Animenia

Hi everyone! I kind of went over board posting pictures but I had a really interesting Saturday, so before I talk about my trip to the hot springs let’s talk about Comiket 68! It’s pretty much the largest anime convention in Japan. Anime (please don’t anyone be thinking cartoons, it’s much more!!) is the Japanese style of animation which is most common in comic form (and I promise it’s not just pokemon). There are many genres, some of which I really didn’t need to see today. Anyway I woke up at 7 today and got a ride with my Host Dad to the station to meet the other exchange student from my school. I quickly discovered that there is a distinct crowd that goes to comiket…
I have drawn an accurate picture of what is called an ‘otaku’. Which is really pretty much a nerdy guy with a back pack, glasses, fanny sack, hat (maybe hair too!), a camera for taking pictures of cosplayers (girls dressed up), and who stays up past his bedtime reading naughty comics.
At 8:30 Jovana and I joined the masses in a large parking lot. There were way over two thousand people already waiting, and might I mention it didn’t start until ten. I’ve felt quite foreign in Japan before, but never so much as I did in that crowd, sea… ocean! of black hair. All day I saw maybe five gaijin not including myself (but I’m Japanese anyway! harhar). When we were finally released to rampage the convention site we headed straight for the cosplaying area. It was an area outdoors where all the people who wore costumes could show them off and have their picture taken again and again and again. You always had to ask permission to take a picture and the line most otaku used was something like ‘go mai yoroshii desu ka?’ (can I take five pictures?). Most cosplayers are pretty serious about what they do and never run out of poses or business cards!
Inside, what I swear was an airport gone convention center, were the anime goods. There were eight different halls (airplane hangers) filled with dealers selling their comics. On one floor I was leisurely poking around getting lots of flyers handed to me and when I looked down to actually see what people were handing me, I was greeted with a drawing of a girl who was apparently allergic to clothing, it was quite a shock. Especially since admission was free and there were little kids walking around!! But that seemed to be a common theme in four entire halls. Well, there was far too much going on there for me to write it all down but I’ve probably got enough here to help some ailing insomniac. So, I’ll leave the hot springs for another day…