back during the days of akiba's hokousha tengoku

With my trip fresh on my mind, thought I’d write up a post with tips, suggestions, costs, etc. for making a trip to akiba.  I’ve been lucky to have gone quite a few times now, so I think I’ve got at least a few tidbits to share ^^;  Of course, this will all be based on my own experiences – I wouldn’t be surprised if folk have better suggestions – keep yourself open to other possibilities ^_^

So yeah… no, no one died and made me the akiba expert… yet somehow I’ve managed to write up quite a novel.  Read on if you want an insanely long list of things to consider ^^;

When?

One of the first things you should probably consider is the date.  That’ll have a large effect on your trip, ranging from seasonal events and weather to airfare.  Based on my experiences this page has a pretty accurate run down of each month of the year.

I’ve visited in January, February, March, May, June, and July… so far my favorite time of year has been March.  If you go during late March, the sakura start to bloom and weather starts to get a bit better.  April is likely even better for sakura though make sure not to go too late and spilling into May – I’ve not heard good things about visiting during Golden Week ^^;

ueno park

Of course weather isn’t everything; there are events I’m sure many folk are interested in:

*博麗神社例大祭 – reitaisai seems to occur sometime between march and may.  Sounds like a good choice for touhou fans ^^
*Comiket – Personally the timing of this event isn’t so hot.  August is hot and humid (weather I hate orz) and December is rough both because of holiday obligations and dealing with New Years.  Not sure how viable it is to travel during New Years… I’ve heard that stuff starts to close down around that time…  ‘course I’m sure these are all problems any true otaku can overcome :P
*Tokyo Anime Fair – Seems like this might be a nice fit for those looking for sakura.  Held in late March.
*Wonfes – not really sure of the exact dates for this one… wonfes winter usually in February and wonfes summer sometime late July/early August?  Alas I’ve never been able to time a trip to attend either, but it seems like it’d be a great event to attend for figure collectors ^^

Personally the last gap I want to fill in my Japan trip calendar is a visit during Fall.  Since I prefer cooler weather, seems like a good match, plus you should be able to enjoy Autumn landscapes ^^  If you go during that time or have been, let me know how it is ^^

Flight

Finally moving on… ^^;;  Not too much to say about the flight…  as with any trip, there’s the usual increase in airfare during busy seasons, so aim for the less popular months if you need to save some money.  I’ve flown United for a while and so far they still offer complementary booze for flights from the US to Japan ^^ (though not to Europe for some reason >_<)

Due to the economy (i assume?), my flight recently was waaay cheaper than past years.  Flying from SFO (San Francisco) to NRT (narita) I usually expect to pay between 900 and 1100 USD round trip.  This time I saw prices as low as ~$650!  I ended up paying like ~$750 for my ticket to get the times I wanted (well, that and prices slowly crept up while I was finalizing my plans).

an alternate way to fly :P -strike witches ep5

Also keep your eye out for packaged vacations.  I took a trip with my family once that was kinda short but the deal was too good to pass up.  Round trip airfare + hotel for I think about a week in Tokyo was only $1000/person.  We had to fly out of LAX so it required an extra leg on our flight but still it was quite a deal.

Hotel

If your main goal is Akiba shopping, your choice of hotel can have an impact on how easy it is to get there.  Depending on how much and what you buy it may not be so bad… but if you’re like me and load up on a ton of goodies… lugging all that stuff around Tokyo can start to take it’s toll.  You can mitigate things by using coin lockers, or go an extra step and choose a hotel that’s easy to commute from ^^

The best choice would probably be to stay in an Akihabara hotel but unfortunately I’ve never been able to find one with a price I wanted to pay.  And beware of the super cheap ones in the area… you may be reserving a “room” at a capsule hotel :P

One way to look at things is how many stops your hotel is from the JR or metro Akihabara station.  In this regard Ueno is nice choice, being a pretty nice area and only 2 stops away.  On my recent trip I stayed in Ueno for the first time at the touganeya hotel… could make it to akiba in like 10 minutes (maybe less?).  Mini hotel review:  not a very fancy hotel, but if you don’t care for frills you’ve got your basics (bed, bathroom, tv, fridge, free wired internet), and it’s literally across the street from Ueno station.  There’s a pedestrian bridge over the street so you don’t even have to wait for stop lights to get there (which is good, because I find that Japanese stop lights take forever compared to California ones ^^;;)

ryokan would be nice too although i'm not sure tokyo is the best place to try one out? ^^; -wagaya no oinari-sama ep12

Business trip accommodations have set me up at the Shinagawa Prince many times, which I’ve also found to be a pretty economical choice.  Taking a look at the JR map… it’s a good 7 stops away from akiba :P  Though realistically… we’re only talking a 4 min train ride each way (from Ueno) versus a 12-15 minute ride.  After finally arriving in Tokyo, I didn’t mind waiting those extra minutes to get my destination every day :P

And of course, I’m sure lots of you will be seeing more than just akiba so your hotel may land you closer to other attractions you’re planning to visit… Ultimately, going for the most economical hotel may serve you best.  Though do keep in mind some general transportation ramifications – if it’s a 10 minute walk from your hotel to the nearest station (be it JR or tokyo metro or whatever), remember that’s basically a walk you’re going to have to do every single time you leave your hotel.  Or if the nearest station isn’t connected to anything useful and you’ll have to transfer every time… again, that sort of thing could be annoying.  That brings me to the next topic…

Transportation

what you'll see a lot of in jr stations -toradora ep9

If you’re used to having to drive everywhere it may be a refreshing feel to be able to get anywhere in Tokyo via rail or metro.  Tokyo is covered in stations for both – I never fear getting lost since it’s so easy to find a station and then navigate back from there.  At one point I thought that subway might be a bit more expensive than similar routes on JR but I don’t know if that’s still (or was ever) true.

