John's Pop Japan Adventure

Having been to Tokyo twice before within just the previous 7 months, I was at first a bit hesitant to commit myself to the structured itinerary of a package tour, but the opportunities offered by the Pop Japan Travel package, and the very reasonable cost swayed my decision. Now that the trip is over and I've arrived home again, I can reflect on the trip with great memories and wholeheartedly say that I'm very glad that I went.

I arrived at the Thai Airways counter at Los Angeles International Airport on Monday to become part of a group of 29 consisting of 4 staff and 25 participants. The group was a healthy mix including 8 females, an age range from young teen to retiree, and two participants that came from the UK. Immediately everyone got along well, probably because all of us had such common interests. The most immediately unusual participants included tour organizer Isaac Lew (of dark skin and bright red afro), our Japanese-American tour guide Yumiko Miyamoto (bubbling with enough lively energy to supply a handful of teen-age girls), and an odd young man who claimed to only sleep and "do business" who turned out to be not a registered participant of the group after all (Pop Japan Travel's first groupie?).

The 12 hour flight on Thai Airways was only half full, allowing some of us the opportunity to spread out over as many as four seats. Upon arriving at Narita International Airport, we were met by bilingual hosts and whisked onto a chartered bus, unfortunately before being able to do any currency exchange. The anime and manga culture aspect of the tour started almost immediately as the tour bus speakers began piping out the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack, and wound the early evening scenic route through Tokyo, past Tokyo Big Sight, the Fuji TV building, and Tokyo Tower to bring us to the doors of the Washington Hotel in Shinjuku. After dropping off our bags in our rooms, we gathered for a welcoming reception dinner. The first announcement of the dinner was that a surprise stop had been added to the schedule. The group would be going on a surprise tour of the Gonzo Digimation studio! Then the surprise guests of the evening were introduced: Blue Submarine No. 6 director Mahiro Maeda, character designer Range Murata, and Gonzo Studios president and co-founder Shouji Murahama. A too brief question and answer session ensued, and two enterprising young girls ran to fetch their sketchbooks, in which Murata-san, a small, chain smoking young man dressed in black with a black ski cap pulled down almost over his eyes, impressed us all by sketching out stunning original character sketches for them in the blink of an eye. For me, the evening ended with a trip to the currency exchange counter in the hotel lobby (with its poor 111 yen to the dollar rate) and a walk out to the local Tachibana Shoten doujinshi shop and a peek into the basement of one of Shinjuku's many arcades. (Fighting games are usually found on the bottom floor of Japanese arcades.)

Although we'd left America on a Monday, with time changes, we woke up in Tokyo on a Wednesday. Our chartered bus first took us a short distance to the famous Meiji Shrine in Harajuku, next to Yoyogi Park. After participating in individual ceremonial purification and prayer at the shrine, Isaac cornered a group of Japanese schoolgirls for a mutual photo shoot. Then we were off to the grounds of the Imperial Palace where we stood for a professional group photo. The brisk pace then led us to Tokyo Tower where half the group bought tickets to go up to the observation decks, and half the group explored the three ground floor levels of tourist shops that included a sizeable Ghibli (pronounced "Jibli" with a soft "G") store and a "ninja store" dealing in ninja weapons, ninja clothes, ninja anime and ninja memorabilia. Perhaps I don't look Western enough, because I seemed to be one of the only group participants that wasn't approached by Japanese students wanting to practice their conversational English or have a photo taken with an American.

From Tokyo Tower we went to the Bikkuri Zushi restaurant in Roppongi, which was exclusively reserved for our group, which was a good thing considering that we filled the restaurant to capacity. Sitting a bar facing the sushi chefs, small plates of sushi endless looped before us on a conveyer belt. I helped myself to as wide a selection as I could. The squid sushi was the only one I had a hard time with. It's rubbery taste and texture nearly caused a gag reflex from me, but the majority of lunch was delicious and surprisingly filling. After lunch, we had 20 minutes to wander the streets of Roppongi, the night club district, before heading to Asakusa to visit the famous Asakusa Kannon Temple and adjoining Nakamise shopping arcade. Paper lanterns double the size of a person, and shrines of burning incense said to heal physical ailments made the temple a wondrous stop. The kitschy, touristy shopping arcade, lined with the last cherry blossoms of spring, was an immersive and overwhelming plunge into Japanese culture.

