ただいま💕 (Patreon)

Ah, I really missed chatting with everyone on here!

Last post I made was a little catch up about the COMITIA126/Kaigai Manga Fest (which went super well) and I was meaning to do another post while I was still in Tokyo, but I found the Patreon mobile app was struggling a bit under the weight of all the embedding photos?💦 So I figured I'd take my time with a nice luxurious post when I got home!

(Below will be some IRL photos!)

First of all, I wanted to share some of the books I got from Kaigai Manga Fest!  Both the festival and the COMITIA, as I understand it, are all original art- so there wasn't any fandom doujinshi there, but plenty of other treasures to find!

There were two artists there that I was really interested in picking books up from. The first was Kotteri:

This is their new artbook, which is huge, that features their OCs: a fancy socialite lady and a dapper soldier man who flirt a lot! (Haha, maybe you can tell why I like it!) I am not super sure what the story is, but I absolutely love their style and all the art they've been doing for this series. It's just so sensual and romantic? I also really like the vintage setting. They were super sweet in person! 

The next two books were by Batsumura:

The book on the left is a collection of their original art and the book on the right is an anthology of men's formal wear illustrations. There's a lot of silky vest textures and fine details.. Also, I just love the bit of darkness in their style. (I like where there a little shadow of danger lurking sometimes, haha!) they were also really kind!

I was able to visit the Vanilla Gallery!

This is the gallery where Kaneoya Sachiko sometimes exhibits her work. As you can see by the poster, I just missed her exhibit, but I definitely want to be able to plan my trip next time when she is having an event. (There wasn't much of her work up because another artist was on display, but it was cool to see what the gallery space looked like!) 

It would honestly be a dream to meet her.. I don't mean to dote too much, but I honestly think she is one of the most important creators of our time. She is absolutely incredible- I admire her and her work so much!

So, because I was unable to see her work at the gallery, I tried visiting this shop in Shinjuku called Village Vanguard. There was a section of the shop selling her merchandise!

I was unfamiliar with this shop (they have several locations in Tokyo.. even a cafe?) but they seem to rotate and feature different artists and their merchandise, kind of like a mini pop-up? That seems so ideal and brilliant? I saw a lot of different artists who had little nooks of their goods on display and I was just so intrigued.. It seemed pretty cool.

Next, I should get to the part that maybe my friends here are eager to see: I was able to visit the Animate and K-Books shops in Ikebukuro. (There's a little cluster of these shops in this area, so if you ever visit Tokyo and want to buy doujinshi (of course), this is your neighborhood.)

I really like this artist:

Their work is more sweet and introspective, plus sex! I found them on twitter a few years ago because they made this really beautiful book about this sweet vampire who gets taken in by a human and have been following them since. This is their newest book, so I had to pick it up!

I also got the latest book from Zaria:

(I forgot to take a photo of this one, but I took this image from a promo tweet here)

Zaria is amazing. Maybe some of you are already familiar with their work, but they draw amazing sex with a lot of horny passion and really good relationship dynamics, which is the best you can ask for, I think! Their newest book, Liquor and Cigarettes, is very accessible, but if you are looking for something with more dub con, I would highly rec Pet!

I found this doujinshi and I just had to buy it.. I had a scanlation of this for years and I always just loved it. It's really tragic and sexual and heavy.

(Also, a new Endhawks doujinshi that I got my grubby little mitts on!)

Probably one of the most unique adventures I had was visiting a bar called Guinea Pig:

This bar was amazing. I loved the interior, it was such a small, intimate, dark little cave. I felt like I was in a witch's den? Also, the bartender made my gin and tonic with gin that was in a glass skull?! I felt like I was being so personally catered to! 

I told the bartender that I was an artist from NYC and he put my cards up in the bathroom, which looks like you are inside some guts? It was great.

I was also able to visit Mount Takao for a day trip, it was really beautiful and scenic! I was glad to get a little bit of historic sightseeing in on my trip.

This is all about an hour and a half train ride out from Tokyo! (Those chair lifts are originals from the 1964 Olympics!)

And Akihabara, of course:

Some shots from around Shibuya, where I was staying:

I hope you enjoyed this post! This was only my second time in Japan, but I look forward to the next time I can visit. It was such a great experience and I was so happy to be able to go and do a convention there! 

Since this was such a big trip, I plan on taking it easy for a while on travel- I won't be doing any cons for the spring! I want to concentrate on Starfighter and Pain Killer (and other goodies).

Thank you all for your patience and your support, as always!🙇‍♂️💕