My trip to Tokyo, and the loot I got

[Sumdumgai]

My wife and I just came back from Tokyo yesterday, where we spent a couple of weeks on our honeymoon.

If this is too long, off-topic, or whatever: mods delete!

Since my wife and I both love anime and manga stuff, we hit every Mandarake in Tokyo, most of the Tora no ana shops, and K-books in Akihabara. And we went to comicket.

Akihabara: An amazing place filled with electronics stores and creepy otaku people. You know the stereotype of the fat greasy geeky creepy guy? Well it's true, and it's even more horrible in person, especially when you're surrounded by them in the close-quarters of a Japanese shop...

We visited the Kotobukiya shop, where they had butt-loads of figures. They sold out of the BGC figures pretty fast (I saw the stock diminish over multiple visits). I picked up a Linna Yamazaki figure. They had just put up the Dirty Pair Flash figures and Final Fantasy Advent children figures about three days ago. Tifa looks like butt, but Sephiroth looks pretty good.

Kaiyodo's shop took up half a floor of a shopping complex. They had lots of figures but nothing I really had to have...

Ikebukuro: Women love Yaoi, my wife is a woman, therefore she loves Yaoi. Ikebukuro is the area that has one mandarake shop devoted exclusively to Yaoi. My wife wanted to go there, so we went. Wow... One big Mandarake filled only with yaoi doujinshi and stuff.... Like shelves, and shelves, and walls filled with Yaoi stuff... I was the only guy in the shop, and I felt creeped out. Mostly teenager girls and young women. But there were a couple of stereotype otaku girls... Fat-fat-fat, greasy, and ugly like a pit-bull. Plus they kept talking to themselves.

Comic Market

Okay we went to all three days of comicket. OH MY GOD!

Anime Expo is a tiny tiny convention. San Diego Comic Con is a rather small convention. Comicket was inconcievably big!

Half a million people running around through two enormous halls, a third large hall, a rooftop for cosplay, and a large room for corporate stuff (not to mention the rest of the site for moving from one place to another).

Japanese people form up in lines and they stay in them. It only took a manner of minutes to get a few thousand people into the building. Heh, it's free too!

Japan is freaking hot. As soon as I step out of an air conditioned building, my shirt gets soaked in sweat. At comicket the halls were not air conditioned, and all the doors were open... One of the staff members collapsed from the heat on the third day.

I picked up some doujinshi, but the coolest thing was that I managed to get autographs on the doujinshis by the main artists of the circles.

So I got an autograph from Kawarajima Koh (Hen Rei Kai) on an Eva doujinshi. I got an autograph from Satoshi Shiki from a doujinshi of his that I bought. I got a sketch done of Aries Shion from Saint Seiya, done by Momoiro rip (she does some freaky stuff, and yes the artist is a woman, which is why she does hetero and yaoi). I also got an autograph a few other artists, as well as one from Yonekura Kengo (she did the art for a recent official Eva game), and Saigado (the guy who's done those famous King of Fighters doujinshi like the Yuri and Friends series).

Koh Kawarajima was a thin guy, and he made an exception for autographs because I was a foreigner. Unfortunately because I'm Japanese descended, I look Japanese... But I don't speak the language, so my wife who does, had to ask for me. She's wonderful.

Satoshi Shiki had people selling his doujinshi for him while he hid behind a wall of boxes and drew stuff. It was kind of weird because my wife asked if it was possible to get an autograph from him, and then we were summoned behind the booth, and went up to this stack of boxes with this guy hiding behind them... Nothing particularly outstanding that I noticed about him, except that he kind of creeped me out.

Momoiro rip seems nice. She's like 5 foot 2 I'm guestimating. The doujinshis she does though... There are a number that I refuse to touch because they're sick. I'll maybe take a picture of the sketch she did for me, and post it later. Looking at her, you wouldn't guess that she does doujinshi.

Yonekura Kengo was about 5 foot 2 I think. She seemed to dress rather Japanese trendy. She wore blue contact lenses. And she did an autograph for my wife and I, writing it to us. She was really nice.

Saigado... WTF!!!! He was not only really nice, helping this guy to pick up all his dropped coins (I didn't know it was him till he signed the doujinshi I bought from him), but the weirdest of all... He looked healthy!!! He was thin, clean shaven, wearing nice clean clothes, and he looked to be in good shape! He wasn't fat, greasy, and slobbish like I had feared he might be. He was really really nice, and he was manning his booth himself, with a couple of assistants.