We ended the day with a visit to Odabia, the commercial entertainment district built on land reclaimed from Tokyo Bay. The Aqua City Mall Toys'R'Us amazed us with its selection of anime toys, and the Osamu Tezuka store surprised us by offering reasonably priced original production cels from Tetsuwan Atom, Jungle Emperor and Black Jack. The Palette Town mall across from the Fuji TV building was home to one of the world's tallest Ferris wheels, and a department store with a Ghibli section marked by a five foot tall catbus and a stuffed totoro. The massive arcade was home to the rare Biohazard 4-D Executor interactive movie game, the famous dog walking game, and even the motorized panda made famous (or infamous) in the Inachu Ping Pong Club anime TV series. The evening wrapped up when we proceeded up into the observation ball of the Fuji Television building, memorialized in anime including the Rayearth OAVs and Nurse Witch Komugi-chan OAV 2.

On Thursday morning the group successfully navigated through Shinjuku Station and the Japanese train system to Inokashira Park in Kichijoji. We strolled through the public park, under Japan's famous cherry blossom trees, to the small city of Mitaka and the Ghibli Museum, found on the edge of the park, just separated from the bustle of cars and buildings by a thin line of trees. I started getting goosebumps of anticipation as soon as I saw the ticket booth manned by an 8 foot tall stuffed Totoro. Passing through the Ghibli themed stained glass entrance doors, holding my strip of film from Laputa that doubled as an admission ticket to the "Mei to Koneko Bus" (Mei & the Kitten Bus) short movie, I immediately made for the theater. The 16 minute long film featured the amazing animation quality expected of a Ghibli film, and I was thrilled to be able to perfectly understand all of its 5 year old level spoken dialogue. The marvelous film literally brought tears of joy to my eyes, and enthralled even the tour members that had never seen the original My Neighbor Totoro movie. I was enraptured to discover that the Kitten Bus movie was only the first of 3 pieces of Ghibli Museum exclusive animation. A small upstairs theater played a 6 minute long introduction to the flying machines of the Ghibli universe, hosted by Porco Rosso, and a small TV screen repeated a totally original animated film about tanks and other machines of war designed by Studio Ghibli. The museum itself, although small, proved to be everything I'd hoped for and more. Totally unlike that staid format I'd expected, the museum is designed as though it's a working drafting house with original sketches, cels and paintings tacked to walls, scrapbooks lying about for visitors to thumb through, reference books, cups and bowls, boxes of used pencils, reams of paper, and various other elements strewn about making the museum seem more like a tour of Hayao Miyazaki's home than a public gallery. Sadly, the Ghibli café was packed full, so none of us were able to sample Ghibli's own custom brewed beer.

After the too short visit to the museum, we wandered back through Inokashira Park, into Kichijoji, to the historic Iseya Sohonten yakitori restaurant. We all proceeded upstairs, took off our shoes, and found a place at the small tables on tatami mats arranged for us in the wide, bright open air room. The skewered meat and fish meal didn't appeal to everyone, but I found it exceptionally delicious, eating more than my allotted share because there was so much left over.

After lunch we took the train to Ogikubo, then packed a public bus to near overflow. Getting off the bus, we walked through the grounds of a small local shrine to the Suginami Community Hall fourth floor screening room where we were shown a 5 minute long trailer for the new anime TV series Firestorm, based on a Gerry Anderson concept. Thankfully I wasn't the only person that thought the preview displayed awful character design and poor animation quality. Across the hallway we walked through a one room exhibit about how anime is made, complete with display production cels from Choujin Locke and Sukeban Dekka.

By this point, the intensive walking and frenetic pace of the trip were beginning to take their toll on some of the group members. Yet we marched on, taking bus then train to Minami Asagaya where we stopped before an unmarked building facing a busy street. The bottom floor housed a convenience store, a shoe shop, and a discount market. The third through fifth floors were home to the famous Madhouse Studios. Unfortunately, the Madhouse staff was very busy and not able to be very accommodating. In three groups, we were allowed to take the elevator to the fifth floor then walk straight into one of the large main workrooms, briefly look around, then walk back out. Simply seeing the work desks and computers and reams of paper and artists at work was a thrill, but the visit was over too quickly to allow for anything more than a cursory peek. On our way out, each of us was presented with one of the screen printed handkerchiefs included in the limited edition Millennium Actress DVD set.

