If you’re going to loiter on the edge of Kabuckicho, might as well be in front of Donki, which is short for Don Quijote (my apologies, Spaniards!). The store’s claustrophobic with its narrow aisles packed with odd merch. Fortunately, you can experience most of it from the sidewalk!
I love how clearly this packaging communicates beyond language. Donki (Don Quijote) offers a wide selection of slutty Xmas outfits with corsets, bunny ears, Playboy bunny brand, pink or black. This one clearly is large enough for a guy in make-up.
Guest Post: Created by Kathryn of Project Kathryn.
Readers, you are in for a huge treat!
After I complained that many of my loyal fangirl readers seem fixated on the super-young (at least from the perspective of this cougar, aka milf), Kathryn volunteered to introduce adorable Nakamura Shido. I love how her profile includes Arashi, Kathryn’s favorite group, and Donki! Thanks, Kathryn!!
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Shido Nakamura is apparently a famous Kabuki actor. Not being up with such cultured things like that, I only really noticed him when watching Letters from Iwo Jima (a damn fine movie – I resisted watching it for ages because I hate war movies but I’d highly recommend it).
After that, he became known (to me) as “the guy from Letters… no, not Nino, not Watanbe Ken, the other guy…”
Then I found out all about his kabuki past (he then became “the kabuki guy from Letters from Iwo Jima”) and, suddenly kabuki didn’t seem so boring. I could sit though some traditional Japanese theatre for Nakamura-san.
More recently he was a guest on Arashi ni Shiyagare – http://www.dramacrazy.net/japanese-variety/arashi-ni-shiyagare-episode-3/ as the “big brother” guest. He taught Arashi how to make ramen in a manly fashion *swoon*. He has a quiet, dry sense of humor you rarely see in guests on Japanese variety shows. But best of all, he talked about how, when he gets lonely in the middle of the night, he goes shopping at Don Quixote! And he loves it when he gets recognised and asked for autographs and photos. He (cleverly, perhaps) didn’t say which branch he shops at because that could possibly be opening the floodgates of fangirl stalking.
Still, good looks, manliness, sense of humor and shopping at Donki = a combination that will win my heart.
I just learned today that each Donki carries different merchandise. The one near Kabukicho seems heavily into fetishes. I love the many female fetish outfits: school girl (many uniform types), ball gown, maid, nurse, police woman. (For those outside Japan, Donki is the abbreviation for Don Quixote, a chain of low priced merchandise packed so densely it’s hard not to imagine the imminent fire hazard of even a short visit). It’s like the poor man’s Isetan or Takashimaya for teens.
The store makes you feel filthy for just looking. And below, a men’s thong with an extremely inappropriate name that does not match the visual. WTF?
Tokyo Moe 