When my wife asked if it would be possible for Saigado to do an autograph, he said it was alright right away, and then when he stepped back from the table we expected him to go look for the guy. It wasn't until he grabbed a pen that we realised that the guy we were talking to and paid for the doujinshi, was the guy who drew it.

We survived comicket by eating Calorie Mates. Yes, Calorie Mates, as in those things that Snake eats in MGS3. The chocolate ones are pretty good. It's a biscuity food bar. The vegetable one is pretty good too. There is a fruit one that tastes like orange peels (and that is one of the ingredients I think...), and we didn't try the cheese flavored one.

Naruto and Full Metal Alchemist were the most popular subject matters for doujinshi at the convention... I don't care for either series.

Loot:

Picked up the CMs corporation Macross figures series 1 limited edition Minmay and Hikaru for 2600yen. Unfortunately Hikaru came only with his helmet... But considering that no shops in Tokyo that we went to had any of the series one figures left, I got lucky that I found the pair at Mandarake Shibuya.

Got a number of gashapon figures and trading figures. Leona in white uniform from Dominion Tank Police, Blue Mary from the KOF girls collection, bandai Ranma gashapon figure, and Rei Ayanami from the Gainax Heroines series figures.

Heh, picked up three gashapon Star Wars lightsabers that actually light up. They have a two piece plastic transparent blade that you lock together and put on the hilt, then you flick the on switch and a little light goes on that lights up the blade. There's no sound, but they're funny and they're chibi (yes they have been super deformed).

I'm going to go pass out now, I'm majorly suffering from jet lag.......

[VF-0S FAN]

One day I'll go to Japan too. Besides congrats to both of you :-) ( vive les Mariés ! )

[VF-0S FAN]

One more week there and you could perhaps pick up this upcoming 1/48 VF-1A CF

[Fortress_Maximus]

You NEED to show pics dude! And congrats on getting married.

Btw any cels?

[Kin]

You NEED to show pics dude! And congrats on getting married.

Btw any cels? 

321771[/snapback]

Yeah we need pics!

[F-ZeroOne]

Ah, yes - Calorie Mates, the foodstuff that contains everything the average human needs to survive nutritionally for an entire day in one handy package.

Except taste.

Glad you had a good time though!

Edited August 20, 2005 by F-ZeroOne

[Eternal_D]

yah man...too much to read...give us some pics! any good saint seiya goodies?

[EXO]

Nice report, I don't think I can handle any con bigger than SDCC, but free is good.

I remember meeting you guys at expo 2 years ago, great couple!

I went ahead and ordered my BGC figures thru Diamond, I hope they're worth it.

Edited August 20, 2005 by >EXO<

[Wesker99]

Sounds cool. Congrats on the marriage too

I think it would be pretty sweet to go to a convention of that size. But I'm thinking some of the people would seriously freak me out.

[SpacePirateNeko]

YOu should have went to teh mandarake in Nakano ...its 4 stories and has about 10 seperate areas dedicated to every anime/mang /model sub genre you can think of

and its about 15 minutes from ikebukuro ...i love tokyo

i have a ton of pics from my second trip i took in may but i hate uploading pictures to image sites....is there anyway to just link the pictures to a folder on my computer sicne i leave it on all day and have a cable hookup?

[yellowlightman]

i have a ton of pics from my second trip i took in may but i hate  uploading  pictures to image sites....is there anyway to just link the pictures to  a folder on my computer sicne i leave it on all day and have a cable  hookup?

321826[/snapback]

Are you uploading the pictures through FTP?

[Wesker99]

If you've got cable uploading the pictures to a host shouldn't take too much time.

It's never a good idea to give people access to your own personal computer

[SpacePirateNeko]

not sure how to do that

[BoBe-Patt]

wow, cool honeymoon! And dood!! we needs some pix of this loot you speak of! and Gashapon SD lightsabers!?!?! whoa! I gots to see that!

[Ishimaru]

PICS PICS

[Godzilla]

Nice haul.

[Sumdumgai]

Here comes a bunch of pics, I'm going to use imageshack to host them since I don't want to dump a bunch of pics on the macrossworld servers.

For Saint Seiya stuff. My wife picked up buttloads of Saint Seiya doujinshi... Like so much that it's not funny. As in she bought basically all of the Saint Seiya doujinshi she ever wanted. I'm not even going to try to take pictures, it's too much. She also picked up two gashapon Gemini Saga, and a Poseidon. Unfortunately the Saint Cloth Myth Scorpio Milo comes out within the week... So we couldn't pick him up in Japan.

