A very geeky weekend

Last weekend my friend Michael and I took an 11 hour bus ride to Tokyo to have ourselves a geek vacation, Japanese style. We went to コミケ 82, or Comiket (short for Comic Market) 82.

Twice a year, summer and winter, Tokyo hosts Comiket, a huge convention that's only purpose is to sell manga and anime related gear to masses of fans. It started as a market to sell doujinshi, or fan made comics (not published stuff) and had grown to involve a commercial market room and cosplay as well. It's main purpose is still to sell doujinshi though. Most of the convention space is in the East and West halls, where there's tons of tables set up, each with people selling their own fan made stuff, as well as original stuff. It's free to get into Comiket, but all there is to do there is take pictures of cosplayers, and spend money on stuff, so that makes sense. You don't pay money to go into a mall, right?  Most of the things for sale are limited edition things you can only get at Comiket, so many items sell out fast, and there can be long lines for stores. The Japanese Post office has a room where you can mail your purchases back home so you don't have to lug tons of manga around. I saw people packing boxes with hundreds of books. The amount of money spent at comiket must be staggering.

If you want to cosplay, and you know I do, you can't come/leave in your costume. You have to change at the convention center in their special changing rooms, which they'll charge you 800 yen to use a day. Better than causing huge bathroom lines I guess.

Comiket is held in the Tokyo Bight Sight convention center, which is just off Tokyo Bay.

Welcome to Comiket!

Michael and I took the metro to get there all 3 days. All 3 days the trains and stations around the convention center were packed! I think they did a really good job managing the crowds and getting them to keep moving. They had trains running every 5 minutes or so. Despite the sheer number of people, we were never waiting long for a train, though we had some very cramped train rides.

We checked it out to see how it all worked on Friday afternoon, then returned Saturday to huge crowds, and Sunday was even busier. Apparently, 560,000 people attended comiket this year. O.O I got stepped on, bumped into, and pushed a bunch of times. I also kept losing Michael.

One of the hallways leading to the west halls. The convention center is huge, and everywhere in the building it was packed like this.

Going up the stairs to the commercial merchandise.

On Saturday, I took my new costume I made to wear. When we arrived, we followed the signs to the girl's changing area. There I had to stand in line for about 10 minutes waiting to get to the changing room. I paid my 800 yen, and got a little book with a sticker for Saturday, saying I could use the room. It also had a map of convention center and little mangas illustrating the rules of the convention.

After paying, we were lead in a group of about 20 girls into one of the big ballrooms of the convention center. There were no tables, instead the room was broken into sections with tape and orange cones. All around, sitting on their knees in lines were girls changing, putting on make up, wigs, costumes, etc. It was crazy. I wish I had pictures since it was just so organized and Japanese, but obviously, no pictures of girls changing. As girls finished and left, the staff would lead new people over to sit in their places. There were no mirrors or counters, any thing you might need, you had to bring with you. You literally got a small square of carpet to sit and change in, in a sea of girls doing the same thing. No wonder all these girls brought huge wheely suitcases with them. It was pretty cool.

After changing, Michael and I went to one of the cosplay areas. The Comiket staff is very strict about taking pictures of cosplayers. You can only do it in the cosplay areas, and only if you ask first. Of course, if you're in cosplay in the cosplay area, it's kind of a given it's okay to take your picture, I think. They do this so there's not hall clogging, traffic stopping photoshoots in the convention center. Too many people for that.

In the cosplay area, for the most part, cosplayers find a free place to stand on the edges of the area and around the fountains, statues, etc. Then they just stand there until someone comes up and asks to take a picture. They pose, pictures are taken, thanks is given, and they return to just standing until someone comes up and asks again. Much like in America, if people see someone taking a picture, they'll jump in and join, but they often don't want to be the person to initially ask. The cosplay area was outside and really really hot and packed with people. Lots of guys with huge cameras. I got my picture taken (I think I was making the Christenson squinty face that dad makes because of the sun. Not particularly attractive... >.<) and I was interviewed for the Japanese TV channel Zip! for their morning show. Super terrifying, I'm sure my Japanese was just awesome. I feel bad for whoever has to edit that...

I cosplayed Tomoe Mami from Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica

It was really really HOT!!!!

So walking around Tokyo for 3 days and cosplaying really hurt after a while. I sprained my ankle, popped my knee out again, and my hip was bothering me Friday night. I was hobbling around like a little old lady. Ridiculous!

Other awesome things we did in Tokyo include:

Going to the Tokyo Evangelion Store

Seeing the new Tokyo Sky Tree

Seeing a huge Gundam!

We also visited my favorite cat cafe, Wendy's, and saw the new Pixar movie Brave since they don't have it subtitled in Shimane movie theaters, only dubbed. We met up with Mara, who I went to high school with, and took purikura with her and her boyfriend Kenji.

It was a great weekend, but rather geeky. Just the way I like it!

Maiko Henshin

I've returned from a lovely trip about Japan with my good friend Steve. We had a fun time, and I found some peachy new flavors of kitkats, so look forward to that! But today's post is all about Maiko Henshin!

