An American Naruto Fan in Japan

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

As I’ve mentioned around here before I currently live in Japan. So I thought I’d share a little insight as to what it’s like to be a Naruto fan on this side of the Pacific.

First of all, I can’t actually watch Naruto. Yeah, you read that right. Naruto is on TV Tokyo which is a station I don’t get. I didn’t get it when I lived in Sapporo two years ago either. In fact, I only get three channels and they almost never have anything good on. So TV in Japan is like what TV was like in America in the 1950’s in a lot of ways.

So here’s some brutal truth for you; first it’s not possible to watch Naruto in every home in Japan. Second, as a whole, Japanese TV both sucks and blows. I could go on a huge rant about that but that would be OT.


So let’s talk manga which I can get. There’s a used media shop right by where I do my grocery shopping and I’ve already picked up just over half the series there. Buying used is great because the shops won’t buy stuff that’s beat up and when you do the yen to dollar conversion I’m getting each volume for around $2.50. I also grabbed the three manga and anime fan guides which we’ll likely never see in English. This is a crying shame since they rock hard.

I’ve already completed the tournament part of the Chunin exams, the War of Sound and Sand, and Search for Tsunade arcs and have part of the Save Sasuke arc. I’ve actually picked up some good vocabulary words from reading these.


Now as for merchandise, I live in a small city (around 15,000 people) so they best I’ve been able to find here is a pack of bromide cards which weren’t all that impressive but did come with a very tasty stick of game the way sports cards back home used to.

The nearest large city is Kumamoto (I’m in Kyushu, FYI) which is slightly larger than Columbus, Ohio. Kumamoto has an Animate which is a really cool anime/manga specialty store chain. Sadly, the Kumamoto one isn’t as good as the one I went to in Sapporo. This one’s selection of video game merchandise is really lacking, the CD section is way too small and they don’t even have t-shirts.

But they do have lots of Naruto stuff. The coolest thing I’ve seen so far was Sasuke’s armbands. I thought about picking up the infamous Naruto ramen bowl, but getting it back to America unbroken would have been too hard so I passed. Of course there’s a big selection of cups, magnets, memo pads, buttons, calendars, pencils boards, mini-statues and just about anything you can imagine. I couldn’t find any headbands which really bummed me out. (I wanna be a Sand ninja!) Though I did find shopping bags with the Leaf and Itachi symbols on them.

I’m on a bit of a budget right now so I’ve had to keep my knickknack buying to a minimum. But I did grab a chibi-Sakura fridge magnet since it’s really cute and Sakura is my favorite Naruto character. Interestingly, in this magnet set all the characters’ name are written in English and Western style so my magnet says ‘Sakura Haruno’.


Oh, and before I forget you can actually buy the English editions of Naruto here too for only about $10. Kinokuya is a Japanese book store chain that always has a very nice selection of books and magazines in English and they have a manga section as well. I’m thinking of buying some English manga to show to my students. The kids at my junior high love Naruto though I’ve been keeping being a fan on the DL. I am supposed to be a teacher, after all.


Next, we come to capsule toys. You get these out of what look like big gumball machines for about $1 or $2 depending on the machine. I’ve grabbed chibi Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Gaara and Shikamaru from one without getting a repeat. The chibi-Sakura is coming with me when I go back to America for Christmas. I plan to hang her on my tree.

Now the chibis are pretty cool. But the best Naruto capsule toys are the diorama ones. They had the characters doing one of their special attacks! So far I’ve gotten Tsunade delivering a powerful punch, Kankuro with Karasu, and Naruto going Kyubi. They’ve got Temari doing Kamitachi, Sasuke doing Chidori and one other that I can’t recall at the moment. I think it might be Gaara.

Lastly, there are two Naruto novels out. I haven’t had much of a chance to look at them, but they cover at least up until the end of the Wave Country arc and use pages from the manga as pictures. I might grab those and the “Bleach” novels just to have them.


So there you have it. I hope you folks found that interesting.

Comments

[nasouiishimata.livejournal.com]

Yes, Kinokuya is wuite the nifty Japanese book store!(That is where I get my Japanese graphic novels, fanbooks, and other random Anime itmes.)

And about those magnets you saw, do you remember seeing any Matio Naruto ones? I heard an unoffical group released Matio Naruto fridge magents and various pins including the Deidara one.

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

Nope. Animate is offical stuff only.

Well, except for the doujinshi. But I don't look at that stuff since most of it is...well, you don't want to know.

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

I would but for some reason LJ is picky about letting me actually post to groups. I've been a member for months but still can't post in customers_suck.

[ninja-demongirl.livejournal.com]

hehe thats pretty cool. My uncle travels and i try gettin him to get something narutoish from japan but hes so lost in that stuff.

[doomsdayblaze.livejournal.com]

I found this post fairly informative! Kudos to you!

[reservoir.livejournal.com]

That was definitely an interesting read.

[sintari.livejournal.com]

Interesting read. You covered some of the things I've wondered about. Thanks!

[sakurak.livejournal.com]

Animate~~♥♥♥

As much as I love Kikiwai on my end, I miss stores like Animate, Mandarake, K-Books, and all the other second hand bookstores and whatnot. ;_;

[rhole.livejournal.com]

Always good to hear from a fellow Naruto fan on this side of the world.