First pic: Limited Edition Minmay and Hikaru I picked up for 2600yen for the pair. Hikaru's missing his hair though, but then again I got the set just to finally have Minmay from DYRL.

[Sumdumgai]

Thanks for all the "congrats" everyone!

Yeah Exo I remember meeting you and areaSeven at Anime Expo. I think I also saw a few other members at the Macross Panel. My wife did some Macross sketches during the panel during the Q&A part, and gave away one afterwards. I'm not sure if it was to a Macross World member or not...

Yes guys I have two pics of cells I got, I'll post them in a bit.

Pic 2: Cutey Honey. I couldn't resist because of the style and the pile of cats she's sitting on.

edit: I realised it would be easier if I just post all the pic links in one thing, so I'll continue doing edits on this post to puc all the images and info for the pics.

pic 3: BGC Linna. All plastic, no metal contect... Plus the arm pieces sometimes fall out when I try to pose her. It's posable like hell, and I love it. But I'm bothered by the plastic content. Overall I love it, but the price kind of hurts.

pic 4: Mini Star Wars OT helmets. I'm not sure what company made them, but we picked them up at Kotobukiya. There's six helmets, plus a secret helmet (Biggs). There's a Luke, Rebel Soldier, Storm Trooper, Tie Fighter, and Vader helmet. And C-3PO's head.

pic 5: Vader's helmet takes down like in ESB.

pic 6: KOF girl's collection (Yujin) Blue Mary, Girl-type Ranma (Bandai), Dominion Figure collection Ozaki Leona (Yamato), Gainax Heroine Collection Ayanami Rei (forgot which company), and Remote Controlled R2-D2 (Hasbro or Tomy Japan). R2 makes sounds. There's a button to go forward in circles, and a button to back up, that's it... No fine control.

pic 7: Top is a free pencil board from buying from Henreikai/Kawarajima Koh. Left to right. Satoshi Shiki doujinshi of Ichigo 100%(censored part of the image just in case), Kawarajima Koh doujinshi of EVA, and a doujinshi by Momonana from his Pretty Well full color series of videogame characters.

pic 8: Sign by Satoshi Shiki. He hid behind a stack of boxes...

pic 9: Kawarajima Koh sign. He was standing around by his booth while a big triple line formed outside of the hall. He had women in kimono manning his booth with a few men and some others constantly pulling doujinshi out of a stack of boxes to replenish the supply for sale on tables.

pic 10: Momonana's sign.

pic 11: Saint Seiya gag doujinshi I picked up focusing on Aries Mu and Shion.

Edited August 21, 2005 by Sumdumgai

[Sumdumgai]

Second post for more images (I couldn't continue in the last post because I was going to exceed the number of images I could post).

pic 12: Sketch and sign from the circle that did the gag doujinshi.

pic 13: Anvil III by Nobuteru Yuki, I picked up at Mandarake in Shibuya. I did go to the Nakano Mandarake too. Actually we hit EVERY mandarake in Tokyo at least once. Yonekura Kengo doujinshi artbook on the left, with a Saigado doujinshi focusing on Blue Mary from KOF (it was brand new and just released at comicket). Image censored just in case. I don't want to have to repost everything because the thread gets shut down by naughty pictures.

pic 14: Sign by Yonekure Kengo. She did the character design for one of the recent Eva games officially released by Gainax. I censored the names of my wife and I, because I'm a bit uncomfortable just tossing our names around on the internet. Call me a paranoid freak if you want!

pic 15: Sign by Saigado. The man was healthy and thin!!! WTF! And he was incredibly nice!

pic 16: Awesome gag doujinshi of Star Wars ROTS. Yes that is Anakin. Over the right of his head, yes that is Sidious hopping around with force lightning. On the lower left is Obi-wan, and on the lower right is a pissed looking Padme with baby Leia and Luke.

pic 17: The truth about General Greivous. He was really a she that dressed like a prostitute, chain smoked like no one's business, and ran around almost naked with just a cloak and her underwear. On the right side is that sith girl from Clone Wars (I think? I dunno, I didn't watch through it because I couldn't stand the animation style). Asaj Ventress?

pic 18: SPOILER FOR STAR WARS EPIII unless you don't know how Darth Vader becomes Darth Vader, in which case it sucks to be you Okay had to put that just in case, because I knew a few people who never watched through the original trilogy and didn't know jack about Vader. So yeah, this is an interpretation of the immolation scene. Anakin is crying for help (the short story was about how all the Sith ask for help at the moment before they're killed or about to suffer serious bodily harm). And Obi-wan says to Anakin "no. It's amazing you've got no arms and legs and your butt is catching on fire..." Then he takes the lightsaber and prances off. It also explains that this is why Vader wanted to kill Obi-wan so badly in ANH.

