The Kaiju Bar - Good Food, No Kaijus

I've been promising myself I'd check out the Kaiju Bar in Kawasaki city for quite some time. And I've been putting it off for quite some time. Having left my job, though, I've finally gotten the chance to gather some Adventure Friends, namely Ty and Ken, and check it out. And though the place was not quite what I expected it to be, it wasn't all bad, either!
 The Kaiju Bar is based on the villains who appeared in the Ultraman TV series - put simply, the monsters played by men in big rubber suits who show up to get whooped.

Westerners are probably more familiar with the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, and in essence, it's pretty much the same. But whereas this type of show hasn't really picked up as much steam in America, in Japan, they're still quite popular and going strong, as they have been for decades. You might recall this is actually my second time visiting a bar based on such a television show. They're just that popular. And as much as there's love for the main characters of these shows, so too are there cult followings for each of the big rubber villains - the Kaiju.
Now, when I first caught wind of the Kaiju Bar last year, when it opened, I looked at the promotional material and thought to myself, "sweet! You get to go in there and drink with big monsters!" Well, advertisement can be deceiving, folks, though I'm not blameless for not having checked. Unfortunately, and to my sorrow, unlike in the bar's videos and posters, the Kaiju don't come out for you to have a drink with them. But I almost forgave this on account of all the other nice things the place had going for it.

 For one, the bar was lovingly decorated with as many Ultraman and Kaiju paraphernalia as you could think of. On top of the standard fanfare of having figurines of varying sizes in glass cases, the Kaiju Bar had beautiful murals and all types of replicas suspended all over the shop, which was pretty sizable, too.
 However, the place is quite generous to customers in terms of what's given to them. Upon being seated at the table, every patron gets a resting plate for their chopsticks with a different Kaiju on it. Plus, every order placed awards you with a different beer coaster, which the staff painstakingly choose so as to make sure customers aren't given the same one twice. This being an Izakaya, our table ended the night with over 10 coasters.

Second, there was no denying that the service was quite good! Unlike many other themed places run by different chains (notably Diamond Dining and Pasela Resorts) the waiters and waitresses don't do much to remind you that they're in character. There is the initial bit where the reception makes you put your hand into a big Kaiju's mouth on the wall to "detect whether or not you're a hero in disguise," but other than that, the staff acts pretty normal.
 And the third great thing about the Kaiju Bar is that, lo and behold, the food is actually quite good! Despite not bearing a heavy price tag, the food, which doesn't necessarily follow the theme either, is prepared with its actual taste in mind. I thought the food was quite tasty, and Ken, who's a major foodie, actually approved too, which confirms it! The menu offers all the standard izakaya fare, so there's a good amount of variety, from karaage fried chicken to yakisoba noodles and more, each cooked by someone who actually knows what the hell they're doing.
 So at the end of the night, the Kaiju Bar was a good meal, good service, and good ambiance, despite not actually having been what we came for. Oh well, we'll live.

Capcom - The Bar

Though it may or may not surprise you at all, it turns out that video game companies in Japan get to have their own bar. If you're savvy at all about video game company names, Square-Enix has one, and Capcom has one. Though it would bewilder me any where else in the world, this is Japan, after all. For once in a rare while, though, I was the one dragged along, by Millo and a few of his friends. I gladly partook in the outing to the Capcom Bar.
 Again, this will mean very little to people who aren't at all video game aficionados, but for the initiated yet uninformed, Capcom is the company behind some of gaming's most iconic franchises, including, but not limited to, Street Fighter, Resident Evil (or Biohazard locally), Ace Attorney and Monster Hunter - a lot of which have their own movies (Hollywood or not.) It's one of the leading powerhouses when it comes to releasing high profile games, and has been for over two decades now.

 Does the bar itself measure up to the standard of the video games it draws customers from?
 Well, the short answer is, that depends how much you like Capcom.

Our drinks, and Millo's awkwardly placed face.

 Like many a themed food establishment I have been to before it, the Capcom Bar relies mostly on decoration props and menu items vaguely similar to the theme it's trying to sell. It's amusing, for example, to have a drink based on Dante, the two-gun-wielding demon-hunter, come with gun-shaped ice cubes inside. Some of the items on the menu are very clever, whereas others are a little, well, dumb. We scratched our head at the Devil May Cry based pizza, which, by all means was nothing but an ordinary pizza with the letters DMC on it. What was pretty cool, though, was that some menu items came delivered in special ways when ordered. A short fanfare music would play audibly in the whole venue when anyone would order a Monster Hunter food item, and the waiters would quote the game out loud. On that though, I also thought it was pretty cool that the staff all seemed like they genuinely enjoyed video games and knew a thing or two.

There are quite a few video game references hidden inside this picture here.

