As the omiyage shop yielded no melon-pan, Shana sets out on top of her dragon to find a place that sells melon-pan.

Melon-pan is scarce and the brave Shana looks across the globe for it. Taking different means of travel from dragons to magical carpets. Though why she doesn’t just ride the dragon is beyond me, as it is quite cool to ride one xD.

Elsewhere, a coming of two people nears.

After much searching across the globe, Shana finds no melon-pan and returns home to the floating island, sad and distraught. She catches a faint smell, a familiar and sweet smell. She recognizes as melon-pan and races towards the source of the smell to find melon-pan sitting on a table. She takes a big bite and a smile comes across her face as the familiar taste of melon-pan fills her mouth.

The End

Elsewhere, our couple from earlier finds themselves too close too the rabbit hole…

Related posts:

1. World’s largest melon pan has been made
2. Nendo Miku Love >w<

First off, no, we aren’t traveling or have traveled somewhere in the last month.

We’re at home, not in Japan xD

However, I am making plans for us to attend Mickey’s Halloween Party in Disneyland (Anaheim, CA) in October. I’m also tentatively planning on attending PMX in November, though they haven’t announced whether or not they will have a lolita guest or not. But I haven’t completely decided if I will go, even if my favorite brand, Angelic Pretty, comes back, so it’s all up in the air at the moment. The more important thing for that trip is that I would like AS to come with me because I want to go to Disneyland for 1-2 days to show him the magic of a Disneyland Christmas. ^_^

So much walking xD. The trip we’re planning will be a busy one. Hopefully my feet will be able to take it this time xD. All the previous visits left me with blisters ^^;;.

As for anime watching, we’ve been tackling all the episodes of Sailor Moon for most of the year, but we still have the last season to go. We went ahead and watched the live action because I thought he had enough of the anime. ^^; We’re taking a break right now but I worry that he’s forgotten everything from the fourth season. If you ever decide to watch Sailor Moon, take note that you should watch the latter part of the fourth season and the beginning of the fifth season back to back for continuity reasons.

A marathon Sailor Moon was exhausting to say the least xD. I had to make sure we limited the number of viewings per night or I would begin to hate it xD. Can’t marathon like I used to ^^;;.

In the meantime, I’m making him watch Kaleido Star, which is something I’ve been trying for quite awhile now. ^^;

We’re also watching the Moyashimon Live Action Drama, K-On, and recently I suggested watching Hayate the Combat butler which we got a few episodes into. We both have an extensive list for each other to watch xD.

We’ve also been gaming, though I don’t think can call playing Plants vs Zombies gaming. xD I have been tackling Professor Layton and the Curious Village lately, does that count? ^^; AS is the one really gaming. ^^; In addition to Starcraft (which he has been beta testing since earlier this year) he’ll possibly soon be adding Final Fantasy XIV.

SC2 has taken up some of the time I spend after work and other games as well. I’m working on trying to get access to the open beta for FFXIV but having some issues though I’m trying to solve it at the moment. I was just invited to try out the new God of War game for the PS3 and just got the Miku Hatsune -Project Diva- game for the PSP. I also have Bayonetta which I recently got to play as graduating has left me time after work to play it all, hopefully xD. So lots of games for me lol.

But I haven’t forgotten about Chibified. I’m doing some figure photo shoots every now and then; have one tentatively planned for this Sunday so look forward to it.

And finally, we’re working on a food blog. We have lots and lots of food pictures, much more than we ever show you here! I don’t want them to waste away on my hard drive, so a food blog it is. ^_^

Related posts:

1. Life so far…….
2. Anime…Taking…Over…Life…Send…Help…Augh the Moness, make it stop
3. Ahhh life, you keep me quite busy

Recently, Iron Chef Morimoto was in town. He had a few public appearances, among them, book signings for his cookbook, Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking. AS and I both enjoy the original and current Iron Chef shows on the Food Network, so we decided to go. Originally we had only heard about one book signing in an area where parking was pretty bad, but luckily, the night before, I found out he was going to be at a mall that had better parking and was also closer to us. We couldn’t not go after that. xD

AS went to stand in line for us, so I proceeded to stand in front and take a lot of pictures. ^^; I know Morimoto isn’t as pretty as Kago Ai, but enjoy the pictures.

As you will see, I kept moving around trying to get a good picture of Morimoto. ^^;

They would write the name on the post-it to ensure names were spelled correctly.

Even Morimoto poses for pictures like this. xD
It took a lot of patience piggy-backing on someone’s picture to get one of Morimoto by himself. I got a lot of people’s backside. ^^;

AS with Morimoto.

I wanted to wear a food related lolita dress, but I don’t have anything with sushi on it, so I settled for cupcakes.

AS with the signed cookbook.

Related posts:

1. Welcome to Chibified ^_^
2. Nothing like a $100 bowl of ramen
3. Nothing like a $15 bowl of ramen

It must have been more than 50 years ago when I met her. I was a fighter pilot for the governments navy at the time when I was out on a routine flight test during the day when something went wrong. My B82-F’s engine was giving off huge clouds of black smoke as my plane was going towards a nose dive into the ocean. I tried to gain control of the plane but to no avail. I ejected out of the cockpit right before my plane crashed right into ocean with a huge noise of crunching metal of the wings ripping off from the fuselage and flying in both directions 60 meters away from where the impact point. A huge splash followed as my seat soon landed on the ocean surface. I quickly unbelted myself before I sank with the heavy seat and swam to a few floating pieces of metal to stay afloat as my water soaked clothes weighed me down. It wasn’t long before a huge wave came along and pushed me for what seemed like forever into the water, I thought I was going to die that day as the world around me grew dark.

