Ha! You wish. Some people really truly love their two-dimensional partners. And this article is for those aspiring to become one of them.

When Love Is Not Enough: Love Plus

Whether it’s a two-dimensional girl or a two-dimensional 01100111 01110101 01111001 you’re looking for, you’re in luck. They come in all shapes and sizes, though mostly flat ones. But say you do get into a committed 2-D relationship. You’re serious about him/her. Would it be possible to actually marry my 2-D partner? Seal the deal? The answer is … probably not. I think this question on Yahoo知恵袋 (Japanese Yahoo Answers) sums it up quite well:

Q. 二次元の女性との婚姻届は出せますか？
Can I legally marry (do the marriage registration of) a 2-dimensional girl?

A. 戸籍（外国人なら婚姻要件具備証明書等の書類）が無いので無理でしょう。
Since they don’t have a koseki/family register it’s probably impossible.

It’s nice that the answerer actually came up with a real reason.

The person asking the question isn’t alone, though. There are, of course, many people who have fallen in love with a 2-D guy or girl (though mostly it’s a 2-D girl). One game that kept coming up in my research was Love Plus, a dating sim for the Nintendo DS.

I remember how back in the day when I played Hatoful Kareshi I became madly in love with one particular pigeon, only to have my hato broken. So, I can only imagine what Love Plus would do to me. Apparently this dating sim is convincing enough that people have actually married their Love Plus partner in real life, though I imagine the legality of said marriage is pretty nonexistent at best.

I do!

There are many stories of this out there about Love Plus destroying / creating marriages.

One man (known as SAL9000, pictured above) fell so in love with Nene Anegasaki (a character in Love Plus) that he married her and took her on a honeymoon to Guam. So, he and his Nintendo DS (I hope he has save file backups!) livecasted their trip on NicoNico and then held a public reception when they got back to Tokyo. [Source]

In another Love Plus story, instead creating a beautiful 2-D union the guy just ended up hurting his real life 3-D one. Koh (the guy), bought Love Plus for his DS just to see what the hype was about and found himself hooked. After committing himself to Rinko in the game, their relationship got deeper and deeper. She started calling him by his first name and began to demand more attention. BoingBoing wrote about this and did an interview about it, some of which is pasted below:

Koh, what do you and Rinko do together?
OK, this is pretty embarrassing. The DS has a mic and a touchscreen, so… one time, she asked me to say “I love you” a hundred times into the mic. I was on the airplane when she asked me that, so I was like, no way. There was also this part where you have to hold her hand on the touchscreen. If you touch her hand with the stylus, you get to hold her hand. And then there’s the part where you have to kiss her.

Did you do it?
No, no! The girl’s face shows up on the screen, and you have to touch her lips to give her a kiss. That’s pretty weird…. this is embarrassing. I’m sweating right now just talking about it. Yurie: Ew. Do people really do that? Koh: I guess some people do.

[...]

But Koh, you have a real woman in your life.
That’s why I was able to come back. Thank god! I was only stuck in that world for about a week. Also, I got hooked when I was in Japan on a business trip, so when I came back to San Francisco, I didn’t play it that much. Maybe just for a day. In the bathtub

[...]

Yeah, if I was playing too many games and that was compromising the time I spent in my real life, that would be a problem. It’s the same with Second Life or World of Warcraft. If I got too into something and couldn’t come back, that would be a problem. At the same time, though, the danger I felt when I almost got sucked into Love Plus was very human. If I was single and had gotten too into this… I don’t know, I recognized that there was a me in there that could have a real attachment to this artificial character on the other side of the DS screen. It made me think that humans could probably pretty easily develop feelings for AI robots. It’s the same with animals, right? Animals don’t speak words but you can really love them. But I do think it has something to do with the simplicity of men. I’d be really curious to see how women would react to a boy version of Love Plus.

[...]

So what is your Love Plus girlfriend doing now?
I’m too scared to find out. I’m probably going to get in big trouble if I open it after leaving her alone for several weeks. Maybe she’s dead now. That would be scary.

That’s a pretty edited version of the interview (read the full interview here), but you get the idea. The original interview included his wife as well, and she was surprisingly okay with it. She essentially said that as long as her husband knew that this was a game and that’s all, it’s okay with her. She was more concerned with the amount of time he played on it, more than anything. So, there’s hope for some of you guys yet!

