Mini guitars! From F-Toys and Media Factory

I love mini-things. Take anything and make it mini and it's instantly cute, but do that while retaining all the detail of the original and then you've really got something amazing. I really couldn't help but pick up all of these that I saw on my trip to Japan last month - they're just too cool.

These are all limited edition and they only produce certain ones at certain times. Right now they're doing the 1962 Jazzmaster (how could I not buy that?), the 1968 Stratocaster and the 1962 Precision Bass. People seem to snatch these up as soon as a new batch is out there, so this is all they had at any of the stores I went to.

Each one comes with a pamphlet that has info on the exact guitars that served as the inspiration for the model. (All in Japanese, unfortunately, but... pictures!) I'm not sure they're all like this but the ones I have all show an original vintage guitar on the left and a reissue version on the right, so you can play spot-the-differences.

I've since picked up a couple more! I found the Gretsch and the 1954 Strat on Amazon Japan. They have a few others too, but it's not like I can just blow $100 on toys whenever I want. (These are about $20 each, plus shipping.) Yes, the cases do work and they look like a real case inside - I have that exact Jazzmaster case, so it's easy for me to compare. Some of these also come with accessories like bridge covers and back plates. All come with straps. It's probably hard to see, but they even have real strings!

I've decided to eventually collect all of these. Quite a project, especially since it seems difficult to figure out what's already been produced, and by whom - and all are limited. What I do know is that there are two companies producing mini guitar toys - these are from Media Factory, but there's a competing line from F-Toys. The standard scale is 1/8, although there are some anime-based collections that are 1/12 scale for some reason. This is what I know exists - please help me fill in the gaps if you know of any others:

Media Factory:

• Fender "The Best" collection (1/8 scale) - still in progress, appears to be 6 models so far
• Hide guitar collection (1/8 scale) - 7 models plus one secret model
• K-on! guitar collection (1/12 scale) - 9 models
• BECK guitar collection - "hyper grade" model (1/12 scale) - 10 models plus "some" secret models
• BECK acoustic guitar special collection (1/12 scale) - 10 models plus "some" secret models
• BECK guitar collection 4th stage (1/12 scale) - 10 models plus one secret model
• BECK guitar collection 2nd stage (1/12 scale) - 9 models plus one secret model
• Gretsch guitar collection - the Guitar Legend (1/8 scale) - 7 models plus one secret model
• Gretsch guitar collection II (1/8 scale) - 7 models plus one secret model
• The Guitar Legend Guitar Case by Zemaitis & Greco (1/8 scale) - 8 models
• The Guitar Legend by Zemaitis & Greco (1/8 scale) - 10 separate models, 3 variations and "some" secret models

F-TOYS:

• Fender guitar collection 1 (1/8 scale) - 13 models plus "some" secret models
• Fender guitar collection 2 (1/8 scale) - 12 models plus what appears to be 2 secret models
• Fender guitar collection 3 (1/8 scale) - 10 models

I may skip the anime stuff, although maybe not because they are real guitars and you can't get some of them otherwise.

I think it'll be fun to try to get all of these!

Aldious - District Zero

One of the cool things about my job is that I get to meet really cool people. Last year we met, shot some video and then got to hang out for a little while with Re:NO, who is now the lead singer of this band, Aldious. She's actually really nice and very friendly. This kind of music was actually probably more my style when I was a little younger, but I still want to promote people that I like.

They're another type of band you don't often see in the United States - the all-female virtuoso metal band.

You can get this CD on Amazon Japan.

Random Picture Dump - Japan 2013 trip report END

After every trip report I do, I end up with a bunch of photos that don't really belong anywhere else but that I think are funny, weird or just have their own little story behind them. I like to share those in one big picture dump at the end, along with any random thoughts I may have had about Japan this time - the country's in a constant state of change, and is now almost unrecognizable from when I first visited in 2000.

Some of these have already appeared individually on my Facebook and/or Twitter - sorry if you're seeing them a second time!

Japan's crazy about corn soup right now. (That's a pretty unlikely combination of words, if you think about it.) Here you can buy it in a vending machine. Of course, I had to.

This is vending machine corn soup. Looks like your basic cup of bile, right? It actually tasted good and hit the spot - it was cold that day.

This is a corn soup lollipop. Yes, I'm serious.

This is what that thing looks like. It is literally frozen corn soup on a stick. It even has real kernels of corn in it. This was... a little weird. Too sweet.

We hardly did any geeky, otaku or "moe" type stuff on this trip (am I outgrowing it? No!), but this @home cafe ad made me nostalgic for last year.

Also, you see the AKB48 billboard below... no, I still did not manage to get tickets. Sad face. I did notice that Japan didn't seem nearly as gaga over them as the last couple years, though. I think Maeda Atsuko leaving had a big effect. I didn't see nearly as many ads or other things on TV (I did see one show they co-hosted, but that's down from about 100 last year). There are a lot of new girl groups that it seems like are being groomed to replace AKB48 as a cultural phenomenon (in the same way AKB48 replaced Morning Musume), and meanwhile, a few of the individual girls are being heavily promoted on their own... without the rest of AKB.  I feel like it's the beginning of the end. Some of the girls are almost 30 now, which is "old" for an idol group. And the new girls they bring in never seem to get as popular, because people always compare them to the original members. So idol groups like them always have a limited shelf life.

Doesn't this look like some sort of practical joke? Or the beginning of a carnival fun house ride? This was difficult to stand on!

This is the first ¥2,000 bill I've ever seen - I didn't know they existed before. It's like a $2 bill in the US - many people in Japan have apparently never seen one, and a lot of people just keep them as collector's items if they get one. I spent mine, because what the hell. Apparently these are more common in Okinawa, because the scene in the art is Okinawan.