That aside, the other appealing point of the Capcom Bar was that each table came with its own television, console, and a single game. Our table happened to be the Sengoku Basara table - a game I knew nothing about. Still, it's pretty legitimate to be to able to just come in, get your food, and play your favorite game at your table with your friends. Provided that you get the table you want, of course. I guess you can't be too picky.
 Now apparently, the bar also does to small shows, though we didn't get to see any. I can't imagine they'd be anything elaborate, given the relatively small size of the place. But we did get to stick around until closing time, and it appeared that the bar ritually gives out free merchandise to one lucky customer a day, with a random draw. None of us happened to be that lucky customer, but the prize appeared to be just a handful of small things - key chains, stickers, and the like. Winner or not, though, you do get a video game character-themed coaster upon leaving, which I guess is pretty cool.
 That pretty much summed up my visit! So really, go if you're a fan of the brand, and don't if you aren't. Not that you would've in that case, but that's pretty much the extent to which I can recommend the Capcom Bar, which by no means was a bad experience either.

The A Button

I finished work and met up with Millo in Akihabara, not knowing where exactly we intended to go. Guided by nothing but the GPS on his smartphone, we made our way down backstreets and alleys to a place where we would meet a friend of his. Every street we walked into looked a little more run-down and unoccupied by the last. As often as I had frequented Akiba back when I lived in the area, it wasn't long until I had no idea where we were.
 When we finally arrived before the place marked on the map, we found ourselves standing in front of the one place that was lit up in an otherwise dead street. We found the A Button. And all it took was one look at the place for me to be captured by its dated, dorky charm. We walked in.
 A Button is pretty much a regular bar - you'll find people there for drinks, and you can order simple food items too - but it's the ambiance that defines the place. For one, set aside the pre-millennium rock tracks. Here, it's bit music all night long. I'm talking about that kind of machine-generated music that hear when you turn on a game dating before the mid 90's. Second, well, all it takes is a good look around the place to know that you're in deep, deep geek territory here.

 Lining the walls, fighting for every square inch of space, are old video game consoles, controllers, and related paraphernalia. Figurines and collectors' items stand combatant atop the bar too, in such a way that it would look rather difficult to serve drinks or food without knocking a few over. Some of the stuff on display is hardly even identifiable - limited edition consoles given to developers and the like. One can only imagine the trouble you'd have to go through to get that kind of thing. Or the money you'd have to spend for it.

 But what this bar once was, it really no longer is. When we asked if we could play any of the consoles hooked up to the large screen at the back of the room, it was plain to see that it pained the owner of the bar to say that that was no longer possible. You see, he explained, Japan cracked down on that kind of thing, for reasons that are a little obscure to me still. But apparently, it's illegal to run a business based off allowing people to play video games at any given establishment. And when law enforcement came around, A Button got mashed pretty hard.
 More's the pity, because the staff itself was actually really friendly, and the bar seemed to have a really nice set of regulars, many of which were foreigners too. We didn't let it ruin our night though, and overall, just basking in our eclectic surroundings was good fun. If you ever want to find a drinking hole that seems like the kind of place you'd find in a sitcom about dorks (and I mean that in the most appreciative way possible) then head over to A Button!

Making (Kamehameha) Waves

As a city as a whole, Tokyo's quite fond of publicity stunts, and twice as much so when they involve popular anime and manga series. In Shibuya, in an attempt to get the word out for the release of an upcoming Dragonball videogame, a Kamehameha machine has been set up for people to try out. The idea's simple enough, really. You can scan your toughest face, and the machine judges your "power level." Then, you go face to face with a friend and shoot laser beams from your hands at each other. Fun! You can see it in action right here.

Actually, maybe coinciding with the encroaching Valentine's day, most of the people lined up to try it were couples, if not good friends. For fear of wasting the time of the pairs in line I opted not to try it for myself. I'll surely get another chance, right? No? Yeah I don't think so either.

Pokemon is still Super Effective

And so it was deemed that in December 2014, the biggest shop dedicated to Pokemon ever to grace the planet would be opened. Pokemon Center Mega Tokyo is now up and running in Ikebukuro, and, though it's not the first time I find myself in the center of something Pokemon themed in Tokyo, this here isn't a temporary exhibit or fare. It's kind of the real thing, and it's still real crowded. Word was you could hardly get in without waiting in line for hours when the place first opened.

 As it is, this isn't the first Pokemon Center to exist in Tokyo - as a matter of fact, it's the third, with five others spread out across Japan outside of the metropolis. But it is the biggest.
 Let's let a few facts sink in for a little bit. First off, in Japan, and to some extent, the rest of the world, Pokemon is no longer something only children are interested in, as was mostly the case when the franchise was born. Sure, there are children by the school load who are avid lovers of Pokemon, but a very large part of the demographic to still be enthralled by the Pokemon phenomenon are people in their early to late 20's - the very same generation who saw the franchise begin. Young adults account for a major part of goods sales, mainly through the handheld console games.

  I could rave on and on about the games themselves, but I'll try to keep it brief. They're ingenious in a way - simple enough that an elementary student could finish them with hardly any trouble, but with a complex competitive scene for people who are interested in taking their game online and challenging others. Pokemon is the only series I know that requires some degree of knowledge of algebra to fully perfect online competitive play, a level I myself never quite got too, despite having tried.

 But in and of itself, the longevity of the series is kind of amazing, too. Think about it, though! Disney, for example, is widely known and appreciated enough to have its own store - but Disney is a collection of franchises - with multiple stories for both boys and girls. For Pokemon, a single franchise owned by Nintendo, to have achieved such a level of influence as to have stores dedicated entirely to it still baffles me.

More merchandise than you can shake your noodly otaku arms at.

As for the shop itself, it's a full-force blast of nostalgia to the face. Every collection item imaginable, and even those you couldn't imagine prior to entering the shop, exist here. Be it trading cards, video games, DVD's, music, plushies, or even school note books, tableware, towels - it's all here. Basically anything they can print Pikachu's face on exists in this shop.

And by the way, the place doesn't lack for decoration. I walked in with zero intention to spend any money, walked out without buying anything, and still enjoyed the time I spent surrounded by the merchandise, but moreover, looking at the statues of the Pokemon characters set up beautifully around the shop.
 Moreover, for those who own the games, the shop is a thriving place for players to open up their 3DS consoles and download "gift" Pokemon regular given to players by the shop. But on top of that, there being so many people playing the game in one single place allows for a great chance to meet other players, trade Pokemon in-game, battle and so on. It was kind of nice to see such a diversity in community gathered in one place, be it children, geeky otaku, groups of young girls, or anything in-between. Well done, Nintendo.

Comiket 87

Happy New Year's everyone! I've been going around here and there, attending end of year parties, events, and traveling out of Tokyo. I have quite some catching up to do in order to put it all on the blog, but it's coming. Here we go, starting from the top.

It's been a year and a half coming, but here I am once again, staring at massive crowds of passionate geeks running about from booth to booth, collecting their manga goods and shipping them home, and rushing out again to collect some more. And all this despite it being a rainy Monday.
More specifically, I attended the second day of the 87th bi-annual Comic Market. This being my second time, though, I knew what to expect - or so I thought. If you're interested in a summary about what Comiket is about, check out my coverage from the 84th!

Amateur publications - imagine this, times 300, and you've got Comiket!

Of course, this being the Winter Comiket, I did find that the event wasn't quite as grandiose as its Summer counterpart. Understandably, it's a little more difficult for people to come out in the cold of Winter than it is on a sunny Summer day - and twice as much so when it comes to people dressing up for cosplay. Still, that isn't to say the event itself was small in any way. In truth, I probably wouldn't have imagined it could be any bigger than this if it had been my first time. And when it comes to costumes, there's still quite a sizable amount of people out there doing their thing.
 Mind you, in Winter like in Summer, the area for cosplay is outside of the building! One can't help but marvel at the girls in skimpy outfits doing their things out in the cold. Once again, there's a little something for everyone here.

Whether cute...

   

...or cool,

...or simply out of the ordinary.

At any rate, thus concludes my brief coverage of Comiket 87. It's been fun, and I never really get tired of seeing what people can concoct when they're this driven by...anything, really. Fandom is at once something dreadful, powerful, and awe inspiring. All you have to do to see that is check out Comiket for yourself.

Wall Tokyo - The Attack on Titan Museum

Shingeki no Kyojin, or Attack on Titan as it's called in English, has picked up an enormous amount of steam and has risen to become the number one selling manga in Japan, dethroning One Piece for the first time. Whether it's the series' intrigue and pacing, or rather it's underlying message of rising up against insurmountable odds, it's working. Men and women are flocking to Attack on Titan.
 In light of this success, the manga spawned a hugely successful anime series, and is following up with a live-action movie, an attraction at Universal Studios Japan, and a temporary exhibit at the Ueno Royal Museum. Which Dario and I had a look at!
 Now, this being Tokyo, and the subject being a manga read by millions, a crowd was to be expected. There was no getting in without lining up for a half hour, and mind you, we went on a Monday morning. Those seeking entry on a weekend, beware.
 Right off the bat, though, the Attack on Titan exhibition begins powerfully, with a guide, completely in-character, telling everyone who entered that the city is under attack. On a gigantic screen is a curtain, with the silhouettes of the titular giants moving around behind it. Their footsteps are thunderous. She disappears behind the curtain, and all of a sudden, it's lifted, and she appears on screen, being devoured by a titan. She's thrown into the air, and a loud crack is heard over the audience's heads, as she appears to have fallen onto the ceiling. Her tattered cloak hangs through the rafters in the ceiling. How delightful! There are even children in the room! I bet some of the parents were wishing they had been warned.

