A Photographic Adventure

Friday, June 10th, 2:40 am
Update - Jay Navok

Yosenex, aka Yoshimoon, took the pretty photos you see in Warriors of Legend. He generously agreed to spend some time writing an article on his adventures around Tokyo, taking pictures for the book.

Yosenex's picture, below, is taken in front of the infamous "Club Sailor Moon"; an adult "entertainment" joint that refuses to let in foreigners. Given the title of the place, we wonder what kind of tastes they're catering to...

In the name of the moon, no Japanese booty!

I had been living in Japan for less than a month when it happened. I still had issues dealing with food, was recovering from climbing Fuji (which is a foolish thing to do so early into my stay), and was afflicted with homesickness. Fortunately, my internet connection worked. The opportunity to be part of Warriors of Legend literally popped up in front of me.

At first, I was ready to decline the offer simply because I was not yet used to Japan. But something felt right about this job, and I accepted it. In my mind, turning this opportunity down would have been the same as declining to become a JET.

Although I had no knowledge of photography, a crappy pocket digital camera, and a huge (but borrowed) digital camera, I had to get to work immediately. At the time, I was still learning the train system in Japan, and breathed a sigh of relief when I first arrived safely at the Azabu-Juuban Station.

My mission was to take pictures of a festival taking place at the time, as well as grab a shot of a place called the Inari Shrine. Finding the shrine was pure luck, since street names are rare in Japan (perhaps one or two per town.) Addresses are instead done by chome, which is like a district, and banchi, which is all four sides of an entire block. Even if you have both pieces of information it is not easy to find a place in Tokyo. Chome and banchi are numbered but, geographically, are not necessarily in numerical order. I remember seeing 1 chome, 2 chome, 3 chome, 7, chome, 15 chome, and similar situations throughout my adventure.

A few days afterward, a Japanese friend of mine was heading toward Roppongi (where many of the other places on my Warriors of Legend List were located.) I went with him and managed to get a lot of pictures taken that day, thanks to his help. Alas, later trips through the magical land of Minato would not move so smoothly.

I tried to take a photo of the Korean Embassy and was stopped immediately by guards. They stared at me, looked me up and down, and asked if I was Pakistani (because of my tanned complexion.) They were shocked to hear that I was an American, and apologized, but they still did not allow me to take the picture.

Phantom locations proved to be a recurrent adversary. Sure, the Tree of Rain café may have existed when Naoko Takeuchi was writing Casablanca Memory, but the officers at the police box whom I questioned were unable to find it on their maps. One older woman in a flower shop looked at me quizzically and said that that Tree of Rain had closed years ago. Living here nearly a year now I have come to realize that places come and go very easily, and have experienced that disappearance many times, even in the suburbs I reside in.

There were 3 places I really enjoyed visiting. The first was the Hikawa Jinja in Akasaka. It was so beautiful there. It looked very similar to the depictions in the manga and anime, too. I tried to get a shot with crows in it, but they refused to cooperate. Sadly, shrine maidens were also absent during my trip. Second was Tennouzu Isle. To get there I had to ride the monorail which was pretty cool; riding up-front, I felt like a kid again. The station for Tennouzu has the kanji 天王, the same kanji found in Sailor Uranus’ civilian name. Shortly after arriving I noticed the real life Mugen Gakuen building, and that building was worth dozens of shots. Tennouzu has many tall skyscrapers, like those in New York. But it also has a few nice parks, and some rivers- with fish that would occasionally jump into the air. Lastly, I really loved my trip to the Jindai Botanical Gardens. Despite that I went there in the winter, the gardens were really nice. They were depicted perfectly in the introductory sequence of the Sailor Moon R movie. To get there I even rode the same bus that the senshi did.

Something that I found interesting about Azabu-Juuban and Roppongi that you might not have noticed when watching Sailor Moon is the large population of foreigners depicted. There are many embassies located in that part of Tokyo, including that of China, Korea, and Australia. When I went to some of the parks, I heard people speaking English, and would forget that I was in Japan.

The photo tour, challenges et all, helped me understand Japan better. I learned how Japanese train systems worked. I had many opportunities to practice the text book Japanese I learned in college. I learned how to properly understand when directions were given and, furthermore, the importance of landmarks when giving directions in turn. I also got to see how Naoko Takeuchi was inspired by the many sights in Minato ward. I think its no coincidence that there happens to be a section of Minato called Daimon, the same name as the monsters of the day in Sailor Moon S.

Hmm.

But for myself, what was most important was, rather than being a passive Sailor Moon fan, I became part of something that contributes to Sailor Moon fandom as a whole. Thank you Jay and Genvid, for giving me the chance to finally contribute something to the Sailor Moon community, and for allowing me to see, firsthand, the area where this series- one that will always hold a special place in my heart- was set. I wonder if Takeuchi-sensei will ever be aware that her work inspired the creation of Warriors of Legend: Reflections of Japan in Sailor Moon.

Now, whenever anyone asks if Sailor Moon takes place in a real part of Tokyo, I can say to them proudly, “It does, and I’ve been there- but was never the target of any youma.”

We'd like to thank Yosenex in turn for all his hard work in taking those photos. Gokurousama deshita! And we have reason to believe Takeuchi will know about (and have a copy of) the book soon enough.

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