Manga in the rain

The remainder of yesterday was a lot more fun, in a totally unplanned sort of way, than I expected. First off, after dinner Hiroko, Haruka and I went out to play with fireworks, it being a Japanese summer tradition and summer being on its way out. They were small, and hand-held, and I was introduced to Japanese senkou-hanabi ("incense stick fireworks"), which are a bit like sparklers held upside down, with a bead that slowly travels up the string from the bottom. Wielders compete to see whose lasts longer, with the added challenge that movement can cause the bead to fall off. I brought my camera, and together we tried to capture the trailing flares of waved fireworks (which looks absolutely gorgeous when done right), but sadly failed. Perhaps I should have experimented with the shutter speed.

On the plus side, I finally have a decent shot of Haruka (though she complained that she wasn't looking her best that particular evening).

Afterwards, things went less according to plan. The Code Geass DVD we'd rented turned out to contain only the one episode we'd already watched - pure madness, especially given that the first 23 episodes of the season were spread across 9 DVDs at the shop. So no anime for us. I guess we'll see today how she feels about getting more.

A little later, the whole family took turns teaching me Japanese proverbs (as well as the insanely obscure first kanji in their surname, 齊). The most telling was "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down", an injunction against individualism and free thinking (which are seen as disruptive of group harmony). This is a fairly prevalent attitude in Japan, especially among the older generation, though not in the Saito family (Haruka, being one of those nails, is often frustrated at her academic environment). Afterwards, we swapped around and I listened to Haruka read out an English passage from her textbook on biological symmetry and its evolutionary roots, and corrected her pronunciation. Because she's planning to apply to do medical science at a high-profile university, and become a geneticist (she has a particular interest in organic chemistry), she needs to be able to read some pretty advanced English. Frankly, the standard required terrifies me, in that it is barely a step removed from the texts I saw being read by native-speaker Oxford undergraduates.

The plan then, I was told, was for both of us to finish up the manga we'd rented - turns out the due date is today (the next day) in the evening. Two day rentals for reading material? Well, I guess it's only manga, which is fast to read (Haruka, incidentally, has exceptional reading speed - she says it takes her 10 minutes to read one volume, whereas I take 20-30 in English). At any rate, I felt the chances of me finishing both volumes in 24 hours, given my schedule, were a lot lower than doing so in the time I thought I had. (Actually, writing at 4pm, I've still barely started).

Here, too, things did not go according to plan, but in a good way. I brought my manga downstairs, where Haruka was reading hers and Hiroko was slowly falling asleep on a nearby sofa. However, I did not get beyond the cast list at the beginning before Haruka and I started talking...and didn't really stop until Hiroko finally woke up and pronounced bedtime just after 11pm. In spite of the language barrier, we turned out to have a lot in common, from values to similar changes in character brought about by severe physical trauma in our teenage years. Frankly, perhaps I should have gone along with Haruka's intent to wake Hiroko up earlier, because it was definitely one of those nights - the kind where, in the past, I've stayed up talking past 5am. Mind you, Japan still has a half-day of school on Saturdays, so it might have had repercussions.

Side-note: turns out I got Maron and Coron the wrong way round (the photo has since been corrected). This also casts into doubt my understanding of where Maron's name comes from.

The next day (i.e. today) I discovered that our timing with the fireworks had been perfect, for it has been pouring down all day. Accordingly, my sightseeing options being limited (especially in light of the Kyoto National Museum being closed), I headed for the Kyoto International Manga Museum, a holy place of great glory.

The exhibits, both standard and temporary, were exceptional. I looked at a history of manga, with samples, all the way back to its 300-year ago origins in caricature, and its later rebirth after Japanese contact with American newspaper comics. There was also a temporary exhibit on the history of 4-panel comics, together with some entertaining "best of" samples drawn by past visitors. I loved an impressionistic strip on the readers of different manga types by a girl from Barcelona.

Sadly, most places had signs forbidding photography in order to preserve copyright. The one exception, with a lot of photography going on, was that I happened to arrive on the day of the Museum's huge cosplay event, an opportunity for fans from across the whole country to meet, make friends, take pictures of each other, and, of course, read manga (the museum's inside being lined by a vast Wall of Manga, free to read).

Code Geass: Lelouch looks haughty while Suzaku slips into shadow.

Bleach: an unusually young (and shy) Ichimaru Gin, with faintly bemused Yachiru. You can't see it well, but Gin had a katana, while Yachiru was carrying a parasol.

There was also an amazing trio of Kuroshitsuji cosplayers, but by and large the series were ones I didn't recognise. I therefore moved on to other exhibits, such as a temporary gallery of the works of Bome, the world's supreme anime-style figurine maker. His works are all cute girls (bishoujo), and many feature limited nudity. His skill, however, is undeniable - the figurines look alive, as if they are frozen in mid-motion, both in terms of pose and the flow of their clothing, while the colours and level of detail are just as vivid as if they'd just stepped off the screen.

Other highlights included a tech room where one could try cutting-edge computer-aided manga design, as well as a regular display of kamishibai, an old-fashioned entertainment form in which a narrator draws illustrations out panel-by-panel while using their voice to build up suspense and draw the audience in. Great for the kids, more a point of cultural interest than of entertainment for me (though it always does one good to see a professional entertainer at work). Also a 13-sketch gallery of works by Miyazaki based on a conversation he had with the museum's director about building a perfect town - the sketches feature not only views of said town, but explanations by a cartoon Miyazaki (he draws himself as an anthropomorphic pig), even as he argues with said director (an anthropomorphic dog) and a variety of guest characters from the Ghibli films. Totally awesome, and an insight into a unique worldview (for example, a hospice for the aged near the kindergaten, so that kids can sneak in and talk to the old people). Anyone with even the slightest interest in manga should visit - and if I lived in Kyoto, I would totally take advantage of their year-long free pass.

Actually, the best thing about the museum is that it's not just a display of manga history and cool stuff. It also plays a huge role in preserving and promoting manga as a medium, including collecting historically significant works, being the headquarters of a pioneering perfect-copy technique called Ganga "Dash", and offering research facilities to scholars wishing to study parts of their vast collection, as well as hosting various academic meetings. 

But all good things someday must end, and eventually I walked out of the museum back into the rain. I felt like taking a long walk (there being nothing quite like walking in the rain just for the sake of walking), and my map informed me that I could walk through a certain point of interest (an old-fashioned entertainment district) and gradually end up at the Internet cafe from yesterday, as well as a subway station close to home.

The walk was wonderful, wet shoes nothwithstanding, but I never did find my objective - it is a small alley, and the rain did not left me consult my map at will, so eventually I gave up and am now here, at the cafe, offering this brief update. The rain should clear up tomorrow, and I can return to my sightseeing.