After visiting the vaguely disturbing Yasukuni Shrine last week, my Dad and I wandered over the road to the Nippon Budokan to have a look at the cherry blossoms that were in tarty bloom. We decided to go inside to take a look at the venue (one of Japan's most prestigious, where the Beatles - amongst many others - played), where I had never been before. Just inside the massive stone walls, there were thousands of people, mainly mid 20s/30s men, queueing up. Figuring it might be some kind of heavy metal concert (there was a lot of black clothing on display), we had a wander to try to work out what was going on. It turns out that it was a concert by Yukari Tamura, a (possibly) famous anime & video game voice actress and Akiba-kei pop-star. The queue was not to meet her, nor to get into her concert, nor even to buy concert tickets, but just to buy the official concert merchandise, including cuddly rabbits, doilies and photos. Not having a video camera, I put my camera on rapid photo mode, and made this little animation of the (really a little scarily long) queue. The music you can hear is from her album. When you're listening, bear in mind that she is 32 years old. Any geeks / Members of her Mellow Pretty Fanclub /Rabid Otaku people who may want to just download it can do so here, otherwise, click the picture below.
