rkold | Japan Trip Part 1 (Reply)

I've been posting sporadically, but not really saying too much about Japan. Now with the trip over, it seems the perfect time to do a re-cap.

Since I had planned my trip to have no check ins coming to Japan, I had booked a flight which gave me only 1 1/2 hours of layover in San Francisco. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed and I sat on the runway for a good 45 minutes for no apparent reason. The flight to SFO had some built in time for delays so I got in about 11:45 for my 12:35 flight. Figuring I had 15 minutes until they started boarding, I ran to the sandwich shop and the dessert place to pick up some snacks for the flight. However, when I arrived at my gate at noon, everyone had already boarded and United planned to try to leave at 12:23. o_O; I rushed on and was able to snag enough room for my suitcases, but just barely. Our flight of course did not leave at 12:23 nor did it leave at the scheduled 12:35. The flight itself was not horribly memorable, except that when I got off, it was just lovely to be able to go through immigration and be able to walk out. I met

yanchamonkey and together we collected everything I would need for this trip and headed back to Wakayama-ken. For some reason the trains were running a bit off that day, but it wasn't so bad and I think I fell asleep early exhausted from all my traveling.

The next day, I decided to go shopping in Osaka. With my rail pass I caught a train to Tennoji before heading to Namba. My train had been delayed coming up because of a small earthquake, though I'd not felt it at all. I got some adorable Geass keychains and the Suzaku, CC, and Lelouch Chibi I voice figures, but managed to resist all the Seed figures despite wanting the I voice Chibi Kira and Shinn to go with my Lux. I peeked in Volks to see which of the recent Spring and Dolpa outfits were still available but nothing of interest was there. I also gave in and got a Pash magazine to get a clearfile. >>; I had tried t contact Dezarii on DoA to meet for lunch, but it hadn't quite worked out so we made plans to meet for lunch the next day.

The next day, I took a fast trip to Tennoji again to meet Dezarii for lunch in Shinsaibashi. We went to the Mexican place I like in Osaka. It was lovely to get to meet again though we were having so much fun I only had 10 minutes to make my Kuroshio to visit

muscatlove. It's not that it would have been horrible to miss my train, I just was not overly keen on waiting an hour for the next one. Because Jenn lives rather far from Osaka, by the time I got there it was relatively late in the day. We did a bit of shopping before working on dinner in her apartment. One interesting thing about this trip was I ate home cooked meals for a good portion of the first half of my trip.

Saturday, I rented a bicycle and Jenn and I went back to the beach near where she lived. Had I thought of it, we could have gone for karaoke, which is really sort of too bad, as I never got a chance to make it this last trip, one of my few regrets. Ah well. The beach was lovely, even after the clouds came in and it started to drizzle. Though we ended up getting a little wet while we bicycled out to do some shopping. I felt a little wistful as I doubt I will be going to the city where Jenn lives again once she leaves JET. It's sort of pretty down there, and I'm the sort of person who becomes very attached to places. By 5:00, I had to return my bicycle and get ready for the next part of my trip, an overnight in Tokyo so I can attend Doll Show. It was a very very long trip. Over 2 hours to Shin Osaka and then another 3 to Tokyo, getting me in close to midnight. I usually stay at hotel near the event, but the price had been higher because of Golden Week, and the hotel was not really worth the price. Instead I had decided to try a little place in Ginza that was surprisingly affordable. The room was tiny, but as it was just me, and I had barely any luggage I can't really complain.

Sunday, was Doll Show, and I was planning to meet

kellyhime there at 6:30 am. I was a tad late, but I'd also been able to make contact with some of my dealer friends, so I knew I was getting a dealer's pass again. *_______* Doll Show has started giving out numbers at 8:00 am, which is really shame, since it's so popular and people are still getting there at 7:00 am which is when they use to give out numbers. I paid for a book and got a number and promised to give Kelly mine if it was better than hers or if she wanted to try to get her a pass as well. (I was #85 I think and she was over 200. This was the start of my luck with lotteries this trip. ) We went to the nearby coffee shop before heading back to the show to line up and such. My friends were running late so instead of going around taking pictures pre-show like last time, I actually helped to do a lot of the set up. I was a bit disappointed that they were not showing SD-13 boy or SD boy clothes, as that was what I was most interested in. I went to Hitomiya first, and was so amused, the person who makes the eyes knows me now! I'm like the wacky foreigner who always buys eyes lol I guess it helps that i've bought at 3 Doll Shows and I Doll now. I met back up with Kelly, bought a few things and took lots of pictures. Eventually, I had to leave as I had tickets for the shinkansen so I could make the transfer smoothly in Shin Osaka for the line to Kate's. Everything went off without a hitch and I got to see Fuji-san as the sun set. I'm glad, because after that Japan either really smogged up or got more humid as Fuji-san did not make another appearance for me.

