A Japanese Summer: Chapter Ten

Homestretch baby!

*grins*

Yes. This is the final post for the long and running, soon to be bored to death "A Japanese Summer" series.

Or is it?

Alrighties. From the mountains to the sea. We saw them all. No tour group could have let us see what we saw, go where we went, stay where we stayed, experience what we experienced, all around Japan, within two weeks. Oh, and on the budget we're on. Heh.

So here we were on our very last day in Japan. Our flight was scheduled for the evening which meant we still have half a day worth of sightseeing. Yes. Precious time must not be wasted. We packed our luggage the night before and took them all with us weee early in the morning and stuffed them in gigantic lockers at the train station and we took off to the beach!

We headed to Kanagawa prefecture, or personally to me, the land of Slam Dunk. If you know me, you'll know how much of a Slam Dunk fan I was back in high school. I dare not claim to be an avid anime/manga fan because I know I am not qualified to be one but there's no denying how invested I was in Slam Dunk when I was all teenage boppery boo.

Cubbie being more of a manga/anime/cosplay fan than I am, was even more eagered to head to where we were headed. To the 40th anniversary celebration grounds of Shonen Jump. Yes, that's the manga magazine that made it all happened. Sorta like the Kreko, Starz or whatsoever local manga magazine we have here in Malaysia, except like bigger, massively influential and probably one of the pioneers in the industry.

Oh my! Long intro. Sorry.

Behold the station that's gonna take us to our destination. You know you're on the right track (lame pun) because the entire train station was decorated with all things manga.



Hanging banners.



Panel boards.



Rounded posters? :P



And even gigantic sample pages of the actual manga!





Meet Mr Trainmaster at work.


Cik Datang commented that it's amazing how my shots tend to be tourists- and crowds-free. It's almost like I get them to make way for my photos. Well, would you believe me if I told you I'm standing right next to Mr Trainmaster then?

Watch Mr Trainmaster nagivate through the backlanes of houses. Yes. There's literally no walking space between the houses and the tracks. Imagine opening the window at the back of your house and have a train zooming across just like that. o_O






And from backlanes to the middle of the road.





Video!





And finally, we saw the beach! With itsy bitsy surfers. Took this shot specifically for Mr Skimmer Dude. Dude was impressed alright.







Video again for some real life action. *grins*






Eh?! Hawaii?


*grins*

The entire atmosphere of the area had a very "beach bummer" feel to it. Well-tanned dudes running along the beach. *blushes* Hahaha... bikini-clad ladies? Maybe. Wasn't paying too much attention. Forgive me, I was very much distracted okay?




Even the little cafe we entered was all aloha-ish.



I don't get this SPAM and GUM SYRUP.
Like woot?!? Gum Syrup? o_O



Naturally, food was not Japanese at all. Ice coffee and hotdog. Dude!

Double Dude!

"By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea...."
Excuse my ugly looking pouch.

And then, here's us being all dorky. :P

The Venue. Somewhere along the beach.

Hello Mr Dragonball. The entire setting was pretty small actually. It was a little disappointing as we were expecting something more grand for such an affair.

Anyhow, we still squeeze every good bit of it. Tried my luck and attempted a kaa-cha-pon here. Got myself an Ichigo. HAHAHA. Not bad I say. Of all the characters in there, I got myself the silly lead. Not bad at all. The perfect gift for my sister, an avid Bleach fan.

Another shot of the beach before we head back to Tokyo. *sobs*
Which meant it's almost time to go home.

My last meal in Japan. A treat from Yenyin! We met up with her again at the train station to say our goodbyes. Lots of hugs and farewell gifts. Yenyin got us each a pen and a flower. Aww... yes, that's the flower you see on the blog header right on top. Pretty and I might be bias about this but even flower from Japan seemed to last longer. ^^;; It totally stood fresh and pretty for over a week even after I got home.

That's me all sadface to go home. Hahaha... we took a shot of each other posing like that right in the middle of the airport. Memang sad to leave mah. We then got the idea of sending postcards! Totally random but that's just who we are. So we headed over to the airport post office, bought us some stamps and scribbled away on our postcards. Sent one to godmom and shared another with Cubbie to send our thanks back to Yenyin. *grins* I had previously sent one home while I was in Hokkaido.

