Edit 1-9-09: Apparently the Japanese shorten “Comic Market” to “Comike” instead of “Comiketo”… you learn some thing new everyday.

So, the only thing I had hoped to see and haven’t seen in Japan is someone with a pompadour… but it could still happen. So far I’ve seen a guy pee against a wall, a bunch of homeless guys making their neat cardboard box shelters, Japanese christians doing a song and dance in a line (it reminded me of that Caramelldansen meme but with Jesus), Christmas boots (I don’t think they have fireplaces to hang stockings, so the thing to do over here is fill a Santa boot full of tiny gifts), Christmas chicken… thank you KFC, and also maid cafe girls handing out fliers.

Today we went super early to the first day of Comic Market to try to get a bunch of stuff. We waited in a packed ten person wide line for about 3 hours. It was rather cold but pack as close as we were it didn’t feel that cold… though you could feel the weather if someone near you sat down. I brought with me four hand warmers and felt pretty good. Comic Market is really odd. It’s completely the most gigantic comic con I’ve ever been too and there are people everywhere and the doujinshi are super cheap but the quality over all is like any other comic con. It’s like swimming through a huge pool of meh while looking things to find the few you like. Still, they were very cheap over here, I think the most I spent for any one was 600 or 700 yen. I spent 300 to 500 on most of them and one of them I bought for 100 yen. It’s sort of crazy to think that I spent all this money and went all this way for 300 yen comics. LOL.

I ended up with a few extras here and there… not sure what to do with those yet. I ended up getting an awesome Hellboy and animated Teen Titans doujinshi. I don’t even like animated Teen Titans. =D

We’re missing the beginning of the second day to go eat at Iron Chef Sakai’s restaurant but I think we’re planning to stop at Comic Market for the end of the day. Marcy likes Iron Chef so we also went and ate at Michiba’s restaurant earlier, we’ve been getting reservations for lunch where the food is way more reasonably priced.

We might be going early for Comic Market on day three and waiting in the line again. Man, I can totally see why they suggest that you make a list of places you want to go and mark them on the map… I tried wandering around and just looking as I walked but it all starts to blur together after awhile. The map is really the way to go.

I know they tell you not to bring the catalog with you… but most of the people in line with us had the catalog to look through. Or they cut just that one day out of the catalog, which seems like a great idea if you don’t want to carry the whole giant phone book sized catalog.

I think there was something else I wanted to mention… Oh yeah, I also bought clothing over here. The winter wear is soo cute, though it was hard to find a Japanese size big enough for my hips. At least now I won’t be soo cold, since I live in Texas I didn’t really bring that much cold weather wear.