This is so the droid I was looking for...

[rkold]

I am now the proud owner of a droid, yes despite owning a Mac laptop and am Ipod when it came time to finally upgrade from my evil junkie cell phone I ended up with a droid lol The Iphone got rejected because 1) It is not on Verizon and 2) Husband wants to do some programming and make some apps and it seems the procedure to do so on Iphone sucks and you need to get approval vs. the droid which is completely open. Personally, I would love a nice little way to better keep track of my grocery shopping and perhaps something to help me track Copic Markers owned and doujinshi owned >>;;;;

Anyway, for anyone who wanted to see some pictures from my most recent trip to Japan.. or umm trips, hmmm, below is a selection.




Me and Osakajo map


The Toyotomi shrine on the grounds of Osakajo




Osakajo


miniature display showing the famous Battle of Osakajo I prefer Sanada with his head band


Sadly Date was not as hot in real life it seems


Though neither was Sanada


Osaka


For 500 yen you could dress up as your favorite Samurai warlords for 15 minutes... well OK they didn't have EVERYONE but they did have MY favorite


ROAR! Fear my samurai sword of doom!






Suzaku also decided to join in the Sanada lovefest.


So did Lelouch and Red Rosin's chibi whose name I forgot. ^_^;;;


As did pimp Cthulhu


Lelouch and Suzaku also ended up in the Kobe BtSSB (the other dolls all belonged to one of the employees there who was jealous we had gotten spots on the cruise lol )


The LOOOOVVEEE Boat... soon will be making another run...


Look it's Captain Stubbins. XD;;; My mother thought Williams was a girl




Look who also got an invite to the Sato Owner's Gathering XD;





Though hands down my favorite part of this trip was the day spent in Spa World with akaisakura and jougetsu even if I did fall asleep there 2x ;;_;;

So that was the short trip to Japan at the start of October and to Kansai.

The second trip started with me selling doujinshi at Kururugi Festa!



Look I am a doujinshika



I also took pictures of all the great hardcore Japanese cosplayers or well some of them lol


Gino! ♥ ("Gino" was wearing huge platform heels BTW)


And totally shipped GinoSuza


Emperor Lelouch cause who can resist Emperor Lelouch


More GinoSuza cosplayers


Emperor Lelouch and "his" Ko0 Suzaku. "Suzaku" had traveled all the way from Hokkaido for this event meaning she'd probably paid not that much less than I had paid in airfare ^_^;;;


And being slashy


The only Ko0 Suzaku in actual thigh highs. (there were many Ko0s but most wore knee high boots only. But really Suzaku needs the thigh high bitch boots IMHO.


Disney Sea, now meaning I've been to CA!Disney, FL!Disney, Euro!Disney and a Japan!Disney. I figured Sea is not like any of the other parks.


The park


I thought this was amusing lol


The NY themed Japanese equivalent of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, except it sucked. Though I was amused that all the Americans spoke Japanese on the ride lol


Though I will say the set-up/decor was great.


I was seriously more impressed with the line of people to buy some nasty snack food than the ride itself.


But the park itself is beautiful


It's Cape Cod... but not.


The outdoor ride was fun, the motion simulator one was meh like all motion simulator rides. Give me a real roller coaster any day!


The jungle part of the park


Hands down best job, "I'm Indiana Jones and get to flirt with girls all day :D!" Seriously who wants their picture with Mickey when you can pose with Indiana Jones!


Raging Spirits one of the best rides in the park and with the line to prove it.


Look you can pretend you are in the Middle East.


Go me and night-time pictures


I want to say this was the Enryakuji in Kita Kamakura.






The one time I carried some dolls with me












I want to say this rose was at Meigetsuin which is famous for its hydrangea but of course it is not hydrangea season








hydrangea! :DDDDD


Famous bell at Kencho-ji






Yeah, steps!


Tengu statues ♥


the leg belongs to the moronic person who decided sitting on the edge was a good idea ~.~




Kamakura from the top, (there were more stairs post the rest stop post the tengu)


If you look super carefully you can see the faint outline of Fuji-san


Our amazing hotel room in Hakone. I would so go back there!



