New Years in Japan!

Alright everyone, first blog of the New Year!

I figure since we go to Japan so often, we’d cover only a few different points, so we’d always have something different to talk about each time! So here we go!

I have to say going to Japan, one of the things we all look forward to the most is the food. Anyone of you who know Andrew also know his love of all things delicious, so it is here that we find some of most delicious things! Take this for instance:

This is katsudon and it is DELICIOUS, and a tradition for myself and Andrew. We usually have it the first night we’re in Japan, right after checking into hotel. We got to share this tradition with Sam (who some may know on the twitter as Regris_Kallen) and he thought it was pretty good too.

 

Another one of the dishes that keep us going while scouring every shop we can. GoGo Curry is definitely a place we frequent, and can fill our stomachs with breaded pork and curry of rice of every size. There’s even a 2.5kg challenge in which they serve you 5 POUNDS of food and challenge you to finish in half an hour.

Hendane Horse even tried this once, and failed. It was amazing to watch though.

Let’s move on from food for a moment though, as I can’t forget to mention the two main reasons for this trip. Comiket 85, and New Years Day.

Let’s start with C85.

This is one of EIGHT halls designed almost exclusively for Comiket. Welcome to Tokyo Big Sight.

Imagine waiting in line for 4 hours, behind thousands upon thousands of other people who got there earlier, or even the night before,, in the cold (or hot if it’s summer), mapping out your route to get to all the artists you want to see and buy from, all the while praying that you won’t get to them before they sell out. That is Comiket. All the craze of the most crowded Black Friday mall opening, times a a couple hundred thousand people. Why do we do this? Why subject ourselves to this insanity? Well, simply put, it’s a blast, and an experience like no other. With hundreds of big name artists that change out every day, scores of pro cosplayers, and enough doujinshi, games, cds, tapestries, and everything in between to fill SEVERAL suitcases, we’ll struggle to see half of all this. This goes on for 3 days, while we search out the very best products, and then bring it all back for you guys.

The pain is all worth it. Suck it up man!

After this frenzy, we also like to relax, which brings us to the second major part of the trip. New Years Celebrations! On January 1st, we head on out of Tokyo proper to Kamakura, with its combination of temples, shrines, stores and festivals. This place has it all. The first place we go here is Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū, the Shinto Shrine in the center of the city. We make a prayer here for good fortune and luck for the year.

Along with pretty much everyone else within 1000 miles.

After saying our prayers, we fill ourselves with festival food, see the sights, and generally have fun the whole day! I highly suggest if you go anywhere for the New Years, it’s here.

Before I get rambling on about a million other things, we’ll bring this entry to a close, with what can only be described as the best.

THIS.

It’s EXACTLY what it looks like.

This is from Honey Toast Cafe. As you likely guessed, Honey Toast is a small square loaf of bread, hollowed out, then filled back in with even smaller cubes of bread, doused in honey. Cover it with ice cream, chocolate, berry, maple, or any combination of different things, and this is what you get. In addition to having these, the cafe also has honey drinks, desserts (and no the Honey Toast ISN’T the only dessert here), and a few sweet flavored entrees. I miss it already.

Next up for us, YUKICON Finland, and OHAYOCON 2014!

In the meantime, I leave you with this image that describes Andrew’s love of Honey Toast, and well, all food really.

Delicious.