Monday was my day to completely relax and not do much of anything. It's actually sort of nice to have a vacation day like that once in while. lol Kate played with her new Wii and I enjoyed watching. For those who don't know, I don't much like playing video games but I positively adore watching them. We also had another earthquake, this one I actually felt. It was all of a 1, but the epicenter was only a few miles from where I was.

Tuesday was my day to visit Tenshi no Sato. I was a bit nervous after all my credit card problems last trip. I was ordering a head for me and a full doll for a friend. It was of course the first day during my trip when it rained. I had been hoping to go to the monkey park, but slogging up a small mountain in the rain==not fun, so that idea got scrapped. On the bright side, it kept the crowds in Arashiyama down and I was able to do a little walking around and picture taking before going to Sato. I looked at the One-Offs (There was a Madoka posed with a F-33, a School B and a Cecil who got my attention) but thankfully none I needed. I had to wait nearly an hour to place my FCS order, as some Japanese people managed to sneak in before me and one woman took 30 minutes to decide on a wig color. o_O; (She was buying a MSD F-18 and wanted her doll to look like Kurumi's little sister) My orders went surprisingly fast and after much internal debating, I decided to go for the F-34 head over the F-33 as the F-34 is slightly larger and more youthful looking. The F-33 is also a bit square and I wanted more something a little heart shaped. Much to my embarrassment and annoyance, my Visa failed. ~.~ Fortunately, this time I had the foresight to call my OTHER Visa before the trip and warn them I was going to Japan and that one worked!!! Of course this now means I have probably $100 to spend at Starbucks, but so it goes. Getting back to Kate's proved to be something of an adventure. The first direct train wasn't for another 1 1/2 hours, which seemed awful long to wait. The JR clerk offered me a direct to Himeno where I could then change to a local but that seemed sort of stupid. Finally, I suggested a shinkansen to Shin Osaka and there changing to the limited express line that goes direct. I had just crossed into the shinkansen section of the JR Kyoto station when I saw a train going to Shin Osaka was coming in literally 2 minutes. I raced up the stairs, caught that one and then raced in 5 minutes to catch an earlier limited express. I wish the JR clerk had just TOLD me about those trains even if he couldn't book me passage. In fact, had I know a shinkansen was arriving imminently I could have booked a seat on the limited. I think that is the most frustrating thing about JR. They don't always list the trains arriving within 10 minutes, making it harder to figure out optimal connections unless you research it ahead of time on line.

Wednesday was another day of long train trips. Kate, Jenn, Tina and I were all headed to Tokyo for Golden Week. We took up the Limited Express to Shin Osaka (which is seriously becoming one of my most used train stations lol) I scrounged around the station for some food, having run a little late doing some grocery shopping earlier in the morning and managed to find vegetarian pizza, go me! I spent the trip from Osaka to Tokyo watching densha otoko on my ipod (can I just say again how much my video ipod is the win?) We all ate dinner together and then Tina traveled to Odaiba with me as we were staying near big sight that night. Both of us tried to go to bed early as tomorrow was the start of events.

