File date: 10/8/01

Title: Pink Case

Akadot.com got four copies of the soon-to-be released Utena movie DVD for review purposes & to give away for a contest.

Hmmmm. It's been a while since the last call-out to CPM.

Send me the special edition Utena DVD!

(How is this an Ikuni Observation? Uh... it's not)

File date: 10/9/01

Title: Plug for Pink Case

Beggars need to earn brownie points.

Utena movie DVD has a special audio commentary track by Ikuni. And Ikuni will be at Big Apple Anime Festival to promote the DVD in NY later this month.

File date: 10/19/01

Title: The Pile Grows

Ikuni's mail pile on Melanie's desk has been growing lately.

Ikuni is waiting for important documents to be mailed to him, so Ardith emails him. Emails him again. And again.

Important, eh?

File date: 10/23/01

Title: Ikuni Observation Journal, Side Stories

Next week we will have an Ikuni Observation Journal - Side Stories.

It will be Makki Observation Journal, where we observe "FLCL" director Kazuya Tsurumaki as he visits Ikuni's current habitat in sunny Southern California.

Stay tuned!

File date: 10/3/01

I received a call from Ikuni around 10pm. He said he was hungry and he invited for a late night dinner. Since the only places I know that are open that late are in Koreatown, we headed over to a Korean Tofu joint. To our surprise, we met Shizuki and Maeda-san there. It seemed they were working overtime due to many customers coming to OmochaBox. They asked Ikuni if he was okay with spicy foods, and he replied that he thought of them to be quite tasty. Ikuni then ordered the spicy beef-shrimp-clam combination Soondubu. Ikuni liked the place because of the price and the assorted dishes that come along with the meal.

File date: 10/4/01

At 4pm I invited him to an all-you can eat buffet style yakiniku store in Torrance. Ikuni seemed to be very hungry and he devoured the kalbi, livers, and tongue.

After that, we went over to Culver City to watch the movie "Don't Say A Word." We were shocked that the next viewing was over an hour and a half later so we decided to stroll around the mall. At the Rand McNally store, Ikuni looked over a magnetically floating globe which he found amusing. When Ikuni checked his watch, the time still read it was an hour and a half until the next showing! We realized that his watch has stopped working enroute from the yakiniku joint to the theater, and realized the show was in 10 minutes!

Note to self: a cell-phone is not handy when the battery dies out. From now on, always carry a watch.

We also went to buy a rice cooker for Ikuni. Frankly, Ikuni was tired of going out to eat so he decided for first time since his college days to actually cook! (Great, now I can force him to help me make a Buche-de-Noel on Christmas Eve) He bought a cheap rice cooker, 20lb bag of rice, Japanese pickels, and plums.

"Wow it's like I'm living in Japan!"

From that day on, his food life will revolve around rice...like me.

File date: 10/10/01

Ikuni called me in the evening to have a little chat. Apparently, he just had an argument with a employee at Best Buy when he was buying a DVD. His credit card was not accepted because "the stupid employee wouldn't charge my credit card because I didn't have any ID!" So when Ikuni showed the employee his temporary driver's license, she wouldn't accept that either because "there is no photo on it!" For ten minutes an intense battle took place at the local Best Buy over buying a DVD. No matter how hard Ikuni tried to explain that his driver's license has not come yet and that this was his only form of ID, "the bitch" wouldn't budge. Ikuni left the store frustrated and vowed never to get in line where that employee is working the cash register.

But getting into a quarrel with an employee at Best Buy shows how well his English has developed.

File date: 10/19/01

We went to see the movie "From Hell" starring Johnny Depp. Based on the stories and (consipracy) theories of Jack the Ripper, the movie was well developed and intriguing with the medical aspects of late eighteenth century London. Overall, Ikuni seemed to understand the logistics of it. However, he decided to bring a coat along the next time we see a movie. The theater was too darn cold.

File date: 10/20/01

I borrowed a DVD called "Hannibal" from Blockbuster and asked Ikuni if he wanted to watch it. Ikuni decided to come over to my place since "your place has better sound equipment."

The first ten minutes reminded us of the battle sequence from Lethal Weapon. At that point we realized this movie sucks. In "Silence of the Lambs," Hannibal Lector was more of an advisor to Clarice, even though Lector himself was a maniac. In "Hannibal" however, Lector IS ONLY A MANIAC running from the law. Granted the shots taken in Firenze (Florence), Italy showed some art...but not art as it relates to Lector himself. Granted the whole Italian story could have been anywhere and still the movie would make sense.

Ikuni was disgusted and felt sick when he watched the gory scene at the dinner table. He does not seem to like gore and gruesome scenes. Darn, I was about to lent him "Seven."

File date: 10/25/01

Ikuni sent me an e-mail that he arrived in New York. He sent me a picture where he was staying. The magnificent Le Parker Meridian Hotel with a terrific view of Central Park. "This is the best hotel I have ever stayed in the United States!"

File date: 10/27/01

Ikuni sent me another e-mail saying that he was invited to a party from a fan during his visit in New York. He took a cab to Soho and arrived at the party and discussed film along with dozens of art students at the party.

At one time, a party member introduced Ikuni to a "person that can also speak Japanese."

Yes, Ikuni coincidentally met the only son of Yoko Ono and the late John Lennon. Yes the one and only Sean Lennon, the artist of the music album "Into The Sun."

File date: 10/29/01

Ikuni came back from New York's Big Apple Anime Fest. He called me from the airport around 9:15pm and I went to LAX to pick him up. However, due to the tragedy on 9-11, no cars were allowed into the curb-side terminals. Therefore, when I saw him sitting outside the arrival terminal, I had to yell out to him.

File date: 10/30/01

We both wanted to see David Lynch's new movie "Mulholland Drive." So I checked out latimes.com to find the closest theater for Lynch's limited release around the Los Angeles area. Fortunately, it was being shown at the Westside Pavillion near Omochabox, so we went there for the 6:30 showing. Ikuni was hungry though, so we ate at the food court inside the Pavillion. However, it was 15 minutes to the premier, so we had to eat a big bowl of salad in such a short time...I felt like I was a rabbit.

Ikuni loved "Mulholland Drive" and asked me if such place really exists. I explained to him it is a twisted road for various wealthy Hollywood personalities above Bel Air. We talked for hours about "Mulholland Drive" after that, getting into Lynch's concept of perception and vision of the Hollywood/Los Angeles dream implied through the two actresses. Ikuni especially felt a rapport with Lynch's vantage point of the Los Angeles scenery.