I’m finally back again~
Actually, I’ve been back in Germany for about a week now, as some of you might have noticed, since I started replying to the comments again.
Since it was, yet again, a trip to none other than Japan, I thought why not tell you about it? Some of you might be interested, so there you go~
First of all, it was “only” a 10-day-long trip, just like we did last year as well. Well, since this is still an anime-related blog, I’m gonna skip the parts about the amazing food, scenery, and tourist spots, in general, and get right to the things you might find a little more important.
For me, this trip was, of course, mostly a way to find all the yuri stuff that I couldn’t get pretty much anywhere else, as well as finding new yuri stories to read. As you may know, I don’t speak much Japanese, so right now, it’s more like I’m just looking at the pictures of the manga and doujinshi I bought, but I might have a solution for that, since I have a few friends who could translate some works and let me then edit them for you to see as well. Just to get you hyped a little, we might start working on the following titles (and many more):
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So the things I bought include the one’s I’ve just showed you, as well as quite a few others, such as these:
I got most of the doujinshi you see, directly at Comiket. We went there on all three days, and yet again, met a lot of awesome yuri artists. Takemiya Jin and Amano Shuninta were present again, on the first day. Takemiya’s line was pretty damn long, so it wasn’t that easy to get one of her works. Amano’s booth, on the other hand, was surprisingly empty. That seriously surprised me, since her works are all pretty damn amazing. Well, this actually made it possible to see Amano in action, meaning that we could watch her work on some new manga/doujinshi, which was amazing!
The second day was pretty much my personal Akaga heaven, with one whole section of artists lining up that only sold Akaga goods. Unfortunately, my favorite artist Nekomura wasn’t present this time, but I think the sheer amount of Akaga goodness that I could feast on was enough to make up for it~
Day Three, or “lewd day”, as I like to call it, had some more variety to offer, and I yet again bought… a lot… what a surprise, right? I met awesome lewd artist Isya again, bought my new favorite NozoEri doujin, “Encore!” by Mushiyaki, and discovered new amazing artists, such as Solala, who released NozoEri and NicoMaki doujinshi that are both amazing~ Other than that, I also got a glimpse of Monaco Meister, or Kodama Naoco, but admittedly, I don’t remember much, since it might have been a little too exciting for me…. Oh well….
So yeah, that’s what I’ve experienced at Comiket, though that is of course not all there is to the trip. Another big part of why Tokyo is such an amazing place for anime and especially for doujinshi fans are three shops you should probably keep in mind: Toranoana, Melonbooks and Comic ZIN. All three of them have a huge variety of manga, doujinshi, and other anime-related goods. As for yuri stuff, you’ll probably find something in each and every of these shops, though, be warned, especially in case of some Toranoana shops, you might find yourself unknowingly walking into an all-yaoi store, just as I did.
The best shop to find yuri works is definitely Comic ZIN. They seriously have almost everything you can think of, be it old or new. I found myself standing in front of 3 huge bookshelves filled with all kinds of yuri works, some I had never even heard of. Walk a little further, and you’ll stand in front of yet another bookshelf, this time filled with lewd yuri anthologies. And in yet another corner, you’ll find yuri doujinshi. I seriously felt like I was in heaven~
Finally, just like last time, I’d like to mention that Love Live! is still as huge as it could be. There are posters everywhere, like literally everywhere. I couldn’t walk for more than a few meters before being greeted by yet another one of the 9 members. This is especially bad in Akihabara, where every other shop plays their music out of speakers that should probably never be set to such a high volume. Well, I’m not complaining about this in the slightest, but I guess the hype for this show might be a little too big for me to understand. Still, what can I say, as long as this means that there are going to be more NozoEri doujinshi, I’m all good~
I guess that’s all I have to say right now, but feel free to ask questions if you want to know about anything~
YuriReviews and More 
I hope some day I will be able to afford a trip to US and Japan, sadly I dont have enough money to do this even I dont have passport 😦
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Okaeri !
