Tokyo

Tokyo Toy Show 2010 Report

Tokyo Toy Show: Steampunk Project Pullips.

Tokyo Toy Show is an annual event where toy makers from Japan demonstrate their latest products. The first two days are for business only, but the weekend is open to the public. For some reason, llamas always seem popular.

My first booth was Groove Inc which has apparently taken over marketing Pullips, a brand of Korean doll, in Japan from Jun Planning. If what I saw at their booth is any indication, they’re doing a great job. The booth manager approached me in English, talked positively about their products and gave me his business card. I was extremely impressed by the professionalism on display here… not to mention the products themselves. My favourites were the new limited edition Steampunk Project dolls, each one based on different doll types. The designs were more than just ticking boxes (“Okay, goggles… top hat… gears… we’re done!”) and detail was incredible.

Hot Toys, on the other hand, were doing the same things they always do. Alien figures, Michael Jackson figures, Mars Attac– wait, who is buying these things? Who has been searching all over for plastic models of Inglourious Basterds’ characters?

A small stand devoted to Hexbug Nanos was hidden in the Bandai booth labyrinth. The bug-like robots, about the size of a thumb, ran around on a tabletop. “Put your hands down!” exhorted the salesperson. “COLLECT THEM!!” If you put your hands flat on the table, the Hexbugs vibrated violently towards you and got stuck between your fingers and you’d amass ten or twenty of the things thrusting into the creases between your fingers.

However, I’ve never bought anything at the Toy Show until today. At the Gentosha Education booth, I watched a demonstration of Doubutsu Shougi (“Animal Shogi“), which has been put together by the Ladies’ Professional Shogi Players of Japan to introduce children to the strategy behind shogi. It’s played on a 4 x 4 board and players control four thick wooden blocks which each have a simple animal picture – a lion, an elephant, a giraffe and a chick, which can be promoted into a cockerel. Despite being aimed at kids, this is a fun strategy game for adults and comes highly recommended.

Finally, here’s a list of Japanese Toy Awards 2010 grand prize winners. I find myself a bit uneasy at the separate categories for girls and boys. I’d suggest they change it to “Toys To Celebrate Domesticity” and “Toys To Celebrate Sports And Engineering” but everyone would be able to see what they did there.

Category	Name	Company	Sale Date	Price in Yen
Access For All Children “Kyouyuu” Award	Korokoro Talking Tomica A I U E O	Takara Tomy	June 2010	6,090
Educational Award	Talking With Anpanman: Picture Dictionary	Sega Toys	April 2010	7,140
Boys’ Toy Award	Ishikawa Ryou’s Exciting Golf	Epoch	July 2010	8,379
Girls’ Toy Award	Shushurun	Pilot	April 2010	2,604
Character Toy Award	Kamen Rider W Transformation Belt DX Double Driver	Bandai	September 2009	6,825
Innovative Toy Award	JIGAZO PUZZLE @rt	Tenyo	September 2010 (provisional)	2,310 (provisional)
High Target Award	Otamatone	Cube	November 2009	2,940

More photographs from Tokyo Toy Fair 2010 (including a llama!) after the jump

Spam From Japan: Sumida River Fireworks Festival sucks!

Itabashi Hanabi Taikai

Sumida River Fireworks Festival sucks! Yes, the most famous summer fireworks festival in Japan, officially known as Sumidagawa Hanabi Taikai, is crap. There are three key reasons why:

(1) You have to camp out for weeks in the hope of seeing anything. All the best places fill up as the event gets closer. You won’t find anywhere comfortable to stand, let alone sit, no matter how early you show up on the day. My memory of the festival was of standing behind a wire fence on a small patch of grass slightly smaller than the area covered by the soles of my feet.

(2) The ‘boom factor’ is a lie. The fireworks go off in two different places, meaning the number is effectively halved. That makes the number you can actually see around the same as less well-attended displays. There are, however, a few choice spots where you can see both locations. For that, you’ll need to camp out for weeks.

(3) Crowds. Once the display is over, everyone heads to Asakusa Station. That’s 948,000 people all heading in the same direction. Eating is also a big part of festivals, so the usually scenic Asakusa streets are lined with trash.

