It’s been a part of my destiny to meet this smart, innocent, kind girl named Sofi Novianti, from Bandung, in the same building where I lived and spent my first half year in Japan. Though we are into different programs and separated by the different era we were born, we became close and I am really blessed to have been introduced to her by Allah SWT because I learnt a lot of things from her, especially about Japan and its culture.
Her major (Japanese language and literature) has made her know much about Japan and she’s not reluctantly shared what she knows with me. One of the many things I have learned from her is the trends that have been very famous among Japanese youngsters and youth from all over the world who love Japanese trends, namely Cosplay and Otomate Cafe.
Not knowing at all what these two were, Sofi gave me complete information as well as the experience that I truly had for myself so that I could have and feel the atmosphere of these two new experiences by myself. When I first heard the word ‘Cosplay’ I was thinking about something like ‘a play’ which I wasn’t sure what play it was. Frankly, I really was and until now am not up-to-date with any Japanese trends that much – unlike the youth who are crazy about and follow the latest trends. I just read news about it, like once at a time, but don’t follow them all the time. So, Sofi introduced it to me and she brought me to two Cosplay events that I could experience the enthusiasms of the cosplayers wearing costumes of their most liked figures myself, though I only watched them doing it.
The first cosplay event I went to was in a mall somewhere like one hour by train from our place, in Fukuyama. It was not a big event though, but seemingly I started to know more what cosplay was like at that time – cause even when you have lots of explanation about a trend that is famous among the youngsters, you’ll get deeper understanding when you see and experience it yourself. There weren’t many participants joining it as the place was limited (it’s an indoor event) and so Sofi also used the chance to wear a costume of a figure she knew much. As she also had to do an interview for her research (which was about Cosplay) and i think it was a good experience for her to lively play a figure and do an interview with some of the participants at the same time. On that day, I saw Japanese people – from the young to the middle age – played figures of their most favourite ones. Some of them also walked on the stage and had their pictures taken by their fans (as Sofi and me). We figured out that those cosplayers had been doing this as a hobby for quite some time, one of the interviewed had even been doing it for around thirteen years. She had participated in many Cosplay events all around Japan because she was really in to it. Whoa! What an experience!
Then, the other cosplay event Sofi brought me to was in Nagoya. It was a huge event named Cosplay World Summit 2015. There were 26 countries all over the world that sent their representatives to this event, and two Bandungans from Indonesia were ones of them. The event was held in August which happened to be summer at that time so it was really a struggle for the ones who both participated or watched it as the heat of the sun really struck us until our very own bones. Sweat kept running all over my body and the outfit I wore was soaked and got dry and soaked again. It was really ‘taihen’ but a different, great experience for me though. I was there for like four hours – watching, strolling around the area, accompanying Sofi interviewing the participants and just enjoying the event, whilst Sofi stayed there until late, around 08.00 pm because the night event was actually the main one – where the champions were elected, but I didn’t go there because I would have to buy the ¥2500 entrance ticket which I didn’t want to buy. :p
I was so lucky to have been invited by Sofi to know more about Cosplay by joining those two events cause it left me a new once in my whole-life memory that I won’t forget.
Another trend of Japanese youth is a café called ‘Otomate Café’. It’s a café which serves the anime freaks many dishes which are named after different anime characters. Many of this kind of cafés are located in big cities, especially in Tokyo. In smaller cities there’re usually neko café (cat café) only. Hence, after the Cosplay event, off we went to Tokyo to visit some places, including the Otomate Café. Amazingly, even if it’s just a café, you can’t just enter the café without any reservation. Everything in Japan is sooo well-structured and done online. When Sofi decided to go to this café, she booked for the two of us like three weeks ahead of our chosen date. Another surprising fact is that even though you have made the online reservation, you still have to wait for the reply, whether or not you are accepted and get the chance to be the guests of the café, which depends on the availability of the seats on the date you want. Plus, the duration of visiting is just for a two-hour visit maximally. Luckily, we were able to visit the café on the date and time we wanted to.
Before entering the café at the chosen time of visit, we had to line up by the door of the café (for God’s sake, we’re all adults and still we had to line up! That’s the culture of Japan that we, as foreigners, have to follow. Then, when lining up we were given the menu to choose so as we entered and got our seat in the café we could order the food and drink we wanted to right away. After seated, we could see a pictured paper of an anime figure on our table. Since I’m not an anime freak so truthfully I didn’t and until now don’t know who’s the character in the picture I got. If you’re lucky enough you can get your favourite anime character you like, either straight on your table or by asking for someone else’s in the cafe who wants to swap hers/his with yours. Additionally, in every dish you order, there’s a souvenir given to you for free, which is the character of the anime character of the dish you order. For anime lovers, I bet it’s a heaven for them to get more stuffs as collections.
It’s not just the names of dishes that are set as the anime characters but also the decoration and furniture of the cafe as well. The waitresses and waiters are all dressed up as some anime characters too, and you can take pictures inside the cafe and with the waitresses also. It’s a total all out that we can feel the atmosphere of anime world which makes us feel as if we were really in an anime movie….
If you are an anime freak and get a chance to visit Japan, you MUST try to visit this cafe and hit other places in this country where the origin of anime is from.
Arigatou ne, Sofi chan, iro iro na Nihon no bunka o benkyoushite, takusan keiken ga atta, hontoni ureshii yo, atashi!
Sore de, see you in the next story of my life.
From Doraemon country with love,
Ina Lestari
Ina Lestari 