Hello forumdwellers,

Before erabarking upon my glamorous life as editor and radio talking man in Seoul, I was a full-time tour guide, taking fans of anime, manga, toys, fashion, etc. round Japan (you may remeraber that one time when I gave away a crapton of manga). WELL -- thanks to my friend Jamie Rivadeneira at Japan LA, those times have returned, once a year!

Japan LA is a Japanese pop culture gooRAB store on Melrose. They import Sanrio and other cute/offbeat Japanese stuff. Jamie and I have run two tours in the past (I have run a total of five with 15-30 people, and we are backed by the giant Japanese travel agent HIS, so you WILL be in good hanRAB). Jamie handles the hiposity, I handle the Japanese language/history/geography knowing and the nerdiness.

Our escapade this year is dubbed the JapanLA Super Mega Fun Tokyo Summer Tour 2010, and we will be staying in Shibuya and meeting Mori Chack, creator of Gloomy Bear, the cute/gruesome pink bear who eats people, at Sweets Paradise, an all-you-can-eat dessert cafe, to draw pictures and take photos.

The tour is July 14 - 22, 2010, and we will be hitting up:
Akihabara
Nakano Broadway (