This year’s AFA, had the largest crowd I ever saw since I started going two years ago. And yes, apart from life-sized Sabers, there were a lot of Dollfie Sabers…

I counted up to 19 Sabers. Anyone had the official figures?

There is only one word to describe this year’s AFA: Crowded….

There are people queuing for the tickets….

People were swarming the Pokemon booths…

Cosplayers are queuing up for the Moe Moe Kyu Kyu Cafe…

Many Comrades were seen queuing up for the Cafe as well.

The Host of Nico Nico Douga Live Telecast was also seen cosplaying on both days.

Rin, Alice and their friends gathered for the event.

Homura Akemi decided to come to AFA earlier without her friends…

Crab mouth?

Ichigo fighting with Ulquiorra

Yu Narukami and Izanagi

Joker and Harley Quinn paid AFA a visit as well.

Sayaka Miki and Kyoko Sakura decides to join their friends at the cosplaying grounds…

Richfield as Briareos with a comrade.

Some Special Task Force decides to comb the ground in case there are terrorists…

And look who is over there? Miyu-Chan!!! Happily chatting with her friends.

Special Task Force resting on a trolley, with Miyu-Chan trying to kill her friend on the left.
The conversation goes like this before this picture was taken.

Me: Hmmmm. Oh, I like taking pictures of Cosplayers in their natural forms, so, I shall take a photo of the Special Task Force that is resting over there.
Me: *snaps a few photos*
Me: *saw Miyu Chan and snaps her too*
Photographer 1: Hey, he is shooting something! Let’s shoot too!!
Photographer 2: Hey, they are shooting something…. OMG!!! I must shoot the special Task Force resting also!!!
Special Task Force 1: What are you doing? They are taking photos of us again?!?!
Special Task Force 2: No! We are not doing anything!!
Special Task Force 3: Pose! Pose!

And that is how they started posing again.
Kudos to Cosplayers, who had to endure photographers like me who like to do a lot of “Street shooting”.

Mr Unicorn Gundam was spotted on the ground early.

Cloud, with his famous Fusion swords, with Yuffie.

Miku getting shot… er… her photo shot by a fellow comrade.

A cute Mio Akiyama with her guitar. Her hairs were slightly entangled in the strings of the guitars before this shoot was taken.

A huge purple eye was at the Toyota booth. At the bottom of the photo, you can see a wooden replica of a Samurai sword. These were going for SGD$20 per piece. I saw them practically on the hands of every other comrade.

Zange Natsume giving me the “wanna die” look.

This X105 Gundam is so lucky. He had two ladies to escort him.

Here is X105 with his shield.

I caught Juliet from lollipop chainsaw cosplaying outside the halls.

Now, I need help with this one. Which character is this?

I caught Valerie Aya as KuroyukiHime she rush off to the back stage…

Nymph eating her potato chips…

Kobato Hasegawa…

Here, you can see, Kobato’s eyes being replicated with coloured contacts…

Over here, Kobato taking photo with someone…. hey!! Hey!!! Bro!!! The hand!!!! Watch where you are putting the hand!!!!!!

Sheryl Nome sharing her time with us…

Reimu Hakurei left her shrine to attend AFA for a while…

While I was trying to capture this cute cosplayer chatting with her friend, she spotted me within 10 seconds and went into full cosplaying mode…

So, I thought, why not, and snapped a few more pictures. By the way, what character was she cosplaying again? So sorry that my database isn’t that big as many of the comrades out there.

Sheryl Nome in wedding dress…

with Ranka Lee, also in Wedding dress.

Here is where I caught KuroyukiHime again.

Inori Yuzuriha from Guilty Crown was smiling splendidly.

Chris from Koreha Zombie Desuka, or also known as, “Is this a Zombie”, posed for me for this shot.

I have to apologize to her because, while she was chatting with another comrade, I was disturbing them by taking random shots of them. Sorry about that.

Blue Rose from Tiger and Bunny…

Free hugs for you???

Great pose!!!

Free bubble tea, anyone?

Wendy and Virgo from Fairy Tail.

Miku says, “Take me home!!!”

Last, but not least, IRONMAN!!!!

Generally, this AFA is …. well, less tiring for me, as my friends were with me. It was a new experience for me as I usually go to events alone. And because of that, I might go around and shoot people cosplaying for as long as 8 hours a day, with breaks in between.

During this AFA, I get to meet amazing people like…

Serene and Yivon…

I met up with friends from Kurocha…



And scared the hell out of Joey. Haha.

For more photos, feel free to visit my Flickr account at here and here.

Do not, visit this Ramen store.

This is how the Ramen chicken noodle of the above mentioned store looks something like…

Believe me, I can cook better instant noodle than the ones this shop served us. The Ramen was out on our table in less than 4 minutes after we ordered it. The meat slices are so thin that I thought I was eating “Sliced” Chicken Bacon.

The shop is situated at the edge of the most crowded streets of Fukuoka, just around Kushida Shrine. I will update the GPS location of the shop when I got back in Singapore.