Of course, there are other dating sims out there that dudes get addicted to, but this game is pretty high up there in terms of getting dudes in trouble. After coming out, wives and girlfriends got onto the internet to complain to Konami for stealing their men away. I can’t imagine the release of the 3DS helping out their cause any.

When You Love Sleeping

Personally, I’m a huge fan of sleeping. I do it every night, most nights. If only the person pillow I loved could be by my side during all those special unconscious moments! Wait! That’s a thing already!

If you head on over to Akihabara’s possibly X-rated and not X-rated shops, you’ll see all kinds of body pillows adorned with scantily clad anime ladies (and men). While this isn’t solely a Japanese thing anymore, I think it’s pretty safe to say that this whole idea either originated or got popularized in Japan.

One man, Nisan, was written about in the New York Times Magazine. The “how they met” story brings a tear to my eye.

Their first encounter — at a comic-book convention that Nisan’s gaming friends dragged him to in Tokyo — was serendipitous. Nisan was wandering aimlessly around the crowded exhibition hall when he suddenly found himself staring into Nemutan’s bright blue eyes. In the beginning, they were just friends. Then, when Nisan got his driver’s license a few months later, he invited Nemutan for a ride around town in his beat-up Toyota. They went to a beach, not far from the home he shares with his parents in a suburb of Tokyo. It was the first of many road trips they would take together. As they got to know each other, they traveled hundreds of miles west — to Kyoto, Osaka and Nara, sleeping in his car or crashing on friends’ couches to save money. They took touristy pictures under cherry trees, frolicked like children on merry-go-rounds and slurped noodles on street corners. Now, after three years together, they are virtually inseparable. “I’ve experienced so many amazing things because of her,” Nisan told me, rubbing Nemutan’s leg warmly. “She has really changed my life.”

Nisan of course knows she’s not real, but the love is, he says.

“Of course she’s my girlfriend,” he said, widening his eyes as if shocked by the question. “I have real feelings for her.”

It’s not just Nisan, either, though Nisan is much more public with his love for Nemutan because he takes her around everywhere. There are thousands of other people just like him who feel an emotional attachment to their dakimakura, and it’s turned into a kind of subculture where people make custom designs, sell them, buy them, and gather together to talk about them. One very important factor I learned about was the type of fabric. Smooth knit is good. I guess that’s the kind of thing you go on since the personality of the pillow is whatever you want it to be.

This culture is getting larger and larger too, it seems to me, and I don’t think it will slow down. We’ll talk about this more in the next section, but before we do that I just wanted to mention that if you’re looking for your very own special pillow someone, Tofugu actually runs the number one body pillow dating site in the world, so find Your One True Threadcount™ today!

When 2(D) Is More Real Than 3(D)

You may be wondering… why in the world would someone love a two-dimensional person??? While I don’t know from my own experience (except with my beautiful birdfriend Nageki Fujishiro. WHERE ARE YOU COME BACK TO ME!), similar themes came up again and again when I read through articles and research. Surprisingly, after reading so much I’ve come to realize it’s not actually all that weird and makes sense in a way. I’m not saying it’s for me, but I can see why people would feel and think this way.

First lets start with some general numbers about 2-D characters. How wide-spread is this phenomenon?L et’s take a look at a study done by 瞬刊！リサーチNEWS in May of 2013.

Q. Do you have an ideal man/woman from a 2-D world?

MEN (Answers：17,387)
- Yes: 33.6％
- No: 48.5％
- I don’t read manga and don’t watch anime: 17.8％

WOMEN (Answers：18,767)
- Yes: 40.9％
- Now: 42.9％
- I don’t read manga and don’t watch anime: 16.2％

Surprisingly, that’s 33.6% of men and 40.9% of women who said yes, they do have an ideal man/woman from a 2-D world. Of course, this doesn’t mean that all of these people are in love with an two dimensional character. Far from it. It does however show how anime/manga characters are personifications of “ideal” people you’d want to know or be with. With so many of them, of course you run into one or two that match the kind of girl or guy you’d want to date. But, that’s the same as with TV dramas or movies too, and these have real people in them. So, it’s not all that different from that. Children idolize cartoon superhero characters all the time. They want to be them, which isn’t all that different from wanting to be with a cartoon character, I’d say. The line that’s drawn has to do with knowing or thinking that you can be with them. I think Japan’s line is a lot harder to see.

