Inside Hyper Japan 2010

Written by A. H. on 05 Oct 2010

Let's be honest; travelling to Tokyo (or indeed anywhere in Japan) is both a time-consuming and expensive experience no matter how wonderful a trip it might be, putting it outside of the immediate reach of many and leaving us bereft of an easy way to experience the full gamut of Japanese culture beyond just anime and manga alone.

For those who haven't been to Japan yet, whether considering a trip or not, the prospect of getting to enjoy Japanese food, drink and entertainment from the relative locality of East London's Old Truman Brewery seems too tempting to miss, and so come Saturday October 2nd we headed out to the first (and hopefully not the last) Hyper Japan, an event organised in conjunction with numerous Japanese corporations from Panasonic to Square Enix to show off the country at its entrepreneurial best.  If you weren't able to make it for the duration of the show's three-day residence, or if you were there but simply want to reminisce about the day, then read on as we cast a glance over the show floor and what we found there.

By the time we arrived on Saturday, heading past the impressive queue of people waiting to buy tickets on the day, the first well attended panel, a manga drawing seminar which discussed the history of the medium amongst other things, was already well underway, so we chose instead to make our way around the various stands and exhibits dotted around the single floor the location used for the event.

One of the first stands we noticed was that of Nico Nico Douga; Japan's answer to YouTube, albeit a rather more otaku-centric one.  The site's presence at Hyper Japan was largely intended to allow them to stream live coverage of the event back to their Japanese audience, which involved not only covering the more pertinent attractions on stage, but also allowing English fans to step up to the camera provided at their stand to say hello to those viewing the live stream in Japan.  This was particularly entertaining on account of Nico Nico Douga's live comment system, which allows comments to be scrolled across the video screen as they're submitted - needless to say we counted a few "marry me" comments whenever a suitably attractive girl stepped up to say hello!

If you found yourself with a hunger for some Japanese cuisine, then the far end of the exhibition gave you plenty to choose from, all the way from Japanese-style curry through to sushi, and from yakitori to takoyaki with plenty of other items on the menu in-between.

If alcohol is more your thing, then there were still a couple of stands liable to capture your interest - While Asahi beer were on-hand to serve up draft pints and half pints of their particular alcoholic goodness, for £20 a bottle you could also pick up some Moeshu brand sake.  With three different flavours on offer (each represented by their own anime character) you had plenty to choose from too - personally, this writer plumped for the middle of the three bottles you can see above... purely for the purposes of investigative journalist though, you understand!