Who is Mirai Suenaga? Who is her daddy and what does he do?

谁是末永未來?

Exactly 1 month ago today, I went to this huge event attended by hundreds of thousands of zerlings people annually called Comiket.

02. Comiket 81 Winter was held from 29 Dec to 31 Dec 2011 at the Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba, Tokyo. Despite statistics showing total attendance for this year is declining compared to previous years, there is still a lot of people! The number of Japanese attending are probably the same. I reckon it’s the foreigners that are fewer this year. No thanks to the high yen exchange rate and fear of earthquake or giant radioactive human eating goldfishes from the  nuclear disaster earlier last year.

Anyway enough with that. Lets move on to the interesting part. The queue! The first picture is upon arrival at 8am-ish. Far far away from the venue. The 2nd picture is taken at 10am when the doors are opened and the queue starts moving. Usually at this time, it’s customary for everyone to clap their hands.

03. At around 10.30am, one can finally see the famous “Grand Staircase”. Despite the massive crowd, everyone more or less moves in an orderly manner.

04. I am pretty sure this is a UFO landing pad. Afterall, where else better for aliens to learn about the human civilization than at Comiket? Especially important information they will be curious to know, like how Humans reproduce themselves.

05. 11am-ish. Almost there! Usually for Day 1, most people will go to the enterprise halls on the 4th floor of West halls to grab the exclusive limited official licensed anime goods. This is the outside staircases leading to the upper west halls where the enterprise booths are. Why take the staircases in the cold and not the escalators inside? For the uninitialized, due to an unfortunate incident involving an abruptly stopped escalator at the same venue in 2008 for Wonder Festival Summer, where 50 people toppled over and around 10 injured, but nobody wants to take responsibility, thus the west halls escalators are closed ever since. What a bummer. *kicks stone*

06. Once inside the halls, it’s a war zone. Unlike the orderly queues waiting to get in earlier, here people tend to push at you. Maybe everyone just want to move fast to get to the next store before the stuffs got sold out. And yes people inside the halls are usually those who have gotten what they wanted and moving on to the next target.

16. Outside is where all the queues are. Unlike inside the halls, here is more orderly. Perhaps because there are representatives from the booths here to manage their own queues. Here, be prepared to wait for at least an hour before you get to buy whatever you want. Especially if the items you are after are popular.

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15. This is one of the popular booths. Type-Moon.

17. And this is how it looks like on day 3 when everything is sold out.

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21. This is taken on Day 2. A separate waiting area different from day 1, for people going into the East halls where the doujin halls are. Now it’s empty…

22. Soon it gets filled up with lots of people.

23. This waiting area is by the sea so you can imagine the chilly sea breeze in winter. Same thing, 2 hours wait.

24. Here is inside the East halls. Well known doujin circles will have booths at the outskirt of the halls so people can form the queues outside.

25. Despite long queues, popular doujin circles will usually have their Comiket releases sold at Toranoana in Akihabara the day after the event so that market demands are met. But many people still prefer to get it at Comiket as prices will be cheaper or it comes bundled with other stuffs.

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28. One of the reasons of coming to Comiket this year is to support our local doujin group CDS who was their first time at Comiket. Am very happy and proud for them. They were selling their Haganai artbook the same one sold at AFA11.

29. To make it even memorable, I got the boss Xeph, who was there, to autograph the book for me. I love autographed items, especially when I get it face to face in person at special events. So thank you very much Xeph! But as much as I love you signing for me, my favourite is still this one. =D

Here’s a nice Tiger and Bunny MAD aka parody of Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt OP. Expand this post for video and screenshot compare.

The animator also did one for the ED as well.

When I was in Japan last month, one of the things I got to do regardless what is to go to McDonald’s. Not that we do not have McDonald’s over here but due to religious respect, we do not have the McPork burger above.

Launched in 2007, the McPork burger is basically a slice of pork patty covered with garlic and black pepper sauce sandwiched with 2 buns, sold at 100yen as part of the 100yen burger menu.