Which ever you use, you may want to consider getting a suica card.  It will cost you extra (you have to make a 500 yen deposit) but the convenience may be worth it.  Usually when riding you will walk up to the map, look for the price of traveling to your destination station, then purchase a ticket from a vending machine.  Pretty much like any other subway I imagine.  Feed your ticket through the gate on your way in, and the ticket is consumed when you put it in the exit gate.

a yamanote train pulls into the station

Suica is a card that you deposit money onto — once you’ve got one loaded with money, you just tap the card on the ticket gate’s sensor.  When you tap your card on the exit gate, it automatically calculates the lowest fare, and deducts from the balance on your card.  No more staring at maps and fiddling with your change at the ticket machines.  You can even use it to purchase things from some vending machines or pay for things at some convenience stores.  Again, remember that it actually costs extra to use this card though because of the 500 yen deposit.  Personally that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of my trip spending so I found the convenience worth it ^^

You can purchase Suica cards at certain machines which are usually located at major stations (i.e. Ueno).  There’s even an English mode for these machines so you don’t need to worry about reading Japanese.

A little side note about the wonderful rail and subways… avoid rush hour if you can!  Generally when I’m on vacation I don’t leave my hotel until 9 or 10 ( ^^;) so I don’t have that problem though when I was on a schedule and had to deal with the crowds… it can be quite overwhelming.  Take care when traveling in a group or you’ll easily end up separated/pushed about by massive crowds like tsukasa at comiket :P

lucky star ep 12

Few more things on transportation… one is to remember that the rail and subway shutdown kinda early (around midnight I think?  Be sure to double check at the station you’re at) so make sure to turn in early or be prepared to get a cab if you’re out late.  Or if you’re really hardcore… stay out so late that the morning trains are running :P

Next is airport transportation – you’ve got a few options to get from Narita to Tokyo.  I’ve found that the “limousine bus” (it’s just a bus) is a nice option simply because if your destination hotel is on the list, they’ll drop you off right in front of it.  It does cost 3000 yen though.  Buy a ticket at the counter (should be in plain view after entering the arrival lobby) and you’ll be told to wait at a numbered stop outside.

Otherwise you can try rail options like the Narita Express or the Keisei Skyliner.  You might be able to save a little money (and I’ve heard the ride is better?) but you will need to be able to make your way from whatever major station you end up in in Tokyo to your hotel.  Not recommended if you don’t feel comfortable lugging your luggage around the stations or trying to figure out how to use the rail first thing after landing ^^;

if you look past the characters you actually get some pretty good visuals of a typical jr station in tokyo. 'course i'm sure an image search would be more efficient ^^; -toradora ep9

And finally… the rail pass!  If you’re planning on visiting cities far outside of Tokyo, definitely consider a rail pass.  There’s two general flavors – one that’s valid for all of Japan, and one that’s only valid for a certain region.  With these passes, you can use JR an *unlimited* number of times during it’s duration.  This includes shinkansen!

Rail passes are generally quite pricey, so if you’re not taking a trip pretty far out of Tokyo it won’t be worth it (i.e. don’t buy it if you’re gonna be in Tokyo the whole time).  But with the price of a 1 way shinkansen ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto at around 13,000 yen, you may be able to get your money’s worth with a single round trip.  For example a 7-day pass valid for all JR lines in Japan you pay 28,300 yen.  If you used your pass to take the narita express to Tokyo and then manage to complete a round trip shinkansen ride to Kyoto within those 7 days, you’ve already saved money.

When you have a rail pass you don’t have to deal with maps or tickets either.  In fact you’re not supposed to use the ticket gates at all — there should be a person on duty to one side of the ticket gates – show him/her your pass and they should let you through.

an older station at enoshima

Be advised that the all-Japan rail pass must be purchased *before* you arrive in Japan.  The regional ones (i.e. only valid for eastern Japan or only Hokkaido, etc) I think can be purchased in Japan.  In either case you must have a foreign passport (though I assume that’s not a problem for anyone taking the time to read this :P).  It’s also kinduva weird system – for the all-Japan pass at least, you will receive some sort of form that’s like a proof of purchase.  When you get to Japan you then must exchange that form for the actual rail pass.  I believe there’s places to exchange the form for your pass in the airport and also the larger JR stations.

Money

Still with me?  You must really be interested in visiting Japan ^_^  Let’s talk about financing this trip now.  If you were going all out otaku and *only* went to akiba, here’s the bare minimum you’ll need to cover:

*airfare
*hotel
*transportation to/from airport
*food money
*transportation within Tokyo
*money for goodies ^_^

minamike ep7

So for an example bare bones trip (which I wouldn’t recommend since there’s so much other good stuff to see :P):

*airfare – will vary based on your origin
*hotel – 9000 yen/night (can probably do better, but this is probably at the low end of average?)
*airport transportation – 6000 yen
*food – 3000 yen/day (two 1500 yen meals should be doable?  or if you were desperate for some reason I bet you could fill up with nigiri for 1500 yen/day or less :P)
*transportation within Tokyo – 320 yen/day to get to/from akiba (that would cover a round trip on the JR yamanote line if you’re not too far from akiba).  Or you could walk and incur no costs :P
*money for goodies – all the rest :P

For a 10 day trip to Tokyo I’d say you could probably do it for 115,000 yen + airfare + money for goods.  Again, depends on your origin + spending aspirations + exchange rate, but let’s say it’s $1000 usd for airfare + $500 in goodies… about $2850 usd total.  If you went yearly that’s $237.50/month you’d have to save ^^;  Or $118.75/month if you go every 2 years, $79.17/month if you go every 3 years.  …or a $3000 trip every 5 years == saving $50/month. …alright, enough number fun outta me.

I’d say 10,000 yen/night for a hotel is still decent, and if you enjoy food at all you should splurge as necessary on meals :P  Though for reference, you can usually find ramen for less than 1000 yen (covers one meal for me ^^), and for example tonkatsu at this one chain that I love (tonkatsu wakou) is 1500 yen or so.  Unagi lovers will prolly find prices in the 2000 to 3000 range at specialized unagi restaurants.  (i love those places.  the menu is like: small unajyu, med unajyu, large unajyu.  and that’s it ^_^)  Another strategy I’ve liked is to have light meals and to fill up with snacks later ^^;  Lots of bakeries in stations and shopping areas to tempt your palette so spare some room ^^

Again for airport transportation you might be able to get away spending only 3000-4000 yen for round trip transportation from Narita.  You just have to be willing to take the rail ^^

Using rail in Tokyo you’ll find most (1-way) trips cost ~150-300 yen, depending on how far you go.  Subway is similar.  Not much alone, but if you’re hitting a lot of places every day, don’t forget to budget in that 1000 yen/day of travel expenses.

hachikuji~ ^^ -bakemonogatari ep4

For money on goodies… not sure I have too much to say here?  Well, let’s see maybe I do ^^;  I bet you’re familiar with the yen prices of figures already… and surprise surprise that’s pretty much what you’ll pay in Japan :P  Be on the look out for the characters 中古 – that means “used” and may explain a low price.