I awoke, cold and wet to a darkening sky and palm tree leaves overhead with the moon starting to show, and sand beneath my body. I felt a warmth coming from my right and turned my head to see a fire and some fish roasting on a stick near the fire. I could barely move my body but the scent of the fish cooking made me drag my weakened body to the fire. Right as I was to reach for a stick stuck in the fish I hear something moving in the forest was and I turned my head towards the direction to find a cute girl coming out of the forest.

A thousand questions suddenly rushed into my head and I tried to ask them all but the only words that came out of my mouth was “water.”

“O” she says as she covers her mouth with one hand and rushes off into the forest to come back with a huge leaf with fresh water in it and held it in front of me. I drank it with great haste and felt a sense of relief that this girl was here helping me. I lied back down onto the sand with my eyes closed when the smell of cooked fish caught my attention and I opened my eyes to see the girl holding the fish close to my mouth which I took a bite of. The crispiness of the skin and sweet taste of fish meat filled my mouth as I lay there chewing. After finishing off 3 fish I fell back asleep. I awoke to the girl looking at me.

I thanked her for helping me as I tried to get up but my body collapsed from its own weight and realized my body must still be fatigued from the time in the ocean. The girl rushed to me to make sure I was OK and after reassuring her I was OK she put my head on her lap where I proceeded to drift off to sleep.

Over the next few days my body was regaining strength and I was able to converse with the girl who was nursing me back to good health though for some reason she only comes out at near nightfall when the moon just started appearing and would stay with me the whole night but disappeared in the morning after I wake up to the first rays of the sun.

Her name was Feena Earthlight. She said that this was her family’s island but she was here on vacation alone. She explained that the island was vast and wasn’t populated by any other human, just a few animals, surrounded by fish, and a abundance of fruit trees which she’s been making my meals with as my body recovered.

Feena was a cute girl with pale skin, green sparkling eyes, and beautiful flowing white hair.

I asked her how she can keep her skin so pale on an island and after a slight pause she said she tends to keep to the jungle away from the light during the day due to a skin condition she has. As I did not want to insult my savior, I stopped asking questions.

After my body gained enough strength to walk around on the fourth day, Feena came out at around her usual time from the forest.

She looked a bit surprised that I was able to stand and came right up to me and was happy that I was able to get up and walk around. I was happy as well as I wanted to learn more about this island. After dinner we walked along the beach when Feena brought up something unusual. She asked me to never venture into the forest during the day and night as the animals are not used to me and would likely attack me and said that she would bring food out to me everyday from within the forest before she left for the night. As to not upset her I agreed, though I asked if I could still fish which she said was OK.

During the day when I was alone, a few questions would always come up in my head. Would I ever be rescued? What is in the forest that such a beautiful girl would be able to walk around that I couldn’t? Why was it always so warm at night when Feena was around me when I should at least get cold as I am exposed to the elements?

I believe a few weeks had passed and still no signs of even a boat passing by. I enjoyed my time with Feena but I yearned for my friends and family back home. But the times I spent with Feena along the beach I wish could go on forever and not end when the sun rose.

She ran on ahead of me one day and with her back facing me asked me a question.

Would you be happy if you left this island?

I was a shocked as I was just thinking about that earlier that day. I stared at her as I thought of what to say.

“I, I don’t know. I would miss you, I mean this place as I have started to like my time spent here. If I were to go back home tonight, I’m sure I wouldn’t want to leave.”

She turned around and gave me a cute smile as she turned around and beckoned me forward with a wave of her hand telling me to continue walking with her. Though this time she wrapped her arms around mine and placed her head on my shoulder as we walked down the beach.

The next night she came out of the forest wearing a hat that I haven’t seen her wearing since the first night I saw her.

I asked her about it as I found it a bit strange that a girl would wear a sun hat out at night. She said it was given to her by her older brother before he left for the war a long time ago when she was still little. It was her last memory of him as he never returned from the war. The hat was her physical attachment to her brother and she laughed when she told me he got her 2 sizes too big and that it the hat completely covered her eyes when he put it on her head before the train left carrying all the other boys going to war. She was happy that she grew into it she said to me as she looked beyond the sea as if she was searching for him.

“I’m sure he’ll come back to you one day” I said as I try to find some comforting words. “You can show him how much you’ve grown, enough to fit the hat he gave you.”

She smiled and gave me a nod and grabbed my hand and we ran down the beach for what seemed liked hours.

The next day she came and asked if I wanted to take a swim in the ocean. I never realized it but despite looking at the ocean this whole time, I’ve never actually left the beach to swim and the closest I get to it was the fishing that I’ve been doing. With that thought I left to go swim with Feena and play in the water with her.

After our time in the ocean she looks out towards the ocean, just like the time she was talking about her brother.

“I’ll miss you” she said.

“What? I don’t think I’m going anywhere. I’ve been missing for what seems like months so they must have stopped looking for me already” I say with a laugh.

