Otak-ing

Stuff I Learned About Japan Only By Going

~ Tael ~ Leave a comment

I thought I knew jet lag before. But I’m now convinced you don’t truly know jet lag until you’ve travelled halfway across the world and dove into a half-day time difference. I write this as I still climb from its depths a week later, still in awe, still waking up from the dream of finally having visited the destination that’s held a place in my heart since childhood.

During my blissfully surreal pilgrimage, on which my family accompanied me, my mom took every opportunity to drag my long-term ardor of Japan into each conversation she had with the locals, and so they inevitably turned to me to inquire further: Why? What brought this on? When exactly did my seed of interest in Japan get planted?

My earliest memory was viewing the credits of old games like Sonic the Hedgehog and Mortal Kombat (remember, repeatedly beating these games weekly meant end credits rolled often) and seeing the “funny-sounding names” as a child, not yet knowing they were simply foreign. Then, as my cousins paved the way further down the anime road, I fell in love with the deeper themes and recurring values until my interest progressed beyond that gateway. I found myself drawn to reading and learning more about the Japanese customs I saw in anime, daily life, societal standards and habits, innovation. I carried around a notebook with Japanese terms and the hiragana alphabet as a child. I played Japanese language CD-ROMS, took a college language course, and casually self-studied purely out of personal interest.

And as much as I researched the Japanese culture for fun, there will always be things you can only truly learn through experience. So I made a list of all the unexpected elements I encountered on my thrilling journey.

1) The Jingles.

Everywhere you go, you are hearing some kind of charming music and I absolutely loved it. The Yamanote line jingle gave me pleasurable delight each time it graced my ears. Each train station line plays its own mini-ditty as folks enter and exit the train doors. As weirdly quiet as the streets can be sometimes (no, really, even traffic down main arteries sounded oddly muted), company trucks driving through gently interrupted the traffic silence playing pop music. TeamLab Planets might have the most memorable music of my trip; that ish sounded like some Koji Kondo orchestrated masterpiece or something. You will constantly hear music playing from stores and shopping complexes outside of the buildings, though somehow, it’s not loud, jarring or blaring inside. The constant tunes gave main-character-background-music energy. Even the ramen shops and bars had me and my sister pulling out our phones to Shazaam Kinetic. Japan does ambient music extremely well, and it seems like an exceptional integrated daily mood-lifter for mental health.

2) The Vending Machines Dispense Tiny Bottles.

As someone who has argued with waitresses over my right to order a kid’s meal, I appreciated that the abundant vending machines where you can get a lil’ drink for as low as 190 yen (approximately $1.20) dispensed the cutest little less-than-half-size bottles. Perfect for quenching an immediate thirst, easy to store in your bag without taking up space or adding much weight, leisurely to finish and savor at your own pace. If we had this option at home, I’d 100% be opting for that over the standard 20oz everywhere.

3) MAD People Climb to the Top of Fushimi Inari.

I take a lot of pride in the fact that I hand-created my travel itinerary. I did not input anything into ChatGPT to throw ish together for me, because this was my dream trip, and not a compilation of “Most Popular Things Everyone Else Did in Japan.” I Googled every location I was interested in, read blogs, scoured reviews, and mapped distances myself to group sites and activities together by location. Oh, and, of course, read copious amount of Reddit opinions. Fushimi Inari Taisha was one of the shrines I’d always had on my list to visit ever since seeing Memoirs of a Geisha (of which the boo still remains on my Top 10 list), but was now an uber-popular destination with every online post telling you to GO EARLY to avoid crowds (early being sunrise to 7am), that most tourists just stopped at the base for pictures and moved on, and that if you only went up about 1/3 of the way, most people have given up and gone back down so you’ll pretty much have those gates to yourself.

WELL.

Maybe it was because we had to move our Fushimi day from a strategic Thursday (because it rained all day) to a Sunday morning. And “bright and early” for me was making it there at a good 7:30am, best I had, and it was pretty jumping already. Our fellow visiting climbing-comrades must have been largely non-Americans who really loved walking and climbing because while sure, it was a BIT less crowded the further you went up, ERRYONE WAS STILL GOING UP. It was not even our intended plan to make it all the way to the top, but in trying to get ahead of the packs of people, we accidentally made the Fushimi Peak Achievement. If this is what online folks thought of as “less crowds”, I would hate to see what it was like in the afternoon. By 9:30am, we were back at the bottom to enjoy the street vendors.

