Yesterday (Edit: Actually Saturday!), I went to the Sakura Matsuri at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. It was chilly, but I was happy the rain held off. I got there fairly early (at least, before Hinano and JP arrived), so I had the chance to explore the area. I saw the stuff they were selling, including the sushi pillows, and walked around the big tent where the music was going to be played. I saw groups of Narutards as well. They were embarrassing because they were acting like they do at cons, but this was a place where the general public were walking around in large numbers, including many Japanese families with young children and grandparents. I saw a group of cosplayers posing for pictures. Instead of saying cheese, they were yelling “YAOI!” I’m not exaggerating. They were saying yaoi! I glanced around to see if any of the Japanese people around were looking at them while wishing I could exchange my camera for a shotgun. There were also some Narutards and Bleachtards dancing.. I think it was the Haruhi dance, but they were (thankfully!!!) just stopping as I walked by.
So then I met up with Hinano and JP and, as she’s already revealed to the world, I wasted some money on an expensive bento (that I didn’t even finish eating) and yes, I bought a sushi pillow (it’s cute, though not as cute as a dango, but still cute!). My cousin lives in Brooklyn, not far from the garden, so he came by with his family. His cute nineteen-month-old daughter was happy running around. They brought her to see the carp in the pond of the Japanese garden. She was really into the fish and you could tell she wanted to jump into the water to get closer to them. She even said, “jump” and “Daddy go way,” because he was keeping a hold on her! My cousin also really wanted me to see this exhibition of Takeshi Murakami art at the Brooklyn Museum. He’s that pop-artist who is influenced by anime and manga. And in keeping with this influence, they had a gift shop of expensive Murakami goods, ranging from over-priced keychains to plush versions of his twisted characters. I’m reminded of this blog post. Anyway, what’s interesting is that the museum also had an exhibition of eighteenth and nineteenth century Japanese prints. Quite the contrast there!
So after the museum, I met up with Hinano and JP again and we left the garden to head to Muji and Uniqlo and had Shabu Shabu. Uniqlo is expensive, but I bought some underwear, lol. So it was a good day, Narutards notwithstanding. Here are some more pictures!
Loading ...
Don’t worry, it isn’t just American cosplayers who act like retards at public events. It’s most cosplayers. Apparently the local Singapore Japanese Association which organises the Natsumatsuri here banned cosplayers after they did stuff similar to what you described above.
Maybe such a ban will be required at US events at some point. Fortunately these cosplayers stuck to one area, so you could avoid them by going elsewhere. But the badly dressed gaijin kimono people Hinano was complaining about where all over the place. So you had cosplayers who were not respecting traditional culture and others, who tried to wear traditional clothing, but failed badly!
Aww, I’ve never been anywhere anime related before! All the anime shops in Melbourne closed down cos I guess there wasn’t enough customers or something.
Australia lacks anime *sob sob*
Cold Bento: $15
Semi-code hotdog on a bare bun: $3
Cute looking sushi pillow: $40
Seeing the Japanese tea ceremony live and some dude who couldn’t get up after sitting on his legs for 15 minutes: priceless
bakaneko> dude where were you? D: you were supposed to meet up with us!
Also, on the left side of that floor at Uniqlo (where that pink dango is), was Golgo 13.
Hinano-san, I was roaming around with three other neko’s, but my ears got clipped at the turtle pond. Now I know how Doraemon feels. Anyway, I tried to look for a tall pretty girl or a four-eyes nerd, but I couldn’t find neither. A large cardboard with your name written on it came to my mind, but I couldn’t find markers either. So, I ended up spending half the day teaching little kids how to play Go. It was fun slaughtering little kids. kekeke.
Let’s try again next time.
LOLOL DS all the narutards are flaming my post now xD