Tokyo Events

[rkold]

I can't believe how much has happened that I haven't shared. Now, to do my best to try and remember everything, expect updates over the next few days as I remember more.



So, for those who don't know, I took a train at a god forsaken time in the morning from yanchamonkey's so that I could make a brief appearance at day 1 of SCC cause I was curious what they would have. While I also went to Osaka Comic City, not all circles make the trip out, and I wasn't sure who would or would not go. Day 1 was Jump series, video games, and I can't remember what else, as I've thrown out the guide. For those curious, yes, I did go to PoT first, and wow, how the mighty have fallen. I can't remember if it was SCC 2003 or SCC 2004 or maybe both, but PoT had been two halls with the big circles lining the walls. Lines for big circles had been long and there were lots of new books. PoT is still a respectable single hall, but the biggest change was the treatment of big circles. PoT shared its hall with professional pictures lining the walls, so that there was only space for like 3-4 big circles against the wall. Jet Monster, Cookie, D-Amb, Death Surf, were all mixed into the big section of PoT. Most of them had corner tables, but wow, to lose the wall. There were also no lines. I mean yeah, by the time I got there it was already 11:30ish, but some of the big circles for other series still had lines day 2 at 11:30. The other big change was so few new books and no weird random merchandise really. It was sort of depressing, but so it goes. I did manage to get Mr. and Mrs. Tennis from Negahyst, which is amusing enough that it makes up for weepy uke Yagyuu. Bought myself the new Smash@Rail, as they've moved to one of my pet Niou pairings, Niou/Kirihara. lol I really want the Death Surf Niou/Sanada but I lose track of what I own, and I hate to pay full price for it when it usually shows up used. My favorite Niou/Marui circle was gone, but I found one of their books used at Mandarake.

For sumeragiskank I had promised to look for Leon/Cloud, Naruto and Bleach. (I planedn to look in Osaka for your One Piece reynardine.) I do not know FF well, so it was a bit of an adventure. I did not find what she wanted, though I did find something even better. I wandered Naruto and Bleach, until I could not take SCC anymore and made my escape to... Nakano and Mandarake. The used doll branch of Nakano was pretty uninteresting and I didn't get anything. I then went to the excessively crowded doujinshi section and bought the few Seed doujinshi I was missing from Kashi. I *THINK* I am now completely up to date. I managed to resist most of the new Seed figures though now I want the big Pinky St. style Asuran and Lux, since I got lucky and finally found the Kira.

Next stop was Ikebukuro. I went to K-books first, where I made the disappointing discovery that there were GUNDAM SEED DESTINY sized doll shirts. They started at 1575 yen and the characters I wanted were 2100 yen. Grrrrrr I need a Kira, Asuran and Lux shirt. Just imagine Keigo wearing his Lux shirt and Yuuta in his Asuran, though I guess no Krueze for poor Yagyuu. lol I then went to Animate. For those who didn't know, there are doll sized PoT shirts as well as the Bleach ones. My first thought was, "wow, it's all Yuuta's boyfriends who he didn't sleep with in RWT" until I remembered Greece and felt rather stupid. lol Perhaps a better way to put it would be all the people Yuuta dumped lol. I decided Keigo needed a Keigo t-shirt even if it is small, as come on, this is Keigo. lol I didn't buy a Marui for myself, though I am tempted to get one now.

Next it was off to K-books, where I saw nothing I wanted and then finally I went to a 2nd Mandarake. I don't think I got anything there either. I wish I could find more Utena doujinshi but I don't know the kanji, I shall have to ask muscatlove for help with that.

For Day 2 of SCC I got to Big Sight close to 6:45 and was in the 4th row from the start. For those curious as to why, it's called the Kashi carrying bag one could get if you bought all their new books. Plus, I knew there would be new books I did not own lol I also had an 11:00 appointment to meet Kyon so she could introduce me to Kouga Yun-san. Despite my closeness to the front, I did have to wait close to 30 minutes for Kashi, and the line got progressively longer after me. In fact in general, Seed circles had incredibly long and popular lines. When I went back much later, Kashi had packed up and left, which makes me think they sold out. O_O I bought a few new @cresc, including one that was half text to get my ShinnxKira porn. I then moved onto Clamp, and random shoujo. I grabbed a few Tsubasa, before hurrying to meet Kyon and look in the Loveless section. Oddly enough, the few Loveless circles were next to where Kouga Yun and Kyon were selling both Volume 2 of Voleur de Rose and Kouga Yun's special release sketch book. Yes, for those curious, there was a special doujinshi art book on sale. Being intelligent, I had brought 2 mini boxes of Godiva just in case I got to meet Kouga-san, and one to give to Kyon no matter what. Immediately upon arriving Kyon asked me to wait a moment and introduced me to Kouga Yun. Words can not express how grateful and how cool it was for me. I really like Kouga-san's art and it was so neat to meet her. I gave her and Kyon their chocolates, and Kouga-san gave me a free copy of her new book and when I asked her to sign it she agreed. *_____________* And she let me take her picture with me. I can't wait to share it. I talked a bit about how I liked Ritsuka-chan, but my friend likes Seimei. I also talked a bit about Seed, which Kouga-san also likes, she is an Asuran fan, Kyon told her I knew FMA and I said I loved Fuji Yuuta lol Eventually, she had to go back to meet fans who were waiting on line to meet her and buy her new book. I left, stars still in my eyes, and went to look at the FMA doujinshi. I finally found really nice and porny EdxAl. For those who don't know, I like Elricest, like lots of different flavors of it, but I prefer the rarer EdxAl because I just can't see Al being seme, unless Ed insisted. This one is horribly amusing and involves Ed and Al having sex and their Dad trying to watch as well as trying to do Al himself. I also bought EnvyxEd porn and my new second favorite Havoc pairing, HavocxFury. I looked briefly through the US movies/TV show section which consists mostly of LoTR and Anakin doing Obi-Wan. I'm starting to think AniObi is the biggest accomplishment of those Star Wars movies.

