More on Japan...
Jun. 3rd, 2003 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rkoldI'm baking cookies and waiting for them to cool before I start the next batch and thought I would work on my LJ. ^o^
So Sat. May 3, 2003
Kim and I got up really early as we were supposed to meet Koon at Ikebukuro Station at 6:00 am. It seems for some big events, like Super Comic City and Dolpa, they sell advance admission and even before we arrived in Japan advance admission had already sold out for Super Comic City May 3. O_O All 3 of us were really excited because a lot of circles we all liked were supposed to be there and dreams of wonderful new finds danced in our heads. We took the Yamanote line to Shimbashi and changed for the Yurikamome to Tokyo Big Sight. The Yurikamome line was of course packed with other people heading to the same destination as we were. We arrived at Tokyo Big Sight close to 7:00 am and then had to figure out where to queue. We made the mistake of following some of the signs for the event which lead us to where it would actually take place and not where the queue was. ^^;; We turned ourselves around and went back out and finally found where they were selling admission. We got our admission books (At a lot of Japanese events the actual admission is the booklet that contains the locations for the various dealers. For Doll Show it's a 2 page affair, for Super Comic City it's a huge book.) and went to join the really long queue. (For those curious what it looked like there are pictures of *PART* of it they're posted under the May 15, 2003 entry in my other blog's archive. ) We still had close to 3 hours to wait before the event actually began o_O Fortunately, we took the time to map out where the booths were that we most wanted to visit. We marked down the Scryed section (we never made it) the Loki section, the Tutu section, the Wolf's Rain section (we never made it), the Seed section (we only looked cursorily), Hikaru no Go, Naruto, (we only went to one booth), Shaman King (we went through fast), Clamp, Fruits Basket, Get Backers, and of course PoT (and all it's many fun subsections.) By the time they let us in, we were really wired. I went to Valian first so I could get some pretty smutty TezuRyo for Isa while Kim went to WaG and I'm not sure where Koon went. ^^;; Kim and I then went to Private Label and then to Wizard where I bought a ton of pins. We then went into the Rivals section....I waited on-line at Cheap Soup/Nero and G-7 where I found Koon again. Kim looked at the YangHaiIsumi and then waited on-line at World's End. We lost Koon and I saw the two people who looked like Oshitari and Gakuto. Kim and I went up and down the Hikaru no Go section. I found the people who did the famous chibi smut KagaTsutsui and bought an adorable non-smutty HikaruAkira one. Damn! I love that circle now! We looked through Seed quickly and then went to the St. Rudy's section where not surprisingly I bought everything. ^o^ (Well, nearly everything.....since the St. Rudy's section really meant the Yuuta section pretty much XD) We then went to Clamp/FruBa where the X things were sold out ;_; (It had 2 sellers) We wanted to find uke-Kyou doujinshi but they were text only. We then went to Loki and Tutu and then to Get Backers. Then it was back to Rivals and then onto Seigaku. By the time the show finally closed I had a huge pile of doujinshi and had looked at so many things...I had no idea TezukaxKaidoh was so popular and yet oddly enough I like it. Koon had said she was leaving early so we went to the second floor and rested cause we both had piles of doujinshi. We then went back to Shimbashi where I bought us some Starbucks to refresh ourselves (caffeiene...yum!) before going back to the ryokan. We fortunately made it back in time to watch Get Backers and then we watched Gundam Seed episode 30. 30 was sooooooooo amazing. We went back to our room early to gloat over our purchases.
Sunday May 4
We took the day relatively easy cause we were still a little tired from the doujinshi show the day before. First we went to an internet cafe to blog about our adventures and squeal about Gundam Seed. Afterwards we just pretty much stayed in Ikebukuro. Kim and I bought a few used artbooks, Kim bought Dear Boys and I bought a CCS one as well DN Angel. I also called Minako so that I could finally try to meet her at Dolpa.
Monday May 5
I was rather determined to meet Minako and we had made arrangements ahead of time to meet Mako-chan as well. First we went to Dolpa, where I confess there was nothing that really screamed me. There were a few really pretty SD outfits, but I own a MSD and I really wanted a cute boy's outfit for my MSD. The lines for the exclusive Dolpa SDs were incredibly long though the Michael was sooooo nice. I wanted to get some of the Volks Dolpa exclusive wigs but the line was too long and we were supposed to meet Mako-chan. As we left Dolpa, we ran into Minako as we were going up the escalator. I ran down the escalator after her and made arrangements to meet up with her after we met with Mako-chan. Fortunately, we had no problem finding Mako-chan and then just had to find the Takarajima fleamarket. Since Mako-chan is fluent in Japanese, she found out where it was located for us and we headed over. I found the giant Karupin plushie and Kim let me buy the giant Ryoma plushie ^_______________________^ I didn't see any of the cute plastic hamsters. Mako-chan found an X puzzle. We finished and I left Mako-chan and Kim alone to say hi to Minako again. We chatted a tiny bit and then I decided to go to the exclusive Volks section of Dolpa. The line moved quickly and I got 2 wigs, 1 pair of eyes, and a few Who's That Girl outfits. While waiting on line I ran into Shino-san, the daughter of the main who runs Volks. It was neat to see her again and I told her I loved the new Who's That Girl line. Mako, Kim and I then took the Yurikamome line to the other side of Odaiba so that we could get some good Rainbow Bridge pictures. We then went to Akihabara to look quickly at plushies and then it was back to Ikebukuro. We dropped off our luggage and took Mako-chan to K-books where we found more doujinshi from our favorite InuiKai circle. ^o^ We then had Mako back to the room where she read our doujinshi and fangirled and laughed hysterically. Fortunately for us, she translated what she was reading and damn, so of them were so wrongly amusing. Yuuta really has to stay away from Syuusuke when he is on the computer. He also needs to learn not to sleep where anyone can find him, since everyone seems to enjoy molesting him. ^o^ We were sorry to say good night to Mako-chan.
