Manga and anime are popular in Japan and many other countries, but what about stage plays?

That’s right. Anime and manga happen in theatre form sometimes, too, ranging from the horror drama genre like Tokyo Ghoul to the sports genres like Haikyuu!!. 

写真満載の記事はこちら　　http://www.astage-ent.com/stage-musical/fairy-tail-4.html 2016/4/30 2006年より講談社「週刊少年マガジン」で連載開始。2009年のTVアニメ開始以来、劇場版アニメ、ゲームなど様々なメディアミックス化がなされている真島ヒロ著「FAIRY ...

Fairytale's stage play.

Unfortunately, stage plays never make it outside of Japan’s big cities, but don’t start crying yet! There are ways for you to see them on your computer screen. In my opinion, stage plays are one of the best forms of storytelling I’ve come across. Yeah, stage plays tell the main storyline of Fairytale or something, but they do so in innovative and artistic ways. (I mean, they have to—the directors can’t find a flying blue cat to play Happy anywhere). I was blown away by Haikyuu’s stage play. The volleyball tournaments were well crafted experimental dance numbers, and slow motion was achieved through high-tech strobe lighting systems and lifting systems. 

Please turn on CC for the subtitles. Feel free to tell me if you found some mistakes in it. Thank you. The subs is not finished yet, it's there only for a few minutes due to an error. I'm trying to fix it before putting it in again.

Haikyuu's opening sequence.

If you’re coming out to Japan soon, a resourceful English website to check out is animeonstage.com. They keep you updated with all the newest touring stage plays and where they are touring. And here’s the best part: they have a buying service not just for stage play tickets but also merchandise (DVDs, CDs, buttons, posters, programs, stickers, keychains, photobooks, magazines, cups, bags, AND SO MUCH MORE).

Common places you can see shows are at Tokyo Dome City Hall, Tokyo: Zepp Blue Theater, and Umeda Arts Theater; however, they go to many more places. Keep up on those updates, anime and manga lovers!

Hello readers!

You may be confused by the title of this post if you come from the West. Convenience stores, in America at least, have never really been a cause for celebration. Sure, they're convenient, but they can also be kind of gross and are generally pretty taken for granted. Growing up, if I ever told someone that I ate lunch from a convenience store (in the form of some old lukewarm hot dogs or "taquitos" that had probably been left out for hours if not for the entire day), I was likely to receive a glance of disgust or concern. However, in Japan, it's a completely different story.

Japanese convenience stores are seriously one of my favorite parts about living in Japan, and I am NOT exaggerating. I promise. 

When you first walk up to a Japanese konbini, you may not immediately notice the greatness that lurks within. Take just a few steps past the automatic doors, however, and you could literally spend more than an hour examining all of the different varieties of snacks and other products which are sold inside.

To attempt to list somewhat comprehensively all of the different kinds of goods and services which you can find at your neighborhood konbini (Japanese term for "convenience store"), there are: both cold and hot foods which include small packaged snacks as well as fuller meals in the form of bento boxes and bowls of pasta/noodles (you can have any pre-packaged meal heated up for free by your cashier via a high-powered microwave), etc.; both cold and hot drinks including but definitely not limited to alcohol, coffee and sports drinks (Japan is notorious for how many different kinds of crazy but delicious soft drink products it sells via convenience stores and vending machines) ; all sorts of household and useful appliances from batteries and toothbrushes to toilet paper and beauty products; photocopiers and printers; postboxes and postage stamps (you know, like for mailing); ticket vending machines which allow you to purchase and print tickets for sporting events, concerts, theme parks, museums, and so forth; ATMs which, like virtually all of the convenience stores, are 24/7-operable and may not even charge you a service fee depending upon your bank (for international travelers, 7/11 is your best bet in this regard); and I've even heard from friends that they've been able to purchase vehicle insurance from their local kobini as well... which kind of blows my mind.

Typical snack shelf at a Japanese convenience store. I couldn't even tell you what all of these are, but I can tell you that they're likely all delicious. It's like munchie paradise.