Eventually, I could not take being at SCC any longer. I went back to my hotel room to drop off purchases and got my directions so I could go to the Takarazuka theatre for reynardine. Since the theatre is located between Shimbashi and Yurakucho station's, I just walked from Shimbashi. It was rather easy to find, and then the challenge was finding the right DVD. Once accomplished, I got to walk past the crowds of women presumably waiting for some of the Takarazuka stars to arrive. A part of me loves the fact the Japanese are obsessive fans, like me.

I took the subway to Harajuku so I could get out a little more cash before walking to Kiddyland and the Volks Harajuku branch. The Doll Point section was closed, but the SD half was open. I then took the train to Shibuya in hopes of seeing those damn Seed shirts at the Shibuya Animate branch. Instead I bought some yaoi manga. I then took a subway up to Ueno since it was faster than the free Yamanote line so I could grab some fast snacks at Anderson's. Unfortunately, they did not have their vegetarian pizzas or their delicious strawberry tarts. My final stop before returning to Odaiba was Akihabara to pick up a LAN cable. It seemed my hotel had free internet if you brought your own computer and LAN cable. I went to LAOX since they are large and have some English speaking staff and bought a cable for 400 yen.

Slightly tired, I thought I would read some emails before heading out to take some pictures of Odaiba. Unfortunately, one of my emails I had received stated my hotel reservation for Osaka had FAILED. This lead to quite a quandary, as Asiarooms needs at least 3 days, which we did not have. Many hurried text messages between myself and muscatlove were sent. Eventually, a decision was reached and I settled down to sleep, having big plans for the next day.



May 5, was Doll's Party, and once again the guide book lied. At this point, I think I will just work under the assumption one should always go as early as possible. The guide book "claims" that no lines before 7:30 am are valid, but this of course is not the case. I had decided to go to the Sumika first because I wanted those damn Yo outfits and Yo outfits have a tendency to sell out. While it's true, one can buy rather nice handmade outfits, I confess I love the fact the Volks Chibi ones come with shoes and in this case panties, something my Anne rather needs to be able to wear some of the other outfits I have for her. I was given a slip, saying I was #43. The REALLY long scary line was for the LEs and I was VERY thankful I was not on it. It was sort of nice being on the Sumika line and I would probably do it first again, as one still gets to the Dealer's Room awful fast and one also sort of gets a better view of the opening proceedings, which in this case included the playing of "Pop Star." I'm not sure I've mentioned this before, but at most events in Japan, some sort of music is playing while you shop. At small events, it's usually related to said event, like Seed only ones play Seed songs. At doll shows, the playlist can really vary. Since "Pop Star" is on several of my personal playlists, I approve. My wait to enter the Sumika was not very long once Dolpa started and then I spent a bit longer waiting to pay for my purchases. For those curious, the big sellers in Japan for this Dolpa were I believe the SD Gothic Lolita dresses, the MSD V-Jeans, and the MSD outfits in general. My first stop in the Dealer's room was a Life's Garden, as I had been commissioned to pick up some shirts from there. Once those were bought, I was free to visit wherever I wanted. The dealer's room still wasn't so crowded because of all the people still waiting for LEs, and I wandered around taking some pictures and looking at what was available for sale. There was a lot in the way of Pink House style dresses for girls and gothy punk type things for boys. Unfortunately, neither style fits the personalities of my dolls overly well. There were a few cute outfits I half regret not buying, but for the most part I was rather pleased with my purchases. I got to see my friend from Kyoto, who had gotten a good enough # to get Lucas. I left Dolpa at about 2, missing the drawing for the One-Offs, though in all honesty, I didn't like ANY of them as much as the two Madokas at Sato. The trip back to Kansai was exhausting. I had a reserved seat in the smoking section but preferred to sit unreserved non-smoking. Oddly, this train was less crowded than my arrival train on 5/3. In a way, I feel sad I am going to miss the Fall Doll's Party, as there is no way I am going to Nagoya or the Fall one in Tokyo, since I think I would prefer doll show, that is unless Dolpa is not in December.