As if I hadn’t talked about it enough already, I’ll now close the topic by giving some general information on what happened during these 10 days I spent in Tokyo.
First of all, as many of you already know, I didn’t go alone. Mai volunteered to go with me, though I’m not sure whether she was actually regretting it midway through. 😛
We also met Marcel, a friend who traveled through Japan during that time, so we only spent around 4 days with him, but damn, he was such a great help that I just have to thank him again for everything!
Coming to the actual trip, we only visited some places in Tokyo. 10 days was just not enough to go anywhere else, especially since Comiket already kept us occupied for 3 days.
So what did we see? Our hotel was located in Shinjuku, which is probably the best district to just get around in Tokyo. We visited Shibuya around 4 times. It’s definitely the best place to do some shopping, and I think I did a great job when it came to that!
Next and probably most importantly, we spent A LOT of time in Akihabara. For those of you that don’t know why I love this district so much; It’s like the mecca for all otaku. You’ll see anime related signs everywhere. There are tons of anime, doujin, manga, and even adult visual novel shops.
Then there’s also huge stores in which you’ll get pretty much any electronic device you might need, and in the streets, you can listen to anime music as well as the cute voices of maids calling out to possible customers. It’s heaven I tell you! Though, many shops are really small, crowded and have their location underground, so the whole environment is not that pleasant if you’re not used to it. I can still see past that, since all the yuri greatness kept me distracted from pretty much anything else~
Moving on, we also visited Ikebukuro, which had surprisingly many anime related shops as well. The “Animate” main store had 9 stories full of anime goods. It was crazy! I think we spent around 2 hours in that shop alone, and it still wasn’t enough.
Lastly, we also did some things that every other tourist would do, like visiting famous shrines, the Tokyo Tower, or other famous places, like the world’s most famous junction, on which millions of people cross roads every day.
On New Year’s, we also tried to follow Japanese traditions and went to the Meiji Shrine, the place that probably most people in Tokyo visit during New Year. Well, we didn’t really know what to expect and thought that there would be traditional dances, some kind of ceremonies, music and fireworks. However, we were completely wrong. We waited in line outside for 2 hours, and by the end of it, the big “highlight” was throwing money into some kind of fountain. On the way home, we then got lost and returned to our hotel 3 hours after midnight. I hadn’t completely lost hope by that time, because I was still looking forward to my New Year’s mochi that I bought beforehand. Though, while opening it, it fell to the ground and that finally ruined my New Year…. 😛
The day after New Year’s, I also got sick, so I think we did something wrong during our time at the shrine. Who knows? But back to the more important topics like: How much yuri can you shop in a city like Tokyo?
First of all, pretty much every manga shop, no matter how small, has at least some yuri works for you to buy. Though, we are aiming for the big ones, more precisely the ones that have whole sections with yuri works, and there are certainly quite a few shops that will have just that for you.
Since Mai and I were after doujinshi more than after any kind of manga, we visited shops like Melon Books, Comic ZIN, and Toranoana a lot. I think the latter also became my absolute favorite store in all of Japan. I always found some nice yuri doujinshi in these shops, and you can basically find a Toranoana store within a 10-minute walk, no matter where you are in Tokyo.
Some of these shops were numerous stories tall, and even though everything was rather small and cramped, the variety was always top-notch. And since we visited while Comiket was taking place, their range of doujinshi changed daily, and even if we ever missed something at Comiket, we could just visit one of these stores in the evening and find it there. Well, we visited the two Toranoana shops in Shinjuku daily anyway, but that’s just because we couldn’t possibly get enough of it~
Still, despite how awesome I make it sound, yuri is not as big as I think it should be. I mean, there are whole shops that only sell yaoi, while there is nothing even close to that when it comes to yuri. Having a bigger yuri section is already the best you can get, and even if this is awesome, it still makes me wonder just why yaoi is so much more popular. But oh well, it still felt like paradise to stand in front of these huge bookshelves full of yuri magazines, manga, and doujinshi. I shouldn’t complain.
Let’s also talk about something that really surprised me in a positive way. I already mentioned it in my post about Comiket 87, but I now want to take the opportunity and talk about it a little more.
From the very first day we arrived in Tokyo, there was one anime that we saw pretty much everywhere. Love Live! is seemingly so big in Japan that you get whole gaming halls themed after this anime. You’ll hear the music everywhere, their faces pop up on food, drinks, and as huge wallpapers on buildings. You really can’t miss Love Live! because you’re reminded of it everywhere you go. I think it was even a little annoying at times, though as soon as we went to Comiket and saw the huge sections of yuri Love Live! doujinshi, I was all good with it~
So, yeah. This wraps up my trip to Japan, and just like mentioned before, I can only repeat myself. If you ever get the chance to do so, visit Japan. It’s awesome! I’m already saving up money to go there again, because that’s just how much I loved it there~
Lastly, here you have everything I bought, nicely arranged for you to enjoy:
YuriReviews and More 
That's a lot of good junk there.