The difference with Japan I think is the saturation of 2-D characters. If all you see is 2-D, and if this many people are able to idealize a 2-D character, then of course some of them are going to fall in love with them too. It’s still a very small subset of people that do this, but if you throw enough cats at the wall, one or two are going to stick, you know?

So what happens if you ask a similar question, but only with otakus. Someone took a group of 500 otaku dudes and polled them already, and here are the results:

Q. What Kind Of Females Do You Like?

2D Women: 23%
2.5D Women: 9.6%
Real Women: 65.8%
*2.5d = three dimensional animated girls

So, out of the otaku subset, you have around 30% of them who reportedly prefer not-real women. Of course, preference doesn’t mean you’re dating a body pillow, but you are leaning in that direction, at least.

There are a few generalized reasons why otaku dudes are more likely to fall for a 2D girl rather than a real one as well, from what I’ve read of individual experiences:

1. There are way more otaku guys than girls. So, since otakus are more likely to date other otakus (rather than outside this otaku circle), there are fewer possible girls to date.
2. It’s harder for otakus to find dates with real people. This is partly due to shyness and partly due to confidence and partly due to lifestyle choices, supposedly.
3. Otaku tend to have very good imaginations from all the anime, manga, and storytelling that they are surrounded by. The better your imagination, the easier it is to imagine the ideal personality onto a figure, body pillow, etc. The inanimate object “comes to life” in their head because of their vivid imagination.

There are also other reasons as well. Things like bad previous relationships often play a part. Not-real people won’t hurt you or leave you or cheat on you, after all. But, if you’re not 100% committed to this lifestyle you could be hurting somebody else, too! A real person! There are so many stories of desperate girlfriends trying to make their guys love them when a 2-D girl is creating competition. Here are some summaries of people having trouble with this from various blogs, forums, and websites:

One girl complained that she has a boyfriend who can only date 2-D girls… but he loves her, though he’s sick of 3-D girls. [source]

Another girl (who also likes anime) has feelings for a guy who loves 2-D. They enjoy talking about anime together too. When she asked him if he has someone on his mind, he replied by saying he only loves 2-D girls. She wants to kokuhaku but is afraid he’ll reject him. [Source]

Another post had a list of replies on why they can only love 2-D characters. One said that it’s not that they can only love 2-D, but that they’ve never been loved by 3-D. Someone replied saying that they are the same, and only 2-D girls would accept them. Another guy talked about how the more he learned about 3-D girls, the more he loved 2-D ones. Then there’s others who said that they don’t get tired of 2-D women (like they do with 3-D ones) and yet another that said they don’t want to be hurt by a real woman, so they choose 3-D. [Source]

There was also a girl I read about who loved 2-D characters. She says she’ll never be hurt this way. She pretends she’s looking for a boyfriend so people don’t think she’s weird, but she knows that if she had a boyfriend it would take time away from being able to think about her manga characters, so she doesn’t actually want a boyfriend that much. [Source]

And lastly, there’s one person who thinks that loving 2-D women is a form of evolution. I think this was the plot of one X-Men comic I read. He says that a normal guy’s brain wave reacts when they watch porn because they live in the 3-D world. However, a 2-D lover doesn’t have the same reaction when watching 3-D porn. It does react when they watch 2-D anime, though. He further goes on to state that this is proof of some kind of evolution that allows men to survive using less energy. Around 10% of otaku guys have this evolved brain pattern. Look out, lesser-humans! [Source]

So there you have it. Maybe more people than you thought are into the 2-D. Maybe you knew it all along because you’re on the front lines. Hopefully you understand better why it goes on. I think one issue out there is that most people just automatically assume all these people are serial killers. To be honest, they’re all probably nice people. Many of them lead very normal lives (besides all this). While I’m not one to be a part of this lifestyle, I’m not going to judge it as well… poke fun? Maybe a little. But, I hope you’re nice in the comments as well. Read some of the linked articles and stories, it’s quite fascinating and interesting.