Heh. Capsule toys and figures are one thing I didn't get hooked on (I think 600 yen upwards is a ripoff). And I wholeheartedly agree that Japanese TV = fails hard. Though so does the current filler arc (and the infinite ones to follow til next Spring).

[mipi.livejournal.com]

Is Animate a chain store? Do you think there is an Animate in every large city in Japan? Because my godmother lives errr... somewhere in Japan (I know it's a city) and she always tells me to tell her what do I want her to send me and I always wanted to ask her for Naruto stuff but I didn't want to bother her (because she'd have to look where to buy the stuff).... but now I am.

I know there may be other stores like that, but I want an specific name to make it easier for her. If I get the name of the city she lives in, I'll tell ya right away.

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

Most big cities should have one.

[splintered-soul.livejournal.com]

They had capsule toys back in Korea of gundams. Now I wish I still lived there to see if they ever got Naruto ones <3<3

Anyway, this is very interesting. Thank you.

[nereidaia.livejournal.com]

Don't tell me, I'm currently living in Yokohama. It's temptation everywhere. Naruto Manga, Anime, all kinds of fanstuff and stores that sell it a nearly every corner. And that's just Naruto.
I so have to hold myself back not buy all the stuff, especially when stores like Mandarake in Shibuya, Tokyo are only about half an hour away if you go by train.

[ex-duelist.livejournal.com]

Lack of Naruto merchandise = woe.

I was living in Tokyo for a while right between Shinjuku and Ikebukuro, so I was in the middle of anime fan heaven, more or less o_O...

[kylara.livejournal.com]

Wow, I found this really interesting. So, is TV Tokyo like a cable station, (like here in America,) where you would have to pay extra to get it? Or do you just not have the option at all? Do you pick up Shounen Jump, too, or just the Naruto manga volumes?

What's it like being a teacher over there? That's been one of my possible-maybe career options that I've been considering, so do you have any insight to give?

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

I`m not sure if it`s a cable station or not. Figuring out how TV works is big hassle here. But I`m getting internet TV soon so I`m pretty sure I`ll be getting TV Tokyo before the end of November.

I don`t get Shounen Jump because I can read the scans online later if I want to. Plus, SJs take up a lot of room and my place isn`t huge.

Teaching, well, it has it`s ups and downs. As we say in the JET program `Every situation is different`. I`m still deciding if I want to stay another year or not.

[flame-kunoichi.livejournal.com]

WOW!! thats so awsome to here a japenese perspective on the whole deal. and i wana be a sand ninja too! and thats so cool that manga only costs 2.50... its so expensive here!

anyway, thanks for that, it was really cool!!!!

have a cookie for such an interesting post *hands chocolate chip cookie*

[toad-senin.livejournal.com]

they have a naruto ramen bowl?

.. i want to eat ramen in a naruto ramen bowl..

sounds really cool to i'd have a bit of trouble not blowing all my money away in the store..

hmmm i wonder if your capable of getting a tour of a place that makes anime or manga.. kishimoto's office is pretty small but maybe anime would be possible. After all you can do it here with beer factories game places all kinds of places give tours.. just seems like it would be fun.

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

I don`t think most studios give tours. In any case, I`m closer to Korea than I am to Tokyo so that`s really not an option for me.

[toad-senin.livejournal.com]

bummer.. i think i'd have fun walking into random manga and anime offices telling them to give me a tour..

... i want a naruto ramen bowl ...

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

Have fun getting tossed out by security.

[toad-senin.livejournal.com]

sounds like fun.

[tsuru.livejournal.com]

Greatest store ever= Gamers on Akihabara. 6 floors of merch. It was AWESOME! But the tshirts cost around 30k yen (around 26-27$)...Consumer goods in Japan are so expensive!

[peridots13.livejournal.com]

Do you mean Kinokuniya? There's one of those in Rockefeller Center. I love that place. Japanese manga for about $6 a pop. Not as cheap as Japan itself (woe), but that's pretty good for international stock.

I wouldn't be able to resist a Naruto ramen bowl. I'd guard it with my life to get it back here in one piece.

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

Even if I did get it back what would I do with it? Odds are I'd keep it in the box and never look at it much.

[toad-senin.livejournal.com]

you could eat ramen out of it..

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

Out of a collecter's item!?

Besides, I don't eat ramen that much.

[toad-senin.livejournal.com]

bah it's not like it's going to escalate in value or anything.

personnaly i'd only get it to eat ramen out of.

But, then again i do eat ramen alot so i guess that's the difference between us. if i was in your shoes i might not get it either.

[peridots13.livejournal.com]

I'd use it. I'd make myself use it after spending money on it.

[tsuru.livejournal.com]

I love how during game shows and stuff they have the what people are saying explode across the screen and then everyone laughs.

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

I thought that got old after a while. Helpful for practicing reading though.

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip. I never did get around to seeing if there was local information on the offical site.

Yeah, the dramas can be pretty good. But I can't stand the varity shows. I can feel myself getting more stupid if start to watch them for too long. Though from time to time they can be funny.

I just want FOX Japan so bad I can taste it.