Dan Ryan's Tokyo in the Underbrush

Longtime reader and fellow blogger Dan Ryan recently sent us a link to a phenomenal photography portfolio he put together of tramps, drunks and homeless taken around Tokyo. Now before anyone goes and comments about how it's been done, let me point out why these photos are so impressive: For one, they were taken with a touch of class by someone who actually knows how to use a real camera, as opposed to someone playing with the toy camera app on their cruddy cellphone. Much more notably, they were taken over 20 years ago. Not only does that make him our daisenpai, but also a pioneering proto-Japan blogger! Below are a couple of my personal favorites, but be sure to see the whole set matched up with poetry on his blog, Dan Ryan's SmallStories.

Мишка Tokyo

With such sick, sick colorways and sophisticated parody designs of old toys, horror, comics, punk and metal nonsense it is no surprise that Mishka clothing has become the cornerstone of our wardrobes over the past few years. As if the guys at Mishka didn't think that their majority share of our closet space was enough, they've gone and set up shop in our backyard to make sure that we never wear anything else ever again!

Stop by their new shop at 3-28-5 Jingumae in Harajuku (MAP) to give your fashion sense a heavy dosage of re-agent and stick around to take in the decor, which includes vintage bootleg Madballs, dozens of pink skulls, a Masters of the Universe graveyard and an insane Lovecraftian chandelier!

Behind the counter they've also got a showcase of vinyl toys featuring not only their own in-house figures, but also the creations of local monster molders such as Velocitron. I get the feeling that this place is going to mutate into something far beyond just a clothing store. Only time will tell what the boys at Mishka are plotting for Tokyo.

Mangaka Band Wars '09

For those of you Tokyo scumbags who read my previous posts and felt bummed you couldn't make it to Kyoto, here's some good news. "Mangaka Band Wars", a small annual music fest where underground cartoonists get together to show off their musical chops, will be held in Tokyo next weekend! Coincidentally, both of the artists I featured will be in the show! In addition to Ms. Shimao and Mr. Sakabashira, other talented, eccentric artists will also be there. Don't miss it!

"Mangaka Band Wars '09"
October 11, 2009 (Sun.) @ Shinjuku Red Cloth
TEL: 03-3202-5320
Open-5:00pm, Start-5:30pm
Ticket-1800yen + Drink (2300yen + D @ door)

Performers
Yojou Jin'in
Yoshiharu Mitsumoto(Junpu) + Yusaku Hanakuma (Tokyo Zombie)
Fevers
Tomohiro Koizumi (Seishun Kinzoku Bat)
Tokarevs
Maho Shimao + Yusaku Hanakuma
Rouden Ginza
Imiri Sakabashira
Urbangals Quartet
Katsuo Kawai (Nihon no Jitsuwa) + Jun Hanyunyu (Koi no Mon) + Michihiro Hori (Seishun Uruwashi! Urushibu)

Special Guests
Pathos
Genki Iizou
Odawara Dragon (Kogyaru-sushi)

There will be picture-story shows between band performances, so I hope you can hold it for extended periods of time!

Lawson ticket code: 74630

Tokyo Spectre Brigade (1)

August in Japan means 5 things: a week off of work, ramune, watermelon, taking 4 showers a day, and GHOSTS! This posts kicks off our first in a series of 心霊スポット(haunted spots) reports.

For our first outing, we decided to go all out, visiting the abandoned Fukiage tunnels in Ome, Tokyo. According to our source on Japanese hauntings, this place is supposed to be where it's at. Unfortunately, no ghosts were there along with it.... More on that at the end of the post. Here's what we found:

The road leading to the first of two tunnels. Yes, it is still daytime.... We figured we would hit the weaker of the two tunnels during the late afternoon to build up our courage.

"Beware of female phantom"

Enter at your own peril!

One of the biggest collections of awful graffiti in Japan. The scariest thing about the tunnel was that if you stand at one end and your friend talks to you in a hushed voice from the opposite side, you can hear them as if they were behind you talking into your ear.

This is the phantom we were warned about earlier. Mineral deposits and mold vaguely resembling a woman with long black hair wearing kimono or the restless soul of a scorned woman?

Michael Jackson's new haunt? This was embedded in the wall of the tunnel, below it in the mud was a pair of women's tights.

This tunnel is over 100 years old and is imfamous as one of Japan's most haunted spots. After climbing a (small) mountain, sneaking past the Japanese version of the house from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and trespassing on government land, we found that the city had recently sealed the place up for good. Despite DrSenbei's lackadaisical rattling of the huge padlock on the door, this pretty much brought our day to a close. Whammy!

Conclusion

If you live in the Kanto area and want a good excuse to get out of the city without having to go to another temple or shrine, this is your place. I might have sounded cynical in my captions, but the tunnel really was rather spooky and fun, ghost or no ghost. We took turns walking through it alone, and I have to admit that I kept looking over my shoulder and getting freaked out by the acoustics. That, plus knowing that I was somewhere I shouldn't be, made me feel like a kid again in the best way possible.

You can take a bus almost directly to the mountain with the tunnels, but I really recommend walking there to get the most out of the mountainside. Here is a MAP.

Ome is also famous for it's Showa era Japanese Cinema Street, where you can check out all sorts of vintage movies posters and the like. More info on that at this guy who I don't know's blog.