4) My Regular Sneakers Were Fine and My Feet Never Hurt

Keeping in line with the online warnings, you’ll see waves of posts on Reddit talking about how many steps you’ll take in Japan and echo chambers of, “Buy a new pair of great walking sneakers!” “What kinds of sneakers should I buy for Japan?” “Don’t get new sneakers; wear a pair of broken-in ones already!” “I’m from New York, will it still seem like a lot of walking to me? – YES, EVEN IF YOU’RE FROM NEW YORK, YOU WON’T BE READY FOR ALL THIS WALKING.”

Somehow, this New Yorker was unphased by all the walking. What DID affect me more was simply the lack of available seating (more on that further down) but I alternated between a pair of Vans and Blowfish sneakers (my usual shoes, which my sister found too flat for her liking) and my feet did not protest once. No blisters, no discomfort, just a tired back at the end of the day. I’m one of those weirdos who doesn’t track their steps in these modern times, so I can’t tell you how many I take in a normal day, but I’m a New Yorker who loves walking, and trust me, we did a lot of it.

5) Don’t Expect Sweetened Tea ANYWHERE.

They don’t do that here. Our first Airbnb stocked the cabinets with honey thankfully, but if you’re consuming tea anywhere in the public sphere (restaurants, vending machines, etc…), be prepared for pure, bitter flavor. I lament a little that I did not try the staple bottled green tea once, because I already knew what was up, but I did choke down a bottled Earl Grey flavor, just for immersive experience purposes. It was oddly refreshing if you got past the lack of enjoyable taste.

6) Sprouts in Ramen Ain’t Really a Thing Here.

So why do we see it so much in America?? I would say only about 20% of my ramen bowls in Japan came with sprouts. Why is it so often a default here? Do they think it’s authentic? Apparently it’s not. And good riddance.

7) The Phenomenal Bathroom Culture.

We’ve all heard about the heated toilet seats and the “privacy sound emission”. But Japanese bathroom culture is in a whole different league. Yes, the toilet seat auto-heats as you approach it somehow, without you having to press anything (what witchery is this??), inviting your bottom cheeks to its throne. I finally had my first bidet experience, and while I was intimidated to try at first, by the end of my trip I knew I would miss it.

But then, let’s look at design. Since we basically stayed in Airbnbs the whole time, we got to see what the standard bathroom setup was. You have what I lovingly refer to as the toilet closet, a tiny room with just the toilet (sometimes with a handy mini-sink in the back whose faucet only activated upon flushing), which I initially thought I’d get claustrophobia from, but turned out to be completely fine. Then you generally had your bathtub room, where there was a deep tub and an open shower right next to it (because scrubbing before soaking is the historic norm here); the floor in here is completely tiled with a drain in here, so while it felt weird at first to just shower in the open right next to the tub, I adjusted pretty quickly.

Then generally there was another separate sink room, with just the sink and mirrors. All of these compartments were usually cut off from one another with their own doors, wonderful for travelling families so different members could do their business in the different parts of the bathroom without interfering with the others.

Add in the fact that public restrooms were extremely accessible, abundant, and clean, and most of them even had this thoughtful “child seat” in the stalls, for mothers to plop their kid into while they did their business. Thoughtful innovation.

8) The Buttery-Soft Public Transport Conductor Voices.

The majority of the time on public transportation, it is quiet. And even when the conductor makes an announcement, their voice is soft and soothing. One night on the bus I was absolutely entranced by the driver’s voice; this dude should have had a contract somewhere doing some kinda voice work. It was around 8pm or so and as each stop approached, he gently whispered, sometimes dragging out the ends of his sentences with a slight hiss. As if he didn’t want to wake anyone who might be napping on the bus. I lowkey felt like this man’s voice was seducing my ears. Someone hire him for an ASMR bedtime track. I’d pay money.

9) Yes, You Must Adopt to Less Seating and Trash Cans.

I had already read that there would be less seating and a noticeable lack of trash cans due to their push to minimize loitering and that ’95 terrorist attack; it still took some getting used to. There are seats on the train which half the time I gave up to the elderly, in restaurants, and I guess, parks. And that’s kind of it. While my family perused endless stores in malls and shopping complexes, I had much difficulty finding a place to sit and wait for them. At one mall, I finally found some seating at the top floor, only to find it was maybe a row of 5 seats, all occupied by the elderly. Outside, you’ll find less benches as much as an interesting “seating” design of two long poles, one to rest your back on and the other your bottom. Be prepared to stand much more than usual.

