by Armand Vaquer
Tomorrow marks eight years since I first went to Japan. The trip coincided with the premiere at the 2001 Tokyo International Film Festival of Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (GMK), directed by Shusuke Kaneko.
This was my first overseas flight.
Being that the trip was almost two months since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the National Guard was in full force at Los Angeles International Airport. The flight from L.A. to Narita International Airport takes roughly eleven hours (the return trip only takes about eight hours as we are going with the Trade Winds coming back). The airline was United Airlines. I've always favored United for their service and their meals. On this trip, I was not disappointed in their service.
Richard Pusateri was already in Japan and we agreed to meet up the night of my arrival at the Hachiko Statue at Shibuya Station. The photo below is the first picture taken in Japan.
I decided to try out a Japanese ryokan (Japanese inn) to see what it was like. I stayed at the Hotel Fukudaya in Shibuya (which came in handy as the film festival screening was at the Orchard Hall in Shibuya). Their rooms were comfortable and the rates reasonable, about $50.00 per night.
On the first night, Richard and I roamed around Shibuya, taking in the sights. I got an Ultraman figure from a capsule toy machine that night.
After a few hours of roaming around Shibuya, we decided to call it a night and set up a meeting point at the Godzilla statue in Hibiya before going over to Toho International's offices to meet up with Shozo Watanabe the next morning for our visit to Toho Studios.
The third day was totally devoted to the Tokyo International Film Festival. It was held, as mentioned above, at the Orchard Hall theater in the Bunkamura (below) in Shibuya. The Bunkamura is Shibuya's shopping and entertainment complex.
I got to the Bunkamura a little early and roamed around the shops across the street from it. While doing so, I saw a huge black raven playing with a brochure of some sort in a tree. I was near a sidewalk cafe and a young Japanese mother was at a table with her baby. I asked if I could set my camera bag on her table to take a picture of the raven and she nodded okay. I then took a couple of photos of the bird.
After this, she asked (in very broken English) what I was in Japan for. I said I was there for the screening of the new Godzilla movie. She could not understand what I said and then I pointed to a film festival banner that was hanging from a nearby street light and said, "Gojira eiga." Her eyes brighted up and then got up from her chair and started walking around like Godzilla while saying the notes of the "Godzilla March" by Akira Ifukube ("do-do-do, do-do-do..."). At that point, I wished I had a video camera with me. Her husband came out of the restaurant while she as doing this and he just looked at her and shook his head. It was a hilarious sight.
The screening of GMK in the Orchard Hall was packed. Fortunately, I obtained a press pass (as I was covering the event for G-FAN), so I was able to go up to the front of the theater for the pre-screening appearance of Kaneko and some of the stars of the movie and, also, for Godzilla's appearance (below). The movie was not totally finished, and the sound system in Orchard Hall was a little inadequate. Nonetheless, the audience loved the movie.
After the screening, we exited the theater and mingled outside under the building's awnings to keep out of the rain. I congratulated Toho executive producer Shogo Tomiyama on the movie. Haruo Nakajima also attended and Richard and I had a photo taken with him. Hideyo Amamoto walked by and Richard and I greeted him and shook his hand.
It started raining as we waited in line for the screening and it was raining harder when it ended. A dinner party was organized at a Chinese restaurant in Nakano and a group of us hailed a taxi to get to it. It was an interesting experience. As Japanese cars and roads are like England's (the driver sits on the right instead of on the left), I rode up front with the driver. It was raining hard and it was nighttime. We darted around in the taxi on side streets to get to Nakano. It seemed like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland.
Fortunately for us, we got to the dinner party in one piece. More on that in Part Two.
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