The art of Shingeki no Kyojin.

 The first section of the exhibit is dedicated to Hajime Isayama's original artwork. It's pretty par-for-course in an exhibit such as these. Now, you may recall that I said that Attack on Titan isn't the best drawn series by a long shot. But the exhibit does have his best pages (the originals, no less) on display, and no matter what else can be said, he is a professional. On some pages, there are neat little commentaries written by the man himself, and you do kind of discover that Attack on Titan was very much a learning process for him as well, as he could not have anticipated that the series would garner such a massive following. I do admit the full-sized pieces of his colored work were actually really nice when seen in person. There's a corner also dedicated to what inspired Isayama to start his series. It may or may not come as much of a surprise that, amongst other manga he cited as being inspirational, he also studied UFC and cited that as being something that helped him create certain scenes.
 It's the second half of the exhibit, though, that adds fun to the experience: the interactive showcase, where items and scenes of the comic are brought to real life quite literally. This half of the exhibit kicks off with a little something fans of the series will be sure to recognize - a life-size diorama of the character, Annie Leonhart, looking down at a flight of stairs. It's hard not to be tempted to recreate the iconic scene itself (which I did.)

The interactive exhibit. Why'd you do it, Annie!?

 Past this flight of stairs, though, is a collection of items that were recreated from Attack on Titan. And although some of it is completely goofy (a glass case, for example, containing a potato half-eaten by one of the characters,) they did fabricate some of the manga's coolest gadgets, such as the box-cutter-like blades used in the series, or the contraptions used by the characters to navigate the city while hunting for the titans. All of the above are life-sized, and presented in such a way where they blur the line between comic and reality. It's all very cool to look at.

Egad!

 But of course, the best is saved for last, and visitors are given a chance to stand in awe of the head of the Colossal Titan, breaking through the very floor of the building. It kind of puts things to scale. It's one thing to read about a 60-meter monstrosity and another to see it as it would appear in reality.
 And as usual, it's exit through the gift shop, which contains a few framed pictures, if you like Attack on Titan that much, and some 50$ white shirts with nothing but quotes from the series written in black. With or without context, the shirts are a little ridiculous.
 But hey, I really enjoyed the exhibit. It's certain to please fans of the manga or anime, and there's lots of cool opportunities to get souvenirs in the form of pictures. Check it out, but leave the kids at home, maybe.
 

5 Manga I Recommend

And here we go.
 It's a bit strange even to me that I've been living in Japan for three years and haven't really blogged about manga in detail. Yes, Japan's the birthplace of manga, anime, and everything remotely related, and as such, you would expect it to play a huge role in everyday culture and in people's daily lives - and it does. Popular manga/anime characters adorn trains, are on posters, billboards, and are sold in hundreds of figurine shops and sought by collectors.
 And although I've deliberately chosen not to make my blog about Japan something that only fans of the manga subculture could get behind, I have read my fair share of manga too. In truth, manga has very much inspired me to draw and create, in ways that American comics couldn't. Whether it was through driven characters or incredible plot, Japanese comics had a powerful appeal to me even from early childhood, and still do, though maybe to a lesser extent.
 That being said, here are the five manga I'd like to invite others to get behind, in no particular order.

GANTZ (37 Volumes / 2000-2013)

 Gantz is a well-drawn comic from the get-go to its very end. The premise is simple and, to some extent, remains untouched for the duration of the comic: two boys are killed in a horrific accident and are revived and sent to a room where a mysterious machine gives them a series of monsters to kill. Should they manage to destroy their target, points are tallied, and they can potentially buy their freedom back. Gantz is not for the faint of heart. It's extremely gory, with very detailed scenes of unimaginable violence. Characters are introduced in droves, and characters are killed off in droves. But aesthetics are Gantz's strongest point and it continues to deliver pages full of beautiful detail.


ATTACK ON TITAN (14 Volumes / 2009 - ongoing)

 This is the series that took Japan by storm, and is currently the most read manga in the country, dethroning One Piece, which stood at the top for a long time. If truth be told, I don't know what it is in particular that drove the series to success, but the whole idea of humanity being reduced to a fraction of what it was and having to fight off man-eating giants is lots of fun to play around with. Attack on Titan has a story that moves forward much faster than most other boys' manga, which tend to fall behind a "meet bad guy, get stronger, defeat bad guy, meet stronger bad guy" loop. Plus, it does intrigue very well, with each chapter leaving the readers to ask more questions. It, too, though, is quite a bit on the gory side, so fans of horror might really find something delightful in the grotesque imagery of people being eaten alive. Be warned, though, that the series didn't gain its readership through its artwork, which actually starts quite roughly before it begins improving.

