I had some free days at the ends of my trip to Japan, so I looked up what kinds of Ateez-related activities I could fit in.
Photoism
First stop was a Photoism booth just down the street from my hotel. Since last time, the Seonghwa Day frames came out, plus the Mighteez frames aren’t available in the U.S., and they’re so cute. I also couldn’t resist doing another Yunho Day set—this time featuring Mingyo, and hands. (Idk if it’s actually to scale, but it felt closer than last time.)
BRMUD Collab
Then began my quest to find the BRMUD collab in a Donki. (If you aren’t familiar with Donkis—full name Don Quijote—they’re discount stores packed claustrophobically full of the craziest assortment of stuff, in violation of any sane fire code.) Finding anything specific in one is always a needle in haystack affair. It took checking 6 Donkis across 2 days before I finally found one with the tiny BRMUD display, which was clearly already half-raided by PC seekers. (Not a single box of the product that doesn’t come with PC had sold.)
But! The payoff was extra worth the hunting because I pulled Yunho! The whole set is so much cuter than they looked from the preview. Mud pawprints and mud hearts omg.
Dubai Chewy Cookies
I went to north Shinjuku to finally try some Dubai chewy cookies. It was… alright. I like the mix of textures, but I let the marshmallow get a little hard, and in general it just didn’t blow me away. It does amuse me how much I’ve seen about these cookies, and how many times I’ve seen them made, all purely through Ateez.
Perhaps just as interesting was the adventure to get there: Due to being flustered by a work deadline, I took one train later and got off one stop earlier than planned, so I ended up walking through K-town. Even before I hit K-town, a random street-level video billboard I walked by suddenly started blasting Enhypen’s Bite Me when I walked past?!
K-town was a string of alternating cosmetics and food shops, with occasional Kpop stores of unofficial goods. I didn’t look all that hard, but the only Ateez stuff I found was a single wall calendar.
Goods-Hunting
I went to a couple second-hand shops with big Kpop selections, though a lot was just to lust after things I can’t buy. I did get a bunch of relatively cheap photocards (I set myself a ¥500 limit, though I did break the rule once, for winking ponytail Yunho). K-Books Ikebukuro and Mandarake Shibuya both had incredible selections. The Mandarake even played Bouncy and Roar while I was there hehe. I would say the K-Books skews a bit more recent issue, and has more at the low price points. The Mandarake pricing is competitive on the low end but has bigger variety in both sets and pricing. I didn’t look at the more expensive cards at Mandarake because I ran out of time, but they had this funny sign to tell you they’re in the showcase.
Browsing stacks of PCs simultaneously makes me want and not want to collect. Want, because look at all these cards I could get, each at a seemingly reasonable and sometimes even negligible cost. (Ignoring the ¥3500 and up cards in the case.) Not want, because the sheer number of them is overwhelming. There’s been a fun series of Reddit posts by people showing off their member-specific collections, some of close to 2000 cards. 💀
I just wanted some interesting and cute Yunhos and/or some that I can swap into my PC holders. (The power of the bias, I discovered, is that all Yunho PCs are enticing, whereas the enticing PCs of wreckers and other members were the ones out of my price range.)
VR Concert
The VR concert happened to be rerunning at a theater in greater Tokyo so I went to a showing on the last day. The online sales showed a pretty empty theater, but the turnout ended up being decent, though less than 50% full. Compared to the show I went to in the U.S., it was much more orderly and subdued. They didn’t try to coach us in the IOMT fanchant, and the viewing was generally quiet with only a few squeals and cries of “so close!” mostly at the beginning.
Due to spending too long at the Mandarake and navigating the station being more confusing than expected, I got there with less than 10 minutes to spare and everyone was already going in to sit down. But based on what I saw of people arriving for the next showing, the trading scene is also really subdued—just someone standing around wit her PC visible. I pulled a dupe Yeosang (that 1/8 chance will get ya sometimes) so after the movie I went trading and managed a Hongjoong!
It was great to be able to watch the concert again after 3 months. A lot of it was like seeing it for the first time. I forgot Cyberpunk was in the setlist until it started! I’ve developed a much better appreciation of their ballads so I really enjoyed Mist this time. All of the thoughts from last time still hold—they’re all so beautiful, the eye contact is devastating, I love seeing the choreos in detail, I have a part of my brain dedicated to tracking Yunho apparently.
I was really torn about who to pick but ultimately went with Hongjoong. I have to say, Yunho has the best shots during the selection screen. The side profile glance back. The one with the tiniest smile. The arms crossed with full-on cold Yunho look. ...anyways. I should be commended for not getting stuck on his screen until time ran out, really.
Hongjoong is really beautiful in his solo scenes. I'm sure they all are, but ohhhh Captain.
***
That was all the free time I had in Tokyo, so I had to kick “Yunho’s” tonkatsu place (Tonki) off the list. The location from the vlog (Komagome) is pretty inconvenient from where I'm staying, and the main store (Meguro) is only open for dinner. Not to mention the timing required to avoid a long wait.