I go up to her as she has has been unresponsive for a while now.

I go to her side to find tears running down her face.

She wiped it away when she noticed me next to her and with a smile on her face, said “Let’s take another one of our walks down the beach.”

I nodded and offered her my arm which she took and we walked along the beach for what seemed like forever in my eyes. Just her and me with the near full moon shining down on us as the stars seemed to twinkle as we tried to name all the constellations.

The next day we ate our dinner and walked for a while along the beach hand in hand.

Then I started hearing a noise that I feel I haven’t heard for years. It was the sound of of a helicopter. It was getting closer and closer and it soon appeared from behind the trees and blew Feena’s hat away towards the forest.

I ran after the hat as it was Feena’s treasure. I picked it off a tree branch that it had been caught on and ran back to the beach to give it back to Feena. When I returned I saw Feena near the helicopter as it was descending, giving me a faint smile when I was suddenly blinded by a strong light coming from the helicopter. When the light had dimmed I saw the helicopter had landed but Feena was no where to be seen.

A couple of men in uniform came up to me, I recognized as one from the navy. One of them said, “Captain, captain, thank goodness we found you.” I was confused as I thought they had called off the search on me. “It’s been three years.. plane crashed…ocean…circle…numerous islands…” was all I could hear as I kept scanning the area for Feena. “We’re taking you back now” as the other soldier grabbed my arm. “No, I need to look for Feena!!!” I yell at them as they look confused over me yelling at them. “Who’s Feena sir?” they ask. “Someone else is on this island, but don’t go into the forest, I’m sure she’s around here somewhere. The helicopter must have scared her.” “Sir, we need to head back to the ship now, a typhoon is headed this way and we need to leave now before it hits the island.” “No!! I won’t leave without her” as I start running down the beach with her hat in my hand. The soldiers catch up to me and push me down to the sand as I struggle to leave their grasp. I suddenly felt something really hard hit my head and lost consciousness.

I woke up to find myself inside a sick bay with a pain coming from the top of my head. The door opened and the two soldiers that came down in the helicopter came through. I suddenly remembered everything and leaped out of bed yelling “FEENA!!” as the soldiers pushed me back into bed. “Calm down sir, calm down. We’ve got something to tell you.” One of the soldiers gave me Feena’s hat and gave me a story I would never forget.

“Sir, it’s been three days since you’ve been lying in your bed, though that bump to the head we gave you probably contributed to that. We were able to get off the island in time as the typhoon had reached it about an hour after we left. We returned to the island after it had cleared to look for this Feena person you kept talking about. The island was left in shambles with trees snapped in half, debris everywhere, and dead animals left and right. In the middle of the island was a huge mansion with the name Earthlight on the front gate. The mansion was 3/4 destroyed though we can’t tell if it was because of the typhoon or not. We walked around and found a tombstone about 50 yards away from the mansion. It had the name Feena Fam Earthlight with the date of death being over 100 years ago. We’ll leave you alone now, just came to give you an update.”

“Yes…thank you” I tell them as I try to take in all that was said. I was in shock for days and wanted to know the truth myself. I requested a ride to the island and arrived to find what the soldiers said was true. I found a picture of Feena underneath some debris and took it with me as I returned back to the ship. I did some research on the Earthlight family and found that it was a privately owned island that the family lived on after the great war was over. The seem to have had financial trouble and had to fire all the staff, that was the last time anyone saw them.

I eventually got married and had three children. Now I’m in my late 80′s and my wife has passed away and my children have grown up and have their own kids to take care of. I still have the hat to remind me of Feena stored inside a hat box I have in my closet. Whenever I pull the hat out of the box and look at it, the memories of our time together flood my mind and I stay where I am for hours, just thinking about it. My mind is getting older but the memories are still fresh in my mind every time I look at the hat….

End

Another long story lol. This one took a while as I had to do some photo arrangement as the order I had it in didn’t flow with the story xD. I wanted to make a love story after my initial idea of a model shoot didn’t seem to really work for me lol.

Onto the review.

Feena is a lovely figure. The paint job on her skin is superb. The hair wasn’t so great as there are imperfections in multiple places in the back >.<. Though her finger nails and toe nails were a nice job with a hint of pink on each.

The swimsuit itself is simple with ties on the top on the front and behind her neck and on the sides of the bottom. The paintjob was a bit messy in some areas around the bottom half and a bit on the sides of the top.

The simple gold bracelet on her left hand was a bit iffy on the paint job. The sandals were simple but mostly done pretty well. The waist towel was done really well and I love the design on it. The hat was also done very well.

I found out she can hold the hat herself instead of placing it on top of a clear rod as support which is good.

The base is a simple sandy color with bumps on it to simulate sand. There are pegs that go into her feet which provides very good stability, especially with her standing up pretty straight.

Her face is a bit wide and wish they could have made it maybe 1 cm closer to the center on both sides. The eyes are focused forward as well as the whole head which is nice. The flow of the hair indicates a bit of wind is passing by her which gives a little effect to make her not so simple. The hat was made to fit in any direction but I found certain directions looked funny on her. The color scheme of the swimsuit and sandals match her hair. The gold bracelet stands out due the difference in color. Strangely long belly button line lol, wish it was a bit shorter. The smile could have been lifted up a bit to give us a happier Feena xD.The left leg lifting up a bit makes her look cuter than if both feet were flat on the base.