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I fixed a couple of typos you had. 😛
Thanks on behalf of those of us who'll probably never get to go and have to make due with living vicariously through things like this. 🙂
I'm gonna miss reading these. 😦
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i want to go so badly. hopefully in the future i'll be able to go. Poor rock, don't worry maybe you'll end up going someday. i have a question though, can you read the doujinshi because it's in Japanese. How difficult would the trip be for someone who doesn't know Japanese?
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It sounds like you had a lot of fun! I'm hoping to be able to go there for the 2016 new year! How was the food there? Eat anywhere notable?
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Nice! Ich hätte dir nur gewünscht, besser ins Jahr zu kommen und vor allem nicht krank zu werden ;-/
Auf jedenfall hast du tolle Sachen abgegrabbelt hehe. Ich freu mich schon auf meinen 6 wöchigen Besuch.
Zu deiner Frage, warum es mehr yaoi als yuri gibt:
Nun, es ist in Japan damals so gewesen, dass Homosexualität ziemlich normal angesehen wurde (es widerspricht halt nicht der Religion). Erst durch den westlichen Einfluss wurden die Japaner auch etwas homophober. Da es aber sehr viele RL-Helden in der Geschichte Japans gibt, die bekanntlich schwul waren, werden schwule Männer nicht so kritisch gesehen. Da die Frauen aber, wie wir wissen, meist die (übrigens sehr hoch angesehene) Hausarbeit erledigt haben und somit nicht in Geschichten von heroischen Schlachten o.ä. erwähnt wurden, hat sich in Japan kein so großes Bild von Lesben entwickelt.
Im Alltag haben, laut meinen Quellen, auch weniger Japaner ein Problem mit Schwulen als mit Lesben. Wahrscheinlich spiegelt sich das dann auch in der Yaoi/Yuri Industrie wieder.
Das ist aber nur eine Vermutung. Natürlich hoffe ich, dass sich diese Bild bald ändern wird und wir genauso viel (oder besser noch mehr hehe) Yuri bekommen wie es Yaoi gibt.
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Using Google translate
Nice! I would have given you only wanted to get into better year and especially not to get sick ; – /
In any case, you hehe abgegrabbelt great stuff . I 'm looking forward to my 6 week visit .
To your question , why are there more than yaoi yuri :
Well it's that time been in Japan so that homosexuality was considered quite normal ( it is against not being the religion). The Japanese were also somewhat homophobic Only by Western influence . But since there are a lot of RL – heroes in the history of Japan , who were known to be gay , gay men are not seen as critical . Since the women but , as we know , most have done the housework (by the way very highly regarded ) and are therefore not similar in stories of heroic battles mentioned , has been developed in Japan not as big a picture of lesbians.
Have in everyday life, according to my sources, even less Japanese have a problem with gays than lesbians. Probably then reflected that too in the Yaoi / Yuri industry again .
But this is only a guess. Of course I hope that this picture will change soon and we get just as much ( or better yet more hehe ) Yuri as there are Yaoi .
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Wow! That is quite the haul you have there! I'm insanely jealous right now! Thanks for sharing your trip with us.
Just out of curiosity, how much did you budget for food, transportation and pocket money for all that loot for the 10 day stay. I'm told things are expensive in japan unless you know where to go.
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It was almost 5 kilos of doujinshi so you're right 😛
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Thanks mister YR-janitor 😛
Seriously though, I appreciate it, and every English speaker does so too 😛
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My Japanese is pretty poor. I can read some easy things, but that's about it.
I bought most stuff to just show some support to the artists that I love so much.
Also, I hope that a certain friend of mine translates some of them for me 😛
By the way, we managed to get pretty much anything by just talking in english.
They don't always understand you, but it usually works surprisingly well.
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We had some Omuraisu, or Omelet Rice which was really REALLY good.
Though, my Sushi experience was horrible 😛
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I read the exact same thing before going to Japan, so I had a lot of money with me.
Though, food is not expensive at all.
Of course there are high class places, but most restaurants have really reasonable prices and you always get free water, so in most cases it's not even necessary to pay for drinks.
(Though a coke costs under 1 euro in some shops, so that's really cheap as well).
Transportation was also really cheap, though I can only compare it to how things are in Germany.
