Japan 2023 Day 16: Saitama

Woke up to see Tanihara Shosuke doing morning tv doing news commenary! WTF is he not acting? He's one of my favourite actors and should be in WOWOW shows. In the photo above they were talking about the cost of raising a child from primary to high school.

Ikebukuro book off. I knew what I had to do now. Look for volumes 8 and above of Mugen no Juunin (Blade of the Immortal) and decide which version of Slam Dunk to get.

Walking around Ikebukuro when I noticed a Capcom sign!

Plaza Capcom Ikebukuro is just an arcade and cafe. They don't even have Street Fighter. What sort of stupid Capcom arcade is this?

Cat guy from Monster Hunter. Never played any of them before. Would rather play Dark Souls 3 than try Monster Hunter.

Some Monster Hunter and Street Fighter figures at the counter. Unfortunately no Street Fighter goods. Plaza Capcom was disappointing.

Went to Junkudo in Ikebukuro looking for Mugen no Juunin.

Manga in Japan is labelled according to publishers. You have Square Enix for some reason, Jump, Young champion. Going to so many manga stores I have learned which is which and the publisher for Mugen no Juunin is Gekkan Afternoon who also do Vinland Saga and Knights of Sidonia. I really like how Junkudo has all the publishers on the side of the aisle to make it even easier to search and really appreciate it.

Went to Shinjuku wanting to eat Fuunji before but the wait time was more than an hour so I settled for Yasubee nearly.

The soup was disappointingly light. Got large noodles and the portion was huge. I've eaten tsukemen at Yasubee before and I remember it was not bad.

You can see the tag for Afternoon and lots of the original print of Mugen no Juunin but only Vol 2 of the new edition. After running around so many bookshops it started to dawn on me that trying to find the remaining of the new edition might be an impossible task because it is so not famous, although Kimutaku did a movie about it.

35 Volumes of Gantz for 7000 yen is pretty good.

At Shinjuku Marui I saw a Witcher 3 pop up shop!

Unfortunately the pop up shop starts on my last day. I have not played Witcher 3 yet although I have the Japanese version for Switch.

I saw this at Marui saying that there is going to be a Guts figure! Very weird place to put it but I would very welcome a Guts figure!

Another anime pop up shop I have no idea about. I only watch Vinland Saga.

Arrived in Saitama early afternoon. I am having dinner here but first to continue manga hunting.

It has been a while since I was back in Saitama! I just love getting out of a train station and you are on walkway connecting you to Tokyu Hands and Surugaya.

That Bayonetta Climax Bible is crazy expensive for a book!

Some amibos have really gone up in price.

2nd time I've come across Breath of Fire 2 GBA.

Good thing I did not buy the Trinity Masquerade Edition for Bayonetta 3 because I dislike the game. The fact that the price has gone down shows it is not in demand.

You can see the original Mugen no Juunin at the bottom left. Unfortunately photo missing the first digit. I had to decide whether to throw away my new edition and buy this complete first edition. In the end I decided to I prefer the new edition. Somehow the original edition doesn't look as good.

Slam Dunk original print for 10200 yen. 31 volumes. In the end I calculated getting the new edition is not that much expensive and better to get new manga than half yellow one.

Found this creepy talking and moving tree while going to another bookstore.

This are paperback manga aka manga bunkou. They are smaller than your regular manga size and can fit into your pocket. Similar size to English print of Lone Wolf and Cub.

The paperback version of I"s to coincide with the dorama. The portability and size saving with paperback manga is nice but I feel like its a bit too small to enjoy the art. I'll have to think about it because space is limited. I don't think I would mind paperback for manga like Monster or 20th Century Boys.

I was so happy to finally find Metal Gear Solid the Twin Snakes on Gamecube!

Luckily I turned it around and it said that the disk has a scratch! Noooooooo! Snake!!!! One day I will play Metal Gear Solid 1~5 in Japanese and I think Twin Snakes is only in English.

Met up with Satomi for yakiniku. The last time I met her was together with bframe when he come down for the Mano Erina concert which was a lifetime ago. The name of the place was Hiuchi and it was a bit more of a high class joint. We went for the 5500 yen pp course. It was pretty good I prefer Futago where we went to twice before.

Very happy I found the Triangle Strategy guide because I love the game and want to support it. The box for Fire Emblem Seima no Kouseki is pretty beat up. Maybe I should have spent more money to get a better version. Oh well.

I got I"s for only 1400 yen from Surugaya in Saitama. Absolute steal and the paper is not too yellow. Too good of a deal to miss out. 

Something bad happened to my JR pass the day before in Yokohama. Somewhere a whole got in my JR Pass and I could not use it anymore to pass through the ticket gates! So now I had to show my pass to the station people and have them wave me through which is annoying because some gates don't have staff now.