Ramen Club members!!!!! Beware!!!!

The 2nd day of the STGCC, or the Singapore Toy, Game and Comic Convention was on the 2nd September 2012, a Sunday. Armed with my trusted 7d, and a new diffusior system, I went to convention Hall, hunting for Cosplayers who have no issue about posing for me.

Although for some strange reasone, I had skipped day 1 of the event, and missed Snow Miku (Miyu-chan) day 2 was not without its rewards…

Lilianan from Queen’s Blade…

Liliana with BonJapan…
Oooooooo. I simply like that smile.

Inori from guilty crown…

Knights in Shiny Armor….

Saber Bride…

Rin and Archer makes their appearance. I saw Archer during the Internatonal Cosplay Day as well.

Pedo Bear came to the convention hall too. It stalked the little girls during the International Cosplay Day as well…

Members of the AKB0048 paid a visit as well…

A certain Pink Neko Maid was there as well…

And she decided to give a little service as well…

However, the Neko Maid is children friendly as well, or should I say, friendly with children??

Lacus with Halo…

Lacus decides to give a little service as well, although we all know that her dress is a swimsuit by now…

A few Miku, Rin and Len popped up along the way…

Sakuya giving her “I will kill you” look…

And of course. Sakuya sometimes gets bullied by the others…

A pair of Chobits…

Squall….

Iny x Boku….

Friend, which part of Sonico Kenco were you staring at???

Comes with a nice bag…

Azunya-nya~~

Arisa…

Stocking…

A certain cute Elysia de Rux Ima…

A certain girl with pink hair…

A certain killer bunny…

Was Optimus Prime and Bumble Bee so sweet looking??

Cosplayers having fun…

Nyaroko-san: “Hahhh!!!!!!”

“Look into my eyes…”

ARRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pain….

Wukong and Volibear from League of Legends…

Ironman diecast…

The more Human version…

Posing for a shot…

A soldier trying to revive his comrade…

Patrolling…

Hello, Halo??

Batman!!! Where were you?!?!?!?!?

Captain America???

Vader: Come with me to the dark side…

Vader: Actually, I will just stand here and let you photograph me.

Here doggy….

Nya~~

Ending group shot…

Below are some miscellaneous shots I took from the event…

Inori being grabbed playfully by her friend while posing for me.

I should had switched on the video mode on my camera when I saw the blonde creeping up on Inori. Haha.

Inori asking Miss Bunny to take a photograph…

Luka posing for a shot…

Friends talking…

This was on sale. Yes, it is THAT BIG.

I caught Aria staring at the stage, alone. I did not see her cosplay today. Maybe she is just taking a break.

A person infested with a Headcrab was spotted…

I spotted a member of the SWAT team drawing on the board…

There was a few group of people going around interviewing people…

The same group….

With different cosplayers….

Any idea who were they? I want to credit them.

This is a certain fairly expensive chicken rice which I had for lunch. To be fair, the soup was really, really nice.

Here is the certain quite expensive chicken noodle I had for lunch, also from the same store. The soup is the same, however, the noodle tasted great!!!

I am looking forward to AFA 2012 now. See you guys there!!!!

One of the most anticipated theme this period is non-other than Accelerated World, and true enough, I spotted a fan cosplaying as Kuroyukihime.

Her wings were made of light weighted material, and her family were at the site, supporting her cosplaying efforts.

The standard feature, the pink pig, is actually rather cute on its own. I think that even if no one knows where do the pig originally came from, it will be able to attract much attention on its own.

We should be able to spot more cosplayers using the “Accelerated World” theme as the anime continues to the 2nd half of the year.

This year’s AFA at Malaysia also attracted a platoon of Dollfies lovers, who brought their daughters all the way to the humid capital…

It seems like many collectors like the “Saber” Doll very much.

Right beside the entrance, you will see Danny Choo’s booth, where he had several items on display. The most obvious one is the itasha…

which now comes with Mira sitting permanently on the engine, and you can have a photo with her as well

and of course, his daughters…

Amu decides to join the fun…

I will be posting the short clip of her on Fuji TV later.

Nurses were not uncommon on cosplay events. However, what was disturbing were the weapons they started to bring with them…

Vocaloids, particularly Hatsune Miku and Kagami Rin, had almost became a standard cosplay item…

A Miku with a gun…

Miku in Kimono and a fan…

This year, we have a male Miku with sword…

For some reason, he was able to grab the attention og everyone arounf him for a good hour.

Rin, on the other hand, comes and goes away…

SeeU makes her appearance with another Rin and some friends….

For some reason, Snow Miku appeared at the heat of summer in the tropical country called Malaysia…

luckily, this Snow Miku do not melt.

A pair of cute Rin and Len decided to show up near the end of the convention…

Len had a Nikon DSLR, and his professionalism shows when he puts a caller on call to let a fellow photographer finish his shoot.