The train again brought us back to a residential neighborhood on the east side of Shinjuku where we found the Gonzo Digimation Holdings office in the middle of a small, but busy alley. Upon arriving at Gonzo Studios, each of us was presented with a laminated Yukikaze guest pass. We were then divided into two groups and brought into the building. The workspace is tight and cramped, and obviously a company staffed by anime fans, considering the massive numbers of Evangelion, Sailormoon, Gundam, Macross, and other anime toys, figures, and books piled on each animator's desk. We were told that Gonzo employs roughly 200 people in-house, including staff whose sole job is to keep tabs on the 100 or so freelance animators who work at home and bring in their work as they complete it (just like in Akitaro Daichi's Animation Runner Kuromi-chan OAV).

While one group stood over the shoulder of one of the artists creating a CG flying carrier for an upcoming episode of Sentou Yousei Yukikaze, the other group was given an over-the-shoulder look at how the layers of digital animation are combined for a shot in Last Exile. When asked about the possibility of more Hellsing animation, Gonzo President Murahama-san said that the studio would like to make more. Pioneer, likewise, who expected to sell 7,000 copies of the first DVD in America, sold 40,000 in the first two weeks, is also eager to see more Hellsing animation produced. But the final say lies in the hands of Hellsing creator Kouta Hirano. On Final Fantasy: Unlimited, contrary to popular rumor, the series was not canceled due to poor ratings. Squaresoft specifically wanted Gonzo to have free reign with the Final Fantasy characters and create something totally original and unique. Square would foot the bill, and Gonzo would have full creative control. With the failure of the Final Fantasy movie, Squaresoft's financing for the FF:U anime dried up, so animation production on the show was ceased.

At the end of the studio visit, we were treated to a room with prepared tea and Japanese snacks, and shown trailers for recent works including Last Exile and Chojushin Gravion. Finally, everyone was presented with a Gonzo 10th Anniversary bag with a Gonzo Studios trailers DVD, Gonzo 2003/2004 desk calendar, and Gonzo 10th Anniversary pen. A few of us politely asked Murahama san to autograph the DVD cover before we gathered on the front steps for a group picture.

Leaving Gonzo on foot, the group splintered and myself and a few other participants made our way to the Mandarake store in Shibuya. I found a few treasures including a Riding Bean Completed File book for only 1,000 yen and a small Hyper Police cel of Natsuki, with matching sketch, for only 50 yen, or roughly 45 cents. On the way back from the station, we stopped at the HMV record store where I picked up the Princess Arete DVD. I ended my evening with a take-out extra large gyudon from Yoshinoya, after politely refusing the prostitute who makes her living on the corner in front of the restaurant entrance.

Friday morning began with an hour long bus ride through busy city streets to the suburb of Saitama and the Tezuka Productions studio building. Taking off our shoes as we entered, we were split into two groups, as the studio rooms simply weren't big enough to hold 29 of us at once. Half of the group was left to watch the first episode of the new Astroboy TV series while the other half toured the building. The new Astroboy anime, filmed with English dialogue and Japanese subtitles, was obviously created with American broadcast this fall in mind because of the noticeable 3 commercial break spots in the middle of the episode, unlike the typical Japanese 1 break in the middle. If the first episode is any indication of what the series will be like, this new Astroboy is certain to create a whole new generation of fans. The characterizations are strong, the art design breathtaking, and the animation quality of theatrical standards.

The studio tour began with a visit to the late Osamu Tezuka's personal office, still arranged as he left it, with two side-by-side work desks, one for animation and one for manga. We then toured two floors of the studio, watching animators color frames with PCs, and animators drawing original animation frames by hand. We were surprised to learn that many of the backgrounds used in current Tezuka Pro animation are still hand painted. Unlike Gonzo, the Tezuka Pro workspaces were relatively uncluttered. Artist desks had shelves with reference books ranging from Norman Rockwell to Jin-Roh, Spriggan, the Patlabor movies, and Studio Ghibli productions. Nearly all of the toys and figures noticeable were all based on Tezuka works, confirming the impression that the studio is one run by devoted Tezuka fans and admirers.