YOTSUBA& (12 Volumes / 2003 - ongoing)

 The black sheep amongst my favorite manga. Yotsuba& follows the daily lives of a young father and his adopted daughter, Yotsuba. The manga was the recipient of many awards praising its drama-free, plot-free format. Every chapter is incredibly light and paints the world through the eyes of a child who often discovers things for the very first time and sees things as they are. The illustrations are soft on the eye but very detailed when it comes to backgrounds, and there are often shots of mundane objects that truly only children would notice, and that's the beauty of it. Before you know it, you find yourself laughing at the simplest jokes. Yotsuba& is a great way to escape after a day of hard work.



GREAT TEACHER ONIZUKA (25 Volumes / 1997 - 2002)

 GTO is a classic, about a young teacher with skewed moral values who is assigned a class full of rebellious children, and sets each one right, all the while becoming a better person in the process. Despite the premise being perfect for all kinds of drama, which GTO does have plenty of, the comic actually fits the comedy genre better. It's got plenty of rather dirty jokes, but it's all in good fun. The varied cast of characters makes it hard not to relate to at least one, and to some extent, GTO made me want to try teaching too, which happens to kind of be what I'm doing now. Of course, you do have to suspend your disbelief once in a while, but the comic has no actual "bad guys," with each of its characters having a back story that affected their present decisions, and it all goes to show the importance of having someone to look up to while growing up.


TENJHO TENGE (22 Volumes / 1997 - 2010)

 And at last there's this gem. Tenjho Tenge has a pretty typical plot for a boys-oriented manga, and you might recognize reflections of it in other manga like Naruto and Bleach and so on. Young adolescents with powers sign in to a fighting tournament and meet other powerful teenagers. Nothing fancy there. But to me, Tenjho Tenge truly takes the cake when it comes to its artwork. The way the human body is depicted in motion in this series continues to be an inspiration to me - and with such a huge variety of characters fighting in different ways, ranging from sword-fight to capoeira, you truly get an unrivaled visual treat. No other manga I had read portrayed movement as convincingly as Tenjho Tenge, while keeping clean lines and being instantly readable. Like many other series, the artwork starts out rough, but the illustrator develops into a titan when it comes to illustrating stylistic anatomy. And the wonderful thing is, Ogure Ito doesn't hold himself back from drawing anything he wants. If he feels like drawing a shark, there it is, no matter whether its directly relevant to the story or not. Tenjho Tenge is so much fun.

For You Wannabe Defenseless Maidens

Unless you read women's manga, chances are you haven't heard of kabe-don. It's essentially an overused trope that doesn't happen nearly as often in real life as the comics would suggest. The gist of it is, a guy puts his hand against a wall to loom over someone whose back is pressed against it. It's oh-so-tough-looking.
 Apparently, this is now so much of a thing that the Harajuku branch of Sweets Paradise has temporarily re-branded itself into a Kabe-Don cafe, allowing blushing high school girls to put themselves in the manga scenario. With a mannequin.
 Yes, it's a little strange, so, being the investigative soul that I am, I went to have a look myself.

Screenshot from the official promotional video.

 And it was a bit of a hit-and-miss. What I wasn't told was that they only allow you to pose with the mannequin on weekends. I know it mostly sounds like a miss, but I did get to pig out on sweets, so there. Now apparently, the place has a whole lot of equipment so that customers can pick out their favorite scenario, and appropriate sound bits would play out while the mannequin looms over you (such as him talking to you as if you were his childhood friend, for example.)
 Christ, then why not just hire a real guy? It sounds altogether like a more profitable endeavor. Even more so if you get high school students to actually fall in a crush with the guy and keep coming back.
 Why they only do it on weekends is a complete mystery to me though. And here I was ready to try something totally retarded. Mayhaps you'll have better luck than I did.

Stand Back, I'm A Pokemon Master

You've come to the wrong neighborhood.

I lied, actually. I'm retired. I'm a retired Pokemon Master. But then again, hundreds of thousands of children from my generation can probably say the same. Ongoing fans, rejoice, though! In the Land of the Rising Sun, the passion still burns strong, and young fans are renewed. The television series is still going strong, and new movies and games still pop up sporadically. Pokemon even has its own morning talk show thing, hosted by a fairly well known model/celebrity.
Be that as it is, it's not surprise that the top of the Roppongi Hills Mori Arts Tower has been turned into a giant Pokemon fandom center in celebration of the, like, 40th movie or something. Alright, the 17th. Whatever the case, it's been deemed that this event calls for a great celebration, so the observation deck floor of the towering building is now filled with thematic art and sketches by the creator of the series as well as fun games for children and the disabled. Shall I take you through one such delightful activity?
 Yes, yes I believe I shall.

