Sorry, I've been so busy lately I never finished my Fukuoka trip pictures (its been so long since I got back, I want to go again!)

The title of this blog says it all pretty much.  The last night before I flew back was a Saturday night and I ended up meeting up with some old friends of mine to hit some bars and catch up.  In addition to my old friends, I made a few new friends:

One of the fun things about Japanese bars is, you get a camera out and its an excuse for even complete random strangers to ham it up on camera (makes me believe this a little bit more, now that I think about it...)





I seem so less enthusiastic than everyone else... :-P


Since it was the last few days of August, this was considered the final weekend of the summer, so people were perhaps partying a bit extra hard.... and these girls perhaps felt it was the last chance this year to show off their yukata. :-P

(yukata + big hair girls = a staple of Japan in the summer time)

Is it real Gucci? I don't think so...
(sad thing is, this is the second man carrying a fake Gucci purse I've seen this subway ride!!!)

Some sort of hybrid monster?!?!

You saw it here first!

Last last Saturday while I was visiting Japan I was surprised to see that Nakasu,  the local nightlife-slash-red light-district (also known as the 'Den of Scum and Villainy') was holding a live Jazz event that night.

Nakasu is actually an island formed in a fork in the Naka river right before it enters Fukuoka bay.  At at least 4 or 5 locations in and around the island large stages and sound systems were set up for life jazz performances.    Ayako wrote about it in her blog as well.

Unlike Ayako,  I wasn't able to stop and enjoy the music,  I was just passing by on my way back to my hotel and just snapped a few pictures on my way through. 

This was an all female jazz group that was playing right in the middle of Nakasu.


As you can see they blocked off the road and a bunch of jazz fans had started collecting to check it out (only in Japan would you feel free to sit in the middle of a roadway without working about getting dirty...)

Actually I find this impressive and surprising for two more reasons - 1) they'd never do something like this in HK...   traffic flow demands and noise complaints wouldn't allow it.  2) This area is full of 'hostess bars' and 'snack clubs', and usually the streets are full of hostess girls trying to snag customers, so this type of classy music event is a bit of a clash! :-P

Bonus picture:

The main stage was actually located in 'Nishinakasu',  an area directly across the river.  I'm not sure who this guy is supposed to be... but he was worth stopping to take a pic! :-P

On my Saturday afternoon during my recent trip to Fukuoka, I stopped by one of my favorite shops in town.   In English its called 'Mandrake', but the Japanese name comes out to be 'Mandarake' (マンダラケ). 

Its a bit of an OTAKU PARADISE... full of anime, manga, toys, games and other collectables. Its quite huge by Japanese standards, like 4 or 5 stories.  Unlike a lot of Japanophiles,  I actually have almost zero interest in Japanese anime. (except for 宇宙戦艦ヤマト and マクロス...)   but this place is still pretty cool. 

I snuck a few pics during my return visit of some of the random stuff.

Actually the reason I used to come here when I was living here was because of my an interest in retro-gaming.   In Japan's used CD shops, you can get a LOT of 2nd hand OG games for cheap.  I used to come here for 1st gen Game Boy games,  but since I long since put away my GB Color,  This time I just checked out the Famicon and Super Famicon systems on display.

In addition to racks and racks of new and old comics and DVDs,  they also have some collectible toys of all sorts:

I don't even know what most of these things are, but the prices are all in the hundreds of dollars.  that one in the middle labelled 'ハチ女' (aka '蜂女' or Bee Woman), is from 'Kamen Rider' apparently.... and its price tag is about US$1,200 at the current exchange rate!


This is what the character is supposed to look like!   The girl on the right, with realistic 'stinger action' is actually former AV idol Oikawa Nao (及川 奈央)...

Speaking of AV...  since this is Japan and its Otaku paradise... you can't ignore the p0rn...

actually this isn't even p0rn... they're just creepy nerd products...


The top two rows are actually anime character themed Pillow covers... for what kind of pillow?  LOVE PILLOWs (抱き枕) of course... :-O

(bet you regret reading that last sentence... don't you!)   

If you want to know more about this disturbing part of Japanese otaku culture... click here!

Not that I read p0rnographic Japanese comic books, but one other display case in the store I thought was photo worthy was this one (not work safe btw!). 


Its not just p0rn... its not just comic book p0rn... its RETRO collectible Japanese comic book p0rn!

A bit eye opening in some ways...  just in case you thought the genre of school girls being tied up and sexually molested by space aliens was a NEW invention... apparently its been popular in Japan for many decades.

Prices range from about US$7-$50..  this is just the few things I took photos of... there's about a million times more.  I'll save it for the next visit. :-P