Thankfully, there are better firework displays, like Itabashi Hanabi Taikai (いたばし花火大会). My friends arrived in the early afternoon and spread out their blue sheet. We drank and ate red velvet cake while dragonflies danced around us until it got dark.

Another great festival is The 43rd Katsushika Nouryou Hanabi Taikai (第43回葛飾納涼花火大会). All day and into the evening, giant red dragonflies float above the grass, making it look like a section of one of those digital art posters you had in college where all the dolphins are flying into space on rainbows.

Itabashi Hanabi Taikai

What you need:

A blue plastic sheet. Hell yeah it has to be blue! Don’t look at me, I don’t make the rules. This is used not so much as a place to sit, but more of a way to mark your territory.
Plastic bags. To put your rubbish in. You’ll need more than one.
Beer. Don’t buy it from the convenience store near the display since they’ll be full of people doing the exact same thing. If it has to be ice-cold, you can buy it from a vendor (limited selection), but you’ll still want more than one over the course of the display. Buy those in advance.
Wet wipes. Eating buttered jacket potatoes with chopsticks is tough. Most festival food is fairly greasy too.
No food. Never bring food. There are plenty of food stalls selling food and even standard fare like corn-on-the-cob and jacket potatoes have a Japanese twist to them. You’ll have to queue for these too, but it’s worth it.

There are a number of summer firework festivals and almost all of these are better than Sumidagawa. For a fairly comprehensive free listing, pick up Lawson’s Ticket magazine from Lawson’s convenience store. However, even if you aren’t in Tokyo (or, perhaps, especially if you’re not in Tokyo), there should be plenty of local firework displays around you. Have fun!

This was a response to a call for submissions to the June 2010 Japan Blog Matsuri on “Hot Fun In the Summertime!” Thank you to Locohama for hosting.

Spam From Japan: Design Festa (Spring 2010)

While the Kuroshitsuji musical has the best-dressed audience, Design Festa attendees are the most original. A number of them were wearing their original creations, many of them using kimono fabric.

I arrived at 10:30am at the Big Sight knowing that it opened at around 11:00am. With my experience attending Comiket and the Tokyo International Anime Fair, I figured that that would get me inside the quickest. I needn’t have worried, since there was only a tiny queue. Many of the booth staff were still setting up at that time as well, so it wasn’t like I missed anything. You might as well arrive at a little past opening.

There was a huge variety of Stuff available to buy. At first glance, grandma-style Victoriana seemed to outstrip the goth Victoriana, but the latter was still there. One shop specialised in black gothic dresses with straps featuring crucified bunny rabbits.

I was amazed at the number of satirical T-shirts featuring un-PC depictions of Kim Jong-Il and other political figures, which I really don’t see much in Japan. There were torn shirts made from non-torn shirts, ordinary-looking jeans and patched together animal headpieces. I also saw a cool rabbit gasmark; but wear it once and you’re awesome, wear it twice and you’re that guy with the rabbit gasmask. There were also bars of home-made soap for sale, which intrigued me. I looked into it once and found I’d have to look for a lye (sodium hydroxide) supplier in Japan. That couldn’t be easy.

In the end, I bought two postcards by Akito, who seems to be inspired by H. R. Giger and anime. I would have loved to be able to buy artbooks from any of the booths or, even better, a collection from a selection of booths (yes, I realise that’s impossible). I don’t have anywhere to put the stuff on sale, or it’s not something I would wear or use, but it was so awesome I wanted to keep it to look at anyway. Photographs for that end (which are fine at most booths) seem mean-spirited.

Click on any of the photographs to enlarge.

Live painting area:

Booths:

(My friends declared the giant plant-thing to be ‘kawaii’ and ‘cute’. What do you think?)

Dolls:

More Booths:

(One of the booths specialised in making plastic keyrings with everyday objects subjected to a type of Japanese bondage called ‘kinbaku’. I thought this was awesome, but not everyone agreed!)

There were two stages. One was bigger, indoors and had more mainstream acts. The other was outdoors, tending towards goth/punk/indie and was like a tiny Glastonbury festival. This was what kept me at Design Festa from the very start until closing. The atmosphere was amazing. The bar next to the stage had the worst beer I’ve ever had, while the French-style hotdog stand tasted great and used real sausages.