After departing Tezuka Pro, our bus took us to the Kyushu Jangara ramen restaurant in Harajuku. Climbing the narrow stairway to the second floor, passing a flyer for something called "sheep f*cker," we filtered into the tiny restaurant among the native patrons for a deep bowl of phenomenal noodles and a bowl of white rice. Much different from the instant noodles many of us may be used to, the authentic ramen noodles simmered in rich, meaty stock was a hearty and delicious meal. Following lunch, we had 20 minutes to wander the streets of Harajuku. Many of us headed directly to the large Kiddy Land toy store, much of which was devoted to imported American toys.

Our bus then took us to the famous Yoyogi Anime Gakuen (Yoyogi Anime Institute), a technical school covering all aspects of anime production including directing, screenwriting and voice acting. In a classroom all to ourselves, we were introduced to the school's founder and president Takaya Wada, a former key animator on Lupin, Cat's Eye, Space Cobra, and make-up effects supervisor for the Japanese Ring and Ring 2 movies. With surprisingly good English and a warm and jovial personality, Wada-sensei answered our questions about the school's curriculum and attendance (all are welcome, as it's unfair to judge artistic ability that hasn't been trained and refined). The school's two year courses are entirely supported by student tuitions because the Japanese government doesn't recognize anime as a legitimate educational field, and therefore won't support the school. Finally, Wada showed us all the basics of how to draw anime characters, presented each of us with a personalized, autographed drawing of Lupin and Jigen that he'd drawn himself, and posed with us for group pictures. Then we were back onto the bus for a visit to one of the Yoyogi Anime School's other buildings to watch the basics of voice dubbing in action.

We were thrilled to be allowed into a room adjoining a sound stage where students on only the second day of the new school year were practicing dubbing 3 minutes of footage from an episode of Prince of Tennis. We were even more thrilled when offered the chance to be wallflowers in the microphone room itself. The few who couldn't fit in the room were shuffled into the director's mixing room. Watching a half dozen student seiyuu step back and forth to the microphones and perform their lines perfectly in synch with the animation on screens before them was simply amazing.

Finally, when asked for their opinion on the common American opinion that the anime industry in Japan is in decline, a spokesman for the Yoyogi School gave a mixed answer. Anime, he said, is a craft which takes patience and devotion to master and advance in. In contemporary Japan, many young workers are more interested in a job that pays better and offers greater chance of quick promotion than work in the anime industry. As a result, more and more of the actual animation production is being exported to Taiwan and other countries. Furthermore, there are over 100 anime films per week produced in Japan now, more than ever before. But the average quality of these shows isn't as good as it was 10 years ago, we were told. But, Mr. Takahashi told us, the anime industry in Japan is still strong and isn't in any danger of disappearing anytime soon.

From the Yoyogi School, we returned to the nearby Harajuku ward for souvenir shopping on the Takeshita Dori Avenue and Oriental Bazaar before finishing up the day in Akihabara. Being the consummate fanatic, I told our tour guide that I'd meet the group in Akihabara and took the first train to Electric Town. After discovering more treasures at K-Books, Melon Books, Comic Toronoana, and Yellow Submarine including the brand new Satoshi Urushihara illustration collection book, a used Hare Nochi Guu Official Fan Book for only 800 yen, the rare Excel Saga ecchi shitajiki by Excel Saga creator Rikudo Koshi for 1000 yen, and a pair of Azumanga Daioh Chiyo-chan bath slippers in a clearance bin for only 960 yen, I was worn out and ready to go back to the hotel. I wandered the street twice, looking for a familiar face before deciding to just take a train back to the hotel myself. That's when I ran into splinters of our group who had just arrived, delayed because one of the participants had gotten lost in Harajuku. By that time, most of the stores were closing, so it was the Akihabara McDonalds for dinner. The bus ride home took us past the massive Tokyo Dome (which is much larger in person than I anticipated) and the bustling nightlife of the Kabuki-cho section of East Shinjuku.