Btw, that picture of her hat flying off was not intentional lol. A gust of wind just so happened to pick the hat off her head and have it fly off to the side just as I clicked on my camera’s button lol. Luckily it came out unscathed ^^;;.

Great figure and a must have for any swimsuit figure collector despite the flaws lol.

Figure Information:
Character: Feena Fam Earthlight (フィーナ・ファム・アーシュライト)
Manufacturer: Max Factory
Manga/Anime: Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na (夜明け前より瑠璃色な)
Scale: 1/8
Price: ¥6,000
Availability: Out of stock

Related posts:

1. Waking up with an angel (Kamyu)
2. The untold date between Nishizawa-san and Hayate-kun

Some time early June, I got word through Twitter that Kago Ai was in the area, so I convinced AS that we had to go down and get pictures and autographs. Unfortunately, due to the last minute nature, I was quite unprepared and in the end, I dislike how I look in my picture and we didn’t get anything autographed because we didn’t have anything good to get her signature on. I didn’t want it on a random napkin, so I didn’t ask for one. I’m regretting that now. ~_~

If her name sounds familiar, she was formerly a part of the machine known as Hello! Project, performing as a part of Morning Musume, Minimoni and W. She was dropped from her agency after a scandal (underage smoking) and is now making a comeback with her new album, AI KAGO meets JAZZ.

I’m not sure if she had any anime tie-ins herself when she was with Hello! Project, but Tanemura Arina has stated that the hairstyle Kago Ai often sported during her Minimoni days was the inspiration for Mitsuki’s hairstyle in Full Moon wo Sagashite.

Do you see the resemblance?

To be honest, I’m not a fan of “Aibon” as her fans call her. I don’t dislike her or anything, but she is just a name I recognized and I wanted to go because I knew she was a celebrity. I felt bad about it because I have friends who are fans of her that would’ve been thrilled to meet her. It was so last minute I didn’t even think to call around. AS isn’t a fan either and he was actually studying for finals when I convinced him that he had to eat dinner before taking his test. xD

I passed that final if you wanted to know xD

When we got there, I asked the person who’s tweets got me there, what was happening. I was told she was filming some kind of commercial or show relating to food. She had been in one restaurant before I arrived and now she was at the second one. I found out a few days later that she was at another restaurant a couple days after in the evening and she even performed a song! Darn!

They actually just arrived at the second restaurant right when we arrived. We saw her entourage walking there as we were looking for parking. While they waited for the burger to arrive so they could film, they were standing around talking, so AS and I approached her for a picture. ^_^ I wish I had gotten one of both of us with her. ^^; She is so incredibly tiny! Her english is pretty good so we didn’t have to worry about speaking in Japanese.

I was quite surprised when i saw her in person xD, media makes people look so much taller xD.

After our pictures, we went to order our food and while we waited and even after, I kept snapping pictures of her. There were a few people there, but she wasn’t fazed at all and pretty much ignored all the cameras. ^^; I did feel awkward to keep snapping pictures, especially since I got a lot of them while she was filming. Here are some pictures of her, for those of you that are fans.

That’s a professional for you ^^, unfazed by the cameras. I shall now provide comical make believe subtitles for the pictures, as if it were Kago Ai speaking them herself (all fiction xD).

It’s such a big burger, wonder if I’m supposed to eat it myself or share it with others?

Hmmm, I think yours looks better, maybe we should trade.

Mmm, so good :9.

Look, look, I made a dent in the burger.

Mmm, the smell of burger is so good.

Hmm, how shall I made another dent in this burger?

You have BBQ sauce on your hands xD, such a messy person.

Your cheeks are so full with burger xD.

Her entourage as they were leaving. We decided not to follow. xD

*sigh* What a waste of food. 2 half eaten burgers left over that was just tossed.

Our Kobe burger with sauteed mushrooms, pickles, sun-dried tomatoes, hickory smoked bacon, and garlic aioli on a potato flour bun. It was surprisingly good. You can see how red the patty is in the center. In our two previous tastings at this restaurant, the meat was overcooked and tasteless. Once, they even told us they can’t cook it medium, which is a little ridiculous because the overcooked patties were a major reason why they were getting bad reviews.

That was such a good burger ^^. Maybe they made made it more rare since Kago Ai was there xD.

Related posts:

1. Curse Fast Food
2. Pope says “Don’t eat sushi.”

This is the stack of plastic/styrofoam taken out of my figure boxes. It was pretty high up, almost half my height. I left a box of the Al nendoroid on the side for a comparison shot.

Next is the figure boxes which have been flattened (somewhat) and gutted of everything inside of them.

The horror that is my collection of mostly nendoroid parts consisting of heads, arms, and legs which I have labeled to know who’s who xD.

Lastly, I have stacked the boxes on top of each other to show you how neatly stacked they are now xD. With my ARIA thermos cup on the side for a comparison shot.

Now the top of my closet has a ton of space for who knows what and I don’t have to encounter another avalanche (at least for now xD).

Any of you have the same storage problem? Do something similar to resolve it?