10) Do Not Expect to Actually SEE The Imperial Palace.

Somehow, nothing I read or researched online warned me about this. I saw multiple accounts that the private tours you can sign up for are not worth it because you don’t actually go into the palace so I didn’t bother with those, but I at least thought I’d get to SEE it! Every higher vantage point we climbed to from the surrounding gardens had no views of the actual palace. Not even a spire or a rooftop. I was pretty huffy over it.

It’s hard to explain the inner joy I felt as I wandered the narrow streets, stared up at the dazzling buildings, made konbini-runs, and chirped “Gochisou-sama desuuu” after a meal. Even bumbling around trying to count out yen quickly enough for a purchase or pulling out a Google Translate scan on packages and instructions detracted nothing. The culture shock hits you hard, but to be in the midst of it, navigating the train system, getting lost in Sunshine City mall, figuring out how the hell to communicate with the waitstaff, and racking your brain over which tickets to insert to get on the shinkansen; I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

*Bonus Element*: Street Crossing culture.

No cars in sight, but the Don’t Walk sign is still up? You ain’t going nowhere then. Lest you want to be the lone person crossing while hordes of patient crowds wait on either side until the Walk sign says you can now cross. Because rules are adhered to here. Oh, and when the green Walk sign starts to blink rapidly, HAUL ASS.

~Tael

Otakon D.C. (My First Big Girl Con)

~ Tael ~ Leave a comment

I have post-convention depression. It’s totally a real thing; it’s on Urban Dictionary. The crowds of nerds, the cosplayers, the programming, the D.C. convention area takeover, the celebration…

It’s over.

My boyfriend took me to my first convention last year: Castle Point Anime Convention in Hoboken. This may be where the addiction was born. Since then I’ve been to two others; Liberty City in Times Square, and Borough Con in Queens. These were all local cons on a much smaller scale, but just the sort of events I’ve been looking for all my life: celebrations of anime culture with a facet for every type of fan. Only now I have money and the means to travel to attend, as well as someone to share it with. 🙂

And now I’m steadily becoming addicted to con-life. It’s made my list of favorite hobbies. And let’s face it, the older you get, the harder it is to make room for new hobbies. Let’s have a recap of this past weekend’s Otakon during its first year in D.C., and what I like to call “My First Big Girl Con.”

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I’ve never traveled across state lines for a con before (no, NJ does not count to a New Yorker). But here I was arriving at my hotel room at the Marriott at Metro Center (EXCELLENT HOTEL CHOICE, by the way) for a 3 day immersive experience. The first thing I noticed was that the streets were flooded with Pokemon hats, gamer t-shirts, schoolgirl socks, dangling Otakon badges, and convention goody-bags. Our kind had literally taken over the streets and it was wonderful to see. No matter what time of night it was (and we strolled the streets at 3 in the morning), you’d encounter someone else in cosplay or with a badge. With our powers combined, we’d erected a bubble of con-dom-ness (Don’t laugh).

The Walter E. Washington Convention Center was a massive venue. Even after 3 days, I still hadn’t mastered the map and still got lost occasionally. The first day, my feet were exhausted from all the walking, and I’m a hardcore Pokemon-GO-er! By the second day, I was a hardened convention-stroller. A few highlights and lessons learned:

1) SO MUCH AC.

They crank the air up good in these places. If you’re wearing a sc20170812_140851hoolgirl costume, steel yourself and be ready. I tried cosplaying something seasonal, but all that goes out the window when you enter the building. You could easily have a fur coat as part of your costume and be good in there.

2) There’s a reason they have reminders all over the place to REMEMBER TO EAT AND DRINK.

At first I thought, who the hell would forget something like that? But then you discover Guidebook, and you schedule a grid of panels and events to attend, and then realize there are lines to get into the panels and if you don’t show up a little early, you may not get in, so you have to factor that in, as well as time spent traversing the Dealer’s Hall during a free time slot, and maybe the last food option you saw was 20 minutes ago on the 2nd floor but you’ve already walked up 2 escalators, made 4 turns and took a connecting tunnel to an adjacent building so are you really going to go all the way back just for FOOD and miss being on line early for the MASQUERADE?? I’ll get better at this with time.