More pictures in subsequent posts!

Comments

[kellyhime.livejournal.com]

It looks like another fascinating trip! Thanks so much for sharing your pictures! Those tengu are so neat and I don't know how we missed them on our four trips to Kita Kamakura. Where are they?

[ad-exia.livejournal.com]

Indyyyyyy! XD Disney Sea looks so neat!

You are also adorable all dressed up as a samurai~

[rkold.livejournal.com]

Oh, it was a lovely trip and I went to all sorts of places I'd never been to before or just visited briefly in the past.

I found the tengu by accident several years ago and now always enjoy visiting them. Though the steps seemed so much easier after having been to Haguro-san now lol

The Tengu are along some of the steps leading to the shrine behind Kencho-ji in Kita Kamakura. If you go to Kencho-ji you just keep walking as far back onto the temple grounds as you can until you come to what looks like a small road. You turn to the right to continue up the hill and right after the curve you should see the torii for the shrine. Just keep heading up. Above the shrine there is a second set of steps (steeper than the first and a little harder, those actually got me panting some lol) that leads to the hiking trail and the look out where you can sometimes see Fuji-san.

[rkold.livejournal.com]

The problem with Disney Sea is it is a Disney so completely packed. ~.~ It doesn't feel like it has as many rides as some of the other parks and it felt like nearly everything had a 20+ minute line. They do have fast track but by 3:00 in the afternoon all the best rides had sold out of their fast track tickets. It was mobbed with people and could be hard to just walk from one place to another.

Some of the rides were quite good. Raging Spirits was well designed and had a loop! Journey to the Center of the Earth started ehhh but then became great! lol

I would not go back without an unofficial guide and a plan for attack. The Park itself is incredibly pretty.

I love getting to dress up as Sanada Yukimura. It made the Basara fangirl in me kvell. :D

[codename-windy.livejournal.com]

Aaw, you got to go to Disney Sea~! *flail*
I didn't get to go, since apparently Disney hates me or something. ;_;
See, last spring, I tried going, but the weather on the designated day turned out to be horrible, so it was no-go. This trip, I got all the way to Maihama station and discovered that apparently everyone from greater Tokyo Metropolitan area (and their extended family) shared my sentiment of it being a good day for Disney. It was only an hour after the park had opened and there was a sign saying they could not let any more people in to Disney Sea because it was *full*! So then I had to go to the normal Disneyland part, which incidently was also crazy packed. x_X
But I did get to do the Halloween special ride of Nightmare Before Christmas, so not all was lost. *nodnod*

Other thing I quite envy is that you got to see Fuji-san *again*! I still haven't seen it~ Eventho part of my reason for choosing to visit Hakone was because I hoped to finally see Fuji-san! T_T

Are the flower and garden pictures from Kamakura...? They're very lovely.

BTW, I totally agree; Ko0!Suzaku needs to have tigh-high bitch boots. It's a large part of the charm of that outfit! *nodnod*

[rkold.livejournal.com]

Which day did you try to go? We went on Monday. It was so packed and it was actually sort of unpleasant because it was so full of people. We tried to get there about opening time.

Disney Sea is *THE* Date place in Tokyo. I'd actually probablt rather go in the drizzle since most of the rides are indoors so would probably still run and maybe the crowds would not be insane. ~.~

Yup, I saw Fuji-san again. lol The weather was sort of meh for Fuji-san viewing in October but I saw Fuji-san from: Odawara station when I bought our Hakone Passes, Kamakura (the picture), the next day we saw Fuji-san from the ropeway going down to the lake and we once caught a glimpse of it from the lake. We then saw Fuji-san the next day from the shinkansen.

The side of Hakone with Yunessun is not good for seeing Fuji-san because there is a mountain in the way, you need to either: look from Odawara or take the ropeway. ^_^;;;; There is some onsen at an expensive husband that supposedly hs Fuji-san views, I would tend to think it is true since it was near that hotel we saw Fuji-san from the ropeway. I am expecting February will be prime viewing weather since it tends to be cold and clear.

