On the early morning of our first full day in Tokyo, local time ten to six AM on Monday, September 22, I decided that I’d dress and take a walk around the neighborhood. But then I heard Phil stir on the floor above me. Phil came down the narrow stairs announcing that he was feeling awake and alert. I looked at our timing options for the day and realized that we’d have some hours to kill. So Phil said that he’d prepare himself for the day. An hour later he came back downstairs, and he and I walked 30-minutes to the Shibamata Station, expecting to find the city’s bronze KochiKame statues. We walked up the shopping arcade, passing by the Shibatamatanomocha Museum of vintage toys,
and entering the Shibamata Taishakuten shrine.
After wandering around a bit and gawking at the shrine’s large selection of talismans for sale, including ones for sale via vending machine,
we climbed the narrow stone steps up the hill at the top of Shibamata Park, descending adjacent to the Tora-san Museum’s café. We then wandered around the neighborhood a bit before returning to the train station. We looped around the station searching for the elusive Kochikame statues. Before long, we referred to Google and learned that the statues of Ryo-san’s gang were located in Kameari, not in Shibamata.
So we took the Keisei-Takasago train that we believed headed toward Nippori.
However, before long we realized that despite the station placards and the train announcement identifying the train as stopping at Nippori, the train would not actually stop at the Nippori station. Phil noticed that the Daimon station offered connection to the JR Yamanote line, so we got off the train at Daimon station then switched to the Toei-Oedo Rapid that took us to Shinjuku station. There, we exited the south exit and headed for the Shinjuku Marui Annex building. Phil & I took the first elevator we found, expecting to alight on the 5th floor. However, the elevator took us directly to the 9th floor, the lobby of the Shinjuku Wald 9 Theater. Since we were there, I grabbed multiples of the chirashi for every anime movie and anime-related movie that I found available. Then we took the elevator back down to the ground floor, realizing that the elevator only serviced the movie theater.
Outside we found a line of people waiting to enter the Marui Annex building. So we joined the line for a scant few minute before being allowed into the building as it reached its opening time. We browsed the official Godzilla Store on the ground floor along with an Ichiban Kuji pop-up store. Then we took the escalators upward, stopping to circle and browse each floor. We spent some time browsing the Lashinbang store on the third floor. Then we found that the “new” Suruga-ya annex store takes up the entire fifth floor. Phil eyed a life-sized plush denden mushi but ultimately didn’t purchase it. On our way back down, I purchased a 110 yen One Piece clear file from Lashinbang just to receive a bag that would hold my small stack of movie chirashi flyers.
While we then headed past Omoide Yokocho toward Ninja Currency Exchange, we instead decided to stop short at the row of currency exchange vendors in Nishi-Shinjuku. We patronized the shop that advertised a very competitive 147.56 yen to the dollar rate.
While walking we also stumbled across the office of the Poncotan Anime production studio.
Returning to Shinjuku Station, we took the Chuo Rapid line to Nakano. We exited the north side of Nakano station and proceeded down the familiar, to me, shopping arcade to reach Nakano Broadway. Since Phil was most interested in anime production cels, we circled the ground floor then took the stairs all the way up to the fourth floor where we headed directly around the corner to the Apple Symphony store.
I thumbed through the bins of “cheap” production cels and pulled out an 800 yen cel with genga of Meow from Kaze Makase Tsukikage Ran, a 500- yen production cel of the protagonist of the 1985 OVA Greed, and a 500-yen small cel image with douga of Inaho from Master Mosquiton.
Phil found and purchased a 3,000 yen cel from Yoroiden Samurai Troopers. I decided that I would consider coming back to purchase a 11000 yen cel from the Cream Lemon “Escalation” series.
Just down the hall, at the Mandarake production cel showcase, I noticed a 4,500 yen cel of the memorable Ten Little Gall Force scene in which Eluza hits herself in the head with her shotgun. As soon as I confirmed that the cell was available for purchase, I asked to buy it. The store clerk warned me that the cel was considered “damaged” because it had a strong vinegar smell. I replied that I didn’t care what the cel smelled like.
At one of the adult underground culture stores, I bought a pair of 110-yen stickers. At the second floor Haruya Shoten bookstore I asked for the recently released Haruka Takachiho x Yoshikazu Yasuhiko Dirty Pair Illustrations book. One of the two cashiers looked up the book and found it on the shelf for me. I then asked about the Shoulder-A-Coffin Kuro Illustrations collection and was told that it was no longer available. At the Mandarake men’s doujinshi shop I pulled three doujinshi from the unfiled new-in-stock bins. Unfortunately, none of the five Saigado circle doujinshi I needed for my collection were in stock. The Mental Specialist section contained two books, neither of which was one that I was looking for.
I found only one Tsurugashima Heights circle doujinshi, and it wasn’t the one I was looking for. And to little surprise, I didn’t find any of the Nawanoren doujinshi that I was looking for.
By that time in our day, Phil had begun to complain of severe chronic pain flaring up in one knee, and I noticed that I unexpectedly felt lightheaded when I kneeled to thumb through doujinshi. So satisfied with the little that we’d purchased and planning to likely return before our trip was complete, we departed Nakano Broadway. Just outside, we stopped at a Matsuya restaurant for guydon.
I was surprised to see how Nakano Broadway had changed in the four years since I’d last been there. The Mandarake telephone card shop on the ground floor had moved. Even more surprising, the third floor, which had previously been strictly otaku territory, has been annexed by a number of retailers specializing in high-end wristwatches. The difference is striking, yet I’d still call Nakano Broadway worth visiting, especially for collectors interested in vintage anime and manga goods.
Phil received confirmation from StubHub that he was going to receive the ticket for the September national sumo tournament that he’d paid for.
Phil & I returned to Aoto to rest. Just after exiting the station, we visited the Daiso store to purchase a pack of four AA batteries. Then we stopped at Cocokara Fine pharmacy so I could purchase a 697 yen stick of roll-on antiperspirant. Then we stopped at an Aeon supermarket where Phil purchased a variety of fruit juices, a bottle of tea for him, and two bottles of water for himself, a four-pack of toilet paper for our rental house, and a bottle of Pepsi Lemon Big Zero for me. Then at the 7-11 beside our rental house I purchased a bag of 7-11 pollock roe & butter-flavored potato chips, a hot curry pan and two beef & potato croquettes while Phil paid for a pizza-dumpling and a large pork dumpling.
About two hours later we went back out to the Matsuya restaurant across from the station to get dinner. Phil ordered curry with shaved beef topping. I ordered the regular curry and was disappointed to discover that Matsuya restaurants don’t offer katsu curry. After eating, we took a lengthy, leisurely walk around the quiet, residential Aoto neighborhood.
Even the local crime watch posters feature a cute anime girl.