What, you think I didn't go to McDonald's while I was there? Believe it or not, I don't post everything I do! I'm pretty sure I went four times, and on one of those trips, I tried out the "TeriTama" - or teriyaki egg burger. I like the regular one (no egg) better.

We had a little trouble figuring out the climate control in our Okinawa hotel, and came back one night to find actual ice on the windows. This is not because it was cold outside, but inside. That's condensation from the warm outside humidity that froze on the glass because we couldn't figure out how to turn off our air conditioner.

This is sake with real gold leaf. Nobody I was with knew this existed before - everyone was taking pictures! (It's cropped so close because this is my in-laws' house.)

We were very impressed with how clean this escalator was. You could eat off of it!

One of the interesting things about Japan is how many different types of jobs there are that we just don't have here. I could write a whole blog post about how their entire culture is geared towards providing full employment, whereas our culture rewards companies that cut workers, which we think of as "efficiency" (and then we wonder why nobody can find a job). But in Japan, there is literally a person whose job it is to stand at the end of escalators and just hold a rag against them as they slide by, thereby cleaning it. They do this on the steps and on the railings, all day. They just move from escalator to escalator, holding that rag in one place while the escalator moves under it.

In the US, we would consider this a waste. In Japan, well, the escalators need to be kept clean, and people need to work. There's no debate about these facts.

This was kind of sad, and weird. This is the remnants of the Grand Prince Akasaka, which was once our favorite hotel (I'm surprised to find that this is the closest thing to a writeup I ever did on it). It was a rotting husk after 2010 until the big earthquake, when it housed evacuees for a while. Now it's under demolition, using a new and very odd process that I had to look up just now - we had no idea what was going on when we took this photo. It looked like it had been converted into a four story office building for some reason.

We went back to Hooters! Both I and my wife actually really like Hooters in Japan. (This was her idea, seriously.) The food is actually good and Rina was cute.

I didn't post about it because it'd basically be redundant, but we actually did a ton more guitar store shopping this time - we literally went to at least 15 different guitar stores in both Shibuya and Ochanomizu, plus a bunch of thrift stores too. I bought these pedals plus the pedal case - these are both rare and really expensive outside of Japan (in the $400 range). I bought them at a thrift store for pretty cheap intending to resell them, but I can't part with either one!

The earthquake-bent tip of Tokyo Tower is finally FIXED!

Incidentally, you'll notice this is the same view we had the last two years. This is still from the Grand Arc Hanzomon, which has been a favorite of ours since the Grand Prince Akasaka closed, in large part because of this view, but also the big rooms and ridiculously low rates they charge. We were a little disappointed in their service this time, though - they seem to be getting very popular and I think the staff was a little overwhelmed when we were there.

Well, that's probably it for this trip. I'm sure I'll be back next year (at the latest), so look forward to that, I guess.

Shuri Castle - Japan 2013 trip report part 13

The weather may have limited our options in Okinawa, but it's kind of obligatory that you go to Shuri Castle (Shuri-jo), so we braved the rain and fog. It actually ended up giving the place kind of a period-movie look - somehow it's easier to pretend you're really in the 1500's when the atmosphere's a bit dank. This castle was the seat of both political and military power in the old Ryukyuan Kingdom, when Okinawa was an independent country.

The path upward. Like most castles in Japan or China, Shurijo is up on one of the highest hills in the area - so you do a lot of climbing.

And the view downward to the surrounding area from inside the castle grounds. You can imagine how the king would have watched over his minions, and kept attackers at bay. It actually is genuinely interesting being in a place like this - it's very easy to put yourselves in the shoes of a castle guard and imagine what he would have been thinking as he saw this same view 500 years ago.

This is the main building, where the king would have lived.

Actually, Shuri-jo was almost totally destroyed during WWII, and this is a rebuilt structure. This doesn't mean as much in Japan as it does in the US - we're very hung up on originality, mostly because our country is so young that we still have a lot of our original historic buildings. Those we've lost have been replaced with strip malls more often than not, making us even more protective of the ones that remain.

But Japan (and Okinawa) are old enough that their historic buildings have often been rebuilt many times over already. By the time our country was born in 1776, this castle had already been here for 400 years, and had burned down and been completely rebuilt at least twice. So what's another rebuild after WWII?

This is one of those little things about Japan that I think most people probably don't realize (including tourists at these types of sites). I don't think any of the historic buildings I've been to in Japan are really more than about 40 years old, yet they remain major tourist attractions because the Japanese don't care about how old a piece of wood is, they care about the history of a place. And there seems to be a defiance about letting anyone destroy that history - they are going to rebuild things exactly as they were, whatever the cost.

This is part of the interior. My wife says you couldn't go inside at all when she came here during high school - probably it hadn't been rebuilt yet! Anyway I believe this is where the king's wife would have sat (I'm not sure if she was actually ranked a "queen"). The king's throne room is a lot more understated - basically just a raised platform in a plain room; not even a chair. All this ornate painting and decoration was associated with femininity.

I love miniatures. This is what the outdoor plaza above would have looked like during the coronation ceremony (at least I think that's what the sign said here).

The weather cleared up enough for me to buy this crazy ice cream. I actually don't remember all these flavors but none of them were what you'd expect by looking at it. I think one of them was persimmon, and I do remember the purple was sweet potato!

Like anyplace else touristy in Japan - including religious sites - there's a little village of souvenir stands and snack bars on the way down the hill, and there's a real restaurant that my wife said was also new.

The hill going down is lined with these trees with creepy above-ground roots!