Maiko are apprentice geisha, geisha being fancy performers of shamisen and dance who entertain gentlemen in by sitting with them and talking, performing, etc. Not prostitutes, and very expensive. Easily recognizable by their white face paint, kimono, and fancy hair. Maiko, as apprentices, are more showy and wear kimono with long sleeves and giant obis (the fabric around their middle that ties in the back.) A geisha's obi is tied in a fancy knot at her back. A maiko's obi is tied in a fancy knot at her back with long extra pieces of fabric that hang down. Usually maiko's have more decorations in their hair as well. Anyhoo, there is a surplus of information about geisha and maiko to be found, so if you're interested, go take a look. :)

So, Kyoto is pretty famous for Geisha, as it was the old capitol, and it had huge Geisha districts prior to the second world war. Pontocho and Gion are the most famous two. Our hostel for the Kyoto leg of our trip was in the Gion district. Because Gion is well known for geisha, there are many places you can go to get painted and costumed up to look like a geisha or maiko. Some even let you walk around Kyoto dressed like so. I chose just to get dressed up and get a few pictures taken, thinking I'd probably look pretty ridiculous walking around Kyoto as a 26 year old 5'8" maiko. It rained really horribly that day as well, which made me glad I hadn't booked a walk about session.

So, I showed up at Maiko Henshin's Sakuraten building at 10 am, rather drenched due to the rain and the great gusts of wind. I checked in and filled out my paperwork and was given a simple white robe, white tabi socks, and a basket to put anything I needed to keep with me in, such as my camera. I then was escorted to a locker room where I was given a locker and told to take everything off except my underoos and my tabi socks, and put on the white robe. I did so, put in my contacts, and then went upstairs for make up.

The make up artist seemed to enjoy my wings tattoo which was hanging out. She had me sit on a stool in front of  a mirror and put a wig cap on my head. Then she proceeded to put cleanser on my face, then something that felt like wax. Then she took a large brush and proceeded to paint my face, neck to my collar bone, and back to my shoulder blades white. I had to keep my eyes closed for most of it, so I'm not really sure in what order things happened, but I got eyeliner, blush, red about my eyes, eyebrows drawn on, and red lips. After my make up was finished, I was directed to the next room where I got to choose my kimono. I didn't really know how to choose or what to look for, so I just picked one at random that I thought had a pretty design on the sleeves.

After I showed the kimono dressers my choice, they hung it up on a rack, and stood me in front of the mirror. I got a red patterned wrap skirt type deal wrapped around my waist, a collar around my neck and all sorts of towel/padding type things tied all over the place with strings. It seemed very complicated. I really have no idea what any of it was. Then they put my kimono robe on me, and folded it and tied it with more strings, then the obi, an obi decoration belt thing, some more random stuff. It was all very heavy and constricting. After I was all tied up and dressed, the dresser folded my kimono up so it wouldn't drag, tied it out of the way, and sent me upstairs to the wigs/photo area.

In the wig room, I was seated on a stool and fitted with a wig. Then was photo shoot time, where they tried to make me stand like a delicate lady. Geisha smile with their mouths closed, which was very difficult for me. I think I may be grimacing in some of the photos.... woops. After the mini photoshoot, I had 10 minutes where I could take pictures myself, or friends/family could take them of me. This is where Steve was to come in, however he had gotten lost trying to find the place, and so there was no one to take photos of me. I snapped a few of myself in the mirror and then shrugged. Good enough. I was de-wigged, then went back downstairs and de-kimonoed. I felt so much lighter and free when all that was off.

One of the workers escorted me back downstairs and washed the white make up off my back for me, and showed me how to get it off my face. You didn't use water. Instead you take paper towels, put baby oil on them, take the make up off with the baby oil, and then use a dry paper towel to wipe the oil off your face. After all the make up and baby oil is gone, you can wash your face with water and cleanser. Once I was make up free and as clean as I was going to get, I took my contacts out, put my still wet clothes back on (yuck...), and went back in the waiting area/front desk. Steve had made it about 2 minutes earlier and was waiting. I paid, got my pictures, and we ventured out to see more Kyoto in the rain.

All in all, it was very interesting. I'd love to do it again sometime with a friend. I was the only person in the whole place there by herself. I think it would be much more enjoyable to do it with someone who can talk about the steps and take pictures with and such. :) I was also by far the tallest female in the room. lol.

So! Pictures!

 Check out those wigs behind me! Fun!

 Waiting in the wig room. My kimono is tied up so I don't step on it/drag it. the red flowered bit at the bottom is the wrap skirt, not part of the kimono.

My sexy neck painting! Back in the day, the neck was considered all sexy like. So they painted the skin but left the neck bare like this because guys were all like "Zomg!" It's the equivalent of wearing a short skirt in America. Here's a lovely quote from Wiki: "The white makeup covers the face, neck, and chest, with two or three unwhitened areas (forming a W or V shape, usually a traditional W shape) left on the nape, to accentuate this traditionally erotic area, and a line of bare skin around the hairline, which creates the illusion of a mask." Check out Wiki's geisha page for lots of geisha information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geisha

 Can you see my wings peeking out under the paint? lol