Thursday we both got up at some horrible time in the morning and went over to Super Comic City Day 1. Kashi had plans to release a Code Geass bag and I *HAD* to have it. I was hoping to pick up as many Geass extras as I could, since nothing beats doujinshi extras. Other than Geass, day 1 featured FMA (why Tina was there), Seed, Clampy things, random goods, and TV shows/movies. We made it to SCC by about 6:30 and I'm proud to say we were in the second column. My new goal is to someday be in the first column, but 2nd is pretty darn good. I went back through my catalog marking off not just Geass things I wanted but also looking through my favorite section for amusement value: TV/Movies. Lost was got some text only, several circles were doing Supernatural and I almost bought some, and of course the most amusing thing ever and had the art been even half way decent I would have bought it Mac x P.C. Yes, some circle out there was doing Mac x P.C. slash based on the Japanese commercials. I picked up some great Geass books as well as 2 bags, 2 clear files, some little lamis, and glasses. I just wish there were circles making little dolls lol Geass is definitely growing. Poor Seed has been hemorrhaging though and FMA is definitely getting smaller. I got two new sketches and missed getting a sketch from Jet Monster by a little bit as well as some big Geass circle that does Schniezel x Suzaku. Ah well, next time. The other big highlight for Thursday was the arrival of my husband. Yes, the man who puts up with all my crazy collecting obsessions was actually coming back to Japan, and his flight was due to arrive Thursday afternoon. We rented a cell phone so that he could contact me and we met at Tokyo station. Then it was off to dinner at a tofu restaurant in Shibuya with Jenn, Kate, Tina, Tim and a friend of theirs from Gaidai I'd not met (or at least I don't think I had) named Woo. Woo was extremely nice and friendly and from New York, so understood that Japanese bagels were NOT bagels, and the same goes for Lenders *sniffs nose* If a bagel is not from NY it's just not a bagel. The tofu was fabulous. It was rich and creamy and just so delicious and I would definitely go back there. Sadly, I could not stay and do karaoke with everyone as Kennis and I had two events the next day.

Friday was both Doll Party and Super Comic City Day 2. We had decided to go to Doll's Party first and I was going to wait on the Sumika line while my husband tried the LE line. We'd made deals with Kelly and Archangel Raphael that whichever of us had the best # would try to get vouchers for the others. I had my heart set on getting Shinn and Lin the new Yos. Shinn is just so perfect as Lulu and Lin was too cute too resist. At around 7:45 in the morning, I received a text from my husband he was #428! 428!!!!! Now that might not seem good to some people, but it's important to understand that the numbers go up to close to 5000. Also, if one thinks about it unless there are only 427 of a doll, one's chances of getting said doll are very high. Archangel was over 1200 and poor Kelly's husband was over 4900! O_O (Kelly was doing to the dealer's room first, and her husband was waiting on the LE line.) So my darling patient wonderful husband was able to get nearly every single doll we wanted. He waited on line from nearly 6:30 am until close to 11:30 am when he was finally able to pay. Meanwhile, at the Sumika, I was # 92. One would think this number would let me get the things I most wanted, the CyberCat MSD outfits and the cute brown MSD outfits. You would be wrong. Both sold out before I got into the Sumika, though I was able to get nearly all the H. Naoto Jeans for Kelly and 1 pair for Kim. After the Sumika, I decided to check out SCC. One would think by 11:00 one could just walk in, on that count, one would be wrong again. I had to go all the way around the darn building and then wait another 30 minutes before I could go in. o_O Though I did get a few doujinshi I wanted and found out some ToriShishi circle is moving to do really pretty LuluSuzu! *___* Plus I got another sketch. I then went bak to Dolpa, did a little shopping and much hanging out with Archangel, who was super awesome. I got 13 raffle tickets for the raffle for Sei and Rei Tenshi (and posters) and didn't even win one of the 50 posters! ;;_;; Exhausted, I went back to the hotel, tried to track down the jeans I bought for Kelly, before heading to Shibuya to meet Jenn for dinner with Tara and two of her friends whose names slip my mind. I got Indian and then went back to the hotel.

Saturday, we walked around Odaiba and I found the lovely field of poppies. I also got to see one of the most amazing sights ever, a man carrying around his pet rabbit in a basket. It was so cute, and the rabbit just sat in the basket and didn't try to jump out. He let me pet the bunny and I was most amused. I wanted to ask for a photo, but thought better. We then started on the long trek back to Osaka. My husband has been sightseeing around Tokyo before, and so we decided this trip to explore the Kansai region. Plus we couldn't turn in miles for his ticket if he flew out of Tokyo. So we got unreserved seats on the shinkansen and headed to Osaka. That evening I did a bit of walking around Namba and a little research for our next few days.