Anime is extremely expensive so you’re not likely to find any deals there.  For example a single volume from a series usually costs upwards of 4000 to 5000 yen.  And whereas (at least here in America) locally you can get 3-4 episodes per volume, in Japan it’s more like 2-3.  The higher price and less content per disk is a real killer.  From the brief checking I did on my latest trip, even used DVDs were more expensive than the localized stuff.

Games were another disappointment for me – in Japan the prices of games aren’t regulated so popular games will cost upwards of 6,000 yen… 7,000 yen or more.  Luckily used games will actually get a significant discount as you may have heard for FFXIII.  Or touhou fans that may not have purchased the games and feel like supporting ZUN… you’ll be able to do so at a pretty low cost – generally 1500 – 2500 yen for each game.

Wallscrolls… yet another price disappointment… be prepared to dish out ~5000 yen o.O

that saber wallscroll is pretty much lifesize... set me back nearly 10,000 yen if i remember correctly orz. well, though my only true regret is not getting the matching rin :P

So what’s cheap?  ^^;  Well, manga for one.  I’m used to paying $7-10 usd per volume here in California… in Japan you’ll get the price that’s on the back (errr I’m referring to volumes of the Japanese stuff, not translated manga ^^;;) – 500-800 yen often times.  Better yet, go to book off – a used book store that often has an *amaaazing* selection of stuff.  I’ve seen prices like 200-300 yen there. …’course… yeah, that’s all Japanese stuff ^^;  If you’re learning though… pick your favorite series and buy a volume! (with furigana)  It’ll be good reading practice ^^

Akiba is also a great place for the smaller stuff.  Trinkets, bookmarks, “character goods” as they’re referred to in the akiba stores… get that stuff there rather than paying 1000 yen to have it shipped to ya :P

Oh yes, and don’t forget to budget in 2000 yen or so for a trip to a maid cafe.  Anyone remotely interested in akiba culture should have that experience at least once :P

If you hail from America, note that you’re only supposed to bring back $800 usd worth of stuff.  Any more and you’ll have to pay customs whatever they charge for going over your free allowance…

While we’re on the money topic… cash? traveler’s checks?  In the past I used to bring traveler’s checks because you could get a 1-2 yen better exchange rate over plain cash.  Unfortunately my bank no longer offers traveler’s checks to me so I figured after the fee I’d have to pay for them elsewhere I was better off changing up cash.  The risk to that, obviously, is carrying around a ridiculous amount of cash which generally isn’t the smartest thing.  Though of all the countries I’ve visited, I’d bet Japan is probably considered the safest ^^;

To get around that you can seek out ATMs.  Unfortunately there’s a little catch… Lots of ATMs in Japan don’t accept foreign cards so you have to look for a post office ATM or one in a 7-Eleven.  I believe Citibank is another option… check out this article for more info.  (and don’t forget you’ll probably have to pay a fee for ATMs too…)

hyakko ep13

If you didn’t prepay, hotels should be equipped to process your credit card, though I heard previously that smaller stores were unlikely to be so accommodating.  Not sure if that’s still true, but remember you’ll likely face foreign transaction fees with a credit card anyway so I’m not sure it’d be the most economical thing anyway.  To that end I believe the easiest thing to do (aside from large purchases like hotels and shinkansen tickets) is to use cash for everyday purchases.

Packing

When preparing for a trip that will include akiba, I usually pack as follows:

1 (sufficiently) large suitcase that I can fit all my clothes in
1 carry-on sized suitcase
1 backpack

With this strategy I have an entire suitcase to fill up with lewt, in addition to any extra space in my backpack.  I like using a carry-on sized suitcase for lewt so that I can bring both it and my backpack on the plane if I’m afraid that some goodies might get damaged if I checked them in.  If you’re confident your lewt will be safe checked in, just bring a second full sized suitcase ^^

Not sure about other airlines but United allows for 2 free checked bags on international flights from the US to Japan so if that applies to you you won’t have any fees to pay (for now).

lucky star ep16

You may end up with that stereotypical otaku look but a backpack is super useful for akiba shopping.  A place to put your camera away along with the numerous bags you’ll likely be accumulating in a short period of time.

In and Around Akiba

Alrighty, so you’ve got a flight, a ride from the airport, you’ve checked in your hotel, so what about actually spending time in akiba?  Buncha articles about, including one I posted a while ago, one punynari wrote recently… I’m sure you’ll find a lot if you search.  Adding to that…

One thing I noticed recently was a lack of places to sit down and rest ^^;  I do know of at least 3 areas though.  1st is the 4th floor of radio kaikan.  Take the escalators as far up as you can and you’ll be at a kaiyoudo shop.  You’ll see kenshiro staring you down but beyond him are some benches and vending machines.  Being sick I must’ve stopped there for a drink and a rest quite a few times ^^;

2nd is one of the ishimaru stores.  Head out of the JR station towards the main road (chuuou doori), cross the street and head left towards the river.  Take a right at the stoplight and it’ll be on the left (though there is a jazz ishimaru on the right ^^;).  At any rate as you enter on the first floor turn immediately right and there’s a nice sitting area (of course with a vending machine).  Nice place to listen to J-POP while covering some energy ^^

a small corner of yodobashi camera

Last one I know of is in the yodobashi camera store… not really a rest area… but they sell massage chairs on one of the floors.  Just head up there and “test” them out until you’ve rejuvenated :P  Speaking of the yodobashi camera… it’s a huge department store… I think on floor 8 or 9 or something it’s a whole floor of restaurants.  Think I might’ve mentioned it before but will do so again for completeness.  So far I’ve eaten at a ramen place there and had a soba combo at a different place.  Both not bad ^^

Oh and speaking of rest stops… bathrooms can usually be found at JR stations but often only after you’ve passed through the ticket gates.  Luckily in akiba you’ll be able to find restrooms in pretty much all of the larger complexes.  Perhaps not on every floor, but just check the floor guide and you’ll prolly see them staggered throughout the building.  Yodobashi, ishimaru, sofmap, and radio kaikan, for example, all have restrooms.