Another Rin and Len team…

With their Miku friend…

A trio of Mikus…

On the left, Black Rock Shooter.

Not forgetting Black Rock Shooter…

Of course, the original Vocaloids do show up at the convention hall…

this version of Miku comes complete with Luka and Rin, and will fit in your pocket.

Fumino decides to show up near the end of the convention also…

comparing with the “real thing”…

Anynody knows this cosplayer in real life???

A maid that gives free hugs…

Suigintou…

Naruto????

Yes!!! Naruto!!!

Kakashi, 4th Hokage and zanuza

The 8 Tails, Killer B…

Zabuza with his sidekick, Haku…

Bunch of people trying to get a shot of Zero…

Final Fantasy 7 team…

Zack and Tifa speaks…

Sephiroth with his long blade…

And calling his mother????

A Neko (cat) being fed…

I met a ghost…

A lady who wears clothes and wig that matches her Dollfie’s…

Huge green monster appears…

War Machines comes rolling…

With Ironman…

Azunyan and Yui in Kimono…

War Machine with a drill…. Wait!!!! NO!!! NO!!!! Not War Machine!!!

The cap speaks the name…

Lacus…

Who are they again???

A really nice “MS Girl”…

Yuuko from Tsubasa…

Some handsome guy which I don’t know…

Storm tropper with Nekomimi…

More Mikus???

A crossover??

Blue lady with blue fan…

An old classic, Card Captor Sakura…

Cute Arisa…

…having a chat with friends…

Cirel Harem…

Len at gunpoint…

Miku with Panty and Stocking…

Wait… what is MadoKami doing here???

Oh, she was actually at the GSC booth.

Well armed…

“Let me take care of you…. Yuki…” says Yunno…

More Rin and Len…

Sheryl???

No-Face of Spirited Away…

Saying goodbye…

Rozen maidens…

Errr…

Booth babes…

A cute Fear…

Azunyan, Ritsu and a monster…

Mami!!! By Good Smile Company…

Enough cosplayers…. now for Dollfies…

Red Saber…

And their masters…

Can anyone identify which characters these people are cosplaying???

At first, I thought it was Rin, Luka and Miku in chinese dresses. Anyone had an idea??

And what about them….

Can someone help me identify what these cosplayers are cosplaying???

And lastly, the stage area…

Here is the river that seprates the convention hall from my hotel…

An old building near the convention hall. Which building do you think it resembles???

The weather in Kuala Lumpur is similar to the weather in Singapore, since they are only about 360 Kilometers by road.

Even the night sky from my hotel looks like the scene I can see from my apartment…

The last cosplayer I shot before I left the ground…

Yui in Kimono.

Looking forward to the next AFA in Singapore this coming November!!!

やっぱりライブで音楽を聴きますのは一番良いです。

Larukuさんの演奏はenergyやattitudeで一杯です。とても素晴らしいだよ。

写真はライブの時に撮りました。

え、次回SCAちゃんのライブに行きたい～～

No. Not the girl above, but rather, the girl below…

So, what did the 3 did? Well, apparently, Hidenori had to comment on the wrong person at the wrong time….

There she was, quietly and peacefully watching the television on a Christmas night.
But Hidenori had to open his big mouth…

“So, you DO do not have a boyfriend…”

Why are they running? It turned out that Yoshitake’s elder sister is the leader of a girl’s gang (mini-gang?) who bullied their dear classmate…

Which is the same as saying, “you are so dead” to the 3 protagonist.

After getting their butts kicked…

Thrown….

Hidenori managed to run away…

for a short while…, until he had to open his big mouth again…

“I will be your dearest…”

which made the Oneesan blush a bit…

And, just when I thought the story might end with something more romantic rather than the Onee-cha punching Hidenori to oblivion, it did happened…

Well, you cannot blame her for being this angry when some kids came along and point it out to her that she was always alone during Christmas (i.e. she doesn’t have a boyfriend, like, all these years). But having seen how she dealt with the 3 boys, you couldn’t help but being glad that, you are not her boyfriend.

For some of you out there, you might be screaming, “Hey! That is not the first scene of episode 6!!!!”.

Well, it is not. For those who really must take a look at the almost-motionless and uninteresting first scene which happened before the opening song, here it is…

It consisted of a joke about “Magical High School Boys”, and a reference to Harry Porter.
Well, it is a gag, and I find it, “Duh” and moved on. The scene does not make too big an impact. I almost forgotten about it totally, until I typed the words, “It consisted of…”. Let us just move on with the more interesting parts, shall we?

The scene changes to a classroom, the boys’ classroom to be exact….

Everthing was peaceful. The boys are chatting about games, in particular, old-school games, like the NES…

Until the teacher decides to walk in…

At this point of time, I was wondering, are they having a summer class? The reason is very obvious. The teacher had arrived, but the bulk of students had not appeared…

The teacher finally tells the class that she had forgotten…

to tell their group that school doesn’t starts today…

and runs off.

