Sunday, November 16, 2008.
It's the second day in Tokyo and it's been fun so far. Been eating lots of interesting food and seeing lots of interesting stores. I'm still not over how much the Japanese maximize their space. I've been in stores that are underground, on the second floor, I've even been to a noodle place on the seventh floor, inbetween a toy store and a store that sells tissues, tissues, and nothing but tissues. Strangely enough the tissue store was the busiest store on this floor. Go fig. On the way down the elevator though it stopped on floor five. We were hoping to go to the first floor but I'm glad we stopped as I stumbled upon...
...a Tower Records store. You can not imagine how excited I was to find this store. Tower Records was a great music store in the US, back in the days where people used to buy actual records. Thanks to a combination of the digital revolution and Wal-Mart selling CD's for less then $10, people didn't find the value of Tower anymore, and the company folded a few years ago. It's nice to see some countries still find value in these kinds of stores. Walking through the store itself though gave me a bit of a revelation: If I lived in Japan I'd probably watch less movies. See, earlier in the day Eric took me to see Hayao Miyazaki's latest movie "Ponyo on a Cliff." The ticket would have cost ¥2,100 (about $21), but since I had a student ID I got in for ¥1,580 ($15.80).Now the retail price for DVD's is ¥3,999 ($39.99), for one movie. Anime can easily cost ¥4,199 ($41.99) for two episodes of an anime. And (get this dad) a BluRay disk costs on average ¥7,230 ($72.30). Music CD's on average costs ¥3,999 ($39.99). No wonder people read comics here. A dictoinary-sized magazine with several different series for a mere ¥300 or less ($3.00). And when I say dictionary-size I mean it: The average comics anthology is six hundred pages or more. That's why the Japanese, even the elderly, buy the comics. That said there are still some bargains to be found. Going to a used comics place yielded some ¥105 ($1.05) comics and ¥200 ($2.00) CD's. Still, it was quite the shock to see one of the cheaper hobbies I have cost so much money. Aside from Tower Records though one of things I've been admiring the most is the advertising. America, forget pop-up ads, text ads, and pop-ups during TV shows: Japan has got us beating on advertising.
I've seen advertising on some of the strangest things. Big billboard? Got an ad. Train? Got several ads? The bottom of the toilet in the noodle shop on the seventh floor? Got an ad for a JPop singer. Ad's are everywhere. Even ads for things that may be familiar to us...
...like a certain Pixar movie I like that is being released in the states this Tuesday on BluRay. Advertising is such a big deal in Japan that famous actors will even travel to Japan to shoot commercials for some extra money. Like George Clooney...
...stating that he likes to drive a [brand] because "he's a real man." So far my favorite has been with Tommy Lee Jones advertising Boss Coffee...
...which aside from a billboard actually has a funny advertising campaign where an alien from outer space visits Japan disguised as Jones (known as Alien Jones). The commercials revolve around how much Alien Jones hates Japan with the exception of his Boss Coffee. Almost twenty commercials have been made, and most are available subtitled on YouTube. Here's one to start you out, and after that you can find the rest on your own:One thing I do miss about America though is the pets. America loves pets. Japan...not so much. I rarely see dogs or cats on the streets, and I'm sure other pets such asbirds and goldfish are much rarer. Once in awhile I do see a dog though, and I can't help but say hello.
Most of these pets belong to elderly people, who's children have moved out of the house and whose spouses have died. Usually with no work to attend and little to do, a pet is a logical thing to get. Walking around the streets of Tokyo you'll find various different shops that cater to American's. Some look familiar...
...some look too American...
...and some may be trying a little too hard and may want to practice their English more.
It was today I also visited Akihabara. The name means Autem Leaf Field, but the area is really known as the otaku capital of the world. This is the place where a geek can be a geek. Most of the stores don't allow photography, as otaku tend to be really shy (BTW, otaku is a term for "anti-social"), so I can't really show you any pictures of this place. But needless to say the San Diego Comic Con could learn a thing or two from this place. Many hobby stores are ten stories high. I went into a builing where one floor was dedicated to train models, and the next dedicated to nothing but Gundam models. Capsle machines were everywhere in this place, and I even got a few of them myself. And trust me, unlike the capsle machines we have in America, these machines give out toys worth having for less then ¥500 (most are ¥200).The next day we went to a museum of Japanase history. I took a lot of pictures during this visit, so I can't post them all. Instead we'll start with these:
The rest of the day was filled with train rides and Japanese food. Tonight we take a bus to Kyoko. Should be fun. Oh yeah, one more thing to make you cry...here's what the gas costs here...
...though considering very few people here have cars they probably aren't as concerned about gas as we are. And don't forget that Tokyo is up for consideration to host the 2016 Olympics games.
Living Life Differently These Days
6:27 PM
6:27 PM