Bands:

(Jack and Sally, plus two of Kojinshugi Gekijo.)

Psydoll, one of my favourites:

N.S.D.P, who seemed to have lots of female fans:

ENIGMATIC DRIVE did alt. jazz. I wouldn’t have said jazz was really my thing, but it was a great feeling at the end of the day to hear those notes echo into the sky as it got darker.

More than anything, I was left with a strong desire to create something or design something or just… DO something. Well at least I have a blog, I guess.

SD Gundam Seiyuu Event

Today, I headed to Akihabara to check out the recently opened Gundam Cafe. While walking round the streets near Denki-Gai, I noticed a huge Gundam head and big television screens showing SD Gundam. Since I like flashing lights, I crossed the road for a closer look.

It turned out to be a promo event for SD Gundam Capsule Fighter Online. The strange thing was, that once people had taken photos of the giant head (from the 1/1 scale Odaiba Gundam) and the women dressed as pilots, they wandered off again. I, however, joined the queue to see what would happen.

A couple of minutes later, I got to try out the new online game (for PC). I’m not used to these things, so it took a while to understand the controls and I would never claim to have mastered them. In fact, if it wasn’t for the tutorial letting me win, I’d never have got through it all. It was mildly entertaining and I felt that playing the game well required genuine skill rather than the button-mashing I’ve seen in some games.

Afterwards, I had to fill in a questionnaire. It confused me for a while since it was a list of statements about the game and the available battle modes and asked me to circle ‘yes’ or ‘no’. At the end, there was a little ‘hint’ that said the event staff didn’t like to hear the word ‘no’. Having read that, I circled ‘yes’ for every statement with impunity. On the back were more detailed questions about how many hours I spend gaming and things like that. So mostly they’re just creating awareness amongst people they feel are already their target market, I guess.

I handed in my clipboard and was ushered into tent where more machines were set up and I could play against other people. This was more fun than the tutorial, but more frustrating too. I kept dying and having to respawn repeatedly. Nice graphics, fun to play, but I need to be better at the controls first.

Giant Gundam head.

By then, it was time for the seiyuu talkshow. The guests were Abe Atsushi and Okamoto Nobuhiko, who play Male [Gundam] Operator A and Male [Gundam] Operator B. One is supposed to be cool and energetic, the other mysterious and sexy. At one point, the female MC asked the five or so women in the front row (and the only girls in the vicinity) which one was their type. One woman put her hand up for both, but otherwise, none of them said a word. Maybe they were shy, or maybe they just wanted to pilot their own Gundam like the guys in the room and hadn’t given any thought to their ‘type’.

They played some sound samples from the game and it was amusing seeing Okamoto react to his character’s giggle at the end of his welcome speech. They were then asked to read the same speech out live. I always love seeing seiyuu at work like this and it’s clear Okamoto is very good at controlling his breathing to do voices like the one he uses for the game. The first time, both seiyuu took it seriously, but when they had to do their death speeches, they hammed it up. Lots of fun.

They both went on to play each other in the actual game, which shut down twice in the middle of play. Abe was pretty quiet most of the time, with Okamoto speaking more-or-less like a pilot. There were cheers whenever he pulled off a combo move. They were both really good at the game, so I guess they either practiced or it’s fairly simple if you do enough online gaming.

Gundam Cafe

Afterwards, I resumed my attempt to find the Gundam Cafe (Official Site, Map). The oversimplified map on the official site told me it was around the large area in front of the station. Very useful for Akiba types, I imagine, but not much use to me.

When I finally found it, the store front was a far cry from the almost-empty pavement I’d seen on the internet. There were swarms of people, some choosing to queue and some choosing to take a photo and leave.

A quick look told me that customers fell broadly into two categories — male-female couples and solo male otaku. I was alone and had just come from an SD Gundam online game seiyuu event, so feel free to draw your own conclusions.

I asked the guy holding the “This Is The End Of The Queue” sign about the length of the wait time. He told me it would be about two hours, but reminded me it was open until 11pm. I thanked him and left. In two hours I could go all the way to Sendai and drink at Gundam Shot Bar Zion again.