It is obvious that, the teacher is making a joke out of them. What a terrible joke to play by this sensei!!!! This teacher will be on STOMP immediately if she was in Singapore. For the bulk of us, if we missed a day of our holiday because of a bad joke, we would probably be remembering it for our life. Will you?

The next story, is about Tadakuni’s imouto, smashing into the student’s council’s room, asking for the help of the elder “Onii chans”….

which they flatly rejected.

However, after a harmless meeting with the “guy who beats imouto up”…

I realized that, the imouto likes to play with her hair…

Trivial aside, the boys started to appear one by one…

What is the worst thing? The elder brother doesn’t know anything. Well, sometimes, imoutos finds is hard to approach their brothers for their problem. Maybe they are afraid of being scolded by the person closest to them. Maybe they just doesn’t want their brothers to worry about them. I am not an imouto, so I can only read about it. Well, what do you think? Do you have an imouto who is like Tadakuni’s imouto?

Will be continuing this review tomorrow…

Since today I had my 6th lesson on the Japanese language, I shall talk about it than.

My Japanese language teacher, we call them 先生 (sensei), is a cute and adorable lady who often makes mistakes in class. For the beginner level, the 先生 often uses picture/word cards to prompt the students to read or identify the objects. She would hold up the card and teach us how to pronounce its name, only to realize she was holding up the wrong card when she saw our puzzling faces. The cute thing is she would apologize, ごめん、ごめん, with all sincerity and giggle about it afterwards.

It is a great fun to be learning at the school I am in now. It sort of reminds me of my school days, of the subjects that I liked and how I enjoyed the lessons. When it is not for competition nor important reasons, languages are actually fun to pick up. Reading, writing, forming sentences, interacting with your fellow classmates, making mistakes and being corrected by your equally lousy friends, the laughter that follows and the improvement after that, everything adds up to make that fun experience. And I like it a lot.

Hmm… I still have to think about what to share in the next post…?????

Employees cleaning the floor early in the morning…

In other to quell the rumblings of the 4 hungry stomachs, we decided to eat some bread…

And a curry bread it was….

With an egg inside…

A very soft egg, with just the nice texture…

I also bought a toast, with egg and sugar….

It tasted really good, even though it was cold.

At the JR station, there are a lot of shops opened to service the hungry locals who are going to school and going to work…

It is in the JR station that we discovered the meaning of “they need better translators”….

A lot of bentos and gifts are also on sale…

Soon, our train came…

The train was empty, except for the 4 of us….

Then again, there were a lot of people at the Okayama station…

Most of them waited patiently, and in line…

Some stations have an extra train conductor ready to answer questions at the gantry…

For some reason, officer workers are taking a break from work…

At the same time, we saw someone who is waiting for her boyfriend…

and therefore, not working.

After walking towards our destination for 2 minutes, we saw someone who worked very hard for the country a very long time ago…

Yes. Momotaro.

For some reason, birds really like Momotaro…

A strange looking fountain was outside the JR station…

Around the fountain were girls….

more girls…

and more girls waiting for their friends around the fountain….

The shopping arcade was still not opened at this hour…

Which means that we can only stare at food samples, instead of eating them…

Momotaro’s is everywhere…

As the day proceeds, the air around us got colder, and we are very happy to buy something warm from the vending machine…

The advertisements on the vending machines are really nice too…

Citizens of Japan really like to cycle a lot…

Statues of famous people can also be found all over Japan…

The bird is good here…

very good….

For some reason, a group of OLs started walking to a restaurant in front of us…

In Okayama, there are restaurant which specialize in Gyoza too…

We do notice that there are a lot of electric lines running around buildings…

The 4 Degree jewelry shop had a tied-in with Mickey and Minnie…

The “black cat” courier service is always near us…

A small folding bicycle blocks our way…

Here is an expresso-version of my favorite tea…

The can is quite small…

the content perk me up for a few hours, just like an expresso do.

We found a mascot of the Glove…

Even though it was quite cold today, we saw some Japanese school girls who bravely wore their shortest skirt out into the open…

something which Singapore’s schoolgirls cannot do, since any skirt shorter than a few fingers above their knees are against regulation.

Here is a stone tablet… I could only make out “bird city”…

Meat…. meat…. and more meat…

In the garden just outside Okayama Castle, stood another statue…

The museum can be seen from far away…

The river in front of Okayama castle…

river…

river…

A father and daughter walking down the road…

I wonder if I would look like that if I was walking down the same path with my daughter 10 years later.

The bridge that connects the Korokuen garden to the Okayama Castle…

There seemed to be an exhibition going on…

The pudding this guy sells is really tasty…

His cart comes completed with a lion’s head.

If you think he is stupid enough to put a furry head on his cart, you are dead wrong. Kids and schoolgirls loves to approach the cart. It is a very good conversation starter.