Thanks for sharing. Comiket like always looks like heaven. And not just that, those shops ! xD If I ever visit place like that, I will propably die ;p (or sell my liver to buy all I want)
Nice to hear that Love Live is still standing strong there (well, ofc, just look at movie sales records). I'm curious what gonna happend with them after the last live, in spring (?).
Did you find any nice Kumiko x Reina doujins ?
p.s.
If you have time, mayby check Koukaku no Pandora anime, from current season.
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Your japanese is probably still a lot better than mine i sadly have the kind of voice which makes even speaking in my own language difficult lol also if you don't mind me asking how much did the flight and hotel come to? But before all that can i just say that i am totally jealous
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Comiket looks scary with all the lines… did you have to line up for hours before entering Comiket? Any cosplay highlights you saw?
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I also thought it would never happen, but look at me, I've been there twice already and I definitely don't have a lot of money.
So yeah, everything's possible really.
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Tadaima~
One of my top priorities was to look for Reikumi doujinshi and I actually found a few in the shops I listed above.
Though, none of these really spared my interest, as in none of these really had an art style that made me want to buy it, which is unfortunate…
Already watched Koukaku no Pandora and loved the first episode~
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Awww, that sounds cute actually 😛
The total price for both the flight and the hotel was about 1300€. It's definitely not cheap, but we booked so early that it wasn't that expensive.
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We arrived at around 10 am each time and got in about half an hour later. I think that's a good time actually.
Though, inside it was hell in some halls. Especially on the third day I can't really say that I was actually able to really call what I was doing there walking, since I was pretty much just dragged from place to place by the masses of people there.
As for cosplay, I didn't see that much this time. We had so much to get that we usually got out really late, missing most of the good cosplay.
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great grabs lena k. i want to see more and glad to see you had such a great time over in japan, i really need to go sometime but money is the issue for me maybe ill get a part time job soon and save up so i can go with a few friends and grab all the yuri and other anime related stuff i can get 😛
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So… um, where's.. Akaga? Maybe… Akuma no Riddle?! =]
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I went to japan for 6 weeks last september/october and spent around 3500€ +/- 500€ for everything (Flight, hotel, food, souvenirs, entrance fees etc. etc.). The flight alone (both ways) was 680€ 🙂
I spent more money in Tokyo than in any other city (I was also in Hakone, Shizuoka, Nagoya, Osaka and Kyoto). Just in case you want a bit more information 😀
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That sounds amazing! So jealous 🙂 Were you able to take any pictures of the mangaka and their booths? I would love to see what some of my favorite authors actually look like!
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That I see in the background, are doujinshis of Anya and Minami, from Idolm@ster ???
I want to see that, so long I'm hoping someone Translates, some, doujinshi of them, but so far nothing.
And it made me happy to see that Citrus occupied part at that store yuri
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Would really like to go there sometime myself or at least to go to Japan in general…
Hope ya had fun 😛
And since I've never been there before I got to ask: How crowded comicet is?
Also, was there, in Japan, some kind of good drinks you can't get in europe or food? I basically live from liquid :3
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For 6 weeks this sounds like to little!
I spent about 2000€ for everything and I was only there for 10 days… well, okay we went to Comiket, so I guess that's where most of my money was spent 😛
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It's all possible believe me. For some it will happen sooner than expected 😉
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No Akuma no Riddle, even if I was hat their booth at Comiket.
Though… there is certainly some Akaga as you can see up there 😛
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You're unfortunately not allowed to take pictures at Comiket (unless you ask of course, though not many are actually okay with it).
Well, I can kind of understand it. You don't want your coworkers to find out about the dirty doujinshi you draw in your free time, right? 😛
I was almost about to say, just ask what they look like, I might have seen them. Though, for me all of them looked great anyway 😀
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Yup I think that's them, though it was more like a “I buy this because I like the author” thing, than a “I want it because of the pairing” thing 😛
Since they are all done by isya, I think you might have to wait for a while. I know she's working on an English translation herself, but it might take some time.
