In Japan, comic books are as common as rice. They’re everywhere, anytime.

A sweaty salaryman on on overcrowded train with no oxygen barely finds any space to flip through the pages of the latest issue of Reluctant Soldier Princess Nami. A uniformed schoolgirl hypnotically follows Naruto’s adventures on the screen of her cell phone. A culturally-shocked tourist wanders around the maze of a six-floor specialized comic book store with thousands and thousands of titles. Manga cafés. Manga rental shops. Comic book fairs and conventions.

And then there is Rikimaru Toho who reads manga — the Japanese comic books — to the audience on the street.

Toho is a professional manga reader — also known as Manga Man — who had already become some sort of a celebrity here in Tokyo and has even been featured on MTV Japan and other TV stations.

Rikimaru Toho reads manga to audience in Shimokitazawa, Tokyo. (Source: http://sc.4connection.org/file/people.html)

Rikimaru Toho, with a towel wrapped around his head, every Saturday at 10 o’clock at night enthusiastically reads manga aloud to listeners in front of the South Exit of Shimokitazawa Station in Tokyo. On Sunday afternoons you can find him in the nearby Inokashira Park, just a few stations away. He’s been doing this for the past five years.

Before he was picked up by the media, Toho was unemployed. Now he gets offers to perform in theaters and clubs.

The audience can choose any of the manga from the wide selection he puts on the sidewalk, donate a few hundred Yen and the show can begin. For Toho, no character is out of bounds. A performance lasts about 10 or 15 minutes on average.

“The best thing about my manga performances is when audience members are sweating when they thank me after a reading. I’m the one who performed — but they’re the ones sweating,” says Toho. (Source)

By now, you’re probably wondering what it all sounds like. We dug up a couple of videos below:

Rikimaru Toho’s web site can be found here (in Japanese only).

Characters from the anime series 'Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu'.

Japanese high school Nishinomiya Kita Senior High School has a problem! But it’s not because of students, bad grades or annoying teachers. What’s causing headaches for school administrators is the growing number of anime fans that flock here from all parts of Japan and even foreign countries.

The reason they chose this school is the popular anime Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, where the main character Haruhi and her friends attend a school that’s closely modeled after Nishinomiya Kita High School.

The fans, armed with cameras, usually show up at the main gate, snap a few pictures, walk around the neighborhood and then leave.

Some, however, are more persistent and nag school officials to let them enter the premises. When they are denied entry, they ask to use the bathroom, knowing they are unlikely to be turned down. Of course there’s a good reason behind this — the school bathrooms are almost identical to those portrayed in the anime. Some intruders even manage to sneak into the premises without permission.

A 24-year old university student and a die-hard Haruhi fan has already made a couple of trips to the school. By overnight bus, he traveled from Saitama Prefecture all the way to the town of Nishinomiya, which is located at the foot of the Rokko mountain range in Hyogo Prefecture in the south-west of Japan.

“The line between the real and virtual worlds had blurred, and I felt like I had jumped into the anime world,” said the student, recalling his visits.

The school is the alma mater of Nagaru Tanigawa, the author of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu anime series. Besides the school itself, the anime features various real locations in Nishinomiya. The streets, buildings, stores, bridges — everything has been faithfully captured in the anime.

Due to the growing popularity and to welcome the fans, the Hyogo prefectural government last year launched a web site to introduce local food specialties and anime settings. But that’s not all — they are now considering working with private companies on anime pilgrimage tours for fans.

Even thought they still have to fend off the invaders, the school officials said they will lend as much support as possible for such projects. Makio Matsunaga, one of administrators who saw every episode of Haruhi, says that the students are inspired by the fact that a school alumnus has become a popular writer.

Now you are probably wondering what do the real sites look like when compared with the animated ones. Let’s have a look!

The official web site of Nishinomiya Kita Senior High School can be found here.

What will Tokyo look like in a post-apocalyptic world with no humans, no politicians and no corporations? Japanese artist who calls himself Tokyo Genso (Tokyo Fantasy) has a frightening vision.

Let’s begin with a teleport to Shibuya, the location of a once world’s busiest pedestrian crossing. The famous Shibuya 109 still stands in the middle, but there will be no more shopping…

In the first street on the right — Shibuya Center Gai — we see the ruins of the electronic retailer Sakuraya…

…where everything is soon taken over by vegetation.

At Nakano station we wait for the train that never comes…

…and so we walk further to Shinjuku which surprisingly wasn’t affected much by the destruction…

Akihabara, once a mecca for everything digital, has been flooded by rivers. Palm trees grow atop electronics giant Sofmap.

Time stands still at Yoyogi Station.

And what about airports? Seems like there will be no more flights at Haneda.

Want to see more? Tokyo Genso has a gallery on DeviantArt. What’s really neat about these illustrations — besides the obvious great skill — is that all locations are real, with beautifully detailed buildings that you can see in today’s Tokyo.

One of the world’s largest anime events, the annual Tokyo International Anime Fair 2010 (TAF 2010), was held last week from March 25th – 28th at the exhibition center Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba.

The event this year attracted more than 130,000 anime fans and included 231 exhibitors from Japan and 59 from abroad, including many famous companies like TOHO, Toei Animation, Studio Ghibli, Fuji TV, NHK, Konami, Bandai, just to name a few.

Along with snooping around the incredibly crowded booths, the anime hungry visitors could shop for latest anime goods at Anime Bazaar, take photos with live characters, enjoy live stage shows or stop by at Creator’s World to see the creations of highly talented young artists who are advancing their professional career to gain major status in the anime industry. In School Zone, prospective students could find out everything about study programs of several famous Japanese animation schools.

Let’s take a look at some highlights.

Artworks of animation students.

The exhibitors displayed their creations on rather prestigous tech:

Left: NEC's 3D display for watching in 3D without the need for special glasses. The system is very convincing, yet it seems like it will take some more time before it's fully watchable without noticing the slight shift in the image. Right: fun ultra thin (about 3 mm) display was attracting attention in the booth of Studio Anima.

Anime studio Kamikaze Douga promoted itself by parking a flashy vehicle right in their booth:

Fans could meet some of the singers who perform songs for anime, like the popular female duet Neko Jump from Thailand. The comedian with pastries in his wig was seen on several stages making sure that nobody got bored by any chance:

One of the booths featured a case with a shiny Playstation 3 console, covered with 24-karat gold:

Needless to say, there were plenty of figurines to be seen everywhere. Below we caught a special edition of the popular virtual idol Hatsune Miku, named Metallic Miku:

The UFO-like Tokyo Big Sight, the location of this year’s anime fair. The photo was taken during a 1-hour wait in line:

Have a look at the rest of the photos in our gallery:

Gallery: Tokyo International Anime Fair 2010
View all photos »

Have you visited this or previous year’s Tokyo International Anime Fair? How was your experience? You’re welcome to write in the comments below.

Studio Ghibli’s new animated motion picture titled Karigurashi no Arriety (The Borrower Arrietty) will arrive in Japanese theaters on July 17, 2010. Let’s look at the trailer:

The 80-minute long movie is an adaptation of the British fantasy novel “The Borrowers” by Mary Norton from 1952. The story talks about little people who “borrow” things from normal humans and keep their existence unknown. In contrast to the original story that takes place in England of the 1950’s, the film will be set in present-day Tokyo city of Koganei which is also the home of Studio Ghibli.

Karigurashi no Arrietty was directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and produced by Suzuki Toshio. The theme song Arrietty’s Song was co-written and performed by French celtic harpist and singer Cecile Corbel. Here is the song in full: