Two things I really really want to see but I think I may have a hard time tracking down:

1) Kamome Shokudo (The Seagull Diner)

This just sounds so charming and quirky. And it centers on one of my favorite things to eat, onigiri yo!

2) Kafka Inaka Isha (Franz Kafka's A Country Doctor)

Just look at the art!

Just when you thought Japan couldn't get any more wackalicious, and just when I thought I had a full plate of things to do when I visit next:

Hibaritei: Japanese Salarymen Dress As Maids













This is the latest spin on the popular Japanese maid cafe where women dress in provocative and/or Lolita maid outfits and welcome customers as "masters" while serving tea and snacks.

Hibaritei features "maids" who are men. In Akihabara, it's common to see men dressed as maids or their favorite anime characters, but this trend has reached new heights with the launch of cross-dressing maid troupe Hibaritei. In a twist, the cross-dressing maids are all weekday salarymen who are straight, most having girlfriends. These men are not financially troubled in any way. Most work in IT companies and come to Akiba often because of work.

Despite having a rather unconventional all-male staff, Hibaritei does not fall short of the usual services one finds in a typical maid cafe. We can hear the usual "Welcome home, master!" greeting, omurice with ketchup writing, cheki service and even a customized gatchapon (capsule toys from vending machines) with original Hibaritei character badges drawn by their in-house illustrator. They also feature a lottery style gatchapon (300 yen) that allows you to win an original photo of the Hibaritei maids. No two are alike.

BTW, I've never seen anyone -- man or woman -- dressed like an anime character or a maid in Akihabara (Harajuku, sure), but maybe I'm not frequenting the right joints. I did see a man dressed as Sailor Moon at 3 am in Shinjuku's gay quarter, but I don't think he was plying tea and curry.

Oh Nihon, while you are still bizarrely homophobic and outrageously rigid in your gender roles, you still sometimes outdo my Bay neighbor, San Francisco, in wacky fabulosity. It's always the quiet ones, isn't it? I'm almost afraid to ask: What will you think of next?

Last night I watched Tekkon Kinkreet, the anime based on the phenomenal serialized manga and graphic novel of the same name, by cult mangaka Taiyo Matsumoto. Magnificent!

I first encountered Taiyo Matsumoto on my second trip to Japan in 1998, by way of my friend Kentarou, also an artist. I picked up Matsumoto's first artbook, Hyaku (One Hundred) on Kentarou's recommendation, and then and there I was hooked.





































One thing that I find done so well in Japanese manga -- Matsumoto in particular -- is the world through a child's eyes, as well as what one could argue is the ultimate conundrum of the human condition: the line between good and evil, and that blur that makes life so interesting.

Like my famed Japanese instructor in college always said, the Japanese rarely invent things, but take old ideas and make them better. In the characters Kuro (Black) and Shiro (White), Matsumoto takes two old symbols of death and purity (or, used together, the stark lack of grey area), imagines them as orphaned street kids, and drops them into his fantastic scribble-scrabble of narrow, crazed back streets in a Japan forgotten under the neon and noise.




























This is a sentimentalist's Japan, laced with old school yakuza drinking in alleyway nomiya while old ladies shop for discounts at the once a month village bazaars. But this Japan is also alive with a childlike sense of wonder, and fear, as well as the impending creep of modern "progress." To me, it's the romanticized, contradictory Japan of my parents' time there -- full of wonders and mystery and knowing, yet innocent, gritty, and full of tired resignation in its promise of what is to come.

The film Tekkon Kinkreet is very true to the original works. Beautifully rendered, with a compelling story full of the importance of fidelity, acceptance, and love -- with a little bit of Zen thrown in for good measure. I was wholly impressed, especially with the successful adaptation to screen of the spirit of the mad, intricate, and dreamlike art of Matsumoto. The attention to detail was amazing. There is a background scene where a mini rocket punctures a large hot-air-type balloon in the shape of an animal head, and the way the balloon careens and then deflates, causing an explosion, is actually breathtaking. Bringing movement to White's vivid imagination is also put to the test, and it is just as phenomenal, whether in its simplicity or its schizophrenia.



Highly and enthusiastically recommended.

Be happy, be happy.

My good friend John gave me and the hubby the full collection of the excellent Japanese anime, Death Note, in Japanese with English subtitles. I haven't read the manga, but the anime is so well-done -- I'm addicted! These little gems are beautifully rendered, classic cat and mouse game vignettes, punctuated with the Japanese obsession with oddball, preternaturally intelligent, ennui-inflicted teenagers and crazy ancient gods.












And of course, there are the requisite ubiquitous J-pop anthems by bands with names like Maximum the Hormone. Righteous!

Check out the trailers on the official website, see some bits of English dubbed episodes on Adult Swim, or you know, get it how you can. Highly recommended!