Initially, I didn’t want to buy the pudding as I do not usually have deserts on my own. My friends felt otherwise
. We

You can also rent a duck…

Here is a restaurant/tea house/souvenir shop…

It overlooks the castle, so that you can enjoy the view while you sip your cup of tea.

The gate to the castle with two guards…

Just before you actually reach the gate to the castle, you will see this map…

We loves the castle…

For some reason, the “Scandal” fever spread to Okayama castle…

They called this a dolphin…

Here is the view on top of the castle…

For some reason, I do not want to do a pananomal…

The view of the river from the top…

Local fruit…

The exhibition inside the castle…

The special type of wood that the locals used…

The Royal Palanquin….

We found a mysterious guy lurking in the shadows…

There is an altar in the castle itself…

This box plays 3D movies which lasts 5 minutes…

We saw a lovely tour guide resting at a bench…

I bought something for my sister…

Notice that the packaging have Momotaro’s face on it?

After a while, dark clouds gathers…

Here we see a unique pattern for the tiles on the walls around the castle…

I spotted a bicycle rental shop of some sort…

The relatives of the spider that I took in Hiroshima Castle can be spotted in Okayama Castle as well…

Near the castle, is another STONE…

From the STONE, we can have a nice view of Okayama Castle…

While we were walking towards our next destination, we spotted an old timer catching fish…

I wondered if he caught any fish yet…

Here is a close-up…

Doesn’t he looked like Harrison Ford??

Another view of the castle before we continue our journey….

and yes. Clouds are gathering as we speaks.

Za castle and the river and I…

We entered the Korakuen Garden…

and all I can see were…. green…

more green…

more green…

more green…

more greens….

more greens…

more greens…

and more greens…

Among the greens, there was a couple getting hitched…

You can also take a rest at the “Tea Houses” at the side of the pond, at a cost of 700yen…

From afar, I spotted a Shrine…

and the couple again…

From under my foot, I see many, many Koi…

Here is a PVC sample of fruits that can be found in the Korakuen Garden…

The further part of the Korakuen Garden is occupied by several ponds…

After crossing the bridges, you can see the teahouses clearly…

From high above the hill, we can see many cameras around us, especially the one used for the couple that was getting married…

The photographer was probably using a Canon 70-200 F2.8 IS USM MKII…

Self-proclaimed “Pro-Photographers” will scold me for adding the kids on the top of the photo. I don’t care. I just want people to see what I saw.

Of course, I did saw some girls visiting the Garden as well….

More greens…

and greens…

and greens…

and greens…

and since the sky was so nice, I decided to take a photo of the sky too…

Most of you would have wondered, why am I emphasising so much on the greens? Well, as compared to Shukkei-en, Korakuen Garden is not surrounded by high rise apartments. It is surrounded by a lot of authentic low-rise Japanese houses.

We had some fun at the top of the hill…

The mountain had a name of its own…

Here is a place where you can take a rest, and soak your feet into cool running water…

Here is the hill in which we took the photos…

Within the garden is a tiny Rice Field…

Soon, we met the couple again…

With the assisstant trying very hard to adjust the traditional Wedding Gownds…

and the Pro-photographer knows what he was doing, as he did not bring an excessive amount of gears…

Here is the lady tending to the gift shop…

The shrine we saw from afar is just beside the gift shop…

the road to the Shrine was not disturbed for a long time…

While resting our feet, we saw a tiny waterwheel which do not do anything except to spin…

and we saw more greens…

Within the garden is another compound which you can drink tea…

I saw an old timer pushing his love into the tea house. I wonder if I would look like that 60 years later with my wife…

At that moment, I spotted my friends trying to take a photo of me. Naturally, I retaliated with my DSLR…

By this time, the sun was setting, and many people started walking out of the Garden…

At this point, we decided to go towards our next destination.

While we were on the way, we saw a traditional tea house…

With a group of guest inside…

The name of the tea house is printed outside on the same kind of wooden board used for the rice field and hill…

Using my zoom lens, we can observe the facial expression of the patrons as they listened to the host speaking about how you can increase your longevity by drinking tea in the tea house…

As I turned around, I found another veteran sketching the tea house using paper and charcoal…
how good is he, you might ask? Well, if I am anywhere half as good as he is on my camera, I will be working for National Geographic already.

Here is my friend, trying to capture a good shot…

of the mosses in the river…

There was a cameraman in the tea house…

As well as people with press passes…

Without any time more to spare, we decided to continue out journey. It is where we come into contact with the Pinecutter’s specialized ladder for pine cutting…

If you look closely, you will see that the pine cutter have a few cutters on his belt…

Deciding not to disturb someone with a few cutters that can cut branches with little problem, we decided to carry on our way and passed by a Shrine…

and a toilet in the middle of nowhere, almost hidden by a big tree…

it is a “one person” type, in which only one urinal for the man and one cubicle for the woman was built…

this also meant that, if the guy wants to do some big business, he had to use the female toilet.

When I say, one person, I meant, one person…

Right in the vicinity of the toilet, I found a BIG insect…

how big is the insect, you may ask. well, big enough for me not to use a Macro lens to capture details.

