Over the past months, in-between fun trips out to historical and famous parts of Japan and my intense Japanese studies, it’s no surprise that I set apart some time for unscheduled bits of fun. Not necessarily educational, but certainly one-of-a-kind experiences nonetheless.

The first stop on the extra-curricular fun parade is the One Piece Dome Tour. One Piece is the Harry Potter of Japan; in fact, it actually outsold the world-wide famous books last year, and is now into its second year of reigning as the most sold book series in the country. It’s been in circulation since 1997 and is now into its 665th chapter and 544th episode. One Piece was also one of my main inspirations for beginning to learn Japanese, as I have been deeply enthralled in since 8th grade of middle school. Needless to say, for purely nerdy reasons, I couldn’t help but buy myself a ticket to the One Piece Dome Tour of Japan and head to Nagoya Dome.

It was a blast. Anime and manga culture in the US is drastically different from Japan. One Piece here is viewed as a series for the family; if the parents love it, the children will inevitably fall in love with it as well. As a result, I saw fans of all ages milling about as I walked about, taking in the life-size figurines of One Piece characters and watching live interviews of the voice actors of the show. It was definitely an experience for a lifetime.

Then there was the movie, Gyakuten Saibian. Based off of a very popular video game in Japan that circles the adventures of lawyers, I dragged a few friends to see it in theatres. Being as this was my second time in a Japanese movie theatre, it was no surprised to sit through a movie and piece together plot through action and our broken knowledge of Japanese, but the film ended up being surprisingly easy to follow, and entertaining for everyone. Finally, the IES kids also got a chance to go to the actual theatre, as it were. We saw The Musical Hamlet! It was certainly an experience; a rock-opera like rendition of the famous Shakespearean play, where the stage actors were apparently so popular that they had an entire crowd waiting for them after the show to greet them and congratulate them.

Location: Nagoya, Japan