Related posts:

1. Happy New Year 2009
2. 2D vs 3D: Part 2
3. Nendo Miku Love >w<

As many of you may know, Tomoyo and I like to take pictures of food and post them for your pleasure, just always make sure you eat before you look at them lol.

But have you ever read a manga about food itself? There are actually a few mangas out there where the story revolves around food. This manga review will focus on curry, one of my favorite foods xD.

We start off with a guy called Makito who has been asked to make some curry.

Then we come to a girl who is troubled into taking in another animal as she usually does when she finds a stray, but this time she finds Makito on the ground, dried up, hungry, and dirty. What will she do?

She just can’t take him home like she does with the stray animals she finds but she wants to help somehow. So she decides to give him some bread and a can of red tea to drink but she’s sort of a klutz so she trips and….

Makito gets up after recovering from the can to the head and smells something familiar lingering in the air as he watches the girl run off.

The girl has run off and ran inside a building and takes a rest inside. She reminisces about her past as she sits in a empty and dark restaurant.

Makito on the other hand, seems to have somehow tracked the girl to the restaurant which is called Curry House Cooking Ganesha. Which he was looking for the past few months in his search for someone. He’s a bit angry/excited when he finally found it after so long as a result of not receiving the address from the owner when they worked together. (I would have freaked out too after seeing his face ^^;;)

But to the girl, he looks like he’s out for some revenge for the can in the head…

She runs to the door in hopes of locking it but he opens it just as she arrives at the door and pushes him to the ground.

She though he was going to kill her but in fact he just wanted to find the owner of the place who happens to be the girls dad. He had followed her scent to the restaurant. She’s relieved he’s not going to kill her as he thanks her for the meal. (Kind of silly to be killed over a can to the head ^^;;)

It turns out he was following the scent of caraway which is a spice used in curry dishes who was a angel who helped him along the way.

As Makito freshens up, he introduces himself as Makito as he remembers her name is Yui as the father probably talked about her when he and Makito worked together.

Yui thinks hes a bit cute and asks what about her scent (possibly B.O. XD) gave her away. He followed the scent of caraway in hopes that it would lead him to the restaurant (kind of lucky considering how much restaurants in Tokyo alone serve curry lol)

He asks where the dad is but she tells him that he left yesterday and won’t be back for a while. She also tells him about the state of the curry house which wasn’t very popular and held out as long as it could but would be sold soon.

Apparently the father left some time ago to go to Singapore to improve his curry cooking techniques and left Yui and her mom by themselves. Even though he did that she still loves him and his curry.

As she is distracted with her own story, Makito gets in a nice panty shot peek with a nice kick to the jaw afterwards.

Makito asks if Yui likes curry and begins to talk about the history of the caraway spice he mentioned before. He begins to make curry for her.

His curry is delicious as he tells her its ground beef curry, which was originally an Indian curry but substituted with beef instead of lamb (I like lamb :9).

Yui begins to cry and Makito thinks its because his curry touched her somehow xD. Nope, it was just too spicy for her ^^;;. The curry reminds Yui of her dads curry.

Afterwards is a recipe on how to make the ground beef curry shown in the manga.

Yui asks how Makito and her dad know each other. Makito explains that they met in Singapore and worked in the same restaurant where they became friends/fighting buddies. The father had actually saved his life just like Yui did but giving him food when he was starving in the street.

Makito feels obligated to help this family restaurant as the family has helped save his life and asks Yui if she’s in or out to save the restaurant. She says she’s in and our story ends there for chapter 1.

Like I said before, I like curry so this manga was pretty awesome. Not only because the story revolves around curry but I get to learn the history of curry and there are recipes as well to try. So far I have made green tea rice pilaf shown in one of the chapters, none of the actual curry yet ^^;;. I will one day xD.

The story is focused on the restaurant as Makito tries to pull it out of the dust with his curry that he tries to make special and delicious for all types of palettes. He comes across many challenges and rivals during his time at Ganesha. We also get to see more of his past as the story progresses. There is a couple of 18+ situations in the manga but other than that the worse is a few perverted things and some panty shots ^^;;. It has some good gags as well xD.

This is a must read manga for all foodie’s or just people who want to read up on a nice story ^^.

Related posts:

1. Franken Fran-Manga Review
2. .Hack//Legend of the Twilight Manga
3. My kind of girl

Remember building gundams when you were younger or still do it today? Have you and your friends ever “battled it out” with your gundams? Pretending to be a pilot in the gundam as you bust out that beam saber to slice your enemy or have missles shoot out from your gundam? Well, we’re not close to that yet but an anime will show you what its like lol. The anime is in celebration of the 30th year of Gundam, called Mokei Senshi Gunpla Builders Beginning G, which depicts kids who build their own gundam models and battle them out against other gunpla builders. Here’s a video of it found on Kotaku.

Speaking of Gundam’s 30th anniversary, I’m sure all of you heard about the 1/1 scale Gundam in the hometown of Gundam models, Shizuoka. Here’s a nice time-lapse video of the gundam during the day and night which I thought was pretty cool with all the clouds moving in the back and all the people that showed up to see it. I wish I could have seen it when I went to Japan a few weeks ago but it was too far a travel for me. Too bad they didn’t have it in Odaiba when I went. Fond on Pink Tentacle.