Main thing is you don’t let your 2-D or 3-D loves get in the way with each other, I think. The 3-D one will win every time. Question I have, though: is it real murder if you come home to your Nintendo DS broken in half and then drowned in water?

ANGRY KOICHI SAYS BE NICE IN THE COMMENTS, OK?

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Bonus Wallpapers!

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Japanese Company Applies for Establishment of Top Level .Moe Domain

It used to be there were only a handful of top-level domains: .com, .org, .net, .edu, and so on. Now, there’s a TLD for virtually every use, including .xxx, .me, and now, potentially .moe. Japanese company Interlink is lobbying for a new .moe TLD for the otaku crowd, possibly opening the door for a plethora of new otaku URLs. My only hope is that there’s an international governing body that decides whether or not a website is truly “moe.”

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Japan Is About to Become the Largest Music Market In the World…: While people have been predicting the death of the music industry for decades, it looks like Japan’s music market is still going strong. Not only is it bouncing back from its 2011 low, but a surprising amount of that growth is thanks to physical music sales—you know, CDs. Gotta get to those handshake events somehow! [via News On Japan]

Wagyu Beef Scandal Leads to Arrests: The beef industry in Japan can be a very high-stakes game. Kobe or wagyu beef has a worldwide reputation for high quality, leading to legends about the care and attention take to raising the cows. Now, some big names in the industry have been arrested on “suspicion of misleading consumers.” It’s unclear how the cows will be affected in all of this.

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Green Tea Wars Heat Up: Bottled beverages are no joke in Japan, as they represent a lucrative, widespread market that you can see in vending machines on practically every street corner. Now, it looks like the green tea segment of that market is poised for growth as big players like Ito En, Suntory, and even Coca-Cola are fiercely competing for market share. As one company representative said, “The third ‘Green Tea War’ is already starting.”

Artificial anti-tsunami hill completed in Miyagi [Prefecture]: Since the disasterous earthquake and tsunami on 3/11, Japan has done what it can to prepare for future catastrophes. One just completed project is an artificial hill in the city of Iwanuma. The 8-meter hill is covered with over 30,000 seedlings, and will act as memorial site, training center, and just a barrier for future tsunami. [via Twitter]

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Deadly octopus prompt warnings in Kanto region

I have a deep-seated distrust of the ocean—virtually every terrifying creature on earth lurks somewhere in the sea. Case in point, this cute little octopus recently spotted in the Kanto region. While it may look adorable, this little cephalopod is extremely venomous; a single bite from one of these octopi can kill a person in 90 minutes. Have fun at the beach, I’ll be busy hiding under my bed. [via Reddit]

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Wallpapers!

In case you need to remind yourself of the constant octopus threat, we have some desktop background sized versions of the header image, courtesy of our amazing artist Aya. Enjoy!

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Please give a warm welcome to the newest member of the Tofugu family DatingMakura.com, where you (yes, even you!) can find your One True Threadcount™, be it rayon, sheepskin, or the oh-so-naughty chenille.

DatingMakura.com is a fully featured dating site stocked with thousands of single body pillows in your local area looking for friendship, a lifelong relationship, or even just a “good time.” And yes, after months of rigorous beta testing, it’s now open to the world. Visit right now to chat with body pillows looking for ningenmakura just like you. Perhaps the love of your life is there right now, just waiting for you to arrive. There’s only one way to find that out though, and that’s to just check it out. In case you’re not totally convinced, here are some of the reasons why DatingMakura is the dating site for you.

• Why date humans when you could be dating a body pillow? Body pillows rarely nag and don’t talk back.
• Once that whole gay marriage thing finally becomes a thing (seriously, hurry up), pillow marriage is probably right around the corner. By supporting DatingMakura.com you are supporting pillow-human marriage rights as well. Now’s the time to show your devotion to your waifu by making her your actual wife!
• We have millions of body pillow profiles, thousands of which are probably in your local area (except for North Korea, where our website has been banned for some reason).
• Ever wonder what’s drawn on the other side of the dakimakura? Who doesn’t wonder. Now you can find out.
• Live chat with body pillows to get to know them first. Don’t waste time on first dates when you could be narrowing down the possibilities online, away from other humans. The greatest part? No registration required for your first eight chat sessions!
• Our incredibly scientific algorithms, developed by NASA and Tempur Pedic, find the perfect body pillow match for you. Are you the rayon type? Faux Fur? Microbeads? Our site knows before you do by watching you surf the web and taking pictures of you with your webcam. Your emotional state is then put through more scientific algorithms to determine your preferences, tailoring this dating site to you!
• More than 98% of beta testers found their One True Threadcount™ within their first month. Will you? Yes, you will, the statistics say so.