With McPork’s debut, it also spelled the end for the McChicken in Japan which was taken down shortly the McPork went on sale. Guess the Japaneses like pork more than chicken?

Other than Japan, Hong Kong also have a pork menu, the sausage McMuffin with egg. Though muffin, it is available around the clock, not only during breakfast. Maybe Hong Kong people like egg?

Happy Lunar New Year 2012 in the year of the Dragon.

Sasara-chan goes to China town. <3

2. This is the train entrance of Singapore’s China Town, the Chinese name is 牛车水 instead of 唐人街 becos Singapore’s population is mainly Chinese so it will be weird to name a street for the Chinese. 牛车水 means Cow(牛) Vehicle(车) and Water(水). Many decades ago, a lot of carts pulled by cows ferrying water can be seen here thus the name.

3. Very crowded as you go deeper. The weather is good when we visited last week. These few days have been raining almost every day.

4. Sasara-chan is wearing a cheongsam 旗袍 which is a traditional dress for Chinese ladies. It is body hugging have cutting at the sides to shows off the thighs. ^^;

5. Red and Gold are prosperous colours for the Chinese so you see of decorations in red and gold on sale during this period.

6. DD size Chinese Lion Dance lion.

7. S$15 only.

8. Some Chinese New Year clothes for the kids. Cheap. Only S$10.

9. The one priced at S$8 is known as a 肚兜 aka ancient Chinese underwear. Very sexy indeed. Bareback and very cooling at the bottom. ^^;

10. Human size cheongsam. As you can see, this one is tailored for ladies with bigger bust. Like Sasara-chan. ^^;

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19. Some Chinese wall scroll 春联 wishing you safety whenever you go, flourishing bossiness, make big money for the new year etc.

20. These are call yuan bao 元宝, a form of currency in ancient China. Made of gold or silver. The ones behind Sasara-chan are not made of pure gold unfortunately.

21. Fake fire crackers. Igniting fire crackers is a big part of Chinese New Year but for safety reason and to prevent fire hazards, it is banned in Singapore. Only for the Chinese New Year countdown party at Chinese Town do we get to see fire crackers been ignited.

22. Some lantern decorations.

23. Some things to hand on the wall other than moe 2D anime girls.

24. Red packets. These are for parents and seniors to put money inside to give to children.

25. S$1 for a pack. Very nice design. Good for collection too.

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27. Not sure are these officially licensed? Probably not.

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29. Wall of Chinese New Year food. Cheap too. 1 for only S$2.50.

30. Gelatin dessert 果冻 and mochi 麻糬 from Taiwan.

31. Chinese New Year snacks of various varieties.

32. 年糕 Nian Gao or Chinese New Year’s cake.

33. More wall scrolls.

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35. Some very amazing paper carft here. Not sure if they cut this by hand? Just look at the details.

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38. Some 1/6 size dolls. 1 for $4.

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41. Wonder does Disney approve this?

42. 招财猫 Maneki Neko, looks fatter than the 招き猫 from Japan. ^^;

43. These are rather cute I must say.

44. Lucky grass doll. Water them and they will start to grow green hair.

45. Some bread key chain. I have one of these. They smell like real bread too! Amazing. @.@!

46. Huge sun flower is huge.

47. No idea what is name of this flower.

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50. Ok that’s all from China Town. ^^;

So what else one do in Akihabara other then shopping for anime stuff? Look for locations featured in Steins;Gate of course. =D

2. The picture above is the MayQueen Nyan Nyan meido cafe

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to cover all the locations featured in the anime as I wasn’t prepared enough. Maybe I will do a better job next time I am there. ^^;

3. Railings in front of the park.

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5. The park itself.

6. Me doing the stardust shake hand. ^^;

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Regrettably I couldn’t find Ruka’s shrine. But I have it on my map now so will be sure to visit it in future. ^^

If you are in Akihabara, you got to try ゴーゴーカレー Go! Go! Curry!.