Another time-lapse video, though of a Japanese Spider Crab shedding it’s old shell instead of a gundam lol. I saw these at the Osaka Aquarium and they are huge. I would love to try to eat one of these one day as I pull one of its legs out of a hotpot lol. If you play it in reverse it looks like its putting on a crab suit xD.

For all you K-ON fans out there, a new PSP game featuring the K-ON girls, by Sega, called K-ON! Houkago Live!! (けいおん！ 放課後ライブ!!) will come out in Japan on September 30th, 2010 which shows your favorite girls as they chibi it out on the screen and have an interactive music game to play as well. I like the looks of it and the sound sounds pretty great with Mio singing in the background. Though as with all rhythm games, I won’t initially get to enjoy the background as I pay attention to the buttons I need to press that come up on the screen lol.

Did anyone play the Ninjatown game for the DS? I have and I thought it was a pretty interesting tower defense game with a ninja twist, a bit frustrating at times though lol. Well, maybe the ninjas themselves can help me as they now seem to offer a Ninja Consulting Service lol. Though it seems like they mainly do business stuff like “Tickle Fury Management” and “Stealth Hug Maximization” just to name a couple. Found on Toysrevil.

Related posts:

1. Youtube Video of Interest 3
2. Youtube Video of Interest 4
3. Youtube Videos of Interest 2

Japan is a pretty awesome place. I’m sure many of you feel the same way about it. But there are a few things about Japan that will make you think “uguu~.” For me, I haven’t found such a thing on all my trips to Japan except this past trip. You may find it funny but for me it was Narita Airport.

I’ve never had a problem with Narita Airport before this past trip. Nice shops, pretty decent food, spacious, and the lines here are surprisingly shorter than in the US. It’s not a horrible experience that would prevent me from going back, perhaps even minor to some of you, but for me it wasn’t something I want to experience again ^^;;.

What is this “experience” you may ask? Get ready for this…..dun dun..dun dun dun dun…dun dun dun dun dahh…staying overnight in Narita Airport (theme song earlier was from the movie Jaws). Yep, that’s right, staying overnight in Narita Airport.

Let’s start from the beginning. I was flying standby and was ready to head back home that day and when I last checked, standby was still possible. Unfortunately, it wasn’t so for me. My family was able to leave but I was to stay in Japan. I thought to myself, “well, I guess since I’m staying I’ll stay at one of the airport hotels.”

Nuh-uh, the Japanese government doesn’t want me to leave and just walk right outside the airport to take a shuttle or a taxi to a hotel. I tried to look for a way out and went to the customs area to find no real exit out except for personnel and when I went to ask, they said go back to the gate I came from. Apparently, I was supposed to wait at the gate and not go anywhere as they need to look for your embarkation card. So there I waited with another standby for 4 hours. The reason for the wait? Apparently that night a plane had engine trouble so not only were we stranded in Japan but a whole plane full of other people as well so the employees for United had to find the embarkation cards for that whole plane first as they had higher priority. While were were waiting, I decided to look for the free wi-fi they had and when I couldn’t find it I came back to the gate to find five security guards. I guess a person walking alone in a empty airport wing is a bit of a security risk. So the other standby and myself were told to wait in another area as all five guards kept watching us while we waited for our embarkation cards. After we got our embarkation cards, we were guided up to arrivals through customs and out to the exit to the arrivals lobby. By then I’ve been in the airport about six hours and it was near midnight. We were told to wait in this one area with others, who I assume to be standbys, where multiple guards watched over us. I slept on the bench seats they had that night, quite an uncomfortable night ^^;;.

Woke up multiple times and had about 3.5 hours of sleep I assume when I woke up at 4:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep, btw the sun was up at 4:30 too ^^;;. I played my psp and eventually my standby buddy got up and we talked until around 6 am when the last guard left and we wondered if we could walk around. He said he was going to try and he didn’t come back for about 20 minutes. After he came back we talked a bit more and he asked if I wanted to see the train line that he took to Tokyo for around 1000 yen one way. I said OK and we walked around for a bit, after I found out it was the Keisei Limited Express .

This all American hot dog shown next to the hot dog store is a proud dog but I think he’s missing something in his casing as he puts condiments on himself ^^;;. That or he’s trying to put some hair on that bald end of his xD.

According to Japan Guide
Take the Keisei Limited Express from Narita Airport to Nippori Station (about 75 minutes, 1000 yen) and transfer to the JR Yamanote Line or JR Keihin-Tohoku Line to get to Tokyo Station (10 minutes, 150 yen). There are connections every 20 minutes. The most inexpensive option by Keisei Railways, the Keisei Limited Express is the cheapest way to get from the airport into Tokyo. It is a normal commuter train, which stops at several stations between the airport and Tokyo and can become crowded during rush hours. Seat reservations are not possible.

That’s pretty good considering the price and the time isn’t too bad either with one train coming every 20 minutes. But I like traveling with the Suica/NEX JR Narita Express only available to people visiting Japan. Comfortable seats, reserved seating that faces forward so you don’t have to have anyone in front of you so you can stretch your legs, get to Tokyo station in about an hour, luggage storage, 1500 of the 3500 yen goes to anything you want, 500 I can get back later, so a one way ticket is only 1500 yen, and re-loadable so I don’t have to put money to get a ticket at every station. The downside is the train leaves every half hour to one hour depending on the time of the day.

