Our first week in Tokyo began with combating jet lag, practicing gimbal moves in Motomachi park, and trying out picture profiles. I’ve decided to skip HLG3 since HDR editing is too complicated for me at this stage, and probably overkill for an 8-bit camera anyway (as someone more knowledgeable than me commented). We also shot some views from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building and spent an evening in Yoyogi park.
On Wednesday I met my friend Y, who had finally got the event tickets and the circle participant guide in the mail. Meanwhile, S stayed in the hotel room and experienced his first earthquake, which I unfortunately missed! I also bought coin holders and other stuff for the event at a 100 yen shop – that’s where my research participant and new friend A had recommended me to buy them.
On Thursday I participated in a fieldwork workshop at Sophia University, followed by beers and then dinner with some of the participants. I really enjoyed talking to other anthropology students about our respective projects, and to get a glimpse of PhD student life.
On Friday we went to Yokohama and spent the first evening eating temaki rolls with a family, in their home. Sort of unexpected, I had only met the guy (the family father) for fifteen minutes in a bar in Berlin.
On Saturday we finetuned the autofocus setting of the a7III, located the event venue, and started shooting for real. It was great to be at it again, to work as a team! Felt like we were back in Bahir Dar, where we shot S’s film one and a half year ago.
And so it was Sunday, the event day. The rain poured down so we jumped on a bus that took us the single stop from the hotel to the venue. It was so well organised and we were taken care of really well by the staff. I had been worried about all kinds of things before, so it was great to finally be in and set up my desk!
S sold the first two copies of my doujinshi to other circle participants while I was out shopping from other circles. At 12 sharp the event opened for the public and general participants started to fill the hall. It was obvious that some circles were more popular, with lines starting to form in front of their desks.
I had such a great time. I talked to many shotacons, some of whom commented that my research was “really interesting”. All in all I sold 42 copies and gave away eight. So I’ll have to bring a whole 105 back to Berlin, unless I manage to unload some at doujinshi shops in Akihabara, which will be another chapter of my participant observation. I should have created buzz beforehand on Twitter and the like, as my shota mentor implies:
今般のショタフェスで頒布されたショタ研究会 @shotaresearch のショタリポート、事前告知があれば反響は恐らく倍増しただろうし、電子媒体版があればまだ拡散する余地があろうかと。
— ぶどううり・くすこ (@xqo_b) February 17, 2020
Almost everyone paid with exact money (200 yen), so my hard work of paying with big bills (in the week leading up to the event) to collect 100 yen coins to use as change had been unnecessary. The coin holders were useful though. I’m still taken by the many happy faces I saw at the event, especially a slightly older man who gave his doujinshi to both me and S (and he cherishes it!).
A very fun surprise was a woman who came up and was very curious about my research. It turned out that she’s one of the academic authorities in my field, and one who I have cited at length in my research proposal. Since our research projects align quite a bit, we’ll meet next week. But first I’ll meet a Japanese scholar. All in all, the event was fantastic for networking, and for showing fellow shotacons what I’m doing. I’m proud to be featured in photos like this:
今回のショタフェスの戦利品ーーー！！！
今回も大満足です……また参加したい……(:3[_____] pic.twitter.com/HD1kU8RPxZ— ティルシー (@tellT25) February 16, 2020
A sad thing was that we have lost the gimbal. I didn’t even realise it until after the event. Again, this is so unlike me, which just proves how focused on the event I have been – just like when I missed an important meeting when the doujinshi was delivered! My dear DJI Ronin-SC, bought in July 2019 for 359 euro.
Tomorrow we will relocate to Tokyo.
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