This is the Go! Go! Curry along the main street, Chuo-Dori. it must be good as people say since there is a line waiting to go in. Note that this line is queuing to pay for a ticket at the vending machine inside the store and there’s another separate queue waiting for vacant seats. @@

This is how the famous Go! Go! Curry! looks like. Btw it doesn’t come with so much shredded cabbage as you can see,  the extra serving of cabbage is from a friend who was with me who doesn’t fancy vegetable so I took his share. ^^;

Anyway for the uninitialized, there are many types of curries in Japan. One of it is known as the Kanazawa curry, named after Kanazawa the capital city in Japan’s Ishikawa prefecture, which is the type of curry Go! Go! Curry! serves.

So what is so special about Go! Go! Curry? it’s characteristics includes,

- Thick and gooey dark brown sauce
- Shredded cabbage served on the side
- Served in a stainless steel bowl
- Eaten with just a fork
- Pork cutlet placed on top of curry
- Sauce covers the entirety of the white rice below

Yes you read right. the dish is eaten with only a fork! That’s because the curry is so thick even a fork can scoop it up. ^^;

Here’s a map on where Go! Go! Curry! is located. There are 2 stores in Akihabara as far as I know. The one along the main street beside Yoshinoya s the easiest to find.

For those in Singapore, we have 2 branches in ION Orchard and 313@Somerset and a newly opened one at Parco Marina Bay.

Website here for more info.

And don’t worry, in Singapore Go! Go! Curry! all the dishes comes with spoons. ^^;

My birthday is next Monday, January 16. If you really love me and want to give me a birthday present, to make things easy for you, this are the 2 things I want and best of all, they don’t cause a bomb, not that I know how much a bomb cost in the first place.

Anyway first item above is the awesome Lego Darth Vader LED Touch! This one comes with a light saber which can light up, the bottom of the feet is the touch. Very cool. $38.90

The second item is much cheaper, Lego Darth Vader LED Key Light. It is a mini touch key chain. This one have no light saber. No biggie, still cool. S$15.90. Excellent for those who cannot afford the first item or don’t love me enough to justify spending S$38.90 on me. Totally understandable.

Both item are available at Bricks World in Ngee Ann City, level 5. Below is the address and other details.

391, Orchard Road, #05-15A,
Ngee Ann City Podium Block,
Singapore 238872

Operation Hour
Monday-Sunday,
10:30am – 9:30pm

Contact No
Tel: 6734 5512

You need not buy all the 2 above, just 1 will do. But if you want to buy 2 for me, I will accept it of course and put you in my “Awesome Friends” list.  So to conclude, I hope this helps you with what to buy for me for my birthday, so you don’t end up buying stuffs that I don’t like and your name end up on my “Lousy Friends” list.

The 1/1 scale RX-78-2 Gundam is back in Odaiba and I am happy to say when these pictures were taken, last week of Decemeber 2011, the giant mecha is already up and standing. =D

It’s still not fully operational yet. The ground around the Gundam is still under renovation. And there is not lights shining onto it at night so will suggest going in the day or it will be hard to find in the dark.

So it is in Odaiba but where is it exactly located? I wasn’t there in 2009 when it was first up on display but judging from pics around the web taken years ago, I would say it’s at a different location. Maybe somewhere near the original spot I don’t know. But anyway as of right now, it is located as you can see from the first 2 photos, Diver City Plaza. The building looks to be a mall but is still under construction. The nearest train station is the Fune-no-kagakukan station (船の科学館駅) on the Yurikamome line. The easier way to get on the train is to transfer at JR Shimbashi station.

Below is a map of the area. Click for higher res. Once you alight at Fune-no-kagakukan station, you will see a huge car park at one side. It’s hard to miss. Walk in that direction and after getting out of the carpark you should be able to see the Gundam already.

Not sure where these photos of vegetation covered in ice are taken but they sure are a sight to behold. The beauty of nature (as long as it don’t destroy us). More after the jump.