Back from Japan.

So I just spent a month in the land of the rising sun and it was kind of fantastic.

I've been to Tokyo before but never left the greater area. This was my first chance to see more of the country.

I'll keep this nerd/gamer related. As I don't think any of you would give a shit about the bands I saw in Shimokitazawa, or my trip through the inner sea islands for the Setouchi Triennale.

So some things that made an impression that might be of interest to this forum:

1, Akihabara is almost totally played out. I have made the same obvservation before but this trip really brought home how much Akiba has become a dumping ground for maid cafe's and really overpriced otaku merch. I'd say don't bother but I feel you would still owe it to yourself to check it out. I never saw it when it was amazing but its gone down hill every time I swing through. There is more stuff every time I go but less stuff for me.

2. I would hit up Nakano Broadway or Ikebukuro over Akiba if only looking for Anime/manga stuff. Is cheaper and much easier to navigate, not really good for games though.

3. Shinjuku wasn't bad for games and sleeze either although neither was as good as it was last time I came through town. apparently with the Olympics on the horizon the Tokyo government are trying to clean stuff up. If you are into seedier stuff you might want to go sooner rather than later.

3. Den Den town in Osaka was slightly dirtier but was more manageable than Akihabara and was like looking through a much smaller hay stack for the same needles I was looking for in Akiba. The amount and quality was the same but there was less overall bullshit to dig through. Also it seemed cheaper on the whole. I ended up buying a few vita games from here.

4. Kyoto looks like a goddamed period Anime come to life in a bunch of areas, if you like history or games/anime based on Japanese history you should probably try to check it out.

5. Drinking was even cheaper outside of Tokyo.

Edited for clarity and because i apparently cant write coherent sentences, goddam.

Where are the pictures!

@humanity:

My girlfriend is the photographer. She needs to go through three sd cards and cull.

I am interested in knowing more about the bands and scenic stuff.

@ninnanuam: Actually I would like to hear more about the non-gamer stuff too.

I just returned from my own trip there like a month ago!

Did you by any chance check out Robot Restaurant?

I was lucky enough to go to all the places you listed when I was there. I am thinking of going back in February to see more of the place and check out more of Tokyo. Akihabra was indeed not in its super glory days but it was still cool to see. I have pics if anyone wants to see them.

Nice.

I want to go to Japan someday.

I didn't find Tokyo very impressive on the used game front, here where I live in Fukuoka there is a game store that slays anything I saw in Akiba and totally agree on the overall vibe of the place, the most interesting thing I saw there was a tiny, and I mean absolutely teeny camera store completely rammed with all kinds of classic cameras.

I enjoyed the small area of Shinjuku I was living in, near Shin-Okubo station but many places are a little too busy for my tastes, I'm not sure if I could handle long commutes for work there. Just spending 20 minutes getting home was tiring enough when it's busy...which is ALWAYS.

I think both Osaka and Fukuoka are nicer cities than Tokyo but I have not explored Tokyo all the way through yet.

Some pics. I don't have time right now to upload many more (back at work). I should be able to on the weekend.

I really want to go for a trip to Japan one day. In Australia, tickets to Tokyo are known for occasionally going stupid cheap, so it's mainly a matter of waiting for that to happen and just going for it. I seriously know a few people that basically planned out a trip in like a week and just went because the tickets were very inexpensive. They're about 400 AUD now actually, including return.

Anyway, cool write up, and I really dig the photos you uploaded.

For anyone that's well versed in Japan, where would one go for stuff like physical video game OSTs or art books? I really want to buy some Masafumi Takada OSTs and maybe see if I can find some Shin Megami Tensei artbooks.

Hope you had a great time. As heard it is a neat place to visit.

I want to go there one day

@deepcovergecko: For sure Fukuoka and Osaka are great (gimme some Takoyaki!!), but it's all about Kobe and you know it! For my refined European tastes, nowhere beats Kobe! Beautiful environment and you are at most an hour a way from any of Himeji, Osaka, Kyoto or Nara. It's been a good few years since I was last back in Japan, but the year I spent at university in Kobe was one of the best, if not THE best, year of my life!

@ninnanuam: Cool! I'd never heard of that art festival but it seems like a pretty cool thing. Interesting how local/small scale arts projects often seem to be more or less created with the intent of providing authentic spaces outside of globalisation/commercial culture. Or maybe it's just a small town thing?

At any rate I'd totally be into hearing about these bands.