May 6
This was our last day in Japan and I'd run out of money and needed to go to the bank ^^;; I then got to mail out a few quick packages. While I did that Kim went and bought us a few more doujinshi. Then we went to Subway to get lunch for the plane, and then one last trip to K-books. The worst part of the day though was then trying to get our luggage to the train station. We were running late and I was worried we weren't going to make it. Kim was worried she was going to collapse. Fortunately, the worst thing that happened was she broke the handle of her luggage. ^^;; But we did make it! When I went to check-in, I found out my suitcase weighed 47.6 kilos ^^;;;;;;;;;;;; The woman was impressed that I'd gotten it to the airport. I learned that for $10 US I could buy a cardboard box and send things home on the plane with me that way. DAMN!!! It's cheaper and faster than sea mail. I know what I'm doing in the future now that I know about it!!!! The worst part was of course trying to get it off the luggage carousel in NY cause the thing weighed like 60 lbs. ^^;; Our flight was empty and uneventful and customs was fast and uneventful as well. Kennis was waiting for us and then it was off to home.
Hope you enjoyed reading about the trip!
So Sat. May 3, 2003
Kim and I got up really early as we were supposed to meet Koon at Ikebukuro Station at 6:00 am. It seems for some big events, like Super Comic City and Dolpa, they sell advance admission and even before we arrived in Japan advance admission had already sold out for Super Comic City May 3. O_O All 3 of us were really excited because a lot of circles we all liked were supposed to be there and dreams of wonderful new finds danced in our heads. We took the Yamanote line to Shimbashi and changed for the Yurikamome to Tokyo Big Sight. The Yurikamome line was of course packed with other people heading to the same destination as we were. We arrived at Tokyo Big Sight close to 7:00 am and then had to figure out where to queue. We made the mistake of following some of the signs for the event which lead us to where it would actually take place and not where the queue was. ^^;; We turned ourselves around and went back out and finally found where they were selling admission. We got our admission books (At a lot of Japanese events the actual admission is the booklet that contains the locations for the various dealers. For Doll Show it's a 2 page affair, for Super Comic City it's a huge book.) and went to join the really long queue. (For those curious what it looked like there are pictures of *PART* of it they're posted under the May 15, 2003 entry in my other blog's archive. ) We still had close to 3 hours to wait before the event actually began o_O Fortunately, we took the time to map out where the booths were that we most wanted to visit. We marked down the Scryed section (we never made it) the Loki section, the Tutu section, the Wolf's Rain section (we never made it), the Seed section (we only looked cursorily), Hikaru no Go, Naruto, (we only went to one booth), Shaman King (we went through fast), Clamp, Fruits Basket, Get Backers, and of course PoT (and all it's many fun subsections.) By the time they let us in, we were really wired. I went to Valian first so I could get some pretty smutty TezuRyo for Isa while Kim went to WaG and I'm not sure where Koon went. ^^;; Kim and I then went to Private Label and then to Wizard where I bought a ton of pins. We then went into the Rivals section....I waited on-line at Cheap Soup/Nero and G-7 where I found Koon again. Kim looked at the YangHaiIsumi and then waited on-line at World's End. We lost Koon and I saw the two people who looked like Oshitari and Gakuto. Kim and I went up and down the Hikaru no Go section. I found the people who did the famous chibi smut KagaTsutsui and bought an adorable non-smutty HikaruAkira one. Damn! I love that circle now! We looked through Seed quickly and then went to the St. Rudy's section where not surprisingly I bought everything. ^o^ (Well, nearly everything.....since the St. Rudy's section really meant the Yuuta section pretty much XD) We then went to Clamp/FruBa where the X things were sold out ;_; (It had 2 sellers) We wanted to find uke-Kyou doujinshi but they were text only. We then went to Loki and Tutu and then to Get Backers. Then it was back to Rivals and then onto Seigaku. By the time the show finally closed I had a huge pile of doujinshi and had looked at so many things...I had no idea TezukaxKaidoh was so popular and yet oddly enough I like it. Koon had said she was leaving early so we went to the second floor and rested cause we both had piles of doujinshi. We then went back to Shimbashi where I bought us some Starbucks to refresh ourselves (caffeiene...yum!) before going back to the ryokan. We fortunately made it back in time to watch Get Backers and then we watched Gundam Seed episode 30. 30 was sooooooooo amazing. We went back to our room early to gloat over our purchases.
