Come tour a magical land where people are fantasies and fantasies are people!

The Fujoshi Paradise Yaoi Tour snagged a brief mention in the New York Times today. Despite its promise to "take you into the secret garden of bishonen", it's just a standard Tokyo tour package with one day set aside for yaoi-themed activities. Okay, two days if you count taking your free day in Tokyo to, as they suggest, "Find your bishonen prince". Which you could probably do in Southeast Asia for cheaper, if that's the brand of cheap fetishization you're after. Or you can take the day to join the Tokyo Darkside goth-loli tour, which is the exact same tour except their special day is spent shopping, talking, and eating goth-loli, with dinner at the Alcatraz Medical Prison Restaurant. The latter seems about as authentic to the EGL experience as Trekkies dining at Mars 2112, but what do I know. Here, have a menu. They do birthdays.

As for the secret garden of bishonen? Shopping in Ikebukuro, two yaoi cafes, a visit with yaoi manga artist Makoto Tateno, and an all-male (sorry, "shapely Japanese bishounen"--speaking of fetishization...) variety dance show in Roppongi. Now, I don't know how big a yaoi manga artist Makoto Tateno really is, but the English release of her series Yellow is hilarious. Or at least the sample pages are, anyway.



Leaving aside the fact that so-called professionals laid this page out just like the Dungeons and Dragons maps I drew in Canvas 3.0 when I was 13, and in fact I would not be surprised if this was laid out in Canvas 3.0--the ellipse tool is a subtle and wily beast--"His identity is a secret, except that he's gay" is the best non-description I've seen since, well, White Wolf's classic "May be a Jew." Now that's the way to deftly establish character!