I wanna start by pointing you in the direction of the photos for the previous entry. GoAbroad was having issues, so I posted the photos on facebook in a public album, found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=63943&id=503027857&l=bc80fThis past week was very eventful for me. Thursday [19th] I went to finish up Tokyo Tower after school. Yes, I know I went there once, but I didnt get the chance to do all the nifty things they have available, so I went again. I walked from campus to the tower [it was a beautiful day for such a thing]. The Trick Art Museum was incredible, despite being small. I do, however, wish I had brought someone with me, because some of the pictures lose their impact when you don't have someone interacting with them. There's more to see for this than there is for me to say about it here.

After the art gallery I headed to the wax museum. While it was no Madame Tusseaud's, it was still fun. Once again, more to see than there is to say.

I finished off Tokyo Tower with Space Wax. I'm not sure why they call it this, but it's a 3-D anime called "YattaMan". It was fun, really cute, and they're making a live action movie of it which I'm looking forward to.

Friday [20th] was our J-Rock concert! I had such a blast. Unfortunately, there aren't many pictures for this because they threatened to kick anyone out caught taking pictures. I thought there would only be 3 bands performing, but there were six. I really loved two of the six, with the other four being just okay. Their music was louder and more of the screaming variety than the other two. The costumes, hair, makeup and personality of the bands was an experience in itself. At concerts here, people don't cheer or clap [I'm guessing that's so they can hear the music instead of themselves]. The girls here instead do choreographed hand movements to the various songs. Each song has it's own movements, so it was a cool thing to watch. My ears rang for two days afterwards, but it was well worth it [plus I don't do concerts often at all, so I'm not in fear of hearing loss].

Saturday [21st] the anime club was heading out to a cosplay event. Cosplay is when people dress up like their favorite anime characters in really elaborate costumes that are, for the most part, homemade. I knew that I had to be at the meeting point by 8 am, and to get there I had to take the Seibu-Shinjuku line from Takadanobaba Station. I didn't realize, however, that this particular line serviced rapid express trains [which stop at two stops in a 40 mile radius], local express [stops at every other one] and just local [stopping at every one]. I had to wait 15 minutes to get on the right train. I still had to get to the next station and switch trains to reach the final destination, but I figured this would be okay because I could high-tail it through the station and make up some time. Didn't happen that way. I get to the next station to find that it's one platform and the tracks. No stairs, no signs for the Oedo Line [the train I had to switch to]. I asked the guy working at the station "Oedo Line, doko desu ka." [where is the Oedo Line?] and he tells me to go out and make a right. I do this and find myself wandering a residential area with mom and pop shops that aren't open yet because it's too early. I go back and ask him again....again he insists on my going to the right. This time I go right and I keep walking a ways. The station was down the street on the right.....By the time I get on the connecting train, it's 2 minutes till 8. I'm figuring that they'll have left me behind, I have no one's number, I don't know where the event is taking place, nothing. My plan at this point was to sit down and cry in the station out of frusteration and lack of sleep. Luckily, there was another American waiting just outside the gates of the final station. He must've recognized me from the anime club meetings, cause he greeted me. He was the only one on time. Apparently anime club is notorious for being late, so they set a time  way earlier than necessary and everyone ends up getting to the event on time because of being late. The long and short of it is I made it, as did everyone else.

We go and get in line to get in the park, and it was kind of crazy. The line consisted of multiple asian girls, all of whom had these little suitcases on wheels with them. Most all had at least one other person with them, all were chatting away. The suitcases, so we're clear, contained their cosplay outfits. In Japan, so I've been told, it is illegal to cosplay in public because they don't want to disillusion the children. If you have a girl playing a guy character, and her boyfriend is playing another guy character from the same show, the kids see them kissing or whatever...yeah, I don't know, it's complicated. Anyway....

We get into the park and I realize that this is not an indoor event. The anime club president, who set this up, neglected to tell any of us that this was entirely outdoor. I had assumed it'd be in some sort of venue....and while it was a gorgeous day out, it was freaking cold. I couldn't give you a temperature, but it was one of those days that wouldn't have been bad had the wind not blown. When the wind blew it was awful.

I didn't recognize many of the characters, so I didn't get many pictures. The reason for that is that cosplayers here prefer to play characters that are recent and popular. A lot of the cosplays were from anime that are on first run here. Once again, more pictures than what I can put into words.