That’s DatingMakura.com. I hope you enjoy it. Love isn’t something to joke about, and whether that love is with a Nintendo DS dating sim, an anime doll, a half-cat-person, or yes, even a body pillow, that love is precious and pure. Go find your One True Threadcount™ with DatingMakura today. You can chat with eight body pillow profiles in your local area even before registering, so you have nothing to lose but the heart that gets stolen by your true love. “Sew” your own fate, today, just like I did!

Visit: DatingMakura.com

Akihabara, a district in Tokyo, has long been a sort of otaku Mecca. You’ll find rare and highly-sought after otaku merchandise in its shops, maid cafes to titillate an otaku’s sense of moe, and other destinations. It’s where Danny Choo cut his teeth as an otaku figurehead slash Star Wars meets Earth Wind & Fire dancer.

What I didn’t realized until recently is that Akihabara isn’t the only holy place for otaku. As a matter of fact, there are a plethora of places that serve as sacred sites for otaku all over the world.

It helps that a lot of anime takes place in (or are based on) actual, real-life locations. Given these reference points, artists can put in an impressive level of detail to their recreations of these real-world locales.

So where do otaku travel to pay homage to their favorite anime or manga? It depends on what is his or her favorite franchise. Akihabara is fairly unique in that it’s a place that all otaku can enjoy.

The Anime Shrine

If you’re a fan of the manga-turned-anime series Lucky Star, then you’re in luck — there’s literally a holy place for you to show your devotion to your favorite series.

Two of the main characters in Lucky Star are daughters of a priest at a fictional shrine which was modeled after a real-life shrine by the name of Washinomiya.

In the years following the initial airing of Lucky Star, Washinomiya has seen an explosion of otaku tourism. In just two years, the number of tourists visiting Washinomiya quadrupled.

The locals have embraced the surge in otaku tourists, going so far as to invite the Lucky Star voice actresses to come to the shrine, and issuing residence cards to the fictional characters from the anime.

It’s true that it’s been years since the Lucky Star anime aired on TV (although the manga is still ongoing), so it will be interesting to see how long the otaku faithful will continue to show up at Washinomiya.

If You Build It, They Will Come

If you’re not lucky enough to have an anime or manga that takes place in your town to bring in those juicy, juicy otaku dollars, then why not create interest?

One Japanese town, Ugo, after falling on some hard times, decided to rebrand its rice to attract more attention. It hired an illustrator to adorn its bags of rice with illustrations of women that would make otaku faint with delight.

The newly-branded rice sold three times as much as it normally did and also, stangely enough, attracted flocks of otaku to Ugo.

Otaku Abroad

I can more or less understand otaku who travel to various locales in Japan. After all from an American perspective, Japan is a relatively small country and its transit system is pretty top-notch. Getting from Point B isn’t especially hard.

But there are an elite class of otaku who take their pilgrimages to the next level. How about visiting another continent to fulfill your otaku fantasies?

The town of Cuenca, Spain, has also been blessed (or cursed, depending on your view) as an otaku vacation destination. The anime series Sound of the Sky used Cuenca as a reference point for many of its settings. It’s not surprising then, that once otaku figured out what the landscapes of Sound of the Sky were based on, they made hajj to Cuenca.

This all just underscores a question I’ve been asking most of my life: how the hell do otaku have so much disposable income? Maybe it’s time to adopt the traditional otaku diet of instant ramen and save up for my own pilgrimage.

Read more: The Nerdiest Shrine in Japan: Anime fans flock to the Washinomiya shrine to celebrate “Lucky Star”, ‘Pretty girls’ come to town’s aid, Otaku tourism saves small town, Sora no Woto Otaku Makes Pilgrimage from Japan to Spain

Nobutaro Hara the Man, the Legend

Mr. Hara is incredibly famous in the world of model trains. Everybody who’s anybody knows him. He was born in 1919 and constructed his first model train at age 13. The rest, my friends, is history. He’s spent his whole life being a successful engineer by day, and an avid model train builder and collector by night.

