Manga

I went back into Fukuoka (Tenjin station) this afternoon and got my tickets. I have an invoice and a receipt, and hopefully they won't just shut down and disappear anytime soon.

Afterwards I went into a giant manga shop called "Mandrake" (like the character from "Defenders of the Earth"!). To be honest, I don't know how anybody finds anything they want in any of these shops. All the ones I've seen (including this one) are just wall to wall with tightly packed bookcases of little comics, all sporting Japanese script. I hardly saw anything I recognised, though I did see some "Bleach" manga, and loads of "Gundam" things. They even had cels, and best of all: loads of really old computer games. I saw many Gundam games for the SNES (though I don't know if they'd work back in England), and I bought a couple of Japanese PlayStation games that I've always wanted: "Parasite Eve" and "Chrono Cross". I was tempted by many others, including "Breath of Fire IV", and they had Final Fantasies IV, V, and VI... boxed! I think I'll be going back there.

I then went to Tower Records, and looked at the music. The Japanese tolerance for noise is amazing, and they must have some amazing ability to filter different musics. For example, here in the shop there was live music (some girl promoting her first album, but she never turned around so I only saw her back!), but at the same time there was other music blaring out of the loud speakers. Insane. And this happens everywhere. I bought the new "Final Fantasy" film on DVD and then came back home.