Don’t think Akiba is known for its eats but you shouldn’t have trouble getting a decent meal.  Going down the main road there’s a restaurant here and there, not to mention maid cafes :P  Also a good place for a snack are the takoyaki and musubi (rice ball) joints right next to each other.  The musubi place has like 10 (20?) different fillings to choose from… if you’ve never had a freshly made musubi, give it a try.  Same for takoyaki.  Not sure it’s great or anything, but again it’s fresh so worth a try ^^  Random note – I believe it’s common courtesy to not eat while walking.  Neither of these places has seating so just prop yourself up on the railing at the edge of the sidewalk and finish off whatever you bought rather than strolling down the sidewalk snacking ^^;  There used to be a tonkatsu wakou restaurant near the book off but it seemed like that whole area was inaccessible and under construction last i went ;_;

nowadays you prolly won't have to share a seat with this haruhi ^^;

More random tips… if you do end up buying lotsa books… do it last or use a locker!  Your feet will thank you.  I’m stupid and always seem to do my manga shopping first… then my feet are sore for the rest of the trip from lugging around 20 pounds of manga every day ^^;

In Japan, when you’re in a store that spans multiple floors, remember to pay for things before moving between floors.  Also, when paying for things… not sure how it is for people who are obviously (or at least, very likely) foreigners, but for me, the cashiers always assume I’m Japanese.  …so they’ll speak Japanese to me.  If you know Japanese that’s no problem of course, but if your listening skills aren’t as good as you’d like or you don’t speak at all… well, here are some of the things you may have been asked:

*Do you have a point card? Lots of stores have point cards to encourage repeat business.  You should be able to identify this question because the Japanese word for point card is pointo kaado :P
*(when buying manga/light novels) Would you like a cover? and/or Would you like me to put a cover on that for you? I was once buying some… mmm… okazu and was caught off guard by the latter question.  Said, ‘hai’ without really understanding what had been asked… then stood there embarrassed (holding up the line orz) while the cashier meticulously put a cover on each of my acquisitions…  ^^;;;;
*Do you want {some sort of freebie} that comes with {something you bought}? Not sure how common this is but somehow I almost always seem to nab some sort of little poster or picture card.
*Is {amount of money you put down in the little tray} ok? Usually they’ll ask this if you had been fumbling around with coins for exact change or something – they just want to know if you’re ready to pay or if they need to wait for you to find that last 10 yen coin :P

Personally, having a general sense of the sort of things someone might say to me helps a ton when I’m listening so I hope that the above might help others ^^;

lucky star ep16

Other things the cashier will likely say (not questions):

*How much money you’ve given them
*How much money they’re giving you as change
*Thank you very much for shopping here ^_^

So that’s it!  … just 4600 words ^^;;;;  At any, I’ll close by saying most importantly… if you make it over, simply enjoy being amidst the insanity that is store upon store catering to what in most places is a single tiny niche shop. ^_^

以上！

So even though this was a dedicated vacation I think I spent just about the same amount as when I extended a business trip… perhaps that’s a good thing ^^;

1.  Small nanoha poster that I got for free when walking into the theatre.  Evidently there was a feito-chan one but was long out of stock ^^;

2.  Movie pamphlet I bought after seeing the haruhi movie.  Just some random captures from the movie, interviews, character bios and other info.  In retrospect I shoulda spent that 1000 yen on a poster ^^;;

3. atai cirno!  If myfigurecollection is correctly updated, she was released back in 2008, so imagine my surprise when I saw a stack of her at toranoana ^_^  There was actually a huge stack of marisa nendoroids as well… was gonna pick one up but was running low on cash… all sold out when i came back the next day -_-

4. Shoot the Bullet!  Decided to make my touhou collection complete.

5.  Immaterial and missing power!  I totally suck at these touhou fighting games ^^;;;

6. Love Plus ^^;;  Given all the coverage it’s been getting I figured I should see what it was all about.  Got it used for like 3500 yen.

click for gelbooru

First gal I ran into was takane so I guess I’ll pursue her route first.  Slightly disappointed that it’s more of a dating sim than visual novel (dunno what the usual usage of that terminology is, but personally, dating sims are the ones where you select what activities to do, level up your different traits, etc, as opposed to visual novels which are basically just choose your own adventures), but that’s just ‘cuz I’m lazy :P

7. touhou 12.3 …will probably be awhile before I get the motivation to finish all the fighting games ^^;

8. Scarlet weather rhapsody.  With this acquisition I think I now own all the official touhou games released for windows ^^

9. My wish My love – Yukari Tamura – got from the goods store after watching nanoha.  Has the movie ending theme, My wish my love.

10 & 11.  Posted these before… I think they’re just alternate covers for the nanoha manga I picked up ^^

12. couldn’t resist picking up a slime plushy at the kotobukiya store for 600 yen ^^;

13.   ebiten – Cover art kawaii, bought on a whim ^^;

14. vivio manga, how could i resist :P

15. k-on! volume 3

16. hirameki hatsume-chan – another manga by daioki (also does harumination).  love his humor, love this manga ^_^

17. amadare – woo, volume 2!

