Gundamnit! #RandomJapan

This is the giant model of the plastic toy robots that all those annoying peeps from my childhood obsessed over. If it weren't for tourist friends wanting to see this thing, I'd probably never have gone. 

First and Last Odaiba Gundam.

done. 

Souvenirs for Initial D fans #BecauseJapan

Mt. Haruna in Gunma Prefecture is famous for playing the role of Mt. Akina in Initial D. 

For the tiny town atop the mountain this means a good deal of tourists head up there to drive  the legendary mountain pass, take their ladies on dates to the lake and buy souvenirs, like these Initial D cookies and cakes. On a Shoot for Takasaki City, I had a chance to go up there during the day for a change, and (as I wan't driving) didn't blast past the town at pace, on my way to the ura-haruna mountain pass (which is an epic driving road) as I used to do back when I lived at the bottom of this mountain... So I got to take these pics ;)

Shots #115 Akihabara Otaku Bike

Because a bicycle isn't a bicycle without LED lights and an anime babe in the wheel.

CAKE! And it's not a lie!

Up day the 2 special needs groups at my school for some culinary chaos. They made Christmas cakes. Some students cut paper stencils to decorate their cakes. One student who loves the Touhou Project wanted her drawing of Rumia to be on hers.

Incidentally. the blogger app for iOS works... just not very well.

The Painmobile

According to Wikipedia:

Itasha (痛車?), literally "painmobile", is a Japanese term for an otaku fad of individuals decorating the bodies of their cars with fictional characters of anime, manga, or video games (especially bishōjo game or eroge). These characters are predominately "cute" female. The decorations usually involve paint schemes and stickers.

They are called this because it is painful to be seen driving them.

Tokyo Anime Fair 2010-03-26

This year Luka and David joined me and we made an outing of the event to shoot an episode of Shin Yamato Damacy.
So what is the Tokyo Anime Fair? Its an Anime Fair in Tokyo. that's it. Animation companies sell their wares to buyers from all over the globe. It Japan’s biggest commercial anime exhibit featuring all the big and many small names in the Animation industry in Japan.

Like Tokyo Auto Salon this year… it was hit by the recession. It was a record event in so far as visitor numbers are concerned, but unlike 2009, the stands were a bit underwhelming.
Maybe Last year I was hit with the HOLY CRACK WHORE wowness of being in Japan and being at a real live anime event in the land of the rising sun so It seemed more than it really was. but I honestly was not blown away this time.

I did have fun however… and I do know that there is some interesting stuff, like a new 3d Captain Harlock and a new Trigun movie coming out… of course there was K-On season 2’s promotion aswell. I discovered Peeping Life which looks at least as awesome as The World of Golden Eggs and I found a sweet company that prints T-Shirts. As for new anime… It may have been me but there was no big huzzah about anything unlike last year.

there were lovely ladies though… there are always lovely ladies at these things. So I guess not all was lost. and yeah It was awesome to be real press for a day. and even more awesome actually interviewing peeps for the next SYD (its been delayed by the same thing that has delayed this blog in the last week)

Shibukawa Seisui High School Festival

Anyone who has watched a High School anime series (at least half of my 700 odd friends on the book of face) will know what a High School Festival is… For those of you who have no interest in Japanese Cartoons (Yes I am a big fan of them but I they are what they are.) anyway… for the rest of you… if logic has not kicked in yet… A school festival is essentially a fête (and if you still don't know what that is then 仕方がない)

 

 

Brian mailed us to give it a squiz, SO Michelle and I rolled up the hill to see what the big deal was. I was keen to just see some of my old 3rd graders because I did (and still do) miss them terribly.

Each class basically had a stall/shop/event and many of the extra mural clubs had something going on as well. IT WAS MAYHEM! Absolute total Mayhem. Which basically translates to some of the best fun I have had here since the Dashi Matsuri.

 

 

As with everything in Japan to do with schools that I have encountered thus far was almost identical but nothing like the anime equivalent. For the first time I got to see a glimpse of the high school environment for real life. It was a festival to be fair but the vibe was clearly very different. a lot more grown up, a lot more fun. Also got to speak to my old 3rd graders…

many of them were disappointed with High school. after all when it is your every day the gloss wears off after a while. The girls seem to have taken to it better than the boys have. I can only speculate why.

   

Brian has made a generally good impression with the ex Kita-chu kids. The girls love him (ahem) and the Boys are slowly getting over the fact that all the first year girls have crushes on him (Junior high is easier… ALL the first years have a crush on you regardless of their plumbing so nobody feels jealous or left out)

 

They also let him bang drums with them… and he is not half bad.. sort of stands out though (who am I to speak)

 

Basically between being mobbed by my current students, mobbing my ex students and hanging with Brian and Michelle I had a great time. nuff said.

Tokyo Anime Fair 2009

better late than never I suppose… By the way for all ye facebook readers, hit the blog instead.. the format is better than the imported notes.
http://www.bakadaruku.blogspot.com
March 21 2009
TAF09 was a winrar of epic compression. It was at the Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba (Big Sight is an understatement… i think F@CKING HUUGE would be a better description. hell it even has travelators in it)
Basically its the event where all the big and some of the small studios In Japan as well as from other countries come together to show off what they have planned for the next year. Its a typical expo filled with well designed and attractive stands, cute and sexy scantily clad  women enticing you to take flyers promoting whatever it was they were promoting and a whole hall full of Anime Fans from every walk of life.
Basically think rAge but only anime and bigger… and in Japan.

I have not been to yank con but from what i have heard and read the vibe is different. This is a full on commercial expo.. while fans (myself included) have associated many fine and noble things with the series’ and OAVs that are released every year, the truth of the matter is they are a commodity that fatcats need to sell. It had a bit of a let down effect on me. I mean there was passion but it was not the fan driven passion that we had at the DaRC//LAN and we put into the Otaku Magazine. It was very very commercial.
They did a pretty good job too, I fully intend to buy the new Gurren Lagann DVDs when they become available… wait.. I think they are available now ( I need to check those flyers again ).
There was some experimental stuff on view show… 3d anime rocks, and there was alot of bizarre and interesting stuff coming out of the smaller indie studios.
The Koreans and Chinese had big stands but the products on show were sub standard.. hell the chinese stand looked like it had an invisible forcefield around it… like it was HUGE but everyone avoided it, myself included.

animations indeed

and they wonder why nobody was taking the Chinese stand seriously.

In addition to the anime there were alot of figurine and Merchandise promotions as well as a number of stamp rallys, Merch stalls and Avex even had a stage promoting some of the latest Jpop/anime tunes. I even got to see Misono.
All in all it was a good time and I will do it again next year.. but with a better camera, so I can take some nice shots of the promo girls (best part of any non car/military expo IMHO)
oh and don’t forget these ones :