博麗神社～Hakurei Shrine

Happy Birthday Takane and Yumi!

2012-01-21T02:46:00.000-05:00

So it seems I only update this blog now when one of the iM@S idols has a birthday. This time it's Takane, also one of my favorites! Coincidentally, the birthday for Takane's voice actor, Yumi Hara, falls on the same day! So be sure to celebrate both of their birthdays today! As usual, you can get free wallpapers and such from the official site. Also, you get a birthday video from Niconico too!

Happy Birthday Yukiho!!

2011-12-23T23:22:00.000-05:00

I've been away from this blog for a while, but I couldn't pass up saying Happy Birthday to one of my favorite iM@S idols, Yukiho. Happy Birthday! Yes, I know it's not the 24th here in the USA, but it is in Japan, so that means it's her birthday to me. Now go get the free wallpapers and such from the official site!

Translation Blog

2011-11-11T10:08:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, I recently decided that I need to do translations more regularly, partly to challenge myself, and partly to build a catalog of things I've translated. As such, I've decided to translate the THE IDOLM@STER Official Blog into English as it comes out. So as not to clutter up this blog, I'm going to be blogging my translations at http://amakasep.wordpress.com/. I'll also probably do random other translations there too.

THE IDOLM@STER2 PS3 Unboxing

2011-11-02T00:52:00.000-04:00

So I got THE IDOLM@STER2 First-run Limited Production Edition today for PS3! I was so excited! I would have gotten it the day before yesterday, but I just didn't get home early enough to pick it up from the post office. Anyway, I picked it up yesterday, and there was no stopping me. First, a shot of the box.

The box it came in next to my 360 copy of iM@S2

When I picked it up, it was lighter than I had imagined, and I it seemed a little small to get an A1-sized tapestry in it, but opening up would show my fears to be unfounded. Unpacking it all, I found everything I'd hoped for.

The contents of the shipping box

I unrolled the tapestry and the poster to take a look and them, as I had bought the game specifically from Gamers to get them. They are pretty awesome.


The A1-sized tapestry	The B4-sized poster

I also opened up the foil packet to see what was on my anime film strip. Turns out it's the same as the Gamers postcard I got with the set. I wonder if maybe certain stores actually got certain film strips for the pre-orders rather than them being random.

My pre-order film strip

With the pre-order goods out of the way, I decided to open up the actual game box. With the fact that the Complete Production Limited Edition of the iM@S anime Bluray was inside of that too, it made it so that I was opening boxes of awesome stuff inside boxes of awesome stuff. It was Christmas over and over again!

The contents of the game box (ignore the B4 poster on the side)

After going through the stuff in there, and doing things like ripping the Sound Track CD for my music collection, I opened up the Complete Production Limited Edition of the iM@S anime Bluray.

The contents of the LE iM@S anime Bluray box

After that, there's one last thing to do, which is take the Bluray out of its digipak casing, and see what's inside.

The digipak, unpacked

Finally, after opening all that up, I finally got around to actually starting up the game. As I should have expected on PS3, there was an install sequence.

The PS3 install screen

Once I got it installed though, I didn't actually play the game though, since I would want to have the e-mail address DLC before starting the game, and I did not have the funds to purchase them at this time. I did set up everything else I could though. I then tried some Gravure for You! and interestingly enough, that didn't need an install. I messed with it a little, and I think it'll take a bit before I can stop getting the controls confused. I kept taking pictures when I didn't mean to. I might get to a more detailed review of it later, but for now, I leave you with one of the pictures I took in it. Also, for those who want to see more pictures of the unboxing you can go here.

Kara-age!

2011-10-19T21:14:00.001-04:00

So I just made some Kara-age tonight from some kind of Kikkoman kara-age mix. It was really straightforward. I just cut up some chicken, shook it around in a bag with the mix, and then fried it. My results are below.

I made some rice to go with it and just ate that. Wasn't bad. Some of the pieces were still a little powdery, but I blame that on my poor cooking ability. I feel like it was saltier than I would have liked, but I guess it's hard to adjust it when it's a pre-made powder. I'll have to look into a real recipe for kara-age sometime.

iM@S Social Game

2011-10-15T17:35:00.000-04:00

I just saw the banner today about the iM@S Social Game (temp name) coming out at the end of November. Although I had seen the blog post when it came out yesterday, I hadn't gotten around to reading it and sorta forgot about it. Anyway, it's certainly an interesting idea, and I'm curious how it will turn out. It seems that there will be over 100 girls to produce, including the already present 765 Production idols. I do hope the 876 Production idols will be available too, but no news on that. It will apparently be on Mobage. You will put together a team of 5 idols that you will produce from those over 100 girls and you can do jobs with them, raise their abilities through lessons, and have concert battles with rival idol teams. So far, it sounds a lot like regular iM@S, but with a lot more idols. But then they say they're going for some kind of card battle type game. So I'm curious as to what they're going to do with that. I was already getting my card battle IDOLM@STER-ing with Weiβ Schwarz, but I'm sure this has got to be pretty different. I leave you with the current front image for the iM@S Social Game site.

