Pawl and I were able to make it to Japantown by 2:30, thus just missing the cosplay contest by a few minutes. We managed to see a few girls walking by in Fashionista and Gothic styles, but none dressed as characters, a little disappointing I know. We worked our way around the area which wasn't too crowded. We found the Bazaar Bizarre where local artists had put their knicknacks up for sale, not too many of them were Japanese, but to each their own.
Behind the stage, they featured Bay grafitti artist
Estria doing a live painting which was then silently auctioned off. I got a picture of it about half way through.They started a Pocky eating contest not but a few moments after we arrived, however it seemed that we were too late to enter. Regardless, the flamboyant judge was panning for so much time the contestants were giving him lip, it was quite amusing.
Pawl managed to test some of the new Sega games coming out. Needless to say Sonic was the theme. Ironically the independantly built 2-D Sonic made for download on the 360 and PS3 was far superior to the 3-D Sonic that was made for the Wii. The 2-D featured angled pixels that invoked a sense of 3-D whilst retaining the 2-D gameplay that we all have come to love. The Wii version on the other hand was flashy, however seemed to be more about pressing the right buttons at the right time, if not pressing ANY at all, it was like watching a movie that may give you a seizure.
From there we caught an adorable song and dance entitled the Harajuku Kawaii Experince by 6% Doki Doki. I have to say I enjoy Japanese electronic music to an extent. They feature great rhythms and driving beats, but half way through the song they drop it all and start playing a different song before dropping that and bringing back the original song. I find it confusing and just a bit depressing. I managed to see one girl portraying Tsunade from Naruto, she was cute and buxom enough to portray the character, but my suspension of disbelief was pierced by her hairy, unshaven legs :(.We took a break by going inside the New People building which we had visited the previous day. Posters were everywhere warning us that this was a video filming zone and that we could be filmed at any moment. However we only saw one camera and it was on its way to the top floor. Once we had entered we found a HUGE line heading up the stairs. Like typical bad asses, we walked right by the entire line heading for the art exhibit on the top floor. Turns out that the line was for Mori Chack, the creator of Gloomy Bear, and he was doing an autograph secession. I am more than familiar with his work, but I was unwilling to stand in a line for hours and spend the little money I have for an autograph. I am just as easily stoked to see someone like that.
We made our way upstairs to the art exhibit that was closed off to us the previous day. Ken Hamazaki's Greatful Red was a mixture of the Greatful Dead jam band, modern Japanese and the color red. Everything red, from Coke cans, to Budweiser to bacon. The exhibit was much better than most modern art and featured had drawn illustrations that could be taken down for a small donation. Some pieces were interactive, like a magnet board on which you had to place the magnets in order to stop a timer on an opposing wall. There was a desk in the corner of the room where a man in a business suit sat "protecting" the exhibits. Once he had moved out from behind the desk, Pawl's curious nature got the best of him. He moved around the desk and found a small opening in the wall. He bent down and looked through it and exclaimed "What is this!?" to which I heard someone snapping at him in Japanese. He quickly rose from his knee with the greatest look on his face. "Did you find Narnia?"I asked jokingly. He raved about a small bald Japanese man in a red suit with his face painted white sitting in a room with light displays going on all around him. I told him he was probably looking at the artist, I could tell the experience was shocking to him. I felt smart not looking. There was no photography allowed so I couldn't take any pictures.
Afterward we made our way back onto the street and I bought us some chicken teriyaki wraps and we sat and enjoyed the sun for a few moments before heading into the first section of the Japantown Center Mall. Not much was there and we left.
Outside we heard good tunes and made our way to the stage. The band Excuses for Skipping was playing their set. They had a smooth grunge/indy sound that Pawl and I quickly picked up on. They told us we could catch them again at the Bring Your Own Queer event at Golden Gate Park. Once their set was done we explored the remaining part of the mall where Pawl commented "It does my heart good to kids doing the Kamehameha wave."
Inside we found several shops that pander to the child in me that must have the most unnecessary things, luckily I was able to avoid him for the time being. Although, I found the cutest Soba shop on the bridge between malls that I will have to visit someday.
After that we were about finished and the festival was closing down. It was a short walk and a bus to catch and we made our way to Pawl's loft where I got him addicted to Doctor Who before I caught the Cal-train home.