18.  hyakko vol 5 – Not really sure where this is going… new characters, seems a lot different than the previous 4 volumes…

19.  nanoha force – figured i might as well indulge ^^;

20 & 22.  Love this series, even though I’m barely even through volume 1 ^^;;; picked up volumes 7 & 9 (already had 8 ^^;)

21. manga-san to ashisutanto-san to – vol 3!  more sena-chan ^_^

23.  After seeing the haruhi movie, couldn’t resist this manga ^^;  It’s titled nagato yuki-chan no soushitsu

24. super ore-sama love story – love hiroyuki’s work ^^

25.  After seeing punynari’s yuyuko review, the instant I saw the fan at white canvas I had to get my own ^^;

Kinda pricey (1500 yen was it?) but worth it ^^

26.  Some touhou horoscope phone charm tile thingies?  Decided to get cirno and remilia ^^

27.  kill me, baby – ‘nother quirky 4-koma i’m following.  Basically about high school assassin that somehow befriends somewhat of an airhead ^^;

28.  hatsune miku – project diva – totally forgot about this game ^^;; Glad I remembered to pick it up.  Currently have 5-6 hours of play time and I’ve cleared all the songs, now unlocking costumes ^^;  Not really a superb rhythm game but it’s miku!  Feel like ouendan was a lot better, but nevertheless I’m still enjoying this one a lot ^^

click for moe imouto

Even the loading screens are just random miku art, just overall a really nice product for miku fans ^^

29. ore no imouto ga konna kawaii wake ga nai – kept seeing this one around, so decided to pick it.  another for my light novel pile ^^;

30.   what can i say… with the tsundere-ish title how could I resist trying this series out? ^^;;;

31.  otacool – finally got a copy ^^;  Definitely a weird feeling seeing my room in a book.  I wonder how much the book sold to those not featured in it? ^^;;  I guess well enough to merit otacool 2?  Was kinda annoyed that I couldn’t find the book in the kotobukiya store ^^;;;

32. saturating myself with railgun content ^^;;  volumes 3 & 4

33. cirno racing sticker – not sure what i’m gonna do with this ^^;

34. seitokai no ichizon – like the anime well enough so far so heading over to the source material as usual ^^

After seeing the fate/stay night movie i really wish I had picked up the life size rin wallscroll (got saber) I saw last year… alas, was nowhere to be found this time.  Though I didn’t really get to do that thorough of a search -_-

As usual figure purchases were pretty low… since I generally order everything I want ahead of time, not much left for when I’m in akiba ^^;  Though I was tempted to pick up that 1/4 daiki kougyou saber… she was on display in the koto store… freakkin’ huge!

以上！

Think I’ll go in chronological order, lewt post will follow in the next couple days… (not too much this time, especially by rin’s standards :P)

First stop, pictured above, was ginzan. Way up north in japan’s yamagata prefacture it was pretty dang cold and snowing lots.  Soooo much different than the bay area here in california ^^;;

Was hard to take pictures because of all the snow… since my main focus were the onsen, i was constantly putting my camera back in a plastic bag to prevent condensation should we (was with a friend) head indoors.  That and trying to keep too much snow from melting on my camera ^^;;

Was pretty awesome going from the snow outdoors into scalding hot baths.  Prolly not too awesome for my cold, but as an experience, lovely ^^  Especially the rotenburo (outdoor onsen) ^^

Walked a bit around yamagata before heading out to zao.

One of the few days with clear weather!

Of course with all the snow, all I could think was, ‘kanon!’ ^^;;;

Zao is a pretty dang big place to ski, and also home to nice rotenburo.  Except I must say stripping down nekkid in the snow is quite an adventure ^^;

Towards and at the top of the montain the trees get covered in snow – they call ‘em 樹氷 (lit. ice trees).  Something about the air, humidity and whatnot causes the snow to get caked on the trees.  It’s quite impressive.

Alas, it was snowing and cloudy so the pics are nothing like the gorgeous blue sky promotional pics you’ll see ^^;

After another overnight bus ride I was back in Tokyo.  At 6 am.  And couldn’t check in until 3pm ^^;;;

Took that opportunity to see the haruhi movie ^^  I enjoyed it thoroughly and I think nagato fans will likely get orgasmic :P  Wish I could comment on how the movie compared to the novel but haven’t read it yet orz.

Rest of the week was spent watching other movies and shopping in akiba… while recovering ^^;;

At the base of the building above, it’s no longer gamers (i.e. that corner of the building is no longer a games store front… the regular gamers store front is still there though).  Some new restaurant or something.  Bunch of other changes… seemed a lot bigger than the previous differences I’ve noticed in akiba.  Below, some store (pachinko mebbe? can’t remember, never went in ^^;) looks like it’s completely shut down.

Also that store where the rapping guy (near the JR station entrance) was seemed to be gone ;_;

And what’s with this aoki clothing shop?  Seemed out of place in the middle of akiba…

Below the railgun ad are a buncha kebab(?) vendors… been meaning to try them since I love that stuff but when I came back it was raining or I was still under the weather so it didn’t seem like the best place for a meal ^^;;

‘nother look at the gamers building ^^

Met up with another friend and took him to experience a maid cafe ^^;  First stopped by @home but it was deserted… sign said they were open but chairs were still stacked on top of some tables o.O  Ended up at MaiDreamin.

pics from main site

We didn’t order any but they have special monster sized dishes ^^;;  If you do get one you get a bonus 30 minutes (it’s like 500 yen/hour just to be there) plus a pic with the maids ^^;  In addition, instead of the usual moemoe power to charge up and make your food delicious, they do a super moe moe power up with the whole cafe ending with a moe moe beam ^^;;;;

They had english menus so I’m assuming they’re accepting of foreign guests (I mention that ‘cuz I thought I had heard of some folks having trouble getting in other places unless they could speak Japanese?).

At any rate, if you’ve been meaning to try one, from my experience MaiDreamin will probably sit well with you.  They also have like 4 locations in akiba and 1 in ikebukuro ^^;;;

Saw nanoha after haruhi… totally recommend it to all nanoha fans.  And for those of you that still haven’t become a fan or haven’t gotten around to it… totally recommend it to you too! (even you, blowfish :P)  Reason being is that it’s the entire 1st season compressed to about 2 hours.  Pacing was great, no more of that monster of the week feel… and it delivers almost everything there is to love about the first season.  So – if you haven’t watched the entire first season, here’s a way to get it done really quick.  If you still don’t like it, fair enough, and now you can say you even seen the whole thing (basically).

click for gelbooru

punynari wrote up a nice post on the movie if you’d like to know more (though remember to skip through the mid section if you’re afraid of spoilers).  I’m hoping an A’s and StrikerS film will follow ^^

Frog fountain thing in ueno park.  Walked around there for some pics before leaving tokyo.