So after we walked around we were joined by another standby who also wanted the same flight and we were talking until about 7:30 and we decided to go upstairs to find out how much a ticket cost to get back home. I asked a ANA person and it costs 3000 USD to get back home D:. I had a standby ticket for ANA which I got before we left for Japan so I had it set for me to leave that night in case I didn’t get the United flights. When I asked what are my chances she did a slight head dip and raised it with with a bit of a whistle in breath and said I may or may not get on. I’m not sure how to explain that head dip thing but I noticed the Japanese do it a lot when they want to say maybe “ええと” (eeto) or want to disagree but can’t do it directly.

We were waiting for the United/Continental ticketing booth to be finished with two guys in front of us and when it was our turn they closed the ticketing booth. Turns out the person only helped Continental people and not United and said a person for United would come at 12:30. So we had five hours to spare. We walked around the airport for about an hour as we didn’t get turned away until about 8.

We decided to get breakfast and I suggested Mcdonald’s. Pretty weird considering all the other airport food right xD? Well, we didn’t have much money and Mcdonald’s does have a 100 yen menu xD. To my great surprise they had a potato and bacon pie and sausage Mcmuffin with cheese for only 100 yen each. I bought 2 pies and one sausage Mcmuffin and I suggested we go upstairs to the observation deck to see planes land and take off. It had rained so the seats were wet so we stayed in the food court to eat. The sausage Mcmuffin was good but tasted the same as back home, the difference is the price as it costs 1 USD for just a sausage Mcmuffin without cheese so it was a good deal xD. The pie was awesome. For some strange reason the outside crust tasted like a hash brown, had creamy mushed up potato on the inside, and bacon every now and then which was great for 100 yen.

I took some bites before I remembered to take a picture xD

We stayed there for about a hour and a half talking watching planes take off and land before it started raining so we went inside to wait in a waiting area with a TV until it was almost 12:30. Btw, I was hoping to see the Gundam ANA plane and the Starcraft 2 Korea Air plane but no luck xD.

Outside at the observation area. In between the “N” and the bushes on the left is a pretty accurate giant clock xD.

I was right in front of Korea Air’s gates but nothing xD.

Airplane or train simulation arcade games anyone xD?

So it’s 12:30 and we go but the person doesn’t come until 1 ^^;;. Turns out she can’t help us . We would have to get help elsewhere. Luckily I had another standby ticket for United made for leaving that night as we actually left a day early in case something like this happened. So I tried to get internet while we waited for the first United flight out. I got boingo to use on the iphone and netbook at the airport as the free wi-fi was past customs and I caved in to get boingo for 6 USD for 24 hour use as I didn’t want to use the airport internet which cost 100 yen for 10 minutes of use. Unfortunately I kept getting error messages so I had to wait until I got past customs to get access to free wi-fi. When I got back home I called customer care and after confirming that I didn’t use the internet they refunded me.

I decided to get some food before I went through customs so I went back to Mcdonalds as I wasn’t paying close attention to the time and needed to get something fast and filling just in case I needed to stay another night. I got four hamburgers and one lemon and salt chicken sandwich. I had to get my ticket to get in and the line was a bit long, I think I waited about 20 minutes and ate while I waited. The hamburgers were a bit dry until I ate it with ketchup. The lemon and salt chicken sandwich was interesting as I did taste lemon every now and then but no salt, though the dressing was like thousand island dressing which I don’t like and didn’t know about so it was a bit hard to eat ^^;;. Was eating and forgot to take pictures xD;;.

After I got in I went to meet up with my standby buddies for the first flight to the US, not even to home lol. We all agreed that as long as we can get back to the US we would have a much better chance of getting home. Unfortunately I didn’t get on that flight or the rest of the United flights that day, which was kind of depressing, as the flight full of people the day before that turned around had priority to get on before us standbys which had increased in number from the previous day. So my last chance was ANA. I went online at the free wi-fi spots provided by Google during the wait time for the next flight for United. I tried for four flights to the US that day.

I went to the ANA gate and went online while I waited for a gate employee to come to ask about the chances to get on the plane. I went online again while I waited.

This is a map to where all the Google wi-fi is located in Terminal 2 on the third floor in the departure concourse.

Here’s what the Google wi-fi desks look like. The one picture is number 4 in the map above.

You have to get access on the desk or be very close to the desk to use the wi-fi as it doesn’t have a wide area access. The black square you see in the picture is the router and 1 of 2 sets of 2 plug outlets on the desk.

When I saw that it was opened and went up and I gave her my standby ticket and she gave me back a flight ticket . I guess there was just enough seats available to give out regular tickets.

Woohoo, V for victory. There’s even a victory sign on my ticket xD. Just kidding xD, that actually means my seat is in economy xD.

So I was very happy as I could leave to go back home that night. I went online and sent out messages to everyone that I was coming back home, but it was past midnight back home so everyone was already asleep xD.

So when I got on the plane and sat down I was quite happy ^^. There was even going to be a meal served, even happier xD.

