If you're looking for some mundane distractions to get you through the holiday period, Shukan Taishu (May 6-13) has got just the thing. Its "Reiwa Commemorative Edition" introduces unusual rides. Not to be outdone, a park in Tochigi has camels for the same purpose, as does another in Chiba offering elephant rides. At Hakkeijima Sea Paradise in Yokohama, visitors from age 10 (who can prove they can swim for a distance of 25 meters) may emulate the "boy on a dolphin" theme and ride atop a friendly beluga whale. Two-wheeled Segway personal transporters are available for inexpensive rental at Showa Memorial Park in the city of Tachikawa.

Born in the city of Nagoya in 1970, he spent his teenage years devouring popular anime series of the time, including "Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam," the sequel in the well-known Gundam franchise that first aired in 1985, and "Dirty Pair," a sci-fi adventure featuring a sexy female duo working as "trouble consultants." This was the heyday of the VHS cassette, and Goto would spend his allowance renting anime tapes, many of which were made specifically for release on home video format to meet the period's surging demand for anime content. It wasn't a hobby he could openly share with his classmates, however. This was years before the otaku image underwent a makeover of sorts, thanks to the popularization of the fan culture and its global acceptance as a source of soft power. "Otaku of our generation were typically way down in the'school caste' system, and girls tended to look at us with disdain," he says, referring to the invisible hierarchy in the classroom determined by different status symbols.