Time for Departure.

And then we arrived at Changi Airport, Singapore in the middle of the night, about one in the morning. Our connecting flight back to Penang was at 8am. So we had the entire crowdless airport to ourselves for over 5 hours. Wondering around aimlessly, visiting the media / entertainment lounge and finally catch our fourty winks on the sofa while watching Everybody Loves Raymond. XD

Breakfast on board!

And we touch down homeland. *sobs* With that, I guess "A Japanese Summer" has finally come to an end. Remember what I've said about "No holiday plans till I had a proper closure for this"?
Well. It's about time. *winks*

I Heart Singing Words (iii)

"Fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers, be good to your daughters too."

- John Mayer "Daughters"

*waves to dad*

Be good to me ya! Hehe...

♥

1 Down 3 to Go

What's with the sucky internet connection? My video uploads kept on failing. I finally just got one video up on youtube. Direct video upload via blogger is not happening for me. Why Blogger? Why?

It's gonna take awhile till you see my next long post, with videos.

I'm in the Zone Tonight

Just so we're clear. I'm not paranoid. I just have the song on repeat tonight. On the contrary, I'm in a happy mood which explained the out-of-the-blue blogging right now.

*******

Paranoid Android

by Radiohead

Please could you stop the noise, I'm trying to get some rest
From all the unborn chicken voices in my head
What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but not an android)
What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but not an android)

When I am king, you will be first against the wall
With your opinion which is of no consequence at all
What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but no android)
What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but no android)

Ambition makes you look pretty ugly
Kicking and squealing gucci little piggy
You don't remember
You don't remember
Why don't you remember my name?
Off with his head, manOff with his head, man
Why don't you remember my name?
I guess he does....

Rain down, rain down
Come on rain down on me
From a great height
From a great height... height...
Rain down, rain down
Come on rain down on me
From a great height
From a great height... height...
Rain down, rain down
Come on rain down on me

That's it, sir
You're leaving
The crackle of pigskin
The dust and the screaming
The yuppies networking
The panic, the vomit
The panic, the vomit
God loves his children, God loves his children, yeah!

*******

The lyrics are all weird. Hey don't look at me. Research on the internet says it's actually three songs/stories written into one but I wouldn't want to go into the details. I just want to hit the Replay button again and again. As much as a lyrical person I am, tonight it's just all about the music.

Yeah. Even the music video is weird. o_O

A Japanese Summer: Chapter Nine

Oh boy! Two more posts to go. *sobs* I'm getting all emotional already. It's almost like I'm refusing to accept the fact that it's over. *sigh* Alright here we go!



Oh look! It's the Rainbow Bridge. Taken from the train while we were on our way to Comiket. Click here and then scroll down for a panoramic view of the entire bridge.



For the clueless folks, Comiket, short for Comic Market, is the world's largest comic book fair, held twice a year in Tokyo, Japan. *cough cough* The below excerpt was 'stolen' from Wiki. Here goes.


"The first Comiket was first held on December 21, 1975, with only about 32 participating circles and an estimated 600 attendees. Attendance has since swelled to over a half million people. It is a grassroots, DIY effort for selling dōjinshi, self-published Japanese works."



Oh and they were not kidding about
the 'over a half million people' statement.


See! There were people are everywhere. Sitting, standing, waiting, etc. It's like an Otaku heaven. You wouldn't want to know how long we queued at the train station to leave this place after that.
LONG I tell you. Long!



See see! And this is just one of the many halls filled with doujinshi artists and their works.

Featuring all kinds of works. *cough cough*



And guess who we met there. Emma.