So, we bided farewell to the Castle…

and walked back up the river, where we meant with a duo singing by the river…

We came eye to (metallic)eye with the statue again…

and some real ladies…

we almost went into this shop for some tea…

but decided not to as we are a little short of time.

The trams are nice looking as well…

We spotted a newer model as well…

I spotted a snowmobile of some sort being transported along the way…

as well as a private car park with the advanced “two storey” electronic parking system which raises the efficiency of parking land used to two cars….

As today is even colder, we spotted ladies in thicker clothing…

We spotted a mascot for the nearby jungle…

Since we are craving for some sushi by now, decided to have some sushi…

take note, do not go into these sushi joints with fixed priced sushi. They cannot be compared to mixed priced ones.

We had to make our own tea, according to instructions…

There are two types of tea powder to choose from…

The basic amenities are still being provided…

and fresh salmon are still fresh salmon to Friend C…

Fresh salmon with salad onions are…. not the correct combination.

What do you think about Salad sauce with fresh onion, on top of fresh salmon sushi?

Of course, there were other sashimi sushi…

There were other types of sushi as well…

The broccoli is really cute…

The chef really know how to multi-task…

the grilled unagi sushi was really tasty…

Friend C could not resist taking a bite at the sashimi boat…

we will find out later that the sashimi boat REALLY cost the same price as other sushi.

Here is a close-up of the boat…

A quick look of the sushi belt…

For a while, I could not figure out that this is a sushi rice machine…

The “no smoking” sign looks really cute…

After having out fill, we continued our journey…

By this time, students are showing up, indicating that school is over…

we still noticed a similar feature on school girls in Japan…


the furry animal on their bags are really big, as compared to students in Singapore.

Another contrast is that, a number of Japanese school girls likes to cycle…

However, one thing in common, they liked white headphones rather than black ones…

Krashiki station was the next checkpoint…

and APA hotel was right beside the train station…

The landmark is a huge clock…

One thing I found lacking in Singapore, are pedestrian walkway big enough for the Physically Challenged to move around freely…

which is not a problem for Japan and Israel, as the pedestrian walkway are built wide enough for a few people to walk abreast.

A poster to promote an anime which promotes the area was spotted…

Meat, we spotted a lot of meat…

The buildings are really traditional looking…

We also found a temple which we did not enter. Upon reading the map, we realised that, the whole area do have a few temples.

A sign board indicating which vehicle should not turn, according to their sizes…

An exhibition seemed to be happening here…

Even though I had seen pictures of japanese houses for a long time, it is an entirely different feeling if I look at them myself.

While we were walking, out of nowhere, at the corner of a house, there is a shrine…

A landmark shrine in the area. We decided to skip this as we need to arrive at the Scandal grounds…

Even without visiting the Landmark shrine, we had to climb the hill…

This is the rear entrance of the Shrine…

and the opening hours…

and the name is…

Autumn came early for this tree…

I could probably fit into the bell if i took it down…

A Scandal Bell…

The garden is very peaceful, unlike Shrines in the Cities, which are always full of people…

We can demstrate out KungFu anytime we want here…

Instead of Bells, this prayer stand features a Gong…

We have a bird eye’s view of the elementary school…

We continued our journey…

This is not a bonsai…

Once again, I had seen shop keepers cleaning the front of their shop with a wooden bucket and a wooden spatula. To see it with my own eyes was an entirely different experience….

We passed by Ivy Square next, a place indicated by previous tourists to “not to miss”.

More food samples to make our stomach growl…

All of a sudden, another shrine pops out within the concrete jungle…

A little river runs across the town…

You can actually “go down” and walk along the stab of concrete rather than walking across the traffic light.

One of the locals with an interesting looking dog…

A sign board we passed. Noticed how there is no curb for vehicles to knock into?

Here, we see the “Black Neko Express” again…

At the concert grounds, what awaits my friends are tons of Scandal Fans. What awaits me, however, is a mosquito…

which I killed easily.

Here is a glimpse of the concert grounds…

The bouncers DO stop people from taking photos inside the lobby.

Even though the seats were reserved, we do see people rushing to get into the concert grounds…

After the concert started, Friend C and I were left to explore the area on our own. The our two Scandal friends did asked if we wanted to join them, as there were some “left overs” tickets. Sadly, we let the tickets run away.

The first shop we encountered is a biscuit shop.

They specialize in biscuits, and biscuits only. There were over 50 kinds of biscuits for us to choose from. Then, again, the prices to pay for them deterred us from buying any of them.

The next interesting thing I encountered is, Kagami Ken, or more precisely, an Itasha with Kagami Len on it…

Petrol stations are all over Japan….