Japanese convenience stores, which are ubiquitous to the extent that one should be visible from if not directly located on almost every single street corner in the country, are just so damn multi-faceted and, well, convenient. Ah, I almost forgot- I, along with most Japanese people, actually pay my utility bills at the convenience store as well. That's right. You can just bring your gas, water, or electric bill to your preferred local konbini, hand it to the cashier along with the cash value due, they'll stamp it to show that it's been paid, and then scan it with a device to electronically notify the utility company that your account has been balanced. It's awesome.

I think by now you're probably understanding what sets Japanese konbini apart from that run-down 7/11 you stop at for gas and a Slurpee sometimes (granted, Slurpees are pretty great...). The one thing I want to stress about konbini though, before I finish this post, is the food. It really. Is. That. Good.

A lunch I bought a few months ago from a convenience store on my university's campus. From left to right: ebi katsu omusubi (shrimp fry rice-ball sandwich), Burugaria (Bulgarian yogurt drink), and tanuki soba (soba noodles with broth and deep-fried tempura bits). It all cost me about 5 dollars... disposable wooden chopsticks free of charge.

There's really no end to the deliciousness that oozes forth from the Japanese convenience store. I think what really distinguishes the convenience store food from that in America is the variety and the freshness. Some of my personal favorite konbini snacks are onigiri (rice balls wrapped in seaweed and typically containing some variety of fish, egg, meat, or vegetable inside), Burugaria (ブルガリア) aka Bulgarian yogurt, protein bars which cost just over a dollar and have got over 10 grams of tanpaku (protein), pork cutlet and egg salad sandwiches, fried chicken bites and spicy corn dogs which somehow always seem fresh, and so much more! Celebrity chef, food critic, and travel guru Anthony Bourdain has actually gone on record stating that egg salad sandwiches from Japanese konbini are one of his favorite snacks on the planet- google it! If you're a sweet tooth, there are SO many different kinds of sweet snacks, candies and chocolates available including a constantly stocked ice cream freezer-bin with all sorts of Japanese ice cream products which can't be found elsewhere. Everyone's got their favorite, but mine are the Janbo ("Jumbo") ice cream bars which are basically giant waffle bars filled with ice cream. They're delicious and super refreshing, especially in the spring and summer.

On the note of freshness, I think it's important to note that those aforementioned hot dogs and taquitos which are likely to sit out for hours and eventually victimize some reluctant teenager or truck driver in American convenience stores would NEVER be passed off as acceptable for consumption in konbini. The food that is found on the shelves and in the hot food warmers is never allowed to sit for too long. If it's packaged, I have heard that it is not allowed to stay on the shelves for longer than a day despite the fact that it's wrapped in plastic. You can actually witness new shipments of packaged food being delivered and stocked onto the shelves at regular intervals throughout the day to any given store, even in the late hours of the night or wee hours of the morning. As for the hot food like fried chicken which is kept in warmers at the cashier counters, I suspect that the cashiers regularly do away with anything that's been sitting too long because I really can't recall ever seeing anything that looked as nasty as the hot food in American convenience stores. It always looks and tastes good, at least in my opinion.

If I included a picture of one of the awesome snack shelves, I had to include a picture of the glorious drink-wall. This is a pretty common sight in any konbini. Alcohol's nestled right up next to the soft drinks. You can usually find all 4 of the main Japanese beer brands (Sapporo, Asahi, Kirin and Suntory) as well as a million different kinds of sake, tea, soda pop, coffee, sports drinks, etc.

The awesomeness of the konbini really has to be experienced for one's self, but as I tell my friends who come to Japan on travel- don't be afraid to eat entire meals from the convenience stores! The food really is that good and there really is so much of it that you could eat from it every day and by the time you actually somehow tried everything, there would be new products on the shelves. I, as well as Japanese people, have no shame in eating entire breakfasts, lunches, and dinners by consuming only convenience store food, and guess what- they're always delicious and I can make them different every time if I want to. I'm excited by the prospect of any of you readers coming to Japan and having your first konbini experiences. Enjoy this fun and hilarious video as well as some closing facts below which didn't make it into the main post.

Thanks for reading!