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Comiket was crowded as hell, especially day three…
It was almost impossible to get to certain artists because of the masses of people trying to get through the way too small paths… Though, I think it's part of the experience 😛
As for food and drinks, Japan is like the best place to go!
We got tons of great stuff, but since you specifically asked for drinks, I'll just name a few things that stood out.
Milktea is something I don't get much in Germany, so I really enjoyed that, especially with tapiocas. Another thing we don't have are “floats”, which means that you get melon soda for example that is topped with ice cream. It sounds crazy, but I loved it.
Then we got all kinds of weird flavors in drinks we already knew, like white pepsi, melon flavored fanta and my personal highlight, Ramune~
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Welp, now I want to go there even more 😛
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c`:
There is still hope
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Thank you for sharing!
It's good to hear that you found interresting doujinshi!
That place you talked about (a full yuri store) look really interresting!
And i'm sorry to hear that you accidentally got into a yaoi shop! Really, you're strong! If that was me, i would have been sick!
Finally, i hope these doujinshi will be translated so everyone around the world can enjoy them!
Thank you again for your hard work!
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Walking into that yaoi shop was actually pretty fun. Well, it was full if yaoi stuff where I expected yuri. But we had a good laugh, so it's all good 😛
If possible I'd like to work on even more doujinshi, but I guess that's a little hard, especially with only one translator who is super busy right now 😛
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So did i got it right that for Yuri i only need to know about Comic ZIN? How did u found it? I wonder on what Lv ur Japanese is or how u study japanese i mean university or by urself or sonething like this. in a few month i will also move to japan for some time and i definitly want to see that yuri shop :3
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It's not just Comic ZIN, it's just the one with the biggest selection. Toranoana is worth taking a look at as well~
I studied Japanese on my own for a few months. I got myself some books to study with and just followed the units one by one. I think I did a pretty good job, though ever since I started working 8 hours a day, I completely stopped improving my Japanese skills and forgot so many things already… well, I still have my papers and stuff, but it's hard.
I sure wish you a nice time in Japan, get some good doujinshi~
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thanks, i hope it will happen to me soon
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Thank you for the other day!
I am very happy that you came to my space and enjoyed yuri-shopping in Japan!
Please let me know if you have a chance to come to Tokyo again.
If you are interested in Japanese local foods,
I can give you some informations about a good restaurant.
(I'm working near Tokyo station, so I know cheap and delicious store very well.)
Have a nice yuri-life!!
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Sounds like a neat trip!
Any chance that you've already read/seen some of the Yuri doujinshi in said shop? Makes me wonder how much is translated and online rather than just sitting somewhere, watiing to be read.
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Alright, i hope i will find them. Yeah its hard to keep on studying when u also need to work but i try to keep things up but yeah sometimes u just ask urself where is all the time gone?
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Sorry ;w; I'll come back to translating when I need to take a break from my exam preparation xD
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You sure know how to make my day! I'm so happy that you even took the time to get here and read this article 🙂
I am definitely trying to return to Japan, especially to Tokyo, since this is just the best place for me to be, though, it is so expensive that it's not somewhere I can go often.
As for your recommendation, I'd be glad to know what you'd recommend to me. The food in Japan is probably the best food in the world, so I'm all ears.
Thanks again and have a nice yuri life as well!
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I wasn't putting any blame on you, I hope you know that!
And stop apologizing already 😛
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Sometimes… more than all the time 😛
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In case of actual manga, most of what I saw has already been translated or is at least being worked on.
Of course there are a lot of anthologies that I have never seen before, but I guess that's no surprise given that the sheer amount of yuri is just overwhelming.
In case of doujinshi however things looks different. There are a lot of yuri doujin artist that are simply popular among us fans, and those are getting a translation rather than those of artists that are still unknown to us. So needless to say, there are tons of works that are still untouched, but there's no helping it really. There are simply too many for the scanlation groups to work on.
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Makes you wonder what potential Yuri gold is just sitting on some shelf, waiting to be discovered.
I'm tardy to the party, but welcome back!
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Had to google that last sentence, but I'm glade I'm a bit smarter now 😛
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