Spam From Japan: Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum

For every entry in the JSOC Blog Matsuri on the topic of secret Japan, there will be someone to claim that they’ve known about whatever is being discussed for years. Of course they they’ve always known about the udon shop inside the crater of Mt Fuji that’s guarded by a six-headed tanuki. Which is simply not true — ask any Japanese person where the six-headed tanuki can be found and they’ll refuse to answer, backing away slowly. That’s how secret it is.

So what qualifies Edo Tokyo Tatemonoen (Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum) to be described as a part of ‘secret Japan’? Well, it’s considered far enough away from the train stations surrounding it, all of which are outside the sacred Yamanote ring of Tokyo, that even the official website suggests you catch a bus. And let’s face it, a guidebook that covers Harajuku, Roppongi and Koganei isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

Inside the park, you’ll find historic buildings that have been deconstructed and rebuilt in order to preserve them. These range from a traditional farm house from the end of the Edo Era (1603 – 1868) to modern residences from the 1940s. Honestly, nothing prepares you for the feeling of being a thousand miles from “home” (or something like it) and realizing your grandmother used that kind of washing machine.

My favourite area is the street from very early in the Showa Era (1926 – 1989), with a florist, a soy sauce merchant, a bar and many other shops. The stationers is lined with calligraphy brushes and the florists is decorated in modern white tiles and filled with plastic flowers. All the shop interiors have been recreated and it’s a great opportunity to take a few photographs. At the end nearest to the entrance there’s a stand selling 2010-style takoyaki and icecream, so you can sit outdoors and take in the view for a while. You can also go into an udon restaurant which sells real udon for 600 yen. No tanuki, six-headed or otherwise, need be harmed.

Detail from a wooden panel in one of the houses.

Fire watchtower which original stood in Ueno.

But wait! There's nature too! These are peach blossoms.

The details:

Entry won’t cost more than 400 yen and there are discounts if you’re over 65 or studying at university.

April to September, open from 9.30am to 5.30pm.
October to March, open from 9.30am to 4.30pm
The park is closed on Mondays and over the New Year holidays.

To get there, go to Musashi Koganei, Higashi Koganei or Hana Koganei and then catch a bus (although I recommend you walk – it’s only about 1.1 km from Hana Koganei).

MAP

Rules: Photography is forbidden in the indoor museum, the Mitsui Hachirouemon storehouse and in the Mitsui family chapel on the second floor. You can’t sketch or use tripods inside buildings or where you might cause a disturbance.

Are Cherry Blossoms Overrated?

A post on What Japan Thinks dared to ask whether cherry blossoms are overrated.

My memory of cherry blossom in England is quite different from those created in Japan. I remember being in St. James Park and my parents asking me if the tree next to us was sakura, as they knew I was “into Japanese culture” (as we anime fans like to put it). It had the distinctive pale pink petals, but it didn’t seem special.

Fast-forward to one of my first trips to Japan, which coincided with spring. I was fascinated by the various photoshoots for advertisements that were going on around Ueno Park, with the photographers holding up big silver foil plates to reflect the light. More importantly, they were gathering up the petals so they could scatter them over the model and in front of the lens. Yes, I was fascinated by the lies being created as I watched. The blossoms didn’t make a big impact though.

Spring in Japan has a place usually occupied by summer in Western countries which follow the September-August school year. For many of us who attended school in these countries, long summer days are linked to nostalgia, saying goodbye to friends and growing up. In Japan, where the school year runs from April to March, the memories of ‘our last time together’ are centred around the beginning of spring. The fleeting nature of the blossoms combines with the bittersweet memories of school entrance and graduation ceremonies.

Sakura are a timebomb. All this time you’ve been walking past a perfectly nondescript tree then — suddenly — they explode into white-pink fluffiness. The sheer volume of petals changes the scenery entirely and makes Japan look like a new world. That brings us to why cherry blossom in Japan is better than in England. It’s all in the planning. Throughout the year, Japanese streets are lined with millions of ordinary-looking trees just waiting to hulk out and become something extraordinary. The effect of these trees en masse, unlike the handful of trees back in England, is amazing.

