You may recall I and several others attended a Sailor Moon doujinshi event last fall in Kawasaki, near Tokyo. Six months later the same group has held another event in Tokyo proper, which WoL photographer Yosenex and I went to yesterday.

The directions to the place were pretty confusing and we were lost for a little while, wandering the streets of Mitaka, an area located slightly west of Shinjuku. Entering a building on an uncrowded side-street, we saw a small color sign near the elevator featuring the same artwork that had been on the March flyer that had been handed out in October. We knew we'd arrived.

Naoko's 1/1 Room update had a second lengthy diary note on the third "Secrets" page among the graphics up top, located here. Translation:

On 12/22/05, at Ritsumeikan University, I gave my first ever lecture! I was received by cute snowmen [see picture on that page] and conducted busybody blacksuited women through a tense hour and a half. (There was a ton of snow in Kyoto!)

There's been a new update (1/1/06) to Sailor Moon Channel's "Naoko's Room," which is the online diary page of Naoko Takeuchi. We have a translation of it ready now:

Happy New Year.

I'm sorry that I took a vacation from my manga last year. Right now, managing my company and taking care of my child are using up a lot of time so I was unable to draw as much manga as I used to but (here's the big concern) on top of that, since it was a bit too much last year, my husband and I got sick. (Thanks to a strong intravenous drip I'm now completely recovered. Noroviruses, mycoplasma, and influenza seem to thrive in my head. Everyone, please don't forget to rinse your mouth, wear a mask, and wash your hands.)

It’s been said that “the charm of Japanese life is largely the charm of Childhood.”

As I consider my own interests in understanding Asia, and in particular Japanese society, I reflect upon what it is in Sailor Moon, that cultural asset that drew my initial interest, that still manages to capture my imagination and point it toward wanting to comprehend the complexities of another culture.