A random picture I liked so I decided to post it xD.

Back home from Japan. Quite a tiring trip ^^;;;. I’ll show pictures of the trip and some loot later ^^.

Off to Japan for roughly a week. Be back with pics ^^.

Wish I could have bought more xD

Any otaku that goes to Japan needs to head over to Akihabara (if you’re in the Tokyo area that is ) and that is exactly what me and my brother did when we visited Tokyo. The streets were crawling with otaku, more male than female . Stores rising to the sky with floors of otaku goods that range from trading cards to ero pc games . I visited all of them ^^, for research purposes only . Some building were dedicated entirely to arcade games/photo booths/UFO Crane Catchers. It’s a place every otaku should visit once in their life, maybe twice if you want to score some limited edition stuff .

One thing about Akihabara is how everything is so close yet you could find difference in pricing from two stores that are right next to each other. I would suggest you look around Akihabara if it’s your first time there so you can look for different prices for the same item that you’re looking for, you never know what kind of sale you will find. For example, I found Ryu Meifen for only 3900 yen at Astro Bit City compared to the 6300-6900 yen price everywhere else ^^.

My brother really liked the figures of animal-based androids, the orange one is a cat and the green one is a fox. I thought the cats that came with the cat android were cute, especially the black one with one eye crossed out ^^.

My brother also bought a couple of gundams while we were there.

My pride and joy purchase from Akiba has to be……………………………………………………………………………………………………..The Lucky Star/Fate Stay Night nendoroids ^^ only sold in Japan at Wonderfest 2008. I found it in some random store in their display case at the back of the store xD. It cost me 9800 yen which would break my usual price set of 8000 yen but it came with 2 inside the box so 4900 for both . Tsuruya is on the side…you don’t have to look at her lol, j/k. Tsuruya is actually my first Haruhi figure and the main reason why I love her is her fang xD, FANG POWER.

You can find used figures too, we found a few at Mandarake’s main store at Nakano and at a Book Off near our hotel (Book off sold not only figures but clothes and toys as well lol, not just the usual books, magazines, vhs, and dvds where I live )

While I was in Japan, I also looked for gifts for my girlfriend ^^. She’s into pink, red, white, Tomoyo, and Hello Kitty so I figured I would look for stuff containing those elements ^^. I found everything except for Tomoyo (I did find trading cards but I don’t know if she already had them in her collection ). The bunny is her favorite ^^, I won that in a UFO catcher.

The fan below came with the Hello Kitty key chain I purchased at the Kotobukiya store in Akihabara.

I had a nice surprise when I came back home, the Kanu that I had pre-ordered in December finally came ^^. Unfortunately I got a bigger surprise when I opened the plastic container she came in only to have her left leg come off T-T. I was thinking of getting a replacement but I didn’t want to wait to have the next one shipped over, especially so because I could glue the leg back on. Seems like the glue was just weak but still…I’m never ordering from Kid Nemo again . The pic below actually has rubber bands wrapped around her waist to keep the legs together just for the picture, I’m currently waiting for the tacky glue I applied to dry.

I thought this was cute so I’ll throw it into this post xD.

Edit: In case any of you were wondering I am ok.  There was an incident in Akihabara today (Sunday) that did not end well; I was there for the aftermath of the incident.  I just heard what had happened on the news, very sad.

Look closely at the picture and you will know why I made it the way it is ;p.

Disneyland was pretty fun, for I was able to hang out with my girlfriend the whole time ^^. We were able to go on practically all the rides that were up in both Disneyland and California Adventure Park (part of Disneyland). Some of the rides like Screamin’ (best at night ^^), Grizzly River Run (good during the day when you can dry off after the ride), Indiana Jones Adventure (anytime), and Space Mountain (anytime) were so much fun that we went on each ride at least six times xD. We were able to get fast passes to each so we stood in line for each ride between 10-30 minutes (usually in between), compared to the usual wait time of 30 minutes to an hour (2 hours for Grizzly O_O). The food was good, but expensive, it is Disneyland after all xD. The shows were pretty good, I liked Aladdin, the fireworks show, and Fantasmic.

The Alladin show is pretty good, probably because of Genie lol. Genie updates his jokes to whatever is current in the world, he did a bunch of Brittney Spears jokes when my girlfriend visited Disneyland the year before and did stuff like Mac vs. PC this time around. The effects are real nice, try to sit in the second level of the show for the best overall seats and first floor for the closer seating.

