Our second week in Tokyo was very busy and dare I say successful.
It started out a bit slow though with trying to locate our lost gimbal in Yokohama. I called the bus company’s lost and found department, asked at the event venue, emailed the event organisers, and eventually filed a police report.
Then we went back to Tokyo and checked in to an airbnb in Iriya which was very dirty and also loud from traffic. And I figured that in this busy and loud city we do need peace and quiet in the night to recharge our bodies, so I managed to change the reservation and we spent only two nights there.
On Tuesday I met the shota expert Yoshimoto Taimatsu-san over coffee and we discussed our research projects for almost two hours.
On Wednesday we checked out from Iriya and moved to a wonderful airbnb in Ikebukuro – modern, quiet, and with a view. In the afternoon I had coffee with Z-san, a guy S connected with at the event, for about two hours. It was a perfect match and we scheduled a proper interview and shooting for Saturday.
And I bought a new DJI Ronin-SC. They are much more expensive in Japan than in Germany. When I bought it in Germany in July 2019 I paid 359 euro including VAT. Now they are available for 326 euro on Amazon. In Japan, however, the price is 51,000 or 52,000 yen in all shops: At DJI’s own Shinjuku store, at Yodobashi and BIC Camera, and at Japanese Amazon. That equals 420-430 euro. I can’t comprehend why this would be. By buying tax free and paying with a credit card I landed at 44,000 yen = 363 euro in the end, but still. Well, I guess it never feels good to buy something anew because you lost it, and to pay more at that.
Anyway, on Thursday evening I interviewed my new research participant T-san, and afterwards S shot us walking and talking in Ueno park.
On Friday I took two slow trains out of the city to have a very inspiring coffee (again, about two hours) with adult manga scholar Sharon Kinsella, whose research overlaps with mine.
On Saturday I interviewed Z-san while S filmed us. We got such a great rapport that we spent the whole day together, including lunch at Jonathan’s and dinner at Gustos in Akihabara. The connection between the three of us was nothing short of amazing – I have never experienced anything like it in my anthropological endeavour.
And today we went to Yokohama again to interview and shoot O-san, who like Z-san was very articulate and talked at length on the subjects that we had explored with Z-san the day before.
We ended the day with watching today’s footage and about half of that from yesterday, while eating takeout okonomiyaki. It’s so exciting to see the film coming together, or the material for it rather. Finally things started to move. What a lovely feeling to be busy shooting so much! I hardly have time to write here, but this was at least a little update on our second week in Tokyo – we’re now halfway through the trip! And we’ll stay in this airbnb the whole time, so I can and should order some books online.
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