Some yo-yo performing dude ^^;

If you’re planning on upgrading to a nicer camera, one thing I can attest to is the value of a high resolution and a sharp lens.  Took this pic:

…pretty uninteresting.  But from that pic I was able to make the following 100% crop:

Prolly not enough resolution for a print (1179×768) but more than enough for a blog post ^^  Quite frankly I was amazed how sharp it was at 100%, only using 1/125s shutter speed.  At any rate, still not a superb pic (bird kinda blending in too well with the tree ^^;) but an improvement ^^;

I’m sure it must look better at some point during the year… but in February the lake in Ueno park looks absolutely dreadful ^^;;;;

Not really sure what this cat was going after ^^;

…which reminds me, some cats in yamagata, above ^^

Also ended up seeing the fate/stay night movie… Though honestly I’m not really sure what I thought about it.  I felt like it was epic… but I was still a bit sick and had to leave for a short while midway… when I came back I knew I had missed a(some) pretty big scene(s) ;_;  Also, I didn’t really know what the heck was going on… had previously been planning to complete the game before watching the anime or anything.  Since I’ve only played like a half hour of the game, I know close to nothing.  I felt like there was a lot of imagery that was supposed to invoke responses in those familiar with the series, but I just left with more questions ^^;;  I’ll definitely have to finish the game and rewatch it… though it won’t be the same without thunderous cinema audio ^^;

click for gelbooru

One thing I did fully appreciate was rin’s tsundere ^^

Again, I’ll point you to punynari, who also has a post on his thoughts on this movie too if you’re interested.

Well then that ended up being longer than I thought ^^;;  A nice trip, but definitely crippled by being sick.  Guess there’s always next year ^^

以上！

and yeah, that’s a choco corone  ^^

So if you’ve been following my comment replies I fell a bit ill on the trip and have had to take things a bit slow.  Actually got sick two days before taking off…. soooo annoying.  Was getting better but my shenanigans in Yamagata stressed my body a bit too much it seems…

Hailing from the bay area where it basically doesn’t snow… was a nice change to see a snow covered landscape.  Definitely got me thinking of Kanon ^^;;

At any rate I spent two days alternating between freezing temperatures and scalding onsen… combine that with two overnight bus rides and my body wasn’t happy at all.

On the bright side I’m almost recovered and despite feeling down, have managed to check out the haruhi and nanoha movies ^_^  Two thumbs up for both.  And a little sickness hasn’t kept me from akiba either :P  Just a small sample of some goodies so far…

Sorry about the shallow dof but I had the aperture opened all the way trying to take a non-flash photo.  Had to go iso 3200 ^^;;  That was stupid though ‘cuz I totally forgot to take off my polarizing filter which woulda helped a lot -_- at any rate…

Love daioki’s new series (the one with the little girl w/box on her head standing w/father in front of a larger box).  Quirky and awesome.  Hiroyuki not only had manga-san to assisstant-san’s third volume out, but a new series called super ore-sama love story.  Loving that too ^_^  Cut off in the corner is a spin off haruhi manga based on the soushitsu story’s nagato.  Looking forward to reading through that ^^  Kakifly has gotten volume 3 of K-ON! so I guess that answers some of my questions of where the content for the second season was going to come from.  The two nanoha book covers came w/the manga I picked up.  One appears to be a vivio based one, and the other w/the strikers team.  Not sure who the new character is.  And finally in the upper right is a pamphlet I got after seeing the haruhi movie.  Haven’t opened it yet though ^^;;

Miyafuji’s review should go up in the next 24 hours or so… until next time~

以上！

Alrighty then, いってきます～ Will be back in a few weeks ^^  here’s a random fate picture from the group shots:

Thought I’d combine a little site update with the pics I took during my (business) trip to Singapore last year.  For those more interested in figures, I’m anticipating Hobby Search will send out my preordered goodies next week… which means… well crap I may not have time to put up reviews before I leave for Japan.  Did I mention I’m headed back to Japan?  I’m headed back to Japan for vacation ^____^

I’ll be leaving mid-February and will be in Tokyo for the greater part of a week.  Unfortunately I’ll be missing WonFes but on the other hand I’m not too keen on lines anyway :P

I think I may have lucked out on some movie timing though… is the Nanoha movie gonna be in theatres?  And the haruhi movie?!  Considering my lack of hardcore dedication I’d say I’m a casual fan of both series (despite what my figure collection may suggest :P) but will be ecstatic to see both ^__^  ooo and Fate/Stay night should be out too???

So that’s my trip in the works…  That, combined with my hobby renaissance has lead to some pretty slim pickings for my blog posts ^^;  Gaming has been the biggest time sink, though there are others.  Currently trying to balance my time between:

• bayonetta
• JLPT lvl 1 prep
• touhou (pofv at the moment)
• assassin’s creed
• braid (just finished)
• gyromancer
• this blog
• keeping current on everyone else’s blog
• getting caught up on anime (currently struggling through sorakake)
• getting caught up on manga (only thing i managed to complete recently was yotsuba)

The last two are especially daunting ^^;

…and that list conveniently excludes any self improvement or progress in my career ^^;;;

there's solution for that too...

Guess I’ll continue rambling to make it through the rest of my pics :P

Was a very different experience visiting Singapore.  Very convenient that everyone speaks english ^^;

Really hot and humid, glad I didn’t destroy my camera ^^;;;  Though I think I might’ve slightly damaged my 50mm lens orz

Feels like there’s some increased chromatic aberration… wouldn’t be surprised if I messed up and didn’t properly protect the lens from the environment.  Didn’t really think far enough ahead when I was doing the last minute packing for the trip.

A surreal experience with all the Christmas decorations amidst the warm weather.

Good thing I was on business or I might’ve spent all my money shopping.  So many malls!

Recently got a circular polarizer, which, if I understand correctly, would’ve help a lot with the reflections in the above pic ^^;

Alrighty, think that’s most of the pics I had worth posting ^^;

Any suggestions for Japan?  Though I could easily fill up 5-6 days with more shopping in akiba I always feel a bit guilty doing so and should probably set up some other goals :P  Well, I will be in northern Japan before that for an onsen excursion, but there’s still time for other things when I’m back :P

以上！

Evidently it officially opened just after I left though besides the light show and such I’m not sure there was any else different.