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Ist also doch schon alles geplant bei euch?
Ich habe übrigens eine ähnliche Antwort wie deine schonmal gelesen und es gibt mir wirklich zu denken.
Jedes Land ist auf eine bestimmte Art und Weise durch seine Geschichte geprägt, aber dass es in eine solche Richtung geht finde ich, sagen wir mal neu 😛
Es ist wohl viel Wahres dran, aber ich kann mir nicht vorstellen, dass gerade junge Leute davon noch beeinflusst werden.
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Ja größtenteils. Flüge können wir halt erst ende Januar buchen :]
Ja die Richtung ist halt irgendwie anders als bei uns hehe. Und es stimmt: Junge Japaner sind da nicht mehr so eingeschränkt in ihrer Sicht. Aber das entwickelt sich ja gerade erst. Müssen wohl noch n paar Jährchen warten bis es Wirkung zeigt.
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Now you're doing the same, if you ever doubt again that I hadn't fun and wonder if I regretted it, I won't stop telling you that you felt annoyed by me in truth.
Never say it again. It wasn't because of you, it was because of me.
And I apologize that we took the wrong way 😦 again my fault D: and New Year's was also my fault.
So…do you now still feel like I regretted it? Or was it rather you who regretted it to come along with me?
Do you want me to stop? Then don't ever tell anything like this again!
Now that was serious. I hope you understand, and I really hope that you believe me when I'm telling you that I really enjoyed the 10 days with you. I could say that they were the best 10 days I could ever remember after my boring and depressing life, but you would just think I'm weird. You know that I'm bad with words, so I won't tell anything anymore.
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lover's quarrel for yuri fans. mai88 x lena k. shipping.
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don't ship too hard, you might lose your head :p
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wow that is a lot of stuff you got lena k. now i know that i have to go to japan, ive got to start saving up now
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oh my god, i read so many variants of this scene in yuri manga. First you have character A and character B getting sexual then bam, they stop. character A feels lonely or thinks character B is mad at her. One character always starts crying and they declare their love for each other. Now they are made up and love each other more than before. What kind of protagonist will Lena k be? This is like a mini manga unfolding in real life
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No what? Now I'm feeling guilty that these kind of rumors start…Please don't ship me and her, I don't want to make her angry.
What I'm referring to is a certain event, and she must have been shocked. But I feel better now that I talked to someone (you certain person, I hope you won't read this).
Still, I'm sometimes easily offended and I cry too fast, I'm worrying too much and this leads to certain circumstances, but it's not Lena's fault.
Today will be another hard day for me, so please don't start any rumors.
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Cheer up, Mai. 🙂
You guys know what this conversation needs? A completely abrupt change of topics!
CONGRATULATIONS FOR HITTING 1,000,000 PAGE VIEWS, YURIREVIEWS!!!
I hope you stay humble and grounded, despite your success. 😉
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Sorry for the inconveniences, you won't see anything like this again, this is my last comment. And congratz.
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@Mai88: Wow this sounds pretty personal, but pls don't stop commenting 😀 But some things may be better sorted out in PM's? And well @lena: CONGRATZ! You're a millionaire now hehe.
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Even though we don't know the circumstances, i don't understand why you don't vent to lena. i've been visiting this blog for about a year and even though i do not know her real life personality, Lena seems kind and understanding. Even though you did get her mad it's not the end of your friendship. It's like when you have two anime characters in a fight and there's so much drama, but you know things will get resolved if they only would talk it out. but i'm just a stranger of the internet what do i know. I hope you feel better mai and please we're only teasing you, there's no reason to feel guilty.
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Hoffentlich zeigt es überhaupt noch Wirkung 😛
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I've been away for just a few hours and I come back to see this? 😛
@all: Don't worry, everything's fine.
Mai is horrible with words as it seems (sorry Mai :P) and I think we just make everything worse by saying anymore.
So let's really just change topics right here.
Thanks @Rock The Vogt, I didn't even notice myself until just now, but it's super exciting!
And @everyone again: Thanks a lot for all of your support, I mean it!
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I can feel your determination 😛
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thanks btw how much was a ticket to japan???
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I'd liek to add a question: Where did you stay overnight and how much was one night?
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We stayed at Hotel Sunroute Plaza in Shinjuku, but I really don't know how much a night was. I suppose it was around 50 Euro, but I'm really not sure.
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@skydragonx8 the flight was around 1000 Euro, for both our way to Japan and back.
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wow 1000 euro thats about 1383 cad so i would need to save up a lot if i want to go but i shall do it
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It's certainly not cheap, but it was all worth it~
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i see well then wish me luck 🙂
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I do 🙂
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