@adequatelyprepared: Just got back from 3 weeks in Japan myself and I'd recommend 'Mandarake' for the stuff you're looking for. The main store on Nakano Broadway has the most amazing selection of used books, CDs, DVDs, original artwork etc but there's 5 other locations including Osaka and Fukuoka.

Managed to pick up some art books myself (Shin Megami Tensei, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest) as well as a Final Fantasy VI OST and some original anime artwork.

@krazykinger: Thanks a lot for the recommendation. Their website seems as though they've got the stuff I want. Bookmarked for the day I go.

@adequatelyprepared:

Yea! I'm Australian and while it wasn't that cheap for me (Perth, Boo!) the airfares aren't the killer they used to be. Now generally the biggest cost seems to be accommodation, you can eat and drink really well on the cheap, cheaper than Bali if you try. I lowered my accommodation by using air bnb for the time I was in Tokyo, if your staying 7 days or longer I believe its totally above board there now, but no one seems to care anyway.

@keysotic: The Setouchi Triennale is a once every three year event that takes place in the inland islands. there are unfortunately many empty homes on the islands and a lot of singular works are based inside the homes. I honestly wish I had devoted more time to this but it was really just a happy coincidence that my trip aligned with the spring opening. I didn't know it would be going on until well into planning. I spent two nights in Naoshima, which already has some significant permanent gallaries. We weren't able to take pics inside any of these or any of the temporary pieces however there the art outside is fair game. The art was great but, and I think this is important art in Japan is just generally great, I wouldn't say the Bennesse in Naoshima was better than the Mori in Roppongi but if you want to look at art and get some laidback island feels then go to Naoshima.

There were some great pieces at Setouchi, Storm House springs to mind instantly which was a house inside a house with a storm raging outside.

Things that I didn't like about Setouchi:

1. It was actually pretty busy, one permanent gallery we couldn't get into as we had come too late in the day and the line was massive, there were also pretty long lines for a lot of the individual pieces. Which tends to happen with more interactive art works (like Storm House) you want to stay for the whole thing its 10-15 minutes long and only 15 people can be inside at any one time, everyone gets to the island at the same time (ferrys) means lines. I am unsure how busy the islands and permanent galleries are when the festival is not on.

2. The islands themselves seem to run on old people time, even during the festival, so almost everything closes by 4:30pm (all inside art). I'm talking one cafe open in one small village, a 7-11 and a few restaurants open till 9 in the other, on a Saturday. There didn't seem to be anything on at night for those there for the festival. It was really strange that there was nothing going on to entertain people at night with such an influx of visitors.

I keep hearing summers are horrible there, at least you went at the right time to enjoy spring season. And you had nice variety, most visitors just go shopping. Right now my cousin and his wife are there, they are sending me lovely photos of the temples.

I went to Japan last November. I've been meaning to write up about my trip, but stopped when I realized how long it was going to be.

One thing I will say is I really enjoyed Den Den Town and didn't get a "dirty" vibe from that area. Compare that to Akihabara, Nipponbashi wasn't anywhere near as sleazy as Akihabara can get. I still had a lot of fun in Akihabara, but the sleaze factor was mainly an oddity to me (Like seeing what's pass the second floor of this cramped Otaku store just because I had to know) and wanted more of what I got out of Den Den Town. After going to both, I wouldn't go out of my way to stop by Akihabara again, but would do so for Den Den Town.

@clagnaught:

By dirty i mean literally dirty. Tokyo was just cleaner in general than osaka and den den town looked/felt a bit run down. I agree that akiba is more sleazy.

Makes me remember the 10 day solo trip I did through Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo last year. I'm planning a trip through there again with my Girlfriend soon. Flights from Seoul are so cheap it makes a weekend in Japan sound reasonable. Glad to hear you had a good time and I agree with Akihabara. Seemed pretty washed out and not as 'japan crazy' as I was expecting. Buying porn there was 100% the highlight of Akihabara. THAT was something you can't experience anywhere else in the world.

You picked a good time to visit. Springs and autumns are best for visiting Japan as well as Korea. Otherwise nice pictures!

I would love to hear about the bands you saw. When I was there me and a friend ran into two guys playing guitar in the street. It was amazing. We noticed they had a list of show dates. Noted they would be playing at a place called Never Never Land. We went to watch it and bought our other friend who was a guitarist. It was a blast. Another band asked if we can stay to watch them play. Dude I kid you not they were called The Boobie Boys. Super cool dudes. They were a Japanese reggae band. It was awesome. Probably the best and drunkest night we had.

Amazing pictures. I'm going to have to go there one day.