 Behold! It's a labyrinth of Pokemon! If you encounter a turn, you have to turn. And you end up with one of four different Pokemon at the exit! Okay, to be fair, it's a game for young children, but it's amazing that the presenters will let any adult try with a straight face. Somewhere in here, there's something insightful to be said about rediscovering your inner child and getting giddy about something that used to be all the rage a decade and a half ago. You'll notice soon enough that most of the crowd here is actually not small children.

 A Pikachu-themed restaurant has also temporarily been opened on the observation deck floor. Going there on a Saturday afternoon, though, proved to be tantamount to queuing for a Disneyland ride. It actually costs 15$ to even have access to the observation deck floor, so I wasn't to keen on spending much more on dinner and having to wait in line on top of that, so I skipped this time around (a rarity, I know!) But it seemed to me that the food was actually really neat looking in terms of presentation! Yeah, that actually looks like Pikachu, alright. I've learned after my fair share of themed restaurants though, that presentation doesn't equal delicious taste, and you're only paying for the former. But what would I know!

 And of course, exit through the gift shop. Rumor around town is that if you do visit the tower at a certain time, you can meet Pikachu, in giant mascot form, but I had no such luck, though I did harbor a secret hope that I'd find him waiting in here. Still, I can think of a person or two back in Canada who would want something from this kind of gift shop, but I abstained this time around. In real life unlike in the games, you can't just nab yourself Pokemon without paying a pretty dollar. As my parents would know.

Kamen Rider: The Diner

I can't go a week at the job without a 4 year old boy yelling at me to "look, look" at their gimmicky toy belt buckle thing with all the stupid buttons and useless lights. Given that they're 4 year old kids, I can forgive them for that toy being the best thing in their life. But it's practically always the same one. Unless it's a train. God damn they love their trains.

Shielded from children's grubby hands.

 So I guess that's the relationship I hold with "Kamen Rider." If you've never heard of that television series, I can forgive you too.
 Kamen Rider is basically Power Rangers or Ultraman with different costumes. It's got a bit of a rock n' roll twist to it in that the titular characters ride motorcycles or something. But you get the idea, masked heroes beating up bad guys with lots of CGI explosions and green screen. Yes, that's still all the rage with the kids in Japan. But Kamen Rider spawned 24 series throughout the course of 40 years, so I guess there's something to be said about that.

It's influenced Japanese boys' television programming so much that there are countless lines of the aforementioned toys, plus a Kamen Rider themed all-girl pop singer group, and, of course, a themed restaurant.

Well the rest of that stuff is all good, but I just wanted to see what the restaurant was like. So I did! Enter Sean and Ken in the land of pre-grade school kids, quietly suffering parents, and the eternal virgins.



Kamen Rider: the Diner is appropriately decked out with toys, life-sized models, television screens showing trailers, and its own gift shop at the entrance. The presentation is pretty representative of the series, I guess, with no shortage of flashy gadget light-up things without much standing around all over the place, but that's not a bad thing at all, and comes as expected. With all its displays, the place reminded me a lot more of the Gundam Front than it did of other themed restaurants.
 But they have a really cool chair at the back of the establishment! With the lighting and whatnot, it's well rigged for a Bond villain picture. So yay for that.
 Food-wise, the dishes are all made to look like the masks of the Kamen Rider characters, which begs the question - how much thought went into the actual taste of the food if they were so intent on making everything look such a specific way? I can't say I really cared to find out. All the items, however, are shown in very good detail in the colorful menus, so one can get a pretty good look of what the place has to offer. They even have alcoholic beverages for parents wanting to drown away the sorrow of being dragged into the place!

This makes us Kamen Riders too or something.

Actually, Ken and I ordered the parfaits, which also are made to look like the characters' faces. Those were alright. But the weird thing is that the waiter made us throw our arms up and say some Kamen Rider thing so that we would get our dessert. I've only ever seen that being done in maid cafes before, and this isn't really one. So that was a little awkward. You'd think that would be a deterrent to other customers from getting desserts at this place. Even the waiter didn't seem to have put his heart into it! Hell, I like to think that it's just something he randomly decided to make us do for kicks.

 Anyway! Kamen Rider: the Diner! Passable food, gimmicky toys, half-hearted waiters and a cool chair!

Gundam Front

Anyone who's ever had an ounce of interest in Japanese animation (and a whole tonne of people who don't) has heard of Gundam. Before Dragonball and Sailor Moon took the world of animation by storm, Gundam was already going strong, with its powerful stories of human drama and giant god damn robots. Though I've never been a fan of the franchise, there is without a doubt some respect to be given to a 45 year old series that still manages to bring more fans around its table.

The "life-sized" Gundam at Odaiba Diver City.