You might be able to tell what side of the argument I come down by now. There is certainly a dark side to cherry blossoms which comes in the form of hanami (holding a party underneath the trees). This often involves compulsory drinking, dealing with crowds and piles of rubbish, but should be considered separately from the beauty of sakura. Have a look at some more of my photos below (click to enlarge) or check out some blog posts I liked on the subject.

Blog posts:
Flower Power Hanami-Style at JapaneseCultureGoNow! (A more pop culture take on cherry blossoms)
Hanami in Yokohama at Going Loco in Yokohama (Cherry blossom amidst European-style architecture in Yokohama)
Inokashira Creepy at A Canadian’s Adventures in Tokyo (Cherry blossom lit up at night)

Sakura Season: The Camera Never Lies

Click to enlarge

Ah, sakura season. You cross a bridge at twilight and pause halfway to see trees heaving with cherry blossoms trailing their branches in the water from beside the riverbank. Breathing in the night air, you quietly take a picture, marvelling at how lucky you were to chance upon such a night view…

Like hell it’s like that! No, it’s all piles of trash and people spreading their blue tarpaulins all over the park and impatient photographers tying to get the best shot.

When I took two of the photos below, I was surrounded by people with all kinds of camera, from basic to pro. Everyone had their finger on the button, waiting for the staff from the boathouse to row out to the centre of the lake and bring in two kids in a pedal-boat who’d lost track of time. You see, just ten minutes before, the entire area in Inokashira Park (Kichijouji) was filled with people riding paddle-powered plastic ducks around.

The minute they got those kids far enough out of the frame, all the cameras went off and we could take home our picture-perfect photo of a quiet lake in Japan, surrounded by sakura.

Click to enlarge

The cherry blossom forecasts say that the sakura will be in full bloom on April 3rd (Saturday). You might also enjoy my post on plum blossoms (and cultists), which have already bloomed this year.

Spam From Japan: Tokyo International Anime Fair 2010

Just back from the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2010 (TAF2010) and can’t wait to tell you about the promo videos I saw.

The highlight of the event for me was definitely the five minute preview for GARO The Movie 3D Red Requiem [Official site]. I think I’ve seen a few posters for the TV series at previous anime trade events, but I know very little about the story. Not that I needed to. The preview moved briskly from scene to scene and was full of magical sigils in 3D and giant robots with beautifully detailed mechanics. Even the title was done using 3D kanji, with the brush strokes seeming to flare out into the audience. Looks way better than Avatar and I’d bet it cost a fraction of the price. It’ll be out in autumn 2010, so watch out for it.

I also saw two more 3D-ised anime trailers; Blassreiter and Last Exile at GONZO’s [Official site] booth. Neither of these were intended for the 3D market and it shows, although less often than you would think. During fight scenes, it looks fantastic, although 3D should make directors rethink what kind of shots and what point of view they’ll use. However, when cel-like animation is used, it tends to have black lines surrounding the characters and buildings and so looks more like a bumpy cardboard jutting out of the screen. Fix this and we’re cool, okay?

The trailer for Space Pirate Captain Harlock [Official press release] made its premiere, along with GAIKING. I must admit, I didn’t realise Harlock wasn’t played by a real actor at first. Lest you think me completely stupid, let me point out he appears mostly in shadow. The rest of his surroundings looked as real as any Hollywood movie (as in Star Trek and, again, Avatar). The coolest point was that many of the designs and costumes in Captain Harlock are ridiculous. I refer to the ship with the huge skull on it, of course, amongst many other smaller details. But in this, it breaks through the clouds in all its stupid glory and looks real. Can a flag fly atop a spaceship in a vacuum? I think not, but it does in this animation and it is cool. My only annoyance was the American voiceover. I can’t really justify this. All I can do is point out that I love a number of American cartoons, but I don’t like dubs even when they are considered the default in Japan. Or, perhaps, particularly when they are the default in Japan.