Happy Birthday Hamuzou!

2011-10-10T20:24:00.001-04:00

It's Hamuzou's birthday today! Also Hibiki's. Anyway, as usual, you can get all your wonderful birthday extras from the official iM@S anime website.

First DLC for iM@S2 PS3

2011-10-07T10:26:00.001-04:00

The first DLC for iM@S2 PS3 has been announced! The video is below.

So the most exciting part of that was the end! I'd read from ANN a few days ago that Miku was going to be iM@S2 PS3 as DLC, but I got the impression from the article that maybe she'd just show up in the DOTOP TV as a PV with her song, and maybe show up as a rival at a festival. But she'll be in S4U! as well! That's awesome! Ok, sure it's not quite as awesome as if you were able to produce her in the regular game, but it'll still be amazing to have her in S4U!. I hope that she'll work the same as the other idols and you'll be able to choose her songs, clothing, stage, and stage partners. Looking closely at video though, it looks like "World is Mine" is to be Miku only though. I still hope it means there are Miku versions of the iM@S songs so that you can still put her with the other idols on stage. I'm really looking forward to it.

As for the other DLC, it seems like this is quite a big pack of DLC. It's cool that we're getting Kami SUMMER!!, and there's more than the usual amount of clothing and accessories. They are of course also offering the avatar icon pack and idol e-mail addresses again, although really, I feel like the e-mail addresses should be part of the game. They're just being jerks by making us pay extra for them. At least you have the option of getting them in a pack this time though. Also, wow, first DLC pack and they're already selling the fake, in-game currency? I mean I guess it's a good way to get ahead, especially for those that have already played the Xbox 360 version, but I think it'd still be nice if they could hold off until the second DLC pack.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Demo

2011-09-25T16:08:00.000-04:00

So just the other day, I tried out the Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Demo on my Xbox 360. It was an interesting experience, but I'm not sure I like it a lot. First thing I want to say is that my comparisons will mainly be to Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation. I think that's reasonable, considering that was the last game in the series to come out on the Xbox 360. Anyway, there are two modes in the demo, fighter plane mode and attack helicopter mode. I tried plane mode first.

There are two control schemes you can choose for plane mode. One is called Standard, and the other one is called Original. Standard is an easier mode where the plane auto-levels in the absence of control inputs, and you simply push the left control stick in the direction you want to go. The rudder is still a separate control though that can be used for yaw adjustments. The demo defaults to this control scheme. Original gives you full control, making the x-axis of the control stick control the plane's roll, and making the y-axis control pitch. Plane mode begins with you in control of an F-22 Raptor, and they stick you right in the middle of the action. Immediately, they want you to try out their new game mode, known as Dogfight Mode (DFM). It's a mode you can activate once you somewhat behind another plane and sufficiently close enough by hitting both yaw buttons. It somewhat auto-tracks the plane you are locked onto, letting you dodge buildings and such more easily, as well as letting you have an easier time of firing on your opponent. Opponents can also initiate DFM on you, and you can get out of it by either speeding up and shaking them off, or slowing down until you get close enough to hit both yaw buttons to initiate the counter maneuver, which is simply an inside loop to get behind them in DFM mode instead. I would assume on harder difficulties, the enemies will shake you off more effectively, or use counter maneuver to get behind you, making it a challenge to take down someone, even in DFM. I wasn't a big fan of the mode though. While it allows them to make the game more visually interesting, with exploding plane debris and collapsing buildings, it makes me feel like they've gotten rid of a lot of the challenge in trying to stay on someone's tail. Anyway, once they introduce basic DFM to you, they do the standard introduction of the controls. Everything is the same as Ace Combat 6 except for the high-G turn. Now you accomplish that by hitting just the brake and pulling up, instead of having to hold both the brake and the boost. At the end of the demo mission, they have you do some Quick Time Events, although I haven't tried yet to see what would happen if you failed to pull them off.

