Gaijin • Tokyo • Undergound

At the end of last month I got to see the new Ghibli Studios film 借りぐらしのアリエッティ a.k.a The Borrower Arriety. Miyazaki always makes beautiful movies no matter what. This story though, the execution of it didn't fell well fleshed out, and didn't feel epic enough. It revolves around the world of tiny people who live in our world. There should be more magnificent trails they would have to go through making their way in our world, but they didn't explore that aspect too much. Overall i would still suggest to see the movie because it is beautiful, but dont expect to feel satisfied with the story.

The Borrowers

借りぐらしのアリエッティ (Japanese)

Based on: "The Borrowers" (novel) by Mary Norton

Plot Summary: Sho moves into his great aunt's house and soon discovers the presence of tiny people, the Borrowers, living there. A 14-year-old Borrower named Arrietty strives to prove herself by helping her father gather materials that her family needs from Sho's new home. However, Arrietty and Sho meet, breaking the rule that humans must not know about the Borrowers' existence. As Sho and Arrietty's relationship develops, human interference endangers the Borrowers' lives. Arrietty and Sho work together to try and protect the Borrowers' way of life.

The creator of the famous Anime and Manga known as Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo has created a highly deatiled illustration for the grand re-opening of the mall in Kichijoji station, Atré.

Theimage portrays a fashionable young gal wearing a hat covered in bits of Kichijoji culture. There are a few arches depicting Naka=mich, Sun Road and Penny Lane, all which are the main shopping streets in the area. Also the food and drinks because Kichijoji is known for a very large selesction of resturants and bars. Another cute reference point is the Swan Boat. This is from the Inokashira park where it has a famous urban legend about the pond in which couples can rent this boat. It is said that couples who ride these swan boats will shortly break up. And if you havent noticed, the random pieces of clutter on her hat make up the name "Kichijoji".


There are many of these posters, and even larger ones posted around the area. I would love to get my hands on one but they are well protected. Luckily there are hand outs at the Atré that have this image on the cover. Would you be interested in having one of these as a poster? I might be inclined to give some away if people are interested. Leave a comment below.

Its the point in the year where the shops start setting up all the Halloween items. Ove the last few years, Halloween has become more and more popular in Japan. So has all the promotional items. Here is the new Rilakkuma halloween candy buckets promotions.

My hobby [addiction] playing UFO catchers puts me up for the challenge to always find the KEY POINT to hit the prize i want into the hole. This one can be super simple if you know the right way to hit it. Last friday I saw the lady setting up this display for the Halloween campain to start. I had to come back later that evening to try and play it then.



When I got back, there was a deranged looking lady playing that Rilakkuma game. I walked around and she was still playing. I watched from afar and saw her put in at least 1500yen, and yet she didnt get a single one. She dropped her head in defeat, grabbed her giant oversized, overstuffed purse and clompped off. She had knocked all the cans around, so i had to ask a worker to reset them for me.






It took my two tries before i figured out how to win the prize. The Key point was to it the front corner of the can and it would knock it over. The handle is set up to make you think to grab the handle, but its only for show.

From the Manga and Anime series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure which started in 1987 in the weekly Shonen Jump magazine has started a release of its figures in the UFO catchers. This one here is Jonothan Joestar which i was able to get in 4 tries from the game center Zest in Kichijoji.

When researching more info on the figure series, i found some images from a preview event of the figures, that depict a totally different clothing scupt than the one released in the UFO catcher now. I would have to wonder if this would be as an alternate realease later?

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA is a Virtual Idol and has an arcade game that came out a couple months ago and always has a line. This game center in Tachikawa even made a waiting area for the game with 3 units available to play. I know in Ogikubo, there is always at least 3-4 people waiting to play this. I havent seen people wait to play a game like this since the popularity peak of Dance Dance Revolution.

I LOVE RILAKKUMA, so of course I want to try and win new Rilakkuma prizes. The new series has him with Hotcakes! SO CUTE!!! There is another one with him lying down with the hot cakes i want to win. Maybe tomorrow ill try and get it.

GLAY is one of my favorite Japanese bands, so when i saw thier song "however" on TV i had a otaku moment, but then realized the songs lyrics were changed. At the end it revealed it was an ad for CUP NOODLE by NISSIN http://www.cupnoodle.jp/cm/index.html, which the last few months have made other alternate versions of songs promoting this instant noodle product.






This is the version Jamiroquai "Virtual Insanity" promoting CUP NOODLE