Alright. I admit I don't personally know Emma but Cubbie does. Emma is actually a cosplayer and quite a famous one at that. She's one of Cubbie's cosplay idols. So it was certainly an honour to meet her in person. I became the photographer here and took pictures of Cubbie and her together. Now I regret not taking one with her. At that time I was a bit shy and felt I was in no place to request to take a photo simply because I was not exactly a fan. *sad face* It would have been a photo to remember. =(

And then we headed out to where the cosplayers were. Hear me being all tour-guidey explaining stuff to Cubbie, macam I tau sangat. Truth to be told, I just happened to know the kanji words written on the board which were totally similar to Chinese words. It pays to know Chinese and a little Japanese. ;)



I don't even know whether they're Japanese or not. Cosplayers take cosplaying seriously, from the costumes to the hair, to the look and and to the character, how they speak and act are totally reflective of the character they're cosplaying.

Naruto!


Even motherhood does not stop one from cosplaying.



One Piece.
Is the cosplayer a boy or a girl? Hmm...


Prince of Tennis.


Talk about enthusiasm and dediciation. This guy is definitely a foreigner who came all the way from... America? I don't remember anymore.

This one's for the boys. *grins* Pretty Japanese girls. ;)

This is the only shot I took out of the bunch. Obviously I was the less of the two when it comes to cosplaying. These four were totally adorable and pretty in everyway that I actually lined up to take the shot. Yes, line up. Taking pictures of cosplayers calls for certain ethics you know. I mean everyone wants a picture, so wait for your turn and be respectful to the cosplayers since they are more than willing to pose for you.

On our way out of Odaiba, we passed the location of Johnny's Theatre where Hey!Say!JUMP was performing a stage play there. But alas, once again we didn't stopped over since I had no intention to catch the show and I think the show was not on that day since the site seemed awfully quiet.

We headed out instead to Shibuya, a well-known shopping and entertainment district. Shibuya is also best associated with the story of Hachiko, the loyal dog who waited at the train station for its master for many years even after the master had passed away. There's a statue of Hachiko near the station but I think we got off at the different side of the station and didn't see it. :(

Instead we were greeted by this! *grins* So not only do my guys endorse lipbalm, they endorse yummy candies too! And I did managed to buy myself a box of them at the airport the next day before we left Japan. I think I have to make a post on all the stuff I bought from Japan at the end of all these. Yay!

Behold! The famous Shibuya crossing!

The crossing is REALLY HUGE. Forgive me for all the capslock but the emphasis is called for. When the pedestrian light turns green, it's like a sea of people crossing the streets. Who cares about the cars? They mean nothing. Nothing. It's really an awesome experience. One must really cross the Shibuya crossing when one is in Japan. Remember that. And if you want the ultimate experience, do it during peak hours. Ours wasn't.

Shibuya turned out to be a little bit too shady for us. Lots of alleys with all kinds of people. We didn't feel safe there. This shot was taken from the first floor of McDonalds. Yup. We had our dinner at McDonalds again! *grins* I proudly declare my love for ebi burgers and bacon burgers. Yum!

I did bought myself a hat here though. And if you know me well enough you'll know that me and hat do not 'compute'. You see I have kinda what you would consider a 'big head'. =( I could rarely fit into a cap so it's pretty amazing that I managed to bought one here. Well, a girl's gotta buy herself some Shibuya fashion home right?

So after dinner, we figured it was too dangerous to hang around Shibuya anymore. We took the train back to Harajuku again. Harajuku at night is just as bustling as day if not less, you may even consider it a little more vibrant with the lights on. We stepped into one of the many Johnnys fanshop along the way.

Lookie at all the idol photos. Who buys these stuff? I wouldn't even know what to do with them, or maybe I'm just too old to be a fangirl anymore. :P It's was a doki-doki moment to take this shot as I was worried I would get caught by the store manager. I don't think they actually permit cameras since these are like unofficial merchandise, which legally are not exactly right to be sold. ^^;;

And that marks the end of our second last day in Japan which I guess was a day dedicated to fulfilling our fangirling needs, from comics, anime, cosplay, fashion to idols. *sigh in content*

The Clock is Ticking! The Clock is Ticking!

So I may or may not have dozed off for a total 3 minutes in front of the computer with the music blasting right at my face.

So I may or may not have forced crawl myself into bed
even before the clock strike 11.

So I may or may not have progressed further into the entire "biological clock is tickin" thingy magingy.

Yeah. So I may or may not be getting old.

But I'm definitely getting there.

*frowns*