I actually liked my flight on ANA. You have your own personal screen thats on the back of the seat in front of you that lets you choose movies, shows,video games, and music. I didn’t play the games, movies, or shows and just watched movies xD. I watched My Darling is a Foreigner (ダーリンは外国人) and something else, can’t remember what though xD. I really like My Darling is a Foreigner, it shows how two people different cultures can come together and overcome difficulties in their relationship to be together. It’s a movie based on the manga written by Saori Oguri about life with her husband, Tony László. I’m hoping to find these mangas as the movie was pretty good.

I stayed at Narita Airport over 24 hours, maybe around 27 hours? It was quite a experience I will never forget and never want to experience again lol. It was nice to see different places in the airport that I never seen before and even noticed a new Chinese noodle restaurant opened up. The experience with ANA was very positive. The lack of sleep did eventually catch up to me, even though I got a couple hours of sleep on the plane. Though about 7 hours of sleep for about 60 hours would most likely catch up to you xD. Talking to my standby buddies kept me entertained and without them the day at Narita Airport would probably have been longer and worse than stated ^^;;.

Glad to be back home ^^.

Related posts:

1. Japan 2009 – Day 1
2. Back Home
3. Japan 2009 – Day 6

What I didn’t expect to find that day was something white scattered all over Tokyo.

Note: Picture intensive post.

If you guessed snow, you’re correct. That 7+ hour of rain the previous night had resulted in snow covering all of Tokyo the night before actually, maybe around 10 pm, though I didn’t see any snow falling outside my hotel window. But being in the rain for 7+ hours the day before made me want to stay in the hotel and not venture outside that night. So come morning I looked outside my window and saw snow for the first time in my life in person.

Btw, for those people who are staying at hotels and find they get a key to their room which looks like the following picture:

As you can see, you stick the flat rectangular part inside the hole for it on the side which turns on all the electricity in your room. As I had never encountered this before in a hotel, I flipped multiple light switches for at least five minutes before I realized I had to stick that in the hole. Silly me xD.

The first snow I encountered was when I walked outside the hotel and picked up some on the street, a bit dirty but still white. I made it into a snowball and threw my first snowball.

I don’t know if I have to tell you but it was awesome and when the snowball when “chhhhhh” (whatever snow sounds like when thrown onto the ground) on the ground, it was a nice sound to hear xD.

I wanted to walk around Ueno Park one more time to see how the snow changed the environment and look for the Ulysses Grant statue my professor wanted me to look for before the zoo opened so I left early.

Fresh snow right off the bush.

Ueno Zoo employees clearing out the snow in front of the entrance.

There was no one to have a snowball fight with, that I know of anyways xD, so I threw one at myself…refreshing xD.

Finally found Grant but it turns out it was a memorial and not a statue, I’ve been looking for a statue this whole time because that’s what I thought I saw online.

Pikachu at the children’s themepark next to the zoo.

The red pandas that replaced the old panda of the zoo, Ling Ling, who passed away in 2008. There are talks of China loaning another panda to Ueno Zoo as China does loan pandas to other zoos in Japan. Though Ling Ling was special as he, Ling Ling is a guy with a girls name which means darling little girl in Chinese, was the only panda owned by Japan.

These two kids were picking up snow that had held its shape on top of stumps and I assume I know what they’re going to do with it ^^;;.

*Nom Nom* Breakfast time

Bear’s thoughts: What are you taking a picture of punk?

Penguins! Penguins are awesome xD.

Though I felt it was a bit weird when they put the penguin exhibit next to their natural predator xD.

My first snow angel xD. Not too great as the snow isn’t too deep ^^;;. But it was untouched snow xD.

My first snow person xD. Cute little thing xD.

A slightly better snow angel. Good thing no one was around to see me do this on the ground xD.

Loved the fat monkey picture xD.

They were at least two stories up in the air.

The sea otter could pop right over from it’s home into a clear display for people to gawk at it xD.

Remember going to the zoo as a child? I remember it, nostalgia ^^.

A stamp for the train you can ride from one half of the park to the other. It’s a big zoo xD, the biggest in Tokyo.

A desolate scene that was much prettier this past trip.

Myself doing some myspace shots with my petting zoo buddies xD.

Funky animal, reminded me of a dog mixed with the lion that guards shrines xD.

I loved watching this little guy as he was trying to gnaw at the glass xD.

This little guy was scratching his backside so fast that his leg turned into a blur ^^;;.

Run away pygmy hippo xD.

It looks very complex in that machine ^^;;.

A wild cat at the zoo.

A pretty nice ceiling that glowed inside a night animal exhibit.

I got the childrens meal at Ueno Zoo as it had everything I wanted xD. Including ramen. Love the image on the nori ^^.

A pork bun. Cute xD.

Very tiny vegetable juice bottle ^^;;.

Fruit jelly cup.

The bowl and tray were also cute.

Last thing I see is a stamp with Ueno Zoo’s name on it.

I went to the airport at decided to get soup at Soup Stock and had some Tokyo Borsch.

Food on the way back home on the plane included beef, salmon, edamame, and unagi sushi. Not pictured is salad and bread.

Tender beef with mash potatoes, peas, and carrots.

Lemon meringue pie with raspberry sauce.

My breakfast before we landed.

I will post my loot in a later post but have a couple posts before that.

Related posts:

1. Japan Trip January 2010 Part 4
2. Japan Trip January 2010 Part 3
3. Japan Trip January 2010 Part 1