Spoiler over, just don't click on the pic either unless you already know or don't care.

pic 19: sketch done for me by my wife. Athena and Gemini Kanon from Saint Seiya. She was published in a yaoi doujinshi anthology of Saint Seiya with a Japanese circle at comicket. My name is censored out.

pic 20: sketch done for me by Momoiro rip. Saint Seiya's Aries Shion. She also goes by the pen name Sugar Milk. A lot of times the way she draws the characters makes them have this kind of perverted sick look to them. This one doesn't, he looks really awesome. It's cool because he's one of my favorite Saint Seiya characters!

pic 21: Macross for PS2 used drom Mandarake Nakano (multiple specialised shops in Nakano. My wife told me that there's less shops than when she visited last time a couple years ago. But a lot of gashapon shops sprung up there since.). Star Wars Episode I Japanese release, so I get to watch TPM dubbed in Japanese. *lol* The seiyuu that does Snakes voice in the Metal Gear Solid series (and Bateau from Ghost in the Shell) dubs Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu... I think? And I also picked up the 3x3 Eyes OVA soundtrack 2, which I didn't even know existed until I found it for cheap at Mandarake Nakano.

Edited August 21, 2005 by Sumdumgai

[Sumdumgai]

continuing. You can't post more than ten pics per post.

pic 22: LOOK CELS!!! Wendy from the Psychic Force anime. I never watched it, but I played as her a lot in Psychic Force 2012. I could have bought a cel of Burn, but he looked gay and I don't like him anyway... I got this one for less than 700yen.

Argh! I found multiple cels from Super Atragon, but I couldn't find the damned soundtrack!

pic 23: Ninomiya Hinako in child form after she blasts Ranma (I think), from the OVA series. Either that or it's just before she whips out her 5 yen coin to drain Ryoga. I think I got this one for 2500yen. They had some other cels of child form Hinako, including a cute one of her jumping around happily, but I liked this one better because you could see her eyes open.

pic 24: For Shinsengumi fans, a box of Shinsengumi manju bought at the Hijikata Toshizo museum. Yes, we went to THE Hijikata Toshizo museum run by the descendents of his sister. Yes, it is the property where he grew up and lived. Yes, we saw the bamboo he planted when he was young, and it's still there. Yes we saw the chainmail armor he wore at the Ikedaya. Yes, we saw the massive bokken used by him and the Shinsengumi practicioners of the Tennen Rishin Ryu. Yes, we saw the metal piece they had on the Shinsengumi hachimaki. And yes... We saw his katana.

BUT. We weren't allowed to take pictures. However we bought sets of pictures and lots of goodies. Plus got an autograph from one of the descendents who wrote a book about Hijikata Toshizo.

pic 25: Hijikata Toshizo beer.

pic 26: Shinsengumi manju and stuff that went bad and fuzzy while we were in Japan.

pic 27: Final pic for now. Engrish pic. LOOK EVERYONE!!! HOMO SAUSAGE!!!!

I held it, but I did not eat it.

pic 28: Obi-wan Kenobi ANH gashapon lightsaber.

pic 29: It lights up!

pic 30: Yoda gashapon lightsaber.

pic 31: Yoda lightsaber lit up.

Edited August 21, 2005 by Sumdumgai

[Sumdumgai]

pic 32: The lightsabers and stuff you can get. Vader, Obi-wan ANH, Luke ANH, Luke ROTJ, Han Solo's blaster, Darth Maul (not sure if you need to get two and connect them, or if it comes full sized), Anakin AOTC, Obi-wan TPM, Yoda, and Boba Fett's blaster.

pic 33: Final Fantasy V pez dispenser. I got gay looking Mid as a Time Mage. I wanted a dragoon or white mage. Meh.

Done for now.

My apologies to the mods that had to check through this crap to make sure it was all clean and nice. Interesting fact: Mods are mammals. Mods exist to flip out and kill people.

[Guppy]

love the lightsaber keychain! gotta get one of those.

And it's funny to think that the greasy human-mole stereotype is a cross-racial/cultural worldwide phenomenon. I bet the SMELL is the same too!!

[Wesker99]

Very cool stuff

[Poonman]

looked like a hell of a trip. japan's such a great place

[Solscud007]

Found teh SD light sabers here in LA.