3) Nobody smelled. 😀

I was warned by multiple people beforehand to expect heavy B.O. I am not sure why there’s a stereotype that nerds are dirty hobos that don’t shower, but I am happy this stereotype was not encountered during my experience at Otakon.

 

4) Arrive at panels/events at LEAST 30 minutes early, but probably more.

When I discovered the Guidebook app, I went CRAZY adding anything that looked like it could be interesting to my schedule. My boyfriend appreciated my enthusiasm, but gently told me in no way would he be accompanying me to all of them. As it turns out, I didn’t make it to 75% of the activities I put on my schedule. Con time is a different sort of time. The breakdown of my valiant efforts were as follows:

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DAY 1

~Nintendo Urban Legends panel at 9:00 am in the morning – MISSED.
Didn’t wake up early enough and got lost on the way to the convention center. -.-‘

~Maid Cafe – MISSED.
I didn’t arrive early enough and there was a line cut-off. >:/

~Opening Ceremonies – Not really a panel but we made it through the traditional Japanese blessing of the con and a list of guests before bouncing early because I expected more excitement and I never actually care about the guests or know their names well enough to get excited.

~Tales series photo shoot – MISSED.
Boyfriend wanted to traverse the Dealer’s Hall in its place.

~Attack on Titan viewing – WALKED OUT.
We tried asking everyone involved in this viewing whether it would be subbed or dubbed, but no one could give an answer. The second the intro began in English, it was a wrap. :/

~All late night activities that required the 18+ wristband – MISSED.
My badgeless cousin with friends in tow showed up to DC so we had to remove ourselves from the convention in search of non-nerdy good times.

DAY 2

~WE OVERSLEPT. T_T
So the panel for cosplay posing was missed.

~Tales of Tales panel – FINALLY MADE IT TO ONE SUCCESSFULLY.
A fun costumed crew took us through the Tales series timeline and asked various trivia questions for each game for prizes. I did not immediately know the answers to a single one. My Tales knowledge is not as good as I thought. I left prizeless.

~Official Gundam Wing panel- Boyfriend never saw this series, and as such, didn’t wanna sit through it with me, so I solo-ed it.
They showed the very first episode to give us all some serious nostalgic feels. Then they did Q &A with the actual writer and producer of the series who flew here all the way from Japan. Katsuyuki Sumizawa was such an animated person and full of personality! He was so much like a character himself, that he had the audience cracking up despite the fact that we needed a translator to actually know what he was saying. A hurried raffle capped it off. I won nothing once again.

~The Masquerade – Easily the most highly attended event I think.
Here is where that “Remember to eat” rule failed me the hardest. Even arriving half an hour early, the line was ruthless. Cosplayed characters performed various skits from singing to dancing to comedic acts to Broadway-like musicals. My fave was the old Team Rocket meets the new Team Rocket skit. But we left early because there were 30 skits and I could only make it through 15 because I was starving, and had tried to survive on Pocky, ramune sodas and the ice-cold rock balls served in the Japanese dining area passed off as onigiri, and the dude directly beside me was smart to bring some sort of warm, meaty sandwich, which I could not sanely sit through the scent. So I hope Team Rocket won something.

After we left the Masquerade, we headed for the Sonic Boombox sponsored after party at the Hard Rock Cafe that we had tickets for. Some drinks and party vibes and, thankfully, a burger later, we were back at our hotel room hosting a very unofficial Smash tourney with fellow con-goers the boyfriend had recruited from the Gaming Room. They seemed overwhelmingly grateful to chill out with us, which warmed my heart.

DAY 3

~WE OVERSLEPT AGAIN BECAUSE EVERYONE GOT DRUNK THE NIGHT BEFORE AND NO ONE WAS WAKING UP EARLY. So final chance for Maid Cafe, MISSED.

~Awesome-sounding Otakon Game Show where audience members can particpate? – CANCELLED.
That one hurt. That one was going to be my headliner of the day. I was looking forward to that one.

~We opted to skip Closing Ceremonies since the Opening ones a few days earlier hadn’t impressed me. One of the cool Smashers we’d met the night before came back to our room to play with us instead.