Hotel this time was close to the hamamatsuchou station, 5 stops away from akiba on the yamanote line ^^

Also lucked out it that it was pretty close to the yurikamome monorail – which goes to odaiba.

After getting off, just head into the park and prepare to catch your jaw.

Sooo awesome to see it in person.  Was very lucky to get this random trip thrown on me.

Just love all the details on the panels.

Now if only the weather had been better ^^;

Booths for snacks set up around the perimeter.

Just kinda surreal with seeing the whole spectacle

Or an otaku’s wet dream :P

Alrighty, I’m sure you’ve seen a billion other pics already so I’ll thumbnail the rest of the gundam ones ^^;

Some lady was interviewing people at the time.

As you leave, make sure to get the awesome view of the gundam peaking out over the trees ^^

In other areas of the park families were out enjoying themselves~

Had half a mind to romp around in the water too ^^;

Only other pics were were of my usual rounds~

meiji jinguu~

went to pick up a traffic charm for relatives, happened upon a wedding (‘course that seems to happen everytime i go ^^;)

Weather had actually cleared up that day, though it was still humid.

Not really sure why I visit practically every time but it is nice and relaxing ^^

Also some nice benches to sit down at to change lenses.

Charm purchased, time to head to akiba :P

Lots of miku advertisements everywhere~

All that blue is miku ^^;

Sooo wish I coulda picked up the game orz

Ah well, will have to resort to online stores .

Explored a bit more off the main strip for once, though for my purposes I suppose it’s mostly more of the same :P

Maid cafe with a balcony for maids to lure you in ^^

Also forgot to look up that eva cafe -_-

Gamers was as usual ^^

Didn’t recognize this lonely set of stands though.

Still really miss the hokousha tengoku (where they would close off the main road).  Only got to experience it once, but that was definitely one of the most memorable akiba experiences I’ve had.

Guess until they come back we’ll still have maids :P

Kind of wish I had some pics of the movie theatre I saw eva at… though it was pretty unimpressive.  Found a random one in shibuya… was a tiny one screen deal on the 5th (6th?) floor of tokyuu hands I think?  Pretty chaotic waiting to sit down, mostly I guess because there was no need to line up (assigned seating) so everyone was milling around in the lobby with the previous showings’ patrons bursting out of the room.  Was an amazing experience though.  New eva content + seeing it in the theatre was epic!

Alrighty, guess that wraps up most everything from my trip then… now just gotta work hard to save up for another one :P

以上！

In the end I spent about 48000 yen over 4 days in akiba. Luckily I’m an extremely slow shopper or I’m sure the damage would’ve been much worse ^^;

1.  kanamome photo/postcard extra gamers was giving out with the manga
2.  photo/postcard extra gamers was giving out with manga-san to ashisutantosan to, vol ②.  mihari-chan~ ^^
3.  some keychains… naruto and tempura ones for my sister.  reimu is for my new touhou obsession ^^;
4.  a charm for safety during travel (this one for relatives… I already have one from my earlier trip ^^;)
5.  cushion body for the erika cushion cover I got a while ago
6.  kapibara-san – also for relatives… these have magnets in their body so you can attach them to things ^^
7.  EXSERENS – touhou music CD by Alstroemeria Records.  Having recently been entranced by this video (niconico – but now I have a sign up tutorial so no excuses for not being able to view :P) I was on a mission to find some CDs by that circle.  Wasn’t until the last day that I finally found the right types of stores to look in – doujin shops!  Earlier I had tried toranoana but I couldn’t find what I wanted.  Ended up going to meronbooks, messenou, and white canvas.  Love exploring new stores ^^
8.  For Your Pieces – more touhou music by Alstromeria Records
9.  Akyu’s Untouched Score vol.1 – even more touhou music.  Had to get the original version of Bad Apple!! ^^;
10.  School Rumble Z – yet another volume?!  I haven’t actually finished the first 22 volumes but thought it was finished.  Some text on the cover advertisement – “This time, it’s really the last one!”  ^^;;
11.  VOLCALOSTAR – doing my part to support the miku music community ^^  Has one of my favorite songs – 炉心融解.
12.  magnet – more miku music.  Listen to yamai & usa’s cover of magnet here.
13.  natsu no arashi vol 1 – by the author of school rumble.  Only been through the first couple episodes of the anime, but that was enough to convince to also try the manga ^^;

14.  kill me, baby – the way I like to start new manga is by purchasing random ones in akiba ^^;  Loved the cover pic… so I bought it ^^;
15.  nazobu no are – if the author intended to lure readers with the haruhi-like uniforms, he suceeded ^^;  Looks like it’s a comic about a mystery club.
16.  “portrait card” from megami vol. 111 – reverse side is the pic from the cover.
17.  megami vol. 111 – after watching the eva movie, I had to an urge to buy eva stuff ^^;;
18.  Cranberry Sweets – even more touhou music ^^;;  This one is an entire CD of U.N.オーエンは彼女なのか arrangements ^^;;  Here’s a relaxing guitar version (alas, not on the cd).

19. Free bookmark-ish freebies from manga purchases at Gamers
20. touhou fuujinroku – mountain of faith – the games are so cheap (1100 ~ 1400 yen)!  Couldn’t help but buy some ^^;
21.  touhou koumakyou – the embodiment of scarlet devil – figured I’d get the game that had U.N.オーエンは彼女なのか as one of the music tracks.
22.  touhou chireiden – subterranean animism – also figured I should get the most recent game.
23.  hachune miku no nichijyou – roipara! – I prefer chibimiku-san but to my knowledge there are no tankoubons of that one?  Anyhow, this manga also came with a bonus cd (Wallpapers & flash animated music vids).
24.  ToHeart – got used for only 1580!  Hope it works, haven’t tried it yet ^^;
25.  sansha sanyou – been enjoying lots of mangatime kr comics so decided to try this one out as well.  It’s up to 6 or 7 tankoubon so I figured somebody out there must like it ^^;
26.  harumine-shon – again lured in by cover art.  Read a little – it’s about an alien transfer student ^^