Yeah, all the flower pictures are from somewhere in Kita Kamakura. Some were from temples and some we just walked by in between temples. :D

[ad-exia.livejournal.com]

Well, that's like most parks during peak times, I suppose. You do have to learn the ins and outs, I suppose. Seriously, though, that sounds fabulous, and it really is quite pretty!

XD Fear your samurai prowess!

[cc-lemon.livejournal.com]

Absolutely lovely shots. I especially love the flowers and other plant life. You really capture their beauty and the aliveness of the moment, if that makes sense.

[rkold.livejournal.com]

Except I'm not sure there ever is an off season. ^_^;;;;;

I went on a Monday not during a vacation time. The Halloween decorations were out, but well... there isn't a holiday out there that Disney does not try to decorate for.

It was an extremely pretty park but it was very off putting. It was a bit like the crowds at Comiket except with no porn and the guys and girls were actually together.

[ad-exia.livejournal.com]

Hm... maybe not, in Japan. XD

Disney does indeed like to decorate for every holiday! They were already playing Christmas music when I went to Epcot last weekend.

Ahahahaha. XD That's probably a valid assessment.

[rkold.livejournal.com]

Honestly, it helps to have a much better camera. ^^;; I would say that is probably one of the biggest differences in my pictures through the years. lol

I also take a lot more pictures and tend to only share the better ones so you don't see as many of the ones that have issues.

I think I actually got a little better while I was on the trip since I finally figured out the pluses of manual and how to use a few of the other features.

Expensive husband

[(Anonymous)]

"Onsen at an expensive husband"?

- Freudian Husband

[mec]

I'm not sure the world is ready for you as a warlord, but you'd definitely make it a more interesting place! I love the pics of you with the other doujinshika (and love the fact that I can say "other" in that sentence), and with Indiana Jones because yes, very cool job he's got there. The pic where you've captioned "you can pretend you're in the Middle East" actually does remind me a lot of my Israel trip, wandering around Jerusalem! The cosplayers are brilliant too. ^_^

Thank you very much for my belated birthday present! It surprised me when I got home from work yesterday, and oh, so incredibly cute. I remember things in there from the concerts, and from reports of the shows I didn't get to see, and I am just so happy with it. Thank you! *hugs*

[rkold.livejournal.com]

I guess technically I would be a General and not a full blown warlord, but just imagine the changes I would institute. :D

I thought it was the Middle East minus the crowds... and possibly the dirt since being Disney everything was immaculate. I loved the cosplayers, I gave in and bought the CD of one of the pairs of GinoSuza ones and would have bought a CD of the LuluSuza ones had they had one.

I'm so glad you liked it and it made it safely to you! *hugs* As soon as I saw it I was like, must get for becroberts!! It made me feel like Spark was a success just for that. Please let me know the publish dates on all the books you have at some point, I saw one other and could not remember if you had it, but knew you didn't have this one.

[mec]

Cosplayer CDs...I love how the Japanese manage to make such a production out of everything, including fandom. They're so pretty!

It made it safely to me, and then it took me five minutes to break into the parcel since the tape didn't want to give! (On the plus side, no curious post-people could possibly have peeked in and been scarred for life. I'm not sure the Royal Mail is ready for Kame x Jin sex with bandages and an eyepatch, or even without.

I did start making a list of all my doujinshi and their dates at one point, so will have to finish that off and let you know about the Loop ones.

[kellyhime.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for the direction! We've been to Kencho-ji and also walked the Pilgrim's Path from Kita-Kamakura to Kamakura, but guess that we somehow missed the tengu. Next time...:)

[rkold.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure the hiking trail is not the Pilgrim's Path, since this is up and down hills and is more an actual hiking trail. ^_^;;

But yeah after you enter Kencho-ji just keep heading as far back as you can or ask how to get to Hansobo. :)

Good luck getting there on your next trip!

[rkold.livejournal.com]

It's their hobby XD;;;

I'm glad it made it safe though, that was the important thing. I wrapped it up extra well since I didn't want anything to happen to it.

Please do get them to me.

I just heard from one of my friends in Japan and she definitely wants the European release of Dissidia, so if you can get it I think she would love it.

Can't wait to see you in February and maybe you can meet my friend it is for too!