Cosplay (costume play) is what hardcore anime fans do to have fun. You dress up as an anime character and, if at an anime convention, enter a cosplay contest. Or, if you’re in Tokyo, you can congregate in Harajuku on Sundays and have photos taken of you. Or, like this “Maid,” you can be hired [...]

Today’s adventures took me to Akihabara, the electronics and (now) anime-manga-video game otaku district of Tokyo. The block pictured here houses several multi-floor stores full of anime, manga, video games, and all the associated paraphenalia. Photos inside are verboten, but I managed a few. Here is one up the stairwell of Animate:

Part of fan culture [...]

Wooden Sake Cup Guys

I think we have some typical Japanese advertising wordplay going on here. These little guys were in the Kyôbashi Post Office window. I didn’t think to see what exactly the ad was for, but I’m guessing postal savings accounts. Why? Well, the Japanese for this kind of sake cup [...]