Another trailer premiere was for Togainu no Chi [Official site] anime. Nitro Plus claimed they would show a trailer for a new, top secret anime project at the Tokyo Anime Fair, but everyone figured out what it would be pretty quick and they admitted it a day later. It’s supposed to be BL (yaoi), but the trailer showed more over-the-top cool fighting than the usual BL trappings, so I’m interested in seeing how it turns out. There needs to be fewer generic BL merchandising machines and more plot-based dramas where the guys involved happen to be gay. If they can work in some explosions, spaceships shaped like skulls and 3D battles, that would be great.

The Kuroshitsuji II trailer [Official site] was another TAF2010 exclusive. First off, I love the manga and despise the anime. And now, we have a rip-off of an anime I didn’t like in the first place. Despite this… I didn’t hate it. I also couldn’t hear it well because of all the other sounds going on around the booth, so maybe I’ll start hating it properly later. Anyway, the first thing I liked about it was that there was a spider eating a butterfly, emphasising that the evil butler (Claude) will eventually eat the boy’s (Trancy’s) soul. Good. Let’s get that out there. The second point was that it was so excessively stupid that it went right round the dial to become cool again. In one iconic(?) scene, Claude throws his glasses up in the air, uses the standard cutlery-as-weapons schtick, then looks upwards so his glasses to fall back in place. In other points of note, the entire reason Claude is named Claude is so he can be called Kuro. I guess that means there’s some significance in that Trancy abbreviates to Tora, or ‘tiger’ in Japanese. Also in the trailer are three identical servants and a maid with a bandaged eye. Finally, it’s stated that it takes place in the latter half of the 19th century, but I don’t know if it puts it before or after Sebastian and Ciel.

I also saw a preview for Rainbow [Official site] which is a drama set in a prison for juvenile boys in 1955 and stars Oguri Shun. I love hearing about anime that covers new topics. I even had a quick read of the manga that had been left out in the viewing room and it seemed a fascinating, gritty historical piece. The anime (as much as they showed us), didn’t do it justice. It was much cuter and had a voiceover plus an info dump where each boy in turn fights their cellmate ‘sempai’ and their name is read out. Still looks sufficiently interesting though.

Other trailers I saw were for Trigun Badlands Rumble [Official site]., Ibara no Ou (King of Thorn) [Official site] and Red Line [Official site].

The main reason I went on Sunday rather than Saturday was because I managed to get a ticket to a special invite-only event for Arakawa Under The Bridge [Official site]. This was a total waste of time. Described as a ‘baton touch’ event between Hanamaru Youchien (Hanamaru Kindergarten) and Arakawa Under The Bridge, but very few people had seen the previous anime as, like me, they’d applied for tickets from the Arakawa site. So when the Hanamaru panda came out and danced for us, we really didn’t care. Then they brought out a man in a kappa suit to represent Arakawa Under The Bridge. The panda and kappa had a bit of a tussle, then they showed us the video for the OP and ED themes and video messages from four of the seiyuu. I just… what the hell were they thinking? I would have been happy if this was done as a regular booth event, but with all that applying for tickets and queuing, I expected something special.

Advice for attendees
You don’t have to buy a ticket in advance, but it will cost less money. Tickets on the day cost 1000 yen.
You can start queuing to enter the Big Site without a ticket, but buy a ticket inside the building as soon as you are able.
It’s fairly cold outside, but warm inside. Dress appropriately.
There are no cosplayers (apart from booth staff) at this event.
If you have a child who is elementary school age or younger, you are entitled to use the family entrance and jump the queues. Ask a member of staff for details.
As with Comiket, plan a route that will take you past all the booths.

Spam From Japan: Fire-walking In The Mountains

It was a day early in spring, with a cloudless sky. Plum trees in full bloom and graves dotted the perimeter of a car park at the base of the mountain. A crowd gathered around a fenced-in area which contained a massive pile of cedar branches, cauldrons of boiling water tended by yamabushi and a large black statue surrounded by stylised red flames.

The Fire-walking Festival (Hi-Watari Matsuri) is held once a year, on the second Sunday in March, at the base of Mt. Takao in Tokyo. Mt Takao’s principle deity, Iizuna Daigongen, is invoked to relieve the world’s suffering. He is often depicted as a tengu (see photo above) and the temple near the top of the mountain is relatively famous for its tengu statues. The yamabushi chant mantras during the cedar-burning ceremony because sacred fires purify fires caused by disasters. Prayers are offered up for world peace, good health, disaster prevention, road safety and personal safety.