-Jordan Roth

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A funny song about convenience stores by the Japanese duo Boxers & Trunks. This song sparked a popular internet meme. Despite what may be implied in the video, old men are not constantly flipping through dirty magazines in plain view, punks are not constantly hanging out outside the store, and staff are typically very kind and helpful at Japanese konbini!

Miscellaneous Facts:

*The three main chains of convenience stores in Japan are 7/11, Lawson, and Family Mart, though there are others which are prevalent such as Sunkus (Circle K) and Ministop. 7/11 actually has more locations in Japan than anywhere else.

*Most if not all konbini have free wifi which can be accessed by selecting the network from your smartphone, opening your browser, and hitting a series of on-screen buttons which may or may not ask for you to enter basic information like your e-mail address.

*Konbini all accept credit cards for payment though many if not most Japanese restaurants do not, so it's a great option if you're low on or trying to conserve cash!

*There seems to be a common unofficial debate in Japan about which convenience store has the best fried chicken. I hear this topic discussed often by both my Japanese friends and fellow foreigners. Most commonly, Lawson chicken and Family Mart's "Fami Chicken" seem to be the given answers, though Japanese people tend to tell me that they find 7/11 to be the best and most prolific konbini chain.

Hello readers!

We are back again with another post for your literary pleasure and consumption (guess who's back, back, back, back again... okay sorry). We'd like to present to you a really cool part of springtime in Japan and of historically grounded Japanese culture which just passed us by over here in Nihon (Japan).

Classic hanami scene in Shinjuku Park, one of the biggest and most famous green spaces in Tokyo.

Shameless shot of me by the river near my university, enjoying one of the last days of the hanami season. Sometimes the cherry blossoms are vibrant pink, and sometimes they have more of a white hue. Either way, they're beautiful and photographs can't do them true justice.

Hanami (花見 - flower viewing) refers to the Japanese tradition of watching sakura (桜 - cherry blossoms) bloom and flourish throughout Japan over the course of, typically, late March and the entirety of April into early May. It's a truly beautiful time in Japan which is, aside from the actual blooming of the trees and flowers, most famously characterized by the picnic-parties that people often hold in order to do their flower-viewing. While the sakura are blossoming, the parks and open green spaces all over Japan tend to fill up with Japanese people of all ages who will lay out blankets and bring assortments of both personally prepared and store-bought treats to share. It's common, as with a Western-style potluck, for everyone to make their own special dish and then to share each other's homemade cooking! However, there are plenty of culinarily inept people such as myself, even Japanese, who opt for pre-made bento (弁当 - Japanese "lunchbox") or treats from konbini (コンビニ - convenience store), which are surprisingly delicious for any Westerner who hasn't yet experienced a Japanese 7-11, Lawson, or Family Mart... I think I just decided on the topic for the next post.

Alcohol is also commonly a part of these hanami parties and can obviously aid in creating an atmosphere which is present at many of the picnics, but I think most people would agree that it's not alcohol that makes hanami so pleasurable. For many Japanese, it seems that hanami is so highly anticipated and looked forward to because it reminds people to take a second to take a breath of fresh air from their busy work and academic lives that they've doubtlessly been plugging away at throughout the winter. Once the weather gets nice, it's a reminder to call up your friends, put together some awesome food and drinks, and go outside for a lazy Saturday or Sunday for once (though hanami happens on the weekdays too)!

A shot of the same river. Even in the Tokyo metropolis, Japan has so much nature which makes it easy to observe the changing seasons. I really value the times when I can be alone, or at least away from the crowds, while I'm walking through the many parks and gardens which are found throughout the city.

The tradition is said to be as old as the eighth century and is even alluded to in The Tale of Genji- one of the most iconic and legendary pieces of Japanese literature, though many people hilariously hate reading it and debate its legacy and influence, which was published some time at the beginning of the last millennium. Hanami apparently became a tradition in the high courts and among royalty as prestigious and god-like as the Emperors and Shoguns themselves before it made its way down to samurai society and then eventually to the peasant classes as well. Now it really is a staple of the spring season in Japan and is considered something that can be enjoyed by anyone and everyone; even foreigners like you and me. So, if you're planning a trip to Japan, you may want to consider coming for hanami season!

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-Jordan Roth