A pawn shop, similar to the “Cash Convertor” we have in Singapore…

A huge shop which specializes in formal wear…

Just another night in Japan…

In order to capitalize on the popularity of Hatsune Miku, this arcade dedicated a corner just for the “Project Diva Arcade” machinese…

There were about 6 machines…

and this machine’s screen that the lady in the picture was playing with is the one that was being projected onto the screen above…

On the left, you see the Lcd screens of the normal stations. The The posters on the walls are so… appealing.

Apart from Hatsune Miku’s Arcade corner, I came face to face the legendary 3D Gundam Arcade Pods…

Ooooooooo….. i couldn’t keep still when taking this shot…

The inside looks like this…

A Nadesico slot machine…

Here is a horse betting machine, something the Singapore government will never allow arcades to have…

After visiting the local arcade store, we continued our exploration and ended up in a supermarket, which is not unlike Giant or Walmart…

yes. The name is BIG.

You can buy ice-cream and eat it on the spot…

or have a full meal in one of the many restaurant.

Here is my loot…

For the first time, we came across the “Godly casher machine that calculates and dispenses the change for you” casher machine….

I was so surprised with the efficiency of this machine that, when the casher slots in the “10,000yen” note, grabbed the change that was spitted out, and handed them to me, all within 10 seconds, I was quite shock. In fact, I could not register any for about 10 seconds. You probably will not see this kind of casher machine in Singapore anytime soon as it is often the policy for companies in Singapore to use an equipment as long as possible, even though that the machine was 30 years old and employees needs to do OverTime to just to make up for the lost time. Before you jump the gun to send me hate mails, I was a casher in an established departmental store in Singapore. You can email me about it, and I can chat with you about it over a cup of coffee, if you would like to known how cashers in Singapore worked.

The “zero Cal” puddings consisted of mostly water…

After we made our way back to the convert hall, we were reunited with our Scandal Fan friends…

We took the train from….

During the train trip, I demonstrated how to use the “twin directional seats of the train…

With a simple pull of the backrest, you can change the direction you face in the train…

From one direction….

To the other…

The train was quite empty by now, and we will soon know why…

It just so happened that the decision for us to take the “Non-express train” back, just in case we are taken to other prefecture, we ended up being stranded at Saijo…

Even though we are in the vicinity of many tourist spots, it was “late at night”, and the places are probably closed by now…

The track maintenance team did not waste anytime to start the maintenance of the track…

The shops around us are more or less closed….

We ended up hiring what is probably the most expensive Cab we had ever taken before…

Many trucks pasts us along the way…

For a price of about USD$140, the cab took us across a prefecture. Then again, the distance travelled was only about 30 kilometers…

From this day onwards, we understand the reason why Japanese will choose to stay in hotels if they missed the last train. Luckily for us, we have 4 person to share the burden.

Expecting that the food stalls to be closed, we decided to make do with what was sold in the 24 hours shop…

Odens…..

Friend C bought a Bake Rice Set with Pork Cutlet, with Cheese toppings, as he refused to eat “Bowled instant Ramen”, the cheaper option as compared to Bentos…

For myself, I got the Oden and a Bowl of Instant Ramen…

You basically mix 1 pack of seasoning, Pork Soup base, and garnish into the bowl…

A toothpick comes with the disposable chopstick, which was given free with the Ramen and the oden. Therefore, I got two sets of chopstick…

While waiting for my Ramen to be ready, I started eating my odens…

With stomach filled, we slept and our dreams led us to day 6 of our tour…

When I first saw the title, I had thought to myself that, well, this should be just a boys’ version of “High School Girls”(or “Joshikousei Girls High” ). I wasn’t expecting much at all. I had actually ran out of “new” animes to watch, since I do not follow the “must watch for this spring” list.

When the title screen appears, I was thinking, “Sunrise?? Square Enix?”

Searching far into the database of my brain, I could not remember any anime created by square enix being terribly nice to watch, except for Final Fantasy 7, Advert Children, Kuroshitsuji, and Darker than Black. Well, Kuroshitsuji and Darker Than Black are not hits, but they are not bad either.

Sunrise, on the other hand, was being associated to Mechas by myself. Then again, while searching on the web, Mai Hime/Otome came out of nowhere and knocked me out. Mai Hime/Otome was by Sunrise? I couldn’t remember. Well, as I had always told my friends, my Anime-otaku level is too high for normal people, and too low for “Real Anime-Otakus”.

The first scene opens up, with a strange “I am late and I am running and I have a piece of bread on my mouth” kind of opening. All of a sudden, it evolved into a Mecha when the Zakus appear. Immediately in my mind was, “Yeah, even though they own the Gundam series, they do not have to abuse it” kind of thinking. Basically, my face went =.= …

The daily lives of the boys are being played out in blocks of 4 or 5 minutes, and the real deal breaker for me comes in the form of “High School Boys and Skirts”.

Yes. There pantsu too.

My first “thundering laugh” for the series came when Tadakuni was tricked into wearing her sister’s skirt, something that was very much expected by me. Then again, having to see the actual scene left me laughing out loud…. really loud.