However, my good friend Basil is a longtime fan of the franchise, and so we delved into the heart of the beast. Here, in Odaiba, lies the Mecca of Gundam fans - Gundam Front, where not only goods are sold and displayed as if in a museum, but a towering "life-sized" Gundam is put on display for all to see at the very doorstep of Diver City, the mall in which the Front is located.

I do like this!

The Gundam Front is to the Gundam series what the Ghibli Museum is to Ghibli movies, though much smaller. Not only are there informative displays with large size figures of the flagship robots, but original artwork of the series' creator are put up for all to admire.
 The interior of the Gundam Front itself looks like that of a space vessel from out of the series, so it's enjoyable to walk around within the small complex's halls, dimly lit with neon lights so representative of the sci-fi setting of the anime.

You'll surely get the ladies now.

There are also a couple of interactive displays allowing for fans to pose inside the cockpit of a Gundam robot, or next to the forerunner characters of the series, though I think few would disagree that the main highlight of the Front is the large dome room purposefully built as a theater for the projection of a Gundam battle, in the same way planetariums do their projections. Sadly, photos are not permitted in the dome (and the subtle ones I took are just a terrible mess.) Personally, I found the whole thing hard to follow, but what do I know of Gundam anyway.

Is this the feeling called lust?

And of course, at the very entrance of the Gundam Front is a store where figurines of the series' robots are sold, amongst a whole other bunch of related paraphernalia. Posters, pillows, postcards, coffee mugs and even Gundam-shaped cookies and cakes. You name and they have it. Every overseas' fan knows that these cost a fortune outside of Japan. Well, they cost a fortune inside of Japan too, but at least they're all concentrated in this one spot, which is sure to please many.


The Gundam Front isn't free to enter (costing 1200¥ for adults) but I guess that ain't much of a detractor for full-blown fans. For the rest of us, it's at least fun to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Dark Souls

A few days ago had Papa Lo and I going to the Dark Souls restaurant/bar. For those of you who are unaware, Dark Souls is a video game, and one I'm quite fond of at that. The game is notorious for being much more difficult than other video games of the same genre, which probably repels as many potential players as it draws closer. But many, such as myself, relish in the challenge. That aside, it's actually a really well-designed game.

Woo!

The restaurant itself does its best to evoke imagery of the haunting, yet eerily beautiful settings
from the game, and succeeds in some places. Right off the bat, people walking in are greeted by an unspeaking, suspicious, dark figure in mixed-and-matched bits of armor, wielding a large sword threateningly. Not as subtle a way to evoke the mood as the game, but hey, I guess that works.
 Of course, on top of being decked out in dark curtains, armory and weaponry, with branches from so
many dead trees sprouting out of the walls, the place also features a lot of advertisement for the game itself. Dark Souls II was released in March, so really, the whole place was a big promotion ploy to up sales. So, that being said, whatever wall space remained was filled with posters and banners for the game, alongside a giant television screen playing the trailers on repeat, while the game's soundtrack is played on the speakers.

Praise the Sun!

Upside of the place! The restaurant has event nights! I happened to reserve our spot on one such event night, where they allowed customers to try on armor. It was actually quite heavy. Since there weren't that many people lining up to try, I could've easily fucked around with the armor for quite a while. And I did for a bit, posing up and taking my merry time. That was actually fun!
When it comes to food, you pick from a special menu. All drinks are named after spells in the game, and food is named after characters or antagonists. Really, none of the items on the menu really look like anything from the game itself, with the one exception being the beer-based "Estus Flask." But that's just me being a dork. The menu itself is cool-looking.
 However, the items available were quite unique. I opted for kangaroo meat skewers, whereas Papa Lo went for the ostrich steak. Yeah, you read that right. We did hope to get a little more in terms of portion size for what we payed, but hey. It's not like either of us really know the standard pricing for that type of meat.
 The downside? Well I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you guys in advance that the service was really disappointing. So slow! And so difficult to call a waitress! Might it be that our waitress in particular just sucked? Maybe so, but who knows.

 This is usually the bit where I recommend people to go check out the restaurant or whatnot, but I'm afraid this boat's just about to leave dock. The Dark Souls restaurant is opened for a limited time only until the 4th of April, seeing as the game was released.
Yikes! Better go soon!

Geekier Than Akihabara

Akihabara is widely known as Tokyo's geek central - or otaku as geeks are known here. But that doesn't mean there's no other places for such special interests. Growing like a weevil on the other side of Tokyo, a competitor has arisen - with many an otaku calling it superior to Akihabara - and the challenger's name is Nakano Broadway. As opposed to Akiba, which lines special interest stores along the side of one main street, Nakano Broadway is a single indoor complex - 4 floors' worth of geekdom. Aala and I delve in.

Would you buy anything like this?