Sunday May 4
We took the day relatively easy cause we were still a little tired from the doujinshi show the day before. First we went to an internet cafe to blog about our adventures and squeal about Gundam Seed. Afterwards we just pretty much stayed in Ikebukuro. Kim and I bought a few used artbooks, Kim bought Dear Boys and I bought a CCS one as well DN Angel. I also called Minako so that I could finally try to meet her at Dolpa.
Monday May 5
I was rather determined to meet Minako and we had made arrangements ahead of time to meet Mako-chan as well. First we went to Dolpa, where I confess there was nothing that really screamed me. There were a few really pretty SD outfits, but I own a MSD and I really wanted a cute boy's outfit for my MSD. The lines for the exclusive Dolpa SDs were incredibly long though the Michael was sooooo nice. I wanted to get some of the Volks Dolpa exclusive wigs but the line was too long and we were supposed to meet Mako-chan. As we left Dolpa, we ran into Minako as we were going up the escalator. I ran down the escalator after her and made arrangements to meet up with her after we met with Mako-chan. Fortunately, we had no problem finding Mako-chan and then just had to find the Takarajima fleamarket. Since Mako-chan is fluent in Japanese, she found out where it was located for us and we headed over. I found the giant Karupin plushie and Kim let me buy the giant Ryoma plushie ^_______________________^ I didn't see any of the cute plastic hamsters. Mako-chan found an X puzzle. We finished and I left Mako-chan and Kim alone to say hi to Minako again. We chatted a tiny bit and then I decided to go to the exclusive Volks section of Dolpa. The line moved quickly and I got 2 wigs, 1 pair of eyes, and a few Who's That Girl outfits. While waiting on line I ran into Shino-san, the daughter of the main who runs Volks. It was neat to see her again and I told her I loved the new Who's That Girl line. Mako, Kim and I then took the Yurikamome line to the other side of Odaiba so that we could get some good Rainbow Bridge pictures. We then went to Akihabara to look quickly at plushies and then it was back to Ikebukuro. We dropped off our luggage and took Mako-chan to K-books where we found more doujinshi from our favorite InuiKai circle. ^o^ We then had Mako back to the room where she read our doujinshi and fangirled and laughed hysterically. Fortunately for us, she translated what she was reading and damn, so of them were so wrongly amusing. Yuuta really has to stay away from Syuusuke when he is on the computer. He also needs to learn not to sleep where anyone can find him, since everyone seems to enjoy molesting him. ^o^ We were sorry to say good night to Mako-chan.
May 6
This was our last day in Japan and I'd run out of money and needed to go to the bank ^^;; I then got to mail out a few quick packages. While I did that Kim went and bought us a few more doujinshi. Then we went to Subway to get lunch for the plane, and then one last trip to K-books. The worst part of the day though was then trying to get our luggage to the train station. We were running late and I was worried we weren't going to make it. Kim was worried she was going to collapse. Fortunately, the worst thing that happened was she broke the handle of her luggage. ^^;; But we did make it! When I went to check-in, I found out my suitcase weighed 47.6 kilos ^^;;;;;;;;;;;; The woman was impressed that I'd gotten it to the airport. I learned that for $10 US I could buy a cardboard box and send things home on the plane with me that way. DAMN!!! It's cheaper and faster than sea mail. I know what I'm doing in the future now that I know about it!!!! The worst part was of course trying to get it off the luggage carousel in NY cause the thing weighed like 60 lbs. ^^;; Our flight was empty and uneventful and customs was fast and uneventful as well. Kennis was waiting for us and then it was off to home.
Hope you enjoyed reading about the trip!
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-06-04 12:11 am (UTC)Questions..?
1.) What kind of Plastic hamsters were you taking about?
2.) What is theTakarajimi Flea market?
3.) And what could one hope to find there?
Who's got answers... ^o^
Date: 2003-06-05 07:06 pm (UTC)1) These plastic hamsters are about the same size as actual hamsters and look just like real hamsters. Hamsters are something of an in-joke from Wankage (http://www.otakan.com/wankage/).
2) Takarajima flea market is a flea market held 2x a year (at least) at Tokyo Big Sight.
3) Takarajima flea market mostly has anime type items for sale. You can find UFO Catcher plushies, posters, cels, trading cards, and gapshom prizes. They also sometimes have prizes from snacks. (Like the aforementioned hamster which came in a snack called "Hamster Food" in which you got the plastic hamster and a small package of "hamster treats." I haven't really seen much in the way of doll items there and I also haven't seen any of those mini pet gapshom items there. I went to the Wonder Festival once and they had a lot more in the way of doll items.
Whoa. Another detailed trip journal!
Date: 2003-06-04 07:27 am (UTC)47.6kg??!! How, how did you manage to carry and transport all that??!!
(my luggage was 21kg and I was worried about overweight... mada mada no mada dane!)
Ehhhh heheheh
Date: 2003-06-05 07:09 pm (UTC)Having a wheelie is how I transported it all.
I'm happy you enjoyed all the details ^o^