More tales from Akihabara. The Gashapon machine. I caught the gashapon fever and it was sort of embarrasing, like discovering a new weakness. Maybe it was like discovering one liked to gamble in Las Vegas, which I wouldn't know because I haven't been there. And that sort of gambling is not as satisfying as a gashapon, I think. In a gashapon machine, one can get a toy from 100 to 500 yen. If you are particular about getting a certain one, then it gets expensive and it is a little like gambling. But I beat the system by playing only at machines that I would be satisfied with any toy I received. I guess this is where I am not a real otaku. In Akihabara there are countless of these machines, which can be found all over Japan. The beauty of Akihabara is that there are rows and rows of them in stores like Yodobashi Camera, or a little store with only gashapon machines.

I felt like I hit jackpot when I found a store that sold the gashapon toys without playing with the machine. Some of the toys were discontinued items, so I was able to by Dr. Slump toys. At the time I felt I was buying too much, now I wish I had bought more.

I love Akiba! I got in touch with my inner otaku (though some would say it is not so inner). Akiba is the shortened form of Akihabara. A part of Tokyo that is famous for its Electric Town, which sells anything you would ever need to build a transistor radio. One can also build a computer from components bought from this part of town. But this is not what draws me to Akihabara. It is its toys!

I love manga and anime, and they have stores that only sell character figurines. It was so much fun to go with friends who were also on the hunt of the cute.




The manga picture above is from I, Otaku by Jiro Suzuki.

When we went to visit Bandai, as part of the tour, we were told about some new products. When this toy monster appeared- well, it was love at first sight-in part because it had a mythological creature look about him, and his beautiful colors.... I watched Ultraman when I was a child, a few decades ago, but I did not remember this monster. Nevertheless I did not like the idea that such a beautiful monster should be defeated, even if it was by my childhood hero. I had voiced this opinion. And our wonderful guides at Bandai gave me this fabulous toy. I am still moved by their generous gesture.

To tell the truth the toy is more beautiful than the actual monster in the series. And though I don't have a perfect recollection of the episode, after seeing these pictures I seem to remember (a little bit) that monster.
The drawing and instructions page came with the toy.




So I did a bit of research about this monster. Dodongo appears
in episode 12 of Ultraman called "Cry of the Mummy." Dodongo is sometimes referred as the Mummy's Monster. For specific information about Dodongo please see :













http://godzilla.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Monsters_that_only_appeared_in_the_original_Ultraman_series

Before going on the trip, I had found information about a fabulous bath house, basically across the street from where we were staying. My original intention was to go there every evening.

I did not waste any time. I convinced June to join me on the first night. We put on the ryokan's yukata and went out into the rainstorm to the bath house. The bath house Daikokuyu sentou, as you can see by the pictures, is beautiful. The only reason I did not feel like returning the other evenings was that the water temperature was truly scalding. We came out red like lobsters. This was not my first time to Japanese bath houses, so I was expecting it to be hot.

Sentou are different from onsen, the latter ones are hot springs. Please learn more about sentou here.

This picture reminded me of June and I fighting the wind and rain in our yukata after the bath on our way back to the ryokan. It was hard to keep a yukata properly closed in such a situation.

( Picture of bath house from http://klikdotsystems.jp/stronapolska/files/rok2002/sento.html)

This picture is for Tommy, Ian and Milo. During a memorable lunch in Nikko, Japan, we had a discussion about Tanuki, a Japanese animal. I was informing them about the mythical properties of the tanuki that appear in Japanese folk tradition. But they had doubts about my tales. I promised them an illustration that I found at
http://darumamuseum.blogspot.com/2007/06/tanuki-scrotum.html.
And so if you look carefully...

These manga images are from Ando-Natsu (I think). They represent Naka-mise street in Asakusa after the store have closed. These pictures remind me of the afternoon after we went to visit Bandai. Many of us went back to Asakusa. At that time some of the stores were closing. I took a couple of picture of the closed store fronts because I thought they were amazing.

This is Tommy de Frantz, the director of the MIT Dance Theater Ensemble, thus of course the play. Look at Tommy having fun at Narita airport, after spending many sleepless hours on a flight. Isn't Tommy fun? This is perhaps his way of protecting our precious cargo full of props and complicated costumes, like the robots.