Holy shitting dicks on a stick. The question of the day is how much money are people willing to spend to satisfy their interest. The answer? All their money.

Nakano Broadway is increasing in popularity, and it isn't because things are value-priced. I tend to think they are in Akihabara. But they key to Nakano Broadway's success was in catering to very specific interests and owning a large part of the market when it came to certain target audiences. For example, you'd be hard pressed to find another shop that sells special limited edition train-commuter cards. Or toys of robots dating from the 60's. And yet Nakano Broadway has shops specializing in those.
 But you know, I actually kind of like the place.
 I prefer Akihabara, myself - it's a lot livelier. But the Broadway is quiet and interesting if only to look around in, and has some kick ass deco. Granted, some of the halls are still empty and shop-less, but the place is still young, and I doubt some of the stuff you find here can be found anywhere else in Tokyo.

The Gateway Game

Bare with me for this one article as I completely geek out, here.
 I play a lot of video games of all kinds. I consume games like people consume movies. I play some good ones, I play some bad ones, and I play some that are just okay. I play video games that range across a spectrum of genres including action, adventure, drama, crime, fantasy, puzzles and so forth. I seldom stop watching a movie until it's done regardless of whether I'm enjoying it thus far or not, and I do the same with video games, playing them until the end. By the time I left Canada, I was amongst the top 250 Playstation 3 players in the country when it came down to the sheer size of my virtual "trophy cabinet."
 I want to draw attention to a specific video game series, though, that might have eased my transition into Tokyo to a certain degree, and that series is called Ryu ga Gotoku. The local name for the North American release is simply "Yakuza." The series is currently at its 4th iteration, with various spin-offs and a 5th release due for late December in Japan.

Promotional art for Yakuza 4

 I'm not going to go over any kind of synopsis or plot for this game, as that's beside the point. At its core, the game isn't intentionally educative. It's a game where you walk around Tokyo and beat up rival Yakuza gangs, smashing their heads with chairs or whatnot. But it's what the game allows you to do on the side, as well as its accurate depiction of modern Tokyo, that grants it its appeal.

Kamurocho as seen in the video game.

Kabukicho as seen on...wikipedia.

 The Yakuza series takes place in Kamurocho, a fictional district of Tokyo based on the existing Kabukicho. Upon creating the fictional district, Sega, the game's publisher, acquired the rights from various restaurant chains and existing trademarks to feature their branding within the game. In light of this, the player can enter stores that actually exist and purchase equally real products.
 Say, for example, my in-game character gets hungry, I can go to Matsuya, the beef-bowl restaurant, and order pork on rice for 395¥. The exact price it would be in real life. The game features a shocking number of real-life Japanese stores, including Karaokekan, the karaoke chain, and DonQuihote, the variety store, amongst a tonne of others. You could basically discover the food items on every restaurant menu before even stepping into an airplane for Japan.
 Shit, if you order whiskey in the game in certain bars, the bartender even describes to you the taste of the malt. It's pretty deep already.

Yuuna features within the game as herself.

We're not finished yet. The Yakuza series not only features real places, but also real people. Granted, the main characters are all fictional, but some of the figuring characters are not. The series is notable for auditioning young women to star in the game as themselves, playing the role of hostesses in hostess clubs. I'll go into detail about hostesses some other day maybe, but they're essentially girls you pay to have a drink with you (yes, I also learned that in the game.) Although half of what they say in-game is idle talk about their dogs or whatever, these hostess characters do give a sense of what Japanese people are truly like, as they talk about things they do, what they like and what they don't, and where they're from and what those places are like.
 One of the hostesses (seen on the right), for instance, describes in some detail how it was for her to have been a Chinese person raised in Japan.

But last, and most interesting of all, to me, was that the game allows you to experience authentic Japanese pass-times, both traditional and modern. Through the Yakuza series, I've learned several things that even my Japanese friends don't know. Within the virtual underground gambling halls of Tokyo, I've learned to play the traditional Japanese card game Koi Koi, which I later on taught others to do as well. I know how Pachinko, the madly popular Japanese equivalent to a casino game, works. I've also learned to play Oicho-kabu, Cee-Lo and Cho-Han, and that was without even first going in with the intention to learn. I could easily turn the game on and teach myself how to play Shogi (Japanese chess) and Mahjong as well. Maybe I will. 

Oh wow, he actually got Ino-shika-cho.

Man, in retrospect, it's no wonder I felt so at home in Tokyo. I've technically been running around Tokyo for 60 hours before even having arrived in the actual physical city. And this article hardly even describes how much I learned about Japan through this one series. The Yakuza series is definitely one of my favorites, and I can't recommend it enough for someone who wants to get a taste of Japan before coming. Plus, you get to stomp people in the face. Shit, what a bargain.
 Embedded is a trailer for the 5th installment of the main series.