A unique point for this anime series is that, it allowed supporting characters to be…. eyeless…

Take note that the above 3 characters appears “FREQUENTLY”, and had no whatsoever reasons to be eyeless.

That being said, if figurines for those 3 characters are made, I will definitely buy them as I can use my imagination to morph them into any characters I want, since they have no eyes.

Episode 2 start with a sword fight between friends…

Kenshin styled.

The new character, Nago san showed us that, sometimes, just by changing a little angle, a person can become beautiful all of a sudden…

even though if it means for it to be virtually…

NOTE: images in a mirror are “virtual”, as they cannot be “projected” onto a screen. Check Wikipedia on this.

Let us look at it again….
A different angle will make this…

into this…

Nice, isn’t it?

The character that leaves the most impression on me is none other than…. the Literary Girl. The reason being, her expression…

Her expressions….

No words are needed. Just her expressions are enough…

Even if other people are angry with her, her expressions were enough for me to forgive her…

What really gets me into the show is the way Tadakuni’s imouto suddenly appearing in some of the gags…

Tadakuni no Imouto!!!!!

IMOUTO!!!!!!!!!

One thing that puzzles me is…. even if the gang plays with her bra….

Plays with her underwear…

She somehow still “listens to the boys’ conversation”. In episode 2, it was revealed that Takaduni is not really in good terms with her imouto. Hmmm… so, why do she still keeps in close proximity of the boys? I wondered.

The last scene of episode 2 brings out a character that is more or less, Akira-sama from Lucky Star…
She do behave like Akira-sama anyway, so the voice and the face do really suits her.

Before I close this article, this is probably one of the favorite scene of everyone…

Arh. Yes. The part when Takaduni was changing into herhis imouto’s bra.

I may or may not be doing Episode 3. So, for anyone reading this, try not to expect it too much.

Imaging Millhi from the series, Dog Days, wearing her favorite pink, flurry dress, running towards you under a clear Saturday afternoon sun in an open field…

Griffon Enterprises had beaten Good Smiles Company in getting the first Millhiore Figurine out in the market. Blaming myself for actually looking at the prototype photograph which Griffon distributed to retailers all over the world, I had decided that I will regret not buying one of these.

Before I actually give my verdict, let go through the usual unboxing ritual…

Here is the box that will greet you…

The box is quite compact. I could easily fit the whole thing into my backpack.

You cannot actually see much of the figurine from the top of the top of the box…

And the bottom of the box is almost bare except for the usual Legal Jumbo…

Here is what you will probably see when you pick up Millhiore Firianno Biscotti’s box (wait, how do I actually say this at one go???) from the shelve…

With the box gone…

Yes. One side of the packaging is loose.

Once the transparent packaging is removed, you will find that Millhi is pretty much….

well surrounded by a big piece of plastic bag. When I say “pretty much surrounded”, it means, the whole figurine was actually covered.

When you remove the plastic base, you will find Millhi’s name tagged onto the base…

Take note of the musical notes beside Millhi’s name, and take note of the scratch that came with mine.

The joining holes at the base are the basic hexagonal types…

Here is the leg after joining…

Yes. i know. The paint of my Millhi’s shoe actually chipped off even before I exposes it to the elements.

The left leg was joined to a plastic platform of some sort…

Here is Millhi under the studio lights…

Here is the close-up of Millhi’s tail…

One world to describe it. “Rough”.

Yes. Very rough. I have no idea why Griffon wanted to make Millhi’s tail to be this rough. Maybe they just want to simulate how flurry Millhi is?

Well, I had that idea in mind initially. However, once I saw what Griffon did to Millhi’s head. I told myself, not to get Griffon’s figurines anymore.

Here is the close-up of Millhi’s head…

Do you notice anything wrong with it? Well, I think that the figurine will look nice if we are to stare at it from 5 meters away. However, things gets really bad as soon as you are around 25 centimeters from the back of the figurine. It is as if Griffon was telling me that, “Hey, no one is going to look at the back of the head of Millhiore anyway. We do not have to have much QC on it.” And so, I ended up with a figurine that is pretty rough made, and although the painting are still okay for a figurine at this price, it makes me really want to get the GSC version to do a comparison.

Her ears are still okay looking…

Her face, looks okay also, at this distance…

I shall warn you before hand. Any closer than that, she will start to look like this…

Her dress is…. still okay for a figurine under 100USD…

Some details included by Griffon are quite an easter egg to me…

The same, however, cannot be said for the other hand, which I can clearly make out the mass production artifacts…

For some of you out there who really needs to know, she wears white underneath…

No, I do not think it is her underwear. She is wearing a few layers underneath her dress anyway.

If you looked at her from this angle long enough, her face will change shape…

So, overall, if you enjoy seeing Millhiore running across the grass patch…

Running around…

Running around….

And also running away from you…

If you going to imagine Millhi running around your table, and you will be putting Millhi in a display case far from you anyway, you can consider getting this figurine.

Here is a guest appearance by Horo…