As we later strolled the D.C. streets, we realized the majority of our kind had already checked out and departed the area. The sidewalks no longer bustled with cosplay frolickers, badged attendees and fellow nerds. Now we saw normal businessmen, families, and the usual dining crowd. The magic had passed. The immersion was over. It was like a reverse culture-shock. Post-con depression is a real thing, guys.

And the best remedy seems pretty clear to me. Moar. Moar. CONS! 😀

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And more cons it shall be.

~Tael

 

BoroughCon 2017

~ Tael ~ Leave a comment

Yo!

While I initially tried to keep my posts limited to the scope of the Indie Author Journey, what I’m finding is that the Indie Author Journey gets boring! You write, edit and format until your brain gets very angry, exhaust all the cheap marketing strategies you can find on the internet for little ROI, read many…many…best strategies/helpful tips articles, and make a whole lot of missteps, all while hoping for the lottery chance that your indie title will land in the right hands that send it viral. Eventually, the amount of unique writable content you can recount dwindles unless you’re constantly working on new novels/projects. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a writer first, it’s just one of my indulgences, so why not have my site reflect the eccentric ninja that I am?

So let’s talk about BoroughCon, which described itself as a brand new Comic/Sci-Fi/Gaming convention that I would classify as indie because of its newcomer status. Today was the final day, and I attended Saturday with my boyfriend and sister (this was her first con as well) in tow, after randomly seeing an ad for it at a bus stop. Oh, and of course, My First Cosplay.

MeilinPose

The first orderable costume online I ever encountered was Meilin’s from Cardcaptor Sakura (and let’s be honest, that whole series is chock full of banging costumes I’d love to get my hands on if done with quality), and this was while I was in high school, maybe even junior high. I favorited that page and vowed to save up enough for it, then went to college and forgot. Over 10 years later, I remembered that costume and Meilin’s was the first to enter my collection. Those hanging bells are real, by the way, and I had to focus on not whacking anyone with them on the subway.

First-year cons have a reputation for being not-that-great, but I wholeheartedly dived into this one because I…<3…indies! This was my third con experience (I don’t count Sakura Matsuri). My first was last year’s Castle Point Anime Convention in Hoboken which my boyfriend, a veteran of cons, introduced me to. I was immediately jealous of those in character, because it had always been my ridiculously nerdy dream to have the money (because I surely don’t have the skill) to procure an anime/video game outfit and then actually have a place to wear it to. I also attended Liberty City’s con in Times Square last year, which was another first time con. I had no problem with BoroughCon’s first-time status and I absolutely wanted to support them, especially since they were in Queens, fairly accessible by the subway. I found St. John’s to be an excellent space for it; I think colleges provide great venues for this sort of thing.

Now yes, there was a light turnout (the hotel that hosted Liberty City’s con last year was crammed), but that meant more space in the gaming room, because Liberty City’s game room was tiny and packed, and I didn’t even try to jump into the throng to wrestle a controller away for a spot. BoroughCon’s gaming room was spacious enough, and I was able to Smash it up for a good chunk of time there with fellow enthusiasts, and collect wins with silent grace like a ninja. I can’t speak for the con programming because the only one I attended was the Cosplay Fashion Show, which has become my no-miss-attendance event at these things. I felt they could have explained the divisions a little more, because I had no idea what the categories like “journeyman” etc…actually meant. A staff member tried to get me to join, but A. I’m still way too shy for that and B. although this was my first cosplay I can already say I don’t make my own costumes. I wear it for the spirit and my own personal dedication, but not as a finalization of my own craftsmanship.

All in all, I simply had a good time mingling with like-minded individuals. With the exception of the somewhat bumbling front deskers, all staff were incredibly friendly, randomly stopping us to let us know what programs were about to start, asking if we were lost, or complimenting my costume. It had a very chill vibe that I respected, and the Dealer’s Hall/Artists Alley was also cavernous enough (with much free candy!), though I was the only one in my party who declined to part with my gald. Thankfully, I’d scoured the Internet for tips for first-time cosplayers beforehand and learned that a mini-sewing kit is an essential item to carry, since one of my shoe straps broke while traversing the Dealer’s Hall, which could have ruined the whole day for me had I not been prepared. I was also prepared for the many deeply curious looks as I shuttled from Harlem through the subway to Queens in costume. I can’t wait for more and would definitely return to BoroughCon as they grow and become more popular!