More on the fun geeky game stuff in a bit.

Eikichi - So I felt a bit of a disconnect with returning to Japan again this year (I usually go once every one/two years, but this time it will be three) after Satoru died (and more on that). I go back home to visit family (I have a niece now, and my nephew Riku is just turning two) and friends, eat at a lot of incredible joints, burn thousands of calories marching all over Tokyo with a backpack full of the latest Japanese study materials from Kinokuniya bookstore, etc.

Thing is, my best bro, the one that took me to all the crazy shit all over the place: The underground manga stores; the bizarre philosophy conferences where a PhD would break down robot anime into its contemporary sociological elements; the HG store with the silver mannequin with the leather gear on it.

Anyway, one of my best buds is Eikichi, who is also my wife’s cousin (and I guess mine). I first met him when I was out of college and he was in high school. We ended up hanging out a lot at family gatherings, and then just hanging out a lot in general. In my last two years in Japan we hung out weekly at my place, getting friends together for cards (poker, daihimin) and bizarre Japanese variety shows, etc.

Normally we just hook up when I get back into town: We’d crash at his or my place over in Gunma, or I’d stay with him in Tokyo when I paced the city again. But otherwise, we’d just lay low until we met again. But recently we’ve been hitting each other up over email, and it’s been fun. It’s also fun to get back into the habit of writing in Japanese again, as my Kanji skills have been slipping (even when reading and not writing, it’s easy to slip when reading and doing less writing). So that’s rocking.

Also, found some nifty pictures from the last time I went to Japan. That’s us at “Tambo”, one of the best restaurants I’ve been to. Anyway, that’s been on my mind these days.

Twleve Kingdoms - So for Christmas(ish), my wife and I just tend to pick up some stuff for ourselves and share it. This year with the help of an old gift certificate and Clinton’s Barnes and Noble membership, we scored the complete Twelve Kingdoms boxed set (in two parts). If you haven’t heard of this anime, it’s the Best Anime Series Ever. I once fought a guy with knives who didn’t believe it. The quick history:

1) This woman wrote a series of young adult novels about a Japanese girl whisked away to a fantasy Chinese(ish) land of magic and myth and (in the long run) maturity. They bust out like madness, and are pretty much the Japanese equivalent of the Harry Potter books.

2) NHK, Japanese public television (like PBS with an actual budget) picks up the series to turn into an anime. Rich budget, very artistically driven, and no panty shots. They even made changes to the screenplay that actually improve the story; adding two “friend characters”, which really crank up the awesome: Especially the friend-girl, who is basically the equivalent of “one of us” (a geek who is absorbed into fantasy literature and the like).

3) Unfortunately, the author was still working on the book series as the anime series was in development when she got sick somehow (sounds like an anxiety thing or breakdown). So she didn’t finish two of her novels when the anime was done.

4) So the anime has like 4-5 stories wrapped in it: Fortunately the main character’s story was wrapped up as per the author’s vision. But there were about two side-stories with dangling strings.

The only problem is that there are places where the Sino-Japanese words are a little thick. The novels… they’re not written particularly cleverly, but the author loves to slam all sorts of old Chinese words into the book. The anime doesn’t suffer from that too much, but there are some episodes (particularly in the “A Great Distance in the Wind, the Sky at Dawn” series) where the medieval Chinese verbiage is really thick, especially during introductions of various political offices and posts.

So on my last viewing of the series (what, the fifth time?) I decided that I want to make a complete printable episode-by-episode guide to the series so that it’s easier to follow. I’m also thinking of cooking up an RPG based on The Shadow of Yesterday. I’m backseating those projects until some translation work is done, but it’s one of my 2007 goals. We’ll see how far I get

PS: If you rent this series, for the love of all that is good don’t watch it dubbed. I’m not some weird “if it’s not dubbed it’s automatically crap” dudes, but this anime has a particularly bad dub. NHK paid big bucks for actors and voice actors to read the parts, and in the US they apparently found dudes who will work for meth to read their lines. Just a warning.

Zatoichi - I’ve been on a huge Zatoichi kick recently. Not the 2003 weirdness with Takeshi Kitano (which was awesome, save for Takeshi Kitano), but the classic 60s-70s media machine that produced something like 25+ movies and a 5-year TV series starring Katsu Shintaro. I’ve watched about 8 movies in the past 6 months, and I’ve gotta say: They’re awesome. For the most part, it’s a glimpse of high-action high-drama simple stories dealing with the yakuza underworld and, AND, a “slice of life” of Edo-era lifestyle.

There are samurai movies. There are gangster movies. There are ‘historical piece’ movies. I love all three genres. The Zatoichi series is all three in one, which is quite rocking.

So I’ve made it a small side-goal to watch as much Zatoichi as possible, then go back and rate them. Maybe find, like, the “top five” to recommend to folks. Currently, my favorite is “Zatoichi the Outlaw“.

I think that’s all I’ve got going on lately for now. More later!