The Fireworks show is good, you just need to get a good seat for it lol. Best to get a good spot 2 hours before the show .

Fantasmic is another good show and the seating is much easier to get ;P, at least one hour before for a good spot but you can come near the shows start and still find a good seat like we did ^^, if you’re lucky that is ;P.

Disney is a fun place to go, for its admission price it better be lol. I liked shows like the Muppet’s that I grew up with.

Storybook Land had little miniatures of houses, castles, towns, and more from different Disney stories. Being a figure guy, I liked the attention to detail present in all the sets.

Other detailed pieces of work were everywhere in Disneyland, like a mosaic wall and flowers found all over the park (they even made a book on the plants in Disneyland xD).

There were lots of vintage Disney stuff like a mini show room that showed the classics, artwork, and even figures.

Of course there were lots of updated works from different artists all around from paintings to clear blocks with laser imprinted artwork in it. Did you know Disneyland offers Disney Weddings as well? We saw dresses and sample pieces of a Disney wedding in a display window.

Most of the more thrilling rides at Disneyland like Space Mountain and Screamin’ at California Adventure Park take pictures of you at the end of the ride, at that point you need to make a funny pose xD. We coordinated poses we wanted to do, about half of what we did came out good lol.

Of course there are lots of chances to take pictures with just the two of us around the park.

Here’s the big finisher, the food at Disneyland xD. You can find all types food while you’re there, from many parts of the world like Italy and the US. There are lots of different flavors but they were delicious. Just looking at them now makes me drool xD.

This next picture came from a Persian restaurant my girlfriend’s cousin took us too and it was delicious ^^. Thanks goes out to my girlfriend’s part of the family for taking us to places and much more.

Well I took a very long vacation (8 days away from my computer xD) though it felt longer than 8 days ^^. One thing I visited while in California was Fanime in San Jose. I’ve never been to another anime convention besides the local anime convention where I live so this was going to be interesting. It was a different experience being a “con-goer” rather than a “volunteer.” As a volunteer, I would need to keep “moving around to make sure things get done” so just “moving around” was nice. There were lots of different things I noticed while I was there, even if I was only there for five hours total .

I guess I’ve been spoiled as a volunteer because I had to “wait in line” to pay for admission to attend the convention activities and rooms; usually I just walk through everything because I get my pass the day before the convention starts. I can understand maybe 1 hour of waiting but I waited 2 hours (thats a lot of wasted time ) but it isn’t bad compared to the 5 hours it used to take, based on what I heard. Their system for registering is confusing. Initially, I started in the big line, then after having my information being processed in their computer for a ID, they sent me to another line in the same room to get into the next line to pay for admission, then they sent me to another line to pick up my program guide and complimentary plastic bag to put stuff in. Seriously, line after line…it might have been easier for them but if they had it all in one big room it should be easier to things on the spot. O well, enough of my complaining ;p, on to the pictures.

First off are some cosplay pictures I took. There were some really nice ones and one’s that weren’t so nice, but you get that at any convention lol. I took pictures of the ones I really liked.

Starting off with a closer look at the girls above, I really liked their costumes which is based off the game Final Fantasy 10. The Tidus girl in the red and black outfit is my favorite ^^.

Another favorite of my was Travis Touchdown from the Wii game “No More Heros” and it was cool that I didn’t see just one but two xD. Their katana’s were awesome, though I was hoping for the heavy blade version lol, I love heavy blades ;p.

Who could go wrong with old school, with Shredder from Ninja Turtles no less ;p.

I believe the next guy is Wolfwood from Trigun.

Yuko from Tengann Gurren Lagann, scantily clad version xD.

Ulquiorra and Grimmjow from Bleach, the two were part of my top favorites when I was there. The detail in Grimmjow’s “jaw” really won me over.

I believe the next picture is the penguin from Disgaea.

Luigi, most likely based off of the game “Luigi’s Haunted Mansion.”

Ozar from Avatar.

A couple of Desmond’s from the game “Assassin’s Creed.”

A few geisha girls.

No convention would be a convention without Naruto charactes, the picture below features a few ANBU and Tobi. The next one has Kakashi and some other character.

Next up are a few pics of the convention itself, first up is the dealers room which had many figure dealers to my delight xD.

Artist Alley, they had really talented artist in the room. The Drunken Panda group and a original character artist are my favorite.

My next post will be on the loot that I bought while I was there, so look forward to seeing it ^^.