27.  kanamemo – I believe the anime started recently?  piles of it were prominently displayed everywhere so I had to try it out.  seems to be about a girl who runs away… to work at a newpaper delivery place run by a buncha quirky characters.  enjoying the manga so far ^^
28.  gu-pan vol. 1 – Volume 2 came out recently, decided to give the series a try.  Volume one was sold out at a lot of places… took me forever to find it.
29.  evangelion – ikari shinji raising project vol. 8 – unfortunately I couldn’t remember how many volumes of the series I had at home so only got the most recent one.  Turns out I needed vol 7 too -_-
30.  gu-pan vol. 2 – Bought this one because at one point it looked like I wasn’t going to be able to find volume 1 and I just wanted to see what the series was like ^^;
31.  minamike vol. 6 – woo! ^_^
32.  young ace – another purchase fueled by the eva fire.  Came with a little Makinami Mari Illustrious figure to boot.
33.  k-on! character & story book – came with megami
34.  amadare – glad I stumbled upon this one.  About a guy who winds up in a (previously) all girl anime/manga club at school.  Features a bl obsessed tsundere (the one on the cover).  Second volume due out in a few more days, can’t wait!
35.  mangasan to ashisutantosan to vol. 2 – continuing to love this manga to pieces.  Already done with it and now the wait begins anew for the next tankoubon ^^;;;

Finally got an extra fate.  No more armless feito-chan figma pics!  ^^;

Was hard to convince myself to fork over the 6300 yen or whatever outrageous price they were charging for it… but above is the epic saber wallscroll I got.  I was wondering why the price was higher than the usual 5000 (still outrageous -_-) and saw the dimersions were 85cm x 170cm!!!  Now I’m sad I didn’t get the matching rin one ^^;;

Now granted my ef wallscrolls are on the small side, but you still, saber is hugemongeous.

Need to rearrange things again to display everything properly ^^;

Was pleased to see the cushion body nicely vacuum sealed.

Very easy to fit in a suitcase.

Open it up and it restores itself.

Not a very thick pillow to begin with so I guess it’s no surprise it gets so thin.

Finally erika can be displayed properly!

The k-on! insert seemed to be standard fan-book kinda material.

Character profiles and episode summaries…

Woulda preferred full page spreads but I guess that’s what the rest of megami is for ^^;

Bought young ace more just because rei was on the cover than the figure ^^;  Tiny and not terribly interesting.

She does come with an alternate head/helmet.

I’ll close with some pics of the stuff from megami~

horo daitan!

umi monogatari?

princess lover… suppose I’ll add to my watch list?  ^^;;

Queen’s blade

saki pic features the kazekoshi girls for a change

fight ippatsu jyuuden-chan

Oh almost forgot – not pictured, but also got a DS mahjong game ^^  It’s rated CERO D but I can’t figure out why ^^;;  Either I haven’t unlocked the content yet or I guess bouncing oppai is grounds for a 17 & up rating? ^^;;

Alrighty think that pretty much covers everything.  Was hoping to save more in the wake of my DSLR purchase but couldn’t pass up the opportunity ^^;

以上！

As mentioned in the previous post, this trip is a super last minute business trip + vacation time added on.  What do you know the first night I’m here I remember that my laptop’s ethernet port is broken (have been using wireless) so I can’t check my work e-mail!  Also I found out that the plug adapter I threw in my bag was for german outlets!  Thank goodness for akiba… it was 7pm… rushed off and was able to buy everything I needed ^^  Plus the manga pictured above ^^

Friday and Saturday were spent working so I wasn’t planning on doing anything vacation-ish.  However Saturday after dinner with my coworker he took me over to see the gundam!  …didn’t have my camera orz.  But that turned out just as well since it was night and it wasn’t lit up.  Went back the next day… weather overcast (stupid tsuyu >_<) but at least I was able to take pictures.

I’ll have a more detailed write up of the Gundam when I get back… well… though if you’ve read other articles I doubt I have much new to say about it ^^;

Glad I took both my lenses.  Wanted both wide angle and telephoto capabilities while I was shooting.  Hardly ideal (18-55 kit + 100mm macro) lenses but I had to make do ^^;

The details on this bad boy are beautiful.  So glad I was able to see it in person ^^

Spent the rest of that day in akiba.

There’s something comforting about seeing advertisements like that everywhere.

And nekomimi maids on the street ^^;

Other than that… saw the eva movie today!!!  Actually hadn’t seen the first one until last Friday — heard from my coworker it was on tv and watched it in my hotel room ^^;

Was really really really awesome seeing eva again… tons of new content… and in a theatre!  I almost cried ^^;  Really like what they did with the plot changes.  Kind of like how the end of evangelion movie was a separate rendition of the ending… having the series retold in yet another fashion was wonderful.  I don’t really remember enough to do a comparison of what I liked better or worse… but I know I really loved the film ^^

The good thing about not having seen the first movie was that I wasn’t waiting forever for the 2nd to come out… but now that I’ve gone and watched ‘em… arrrrgh, can’t wait for #3!!!

Two more days… trying hard to not spend them both in akiba ^^;;;;

以上！

About 12 hours ago I was asked if I could go on a business trip to Japan.  6 hours ago I booked a flight.  Barring any problems, I’ll be taking off within the next 15 hours.

!!!

I’ll be landing on Thursday (Japan time) and working Friday & Saturday.  However I extended my trip to the next Thursday so I’ll have Sunday through Wendesday to have some vacation time (assuming my Japanese coworkers don’t pull me into the office ^^;;;).  I believe it’s still tsuyu (rainy season == hot & humid orz) but… it’s Japan!

So far I just have a short list of things to do:

1. Akiba
2. Odaiba Gundam
3. Experience some tanabata shenanigans
4. Eva maid cafe?

Busy at work lately, so once again I’m behind on blogs… but anyone else gonna be in or around Tokyo during that time (7/5 through 7/8)?  Feel free to contact me by e-mail (my gmail account is madaminu) if you’d like to meet up.

Packing my new camera and hoping it’ll survive the trip.  I have lens cases (lowepro stuff) for my lenses but nothing for the body nor a dedicated camera bag.  Was just gonna cushion it with some clothing and put everything in my carry-on.  Didn’t seem like it should be a problem?  ^^;

Anyhow, we’ll see if I can manage some posts from my hotel but otherwise, see y’all next week!

以上！