in. Hmm... I wonder if Kitty would like to come stay with me again? ^^