「探偵が諦めたら、事件は迷宮入りなんだ！」

「いや、人は疑うべきだよ。多くの人は誤解しているけれど人を疑うとはつまりその人間を知ろうとする行為なんだ。『信じる』。その行為は紛れもなく高尚な事だ。。。しかしね、多くの人間が『信じる』の名の下にやってる行為は実は他人を知ることの放棄。」、秋山深一、『Ｌｉａｒ　Ｇａｍｅ』
"No, you should doubt people. Many people don't get it, but to doubt someone is actually to try to know that person. "Believing". That is certainly something admirable... But you know, what most people do under the cover of the word "believing", is giving up on getting to know other people.", Akiyama Shin'ichi, "Liar Game"

Most of the exams have already passed, with only a kanji test remaining for Monday. As our teacher don't know Dutch, we didn't have a translation text as an exam this time, which is a bit regrettable, as I enjoy translating a lot more than comprehensive reading, but the exams went quite well for everyone.

What remains now is a lingering week of feedback on the exams and preparations for a presentation in Japanese and a short drama we're supposed to perform with all of us. And it seems people from Waseda will come to see our play. Joy. I hope for a murder mystery. After that it's a week vacation before most of us leave for the Netherlands again.

Yesterday, I visited the Tokyo Tower with Els. I wanted to go after seeing Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser, of which the climax is set at the Tokyo Tower at night. Yes, I am succeptable for these kind of things. I was in Tokyo 2 years ago, but I never visited the Tower for some reason then and some time ago, the Tower closed just as we approached it, but this time everything went smooth. Except for the waiting lines of course, because we both sorta forgot it was a Saturday night. It was kinda crowded.

The night view of the Tower itself is a lot prettier than in daylight. The orange/blue lights (depending on what time it is, I guess) is a lot prettier than the red/white of the Tower. Inside the Tower we found strange mascottes, elevators with elevator music (which is something the elevators in our Mansion really need) and a nice view on Tokyo. Traveling through Tokyo mostly by train and subway, I never actually realized how big Tokyo is, but seeing it from such a viewpoint really impressed me.

There are two observatories, the standard at 150 meter, the special observatory at 250 meter and we also went up to the special one. It smelled funny there. And because there is only one elevator that goes up there, you have to wait in (a long) line to get up there and to get down. You could see so much more of Tokyo up at the special observatory, but everything had become so small by then, so maybe the view at 150 meter is better than the 250 meter one. Like in the Conan movie we stayed till closing time, but we didn't leave turbo powered skateboards in the lobby, nor did we get shot at by a helicopter. Luckily.

Today's song: 大野克夫バンド (Oono Katsuo Band) - 名探偵コナン メイン・テーマ(漆黒フルヴァージョン) (Meitantei Conan Main Theme (Shikkoku Full Version) ("Detective Conan Main Theme (Jet Black Full Version))") (Main theme of Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser)

P.S.: Dr. Koto's Clinic is an awesome series. Almost makes me want to be a doctor on a faraway Okinawan island.

「真実はいつも一つ！」

Went to see Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser with Els today, which was a superspecialawesome movie. We wanted to go yesterday, as that was the first day the movie was shown, but surprisingly, tickets were sold out about everywhere pretty much immediately (movie tickets here, by the way, are quite expensive. 1800 yen!).

So kinda disappointed, we settled for today. As tickets sold fast as well today, we made a quick jump to and from Ikebukero around 14.00 to get tickets for the last showing at 18:30, thus missing the rest who went to a park nearby our mansion. We wanted to join the rest after our return, but we just never found the park. We still don't have a clue where the friggin' park is. Pretty sure we went the right direction, but it was not to be. Of course, with my sense of (mis)direction, the search was hopeless to begin with.

Back at the theater, several things stood out. First was the blond gaijin Els amongst the waves of Japanese people. But besides that, it was pretty cool that the people who were going to see this animation movie were... just normal people going to the movies. I was expecting more... kids and stuff, but the Detective Conan movies seem to be regarded as just normal movies by the Japanese public (or maybe animation movies in general). Also, the people were actually quite silent during the movie, which was nice, as I could actually hear dialogue instead of people talking. And they actually stayed in their seats until the credits ended. Certainly different from the Dutch experience.

The movie was as said superspecialawesome, but only people reading/watching Detective Conan would understand the superspecialawesome-ness. It has to do with Irish Whiskey, the Big Dipper, suspenders, mahjong and the Beatles. And loose threads of plot regarding turbo-powered skateboards left in the lobby of the Tokyo Tower. Ah, it was pretty evil that The Raven Chaser merchandise was sold inside the theater and I consciencely stepped into the trap.

Detective Conan for me is a important series, as it introduced me to the world of Japanese detective novels and in a way has gotten me all the way here to Tokyo. So it was kinda full circle-ly stuff when I finally got to see Detective Conan in the theaters here.