Over the years he’s built up an immensely impressive collection of trains and landscapes that he’s largely put together himself. Almost all of the 1/30 to 1/45 scale models were hand built entirely by Mr. Hara. There are a handful of models that he contracted out to Korean firms for the body casings, but the electronics are all his own (thanks to his engineering experience). It’s very impressive. Just check out the video below and keep in mind that this was all done by one guy.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT9xqPWjogM']

Is that not insane? I can’t imagine even putting one of these model trains together, let alone a whole city. The details and everything are just so perfect. It’s crazy. You can almost imagine that it really is a fully functioning miniature city.

The Hara Model Railway Museum

Up until now, his collection was only shown on a case by case appointment basis, so this summer marks the first time his amazing collection will be open to the general public. The Hara Model Railway Museum officially opens tomorrow (July 10th) in Yokohama, Japan. The museum is operated by property developers Mitsui Fudosan and it will be showing off 1,000 models from Mr. Hara’s expansive collection.

The head of Mitsui Fudosan’s Yokohama branch explained that the objective of the museum is to “teach people of all ages about the wonders of technology through model trains.” Now, I don’t know about you, but I think the trains themselves are only a small part of what’s so impressive about the museum. As you can see from the videos, the scenery and landscapes are just beautiful. It’s really a work of art.

Layout of the museum.

Mr. Hara’s son, Kento, explained that the joys of being a child were never far from his father’s mind and he hopes that this youthful spirit will be conveyed in the museum. I wholeheartedly believe that he has more than achieved this goal. Just look at it all. If you aren’t filled with a keen sense of childlike wonderment, then I don’t know what to tell you. Someone must have broken your childhood and the ability to marvel at really awesome hobby toys taken to the extreme.

An Inspiring Tale

If you haven’t already gathered it by now, I think all of this is pretty awesome. Nobutaro Hara is pushing 100 years old, and he’s putting his life’s work on display for all to enjoy. He’s put in decades of work, thousands of hours, and tons of love and dedication into this hobby of his. In the model train world, he has everyone’s respect and admiration and he certainly deserves every ounce of it. I’m sure Mr. Hara is a humble man, but having everyone marvel at his amazing work must make him pretty proud.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwrQiaPjpr4']

I felt really inspired while reading about Mr. Hara and his lifelong passion for model trains and all the work he’s put into this museum, even more so when I watched the videos and saw it all in action. It really is a sight to behold. It just goes to show that you’re never too old for a hobby, and if you really love something, you should pursue and dedicate yourself to it no matter what. And hey, maybe one day someone will make a museum out of it. You never know.

Were you inspired by Mr. Hara’s story? What hobby do you plan to still be enjoying when you’re 100? Do you wish you lived in Japan so you could check out this super awesome museum of his? I sure do. Share your thoughts in the comments!

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Via The Japan Times Online

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[threecol_one]Teenage Wasteland: Japanese Youth in Revolt, 1964: An awesome, unexpected photo feature from Life magazine documents rebellious Japanese youth in the 60s. Turns out that teenagers have been – and likely, always will be – disgruntled with adults. I hate you mom, why do you always embarrass me?! I’m moving out when I turn 18! [via Life][/threecol_one] [threecol_one]Tiger fugu lunker caught off Yamaguchi: A 13 lb fugu was caught off the coast of Japan and while she’s not quite a record-setter, her size is definitely impressive. But uh, why isn’t she moving in the video? Is she’s just sleeping, with her eyes open, out of water? Guys? [via News On Japan][/threecol_one] [threecol_one_last]Low autopsy rate seen abetting murderers: After going through a The Wire marathon over the last couple of weeks, I feel hyper-aware about crime and inexplicably overqualified to talk about criminal procedures. Why aren’t we doing an autopsy? We’ve got to follow the money! The target is Stringer Bell! F#&%! [via Japundit][/threecol_one_last]

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[threecol_one]Expats Say Goodbye to Gaijin Card: Good news for gaijin living in Japan! Japanese immigration law has been streamlined to give expats and easier time residing in Japan. Bad news: the law won’t spare you from the horrors of microaggressions. [via Japan Real Time]

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