Travel Missteps: I Swear its Not Porn

I became a Japanese Anime and Manga fan in 1998 when Sailor Moon (and later Gundam Wing) were aired on Toonami. I loved the artistic style and would brave dial-up internet to research other anime, how to draw the big eye style, and start teaching myself Japanese. It was hard being a fan back then as it was so new to America that most people didn’t know what it was.

I remember that most bookstores didn’t carry manga. I once asked for the “Graphic Novel” section, and a confused shop keeper took me to the adult pornographic section. (I was 11….this was jarring.) Or I was forced to brave the slightly scary Hot Topic for their small selection of manga.

By high school Anime and Manga were just beginning to become popular. I started going to the local Anime conventions. I remember my first one I was so enchanted with everything that I spent all of my money within an hour…even my food money. I resorted to dancing and speaking Japanese to other convention goers begging for Pocky (a Japanese chocolate cookie type candy.) I was definitely an Otaku. I was overjoyed when my high school started having official Japanese classes.

And then I got involved with the local Sister Cities organization because their sister city was in Japan. After a few years of hosting Japanese students over the summer, I finally was chosen to go to Japan through the exchange program.

The first part of our time in Japan was a few days in Tokyo on our own. I had done a lot of research and found that a district nicknamed “Akiba” or Akihabara in Tokyo was known as the Anime district. Since I was unofficially in charge of planning our time in Tokyo I reserved time to visit Akiba.

I sold my other exchange students and the chaperones on the fact that this area (sometimes called Electric Town) was where you could buy new Japanese technology. (Although I failed to mention the prices were insanely high, the products only in Japanese, and the voltage wouldn’t work with US products.) While we did get to see early smartphones that I didn’t see for almost 5 years in US, the group…didn’t really enjoy their time there.

The problem stemmed from the fact that while there is a lot of Anime and Manga that are made for children or young adults, in Japan it is also used for Adults and the Pornography industry. And it happened that many of the first floors of these shops featured 3 boobed busty anime babe…and tentacle porn…just out in the open. I had been forewarned by this from the internet but had neglected to tell the rest of the group.

So they refused to enter. One chaperone asked if I was okay, and I happily explained the kids stuff was on the top floor. I then went in alone and shopped. I got so many things…and apparently spent too long shopping as eventually my male chaperone braved the bizarre store to find me. I paid and we went outside to find the rest of the group bored and a bit upset with me. They were convinced that I was buying porn. Nothing I could say would change the minds.

Ah well. I had fun! But years later I stopped being an Otaku and got rid of 98% of all that stuff because I needed more space in my apartment. And of course, a few months after I donated everything…a NEW Sailor Moon series was launched and I’ve been pulled…slightly…back in. And I regret giving everything away. I guess I’ll need to save up for another trip to Japan!

Edit 2017: Years later, I finally looked at a disk that had photos other people in my group took. I really should have looked at it sooner because this gem was on it, featuring my group horrified as they waited for me to finish “shopping for porn”. Their “what the fuck” looks are priceless.

Travel Missteps is an every-other week series on how sometimes part of the journey is making mistakes and getting lost.