Stephen's Travels in Asia: January 2019

January 11, 2019

New year, new opportunities! My new years wasn’t bad…wow, that feels weird as an opener. Lemme start again. I had a bacterial infection in my foot that, thankfully, my medicine helped me deal with, but good grief, did my foot itch like the Dickins all throughout the new year holiday. I had a lot of interesting moments, but mostly, I just tried to rest.

First interesting moment, I went to Ishinomaki, which is a town a good distance from Sendai, about 2 hours by local train. I like riding the trains when I can see the world passing me by, but I had to get up early, so I was mostly just sleepy. Still, what’s in Ishinomaki? Why, the Shotaro Ishinomori museum! Never heard of him? Well, he’s only a prolific mangaka on the same level of cultural influence as Miyazaki and Tezuka. Ishinomori created Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Cyborg 009, among many others, and the Nintendo Power Legend of Zelda comic. He’s an amazing genius and the city honors him with countless statues of his characters decorating the sidewalks and a massive, beautiful museum. There, I got to learn a lot about his history and see a 3-d area full of cool stuff, from the Cyborg 009 lab, to the hall of Kamen rider helmets, to the Kikaider creation lab. He even made Kaito, a hero for Ishinomaki who rides a jet ski. I ate some whale and got to learn a lot about the history of a great mangaka, which was all very fun, buuuuuuuttttttt…the sad thing is, Ishinomori has an almost inexhaustible number of manga he wrote, many of which look fascinating. His early sci-fi works and his particular art style are moody, atmospheric, and can easily evoke comedy or tragedy. Yet, he’s barely known in the west and his early works aren’t even that famous in Japan. It’s frustrating because I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of his early work, but it looks…just amazing. It’s something I’d love to read, from “The 11 complete,” To “Ten billion days and on hundred billion nights,” to “The great age of the dinosaurs.” It’s stuff that never made it stateside, even via the internet and scanlations. I want to read! So, a bit bittersweet in that regard.

I spent a lot of time with my girlfriend face to face talking and playing games and just through IM. I admit, after Ishinomaki, I just wanted to be lazy, as the trip took it out of me, but the day before, we played holiday Overcooked, watched some fun anime, I shared with her my favorite Christmas traditions during the Christmas week as well. It’s been a great time. It’s been ages since I’ve found someone I’m happy just being in the company of. Good thing there’s love there too, eh? Haha, I can’t wait for our spring adventures together.

In other news, I headed to the ocean for new years day. I ate the apple and apple jam one of my students gave me and good lord, it was so good…so addictively good…I would pay for more if only I could. But it was a one of, so I can’t. The ride to the ocean was cold and some of the old buildings that had still been standing from the tsunami’s days were gone. A bit sad, really. I always feel sad when old things are removed for progress. A rice field near my home was filled in with dirt for a construction project and…it just feels so poignantly sad. Anyway, the ocean was beautiful, but the wind on the way home tore at my very bones.

A good portion of my new years holiday was devoted to Sherlock Hound, a fun little animated gem from pre-Ghibli Miyazaki, who made an anime about Sherlock Holmes if the entire world were anthropomorphic dog people. It’s charming and wonderful. I only got through half the series, but that leaves me with other things to watch this year, hehe.

Last bit of update before photos. I went to the doctor again and my foot infection seems to be gone, but the itchiness remains, so he gave me a steroid cream to help with the healing process. The doctor I go to and his clinic are fast and competent and it makes the trip to Kitayobancho much more bearable, though I was still very tired by the end of it. Right now, I’m still trying to get back into the regular routine of life after the holidays, but I also have to take it easy with my walking because of my foot. It’s not fully healed, so…that’s frustrating, but understandable. As I wait for some new game releases, I’m struggling with internet that is crapping out more and more and playing through Starcraft 2 again. Great story…perhaps one of the last good games Blizzard made that wasn’t an “online service,” Bleh…anyway, it’s been a good start to a new year. Pictures below. Enjoy!

Welcome to Ishinomaki, the town that loves Shotaro Ishinomori and his works

And I mean LOVES, look at this, a Cyborg 009 stained glass window!

The 9 cyborgs and several other cool anime characters are all over the streets to honor Ishinomori. This is #3

#1 and #5. #1 is the baby. Yes really.

#9, the hero himself

Kamen Rider!

Yes, Ishinomori is the father of Kamen Rider and Super Sentai

UFO museum! Actually, this is the Shotaro Ishinomori Manga museum

With beautiful scenery

Hero of Ishinomaki, the great Kaito

Kamen Rider Drive's car, the only Rider to not ride a motor cycle...well, I mean...Gaim technically had a scooter, but...

Running at the reader, eh?

This slum was where a huge number of legendary mangaka got their start, working and supporting one another until Manga became mainstream, the way we now know it.

A rare Stephen appears! With his buddy, Kamen Rider Ichigo!

This is an old story from Ishinomori I'd love to read, but sadly, a lot of his work is unknown. This one doesn't even have an English translation or scans online. Sad.