The Tokyo Figure Show started today (August 4th 2009) and so I headed to Harajuku. It was to be held in the H&M building, so I ignored the shoppers inside and bravely headed to the stairs. After searching several floors for the elevator I’d read about online that went straight to the top floors, I still couldn’t find it.
I’m not someone who doesn’t ask for directions, but I hate looking lost. And I draw the line at asking staff in a store for (mostly) women’s clothing if they’ve seen the secret elevator that leads to a stash of anime figurines.
I found an elevator on the fourth floor, which was as high as I could go using the stairs and pushed ‘up’. A woman pushed past and pressed ‘down’ and looked at me as if I was so stupid. It was like the time I accidentally pulled the tag off a teabag while making tea in the drink bar of an internet cafe and a nearby gamer decided to educate me on the correct use of teabags.
Was it really H&M? That really didn’t seem right. The post on DannyChoo.com had been talking all about bringing plastic anime figures to people who didn’t usually see them, but it was hard to believe the people surrounding me would care at all as they ploughed through the brand-name goods in search of a bargain. No, something was amiss.
I called it a day and headed to a cafe I’d heard did crumpets. Along the way, I ran into a friend and we did a tour of Takeshita Doori, ending up outside H&M once more. Outside, a queue was forming for an elevator hidden between the two main doors and a man was touting free drink samples of Vitamin Water. I’d finally found the place.
Inside, were several stands of Good Smile Company figurines (including the Suenaga Mirai figure). There were also figures for Haruhi, Death Note and other anime keywords that will hopefully bring traffic to this blog.
We descended a spiral stair and came out in a room draped in white cloth, padded areas to sit down on, and tons of bottles of Vitamin Water, a drink they were promoting alongside everything else. You spun a wheel and they gave you a drink based on what it selected for you. I landed on the ‘lucky!’ segment, so got to choose. I choose dragonfruit, because it’s got the word ‘dragon’ in it. It
Below are more photos of the event. If you liked this article, you’ll also want to read my write-up of the Tokyo Toy Show.
