A Trip To Japan: Going At Fandom Sideways
Jul. 9th, 2023 04:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennariaSometimes you go out on fannish pilgrimage, and sometimes you stumble across something that might or might not be intentionally fannish. In Japan, they try to make it easy to stumble (see also: Pokemon).
First item: wandering along the street in Kyoto, and realizing that's not an oddly arranged bench, that's a Go board, in honor of this being the birthplace of the Hon-ibo Go title, according to the little sign next to it.
Not going to lie, I saw this and suddenly remembered my days in HIKARU NO GO fandom, and my valiant attempts to learn how to play Go. (I did not succeed.) :wistful sigh:
You know the kind of store that sells Fascinating Things, that you feel like it will vanish tomorrow? That. I didn't feel exactly like I'd wandered into xxxHOLIC, although that might be because my only wish was to find a small teapot to bring back to the US, or because the proprietor was definitely not a woman wearing elaborate robes. I did amuse a couple local old men afterwards on the sidewalk by having them take my photo in front of it, just in case.
And then there's Hakone and the connection to NEON GENESIS EVANGELION which I did not know about! Until we were passing through the ferry terminal (which is fascinating itself, the ferry across Lake Ashi is a goddamn pirate ship), and saw, well -
Behold, a photo of the teenage cast! (Hakone knows it was Tokyo-3, even if I didn't.)
This was actually the first thing I saw. I grabbed Wife's arm all like ARE YOU SEEING WHAT I'M SEEING and she's like YES and I"m like WHY IS IT HERE and she's like IT'S JAPAN, WHO KNOWS, MAYBE THEY JUST LIKE EVA.
I mean, this is not implausible! Japan has anime-style cut-outs everywhere!
Who the fuck is this? Possibly just the anime-ification of the train station itself! I don't know!
These might be actual anime characters, but I don't recognize them, so it's equally possible that it's just an excuse to have a bunch of schoolgirl characters…for photo purposes? Look, at least I recognized Evangelion.
(We also sat in a subway car advertising the new Spiderverse movie, but I feel like we see that kind of thing in the US as well, so it doesn't count.)
Finally: I did not realize that Toho Films was not only a film studio, they're also a theater chain. …which, of course, is very proud of their most famous film series. There's a Toho Cinemas near Shinjuku with a giant Godzilla head on it, which is famous enough that it's routinely used as a landmark by locals. Apparently also it lights up and roars.
This was not an accidental find, we went looking for him.
This was an actual accidental find. It turns out that Shinjuku is not the only Toho Cinemas that has its own Godzilla. Now I wish I went searching for more samples to see if every Toho Cinemas has its own Godzilla statue. Sadly, attempts to find an answer on the internet have proved beyond my web search abilities. Those of y'all with more knowledge of Japan, or better web skills, please do report back!
First item: wandering along the street in Kyoto, and realizing that's not an oddly arranged bench, that's a Go board, in honor of this being the birthplace of the Hon-ibo Go title, according to the little sign next to it.
Not going to lie, I saw this and suddenly remembered my days in HIKARU NO GO fandom, and my valiant attempts to learn how to play Go. (I did not succeed.) :wistful sigh:
You know the kind of store that sells Fascinating Things, that you feel like it will vanish tomorrow? That. I didn't feel exactly like I'd wandered into xxxHOLIC, although that might be because my only wish was to find a small teapot to bring back to the US, or because the proprietor was definitely not a woman wearing elaborate robes. I did amuse a couple local old men afterwards on the sidewalk by having them take my photo in front of it, just in case.
And then there's Hakone and the connection to NEON GENESIS EVANGELION which I did not know about! Until we were passing through the ferry terminal (which is fascinating itself, the ferry across Lake Ashi is a goddamn pirate ship), and saw, well -
Behold, a photo of the teenage cast! (Hakone knows it was Tokyo-3, even if I didn't.)
This was actually the first thing I saw. I grabbed Wife's arm all like ARE YOU SEEING WHAT I'M SEEING and she's like YES and I"m like WHY IS IT HERE and she's like IT'S JAPAN, WHO KNOWS, MAYBE THEY JUST LIKE EVA.
I mean, this is not implausible! Japan has anime-style cut-outs everywhere!
Who the fuck is this? Possibly just the anime-ification of the train station itself! I don't know!
These might be actual anime characters, but I don't recognize them, so it's equally possible that it's just an excuse to have a bunch of schoolgirl characters…for photo purposes? Look, at least I recognized Evangelion.
(We also sat in a subway car advertising the new Spiderverse movie, but I feel like we see that kind of thing in the US as well, so it doesn't count.)
Finally: I did not realize that Toho Films was not only a film studio, they're also a theater chain. …which, of course, is very proud of their most famous film series. There's a Toho Cinemas near Shinjuku with a giant Godzilla head on it, which is famous enough that it's routinely used as a landmark by locals. Apparently also it lights up and roars.
This was not an accidental find, we went looking for him.
This was an actual accidental find. It turns out that Shinjuku is not the only Toho Cinemas that has its own Godzilla. Now I wish I went searching for more samples to see if every Toho Cinemas has its own Godzilla statue. Sadly, attempts to find an answer on the internet have proved beyond my web search abilities. Those of y'all with more knowledge of Japan, or better web skills, please do report back!