Helicopter mode is a brand new mode. This mode also has two control schemes, this time labeled Type-A and Type-B. Type-B is closest to being like the plane mode controls, so I recommend using that for minimal confusion. This mode made me very nauseous after playing for a while, but I get nauseous fairly easily, so I assume it won't be a problem for most people. In this mode, you can sort of lock-on to an enemy by holding the appropriate button, but switching enemies requires letting go of the button, aiming your reticule at the new enemy, then pressing down and holding the lock-on button again. It's hard to re-orient your helicopter while locked on, but it seems for the most part, your helicopter can shoot in just about any direction. Shooting down other helicopters was quite difficult though, as it was quite hard for me to actually hit them with rockets, while machine-gun fire wasn't really enough to take them down. Maybe I was just bad at it. Hitting LB+RB while being targeted by a missile will initiate the counter maneuver for the helicopter, which is simply a barrel roll to evade it. It's a pretty challenging mode too with the fact that the environment is very urban, so a lot of the targets take cover behind buildings etc. Truthfully, I hope there isn't much of this mode in the final game, especially since I got very nauseous playing it.

2011 Fall Engineering EXPO at UIUC

2011-09-24T23:55:00.000-04:00

For those that are interested in what had been keeping me busy for the previous week, I have pictures up now showing my trip out to Illinois to help do job fair recruiting for my company. Of course pictures of me hanging around a booth at a job fair wouldn't be very exciting, so the pictures were mainly taken when I was hanging out with friends before and after the job fair. Just click on the picture below to be taken to the appropriate Picasa album.

Happy Birthday Ryo, CHANGE!!!!, and more anime Blu-ray/DVD release details

2011-09-23T15:17:00.000-04:00

So I've been busy the past couple weeks, so I wasn't able to update, but here's a quick rundown of a few missed iM@S updates.

First, is belated Happy Birthday to Ryo! His birthday was was on September 15th, as shown in Ryo's official character profile.. Unfortunately, there was no love for Ryo on the iM@S anime website, so you don't get the wallpapers, banners and twitter icons this time.

Next, the Official IDOLM@STER Blog announced that a new opening song will be used for the iM@S anime next month! It will be called CHANGE!!!! (Wow that's a lot of exclamation points!). The single CD for it will then be released on November 9th. It will have a first-run limited edition version in a Digipak with a DVD, which will at least contain the non-credit video of the new iM@S opening featuring this song. The first-run edition will be 1,800 yen with tax, and the standard edition will be 1,200 yen with tax.

Finally, there has been some updates on the details on the contents of the Anime Blu-ray/DVD [THE IDOLM@STER Vol. 1], gotten here. The first is that Vocal CD [PERFECT IDOL 01] that comes with the Complete Production Limited Edition will include:

[I'm so free!], a new song by Miki, Azusa, and Takane
[relations -JAZZ Rearrange Mix-], a newly recorded remix by Miki
[隣に... -JAZZ Rearrange Mix-], a newly recorded remix by Azusa
[君はメロディー -JAZZ Rearrange Mix-], a newly recorded remix by Takane

I'm looking forward to this, both for the new song, and because jazz remixes can be pretty awesome. You can listen to a sample of it here.

Next is info on the newly commissioned novel that comes with the Complete Production Limited Edition. Turns out it's going to be a story called [Kotori Working], authored by Tatsuya Takahashi working with illustrator Tooru Minaduki. Reading about this pairing on Wikipedia, it seems these two have worked together for a long time, first working with each other when they were in the same college circle, publishing a manga called [Dead End World]. They worked separately for a short time until Tooru, then working at Aquaplus, invited Tatsuya to join him from Taito. They worked on [Kizuato] and [To Heart] together at Leaf/Aquaplus, then left the company in 2000 to go freelance. Then in 2004, they got back together and formed the company PLAYM along with another comrade from their time at Aquaplus, Romyu. After making two games, PLAYM closed down in 2009, and Tatsuya and Tooru moved to Tokyo to work on a serialized illustrated column in an adult game magazine. Their most recent project together seems to be a serialized comic in Dragon Age called [Other!]. Okay, maybe that was a bit off topic, but after I started reading about it, I thought it was interesting enough to share. Anyway, I'm looking forward to [Kotori Working], not only because Kotori is totally awesome, but also because it'll probably be pretty cool with the Tooru/Tatsuya pairing.

Besides that, no more info from this source specifically on the Complete Production Limited Edition. Both the limited and regular edition releases will have an audio commentary track featuring the voice actors for Haruka, Chihaya, Ami/Mami, and Yayoi. They will also include non-credit openings and endings for the first two episodes, and the web versions of the next episode previews. The plan is apparently that they will release one Blu-ray/DVD each month, starting in October. Seems my wallet is going to leaking money very quickly over the next 9 months.

Note: This post was updated on 2011-09-24 to add links to sources, add a link to the sample of the vocal CD, and word a few things more precisely.

Happy Birthday Kotori!!

2011-09-08T20:49:00.000-04:00

It's Kotori's birthday now in Japan! I hope she has a wonderful day filled with delusions!

As usual, you can get the standard birthday