One of the symbols of the yamabushi is their horagai, a conch shell wrapped in netting with a mouthpiece attached. The first time I heard one was while I was climbing Mt. Takao, and I had no idea what the sound was or where it was coming from. I found out later, when a procession of yamabushi came down the mountain. Sometimes life is like that here.

The noise the horagai makes is horrific, like a herd of something is dying. Lucky you, you can hear it in the video below.

Before the main attraction (that would be “setting everything on fire”), a lone yamabushi approached the cauldron of boiling water (remember that?) and started to beat his naked back with cedar branches. Here’s the video!

The fire was started soon afterwards by thrusting burning staffs underneath the bonfire, which soon caught on fire and spread.

I wouldn’t describe myself as a pyromaniac (although whether the local police force feel the same is another question), but it was awesome. The height the flames reached and the ash falling on my head and the monks dashing around the fire and the officials throwing things into the crowd… it was incredible. Here, have some shaky video footage which doesn’t do it justice:

When fire had died down, leaving a raised path of dying embers through the still-fierce flames, the yamabushi proceeded through it. And the people in front of me in a roped-off area followed. Other people rushed forwards and a queue formed. I knew that members of the public were able to do it because the website told me it was possible, but was registration needed? Did I need to buy a ticket?

It never occurred to me to wonder if it would hurt. I was pretty sure it wouldn’t.

Either way, I was certain that if I didn’t do it, I would regret it. I walked further and further back to find the end of the queue. Considering the size of it, I hoped I wouldn’t be asked for a ticket at the other end.

After about half an hour, I was back where I’d been standing earlier. I took my shoes and socks off and rolled up my trouser legs, as instructed. The ground was cold, rocky and dusty as I walked onto a pile of salt that marked the start of the fire-walk. The yamabushi tapped me fairly hard on the shoulder and I began to walk.

Did it hurt? Nah, it was about the same temperature as a pavement (sidewalk) in early summer. The smoke, however, stung my eyes a little. Nothing serious.

One the other side, I was once again standing in a pile of salt. Another yamabushi tapped me on the shoulder and I walked forward to the head monk and knelt. He gave me his blessing and I left the area.

This festival is fantastic and you should definitely go if you can. Below are some more photos plus directions and recommendations. If you want to see some decent photos though, check out Mazikeen’s account of fire-walking in snowy Tokushima prefecture.

How To Get There

The station you want is Takaosanguchi on the Keio Takao Line, which leaves from Shinjuku. There are a large number of tourists going to this festival, but others are going up the mountain instead (instead of a fire-walking festival with yamabushi, guys? REALLY?), so careful you don’t follow them. Turn right once you get out of Takaosanguchi Station, but don’t go up. Cross the river and keep in the same direction. You’ll now be walking with festival-goers and not hikers, so there should be no trouble finding your way from there.

What To Do

* Arrive fairly early to get a view that doesn’t have a pole, rope hung with shide, or large monks obstructing it. For a good view, but not up close, sitting on the grassy bank seems to work for some people.
* Do it. It doesn’t hurt at all.
* …But don’t be a douche and jump the queue.
* You don’t have to register or pay.
* It’s okay to carry your shoes across.
* Like tea ceremony, just watch the people in front of you and do what they do.
* Buy something at one the of souvenir stalls. It’s like a donation, but you get something nice for your trouble.

Mt Fuji From A Distance (Free Wallpaper)

I was coming home from work yesterday when I saw a man with a weighty professional camera leaning over the railing on the overpass, his camera aimed off into the distance. Looking in that direction, I saw the evening sun was just about to disappear behind Mt. Fuji. I got out my own tiny camera and started taking pictures myself.

We both stared straight ahead at Fuji, neither of us looking in each others’ direction and definitely not comparing cameras. That would have somehow been a breach of etiquette.

Click on the images to see them at 1024 x 768 size.

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Mt Fuji From A Distance (Free Wallpaper)

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