For the final full day of the Pop Japan Travel tour, roughly half of the group got up early to travel to Mt. Fuji and the Hakone area. I slept in then made may way to Nakano Broadway, where I ran in to several other members of the group. The selection of recent production cels was slim, and very expensive. Display quality Bandit King Jing cels started at 14,000 yen. Ai Yori Aoshi production cels hit the high end, reaching as much as 35,000 yen each. I was satisfied with a couple production cels from Photon topping out at 1,500 yen, and vintage anime books like the 1984 Vampire Hunter D movie mook for 1,500 yen and a pristine condition Leda: Fantastic Adventure of Yohko Story Book for 3,000 yen. Parting company with the other group members, I made my way to Shibuya, which was even more crowded than usual. The train from Akihabara to Shibuya was literally so crowded that I couldn't raise my arms!

Not only was it a Saturday, there were seemingly three different anti-war rallies going on in Shibuya. I went to each of the three movie theaters looking for the RahXephon movie, which opened that day. No luck. The Crayon Shin-chan movie only had front row seats available, and I was an hour too late for the last of the day's showings of the fourth One Piece movie. So I sat for lunch at the Yoshinoya opposite Shibuya 109 then went to Mandarake, where I paid 4,000 yen for what I thought was the Di-Gi-Charat Chocola 2002 illustration collection. It turned out to be the 1999 collection. I didn't even know that Gamers had made a Chocola illustration book in 1999! I also picked up a used copy of the Azumanga Daioh movie on DVD, again something I hadn't known existed. The 7 minute long DVD cost 1,800 yen, but the inclusion of a full color booklet and the movie soundtrack made it a worthwhile purchase. I was also lucky to find not one, but two different Risky Safety doujinshi and the very rare Struggle Bunnies doujinshi.

With only 4,500 yen left of my spending money for the week, I went back to Shinjuku in search of the movie theater. Sadly, still no RahXephon movie, but I did find the One Piece: Dead End no Bouken movie still playing. Dead tired, I took my dinner at Wendy's then paid the 1,800 yen admission for the movie, which included a free One Piece plastic phone strap. In the hotel lobby I spent 500 yen on a movie program and another 500 yen on a screen printed One Piece tote bag. The feature length movie, stylistically very similar to the first movie, was preceded by trailers including Battle Royale 2, Makai Tenshou, Kamen Rider 555, and Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger. On my way back to the hotel, I stopped in at another Yellow Submarine store and bought an Azumanga Daioh Yomi gatchapon figure for 100 yen. When I arrived at the hotel, I was too tired and too poor to go back out to the Ninja Restaurant for dinner, which, according to my room-mate, turned out to be over-priced and underwhelming.

Sunday morning began with everyone checking out then a large group heading to Shibuya. Unfortunately, Mandarake didn't open until noon, so myself and two partners in crime took a train to Akihabara through a light rain, the first overcast day since the evening we'd arrived. I passed by Dreamcast games for 200 yen on my way to Yellow Submarine to pick up a 600 yen Cream Lemon "Naomi" trading figure. Then I went back to K-Books and bought 3 more doujinshi and a manga magazine, leaving me with little more than enough to pay for train fare back to Shinjuku. Sadly, with only 10 minutes of free time left, I discovered the Volks store and the motherload of Yellow Submarine stores full of toys, models and action figures on the 7th floor of the Radio Kaikan.

Of course, the train system, which is famous for its timely efficiency, was running behind schedule on this one, of all days. Getting back to Shinjuku Station, the three of us discovered that we weren't the only ones in the group running late. Everything worked out well, though, as we all arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare.

On the whole, in spite of a handful of minor complications and problems, the first Pop Japan Travel Anime & Manga Tour went off as a great success, creating countless great memories, friendships, and 30 fans who are now more knowledgeable about anime and Japanese culture than they were before the trip. Future excursions will features slightly different itineraries and exclusive opportunities, and carry my personal highest recommendations for fans interested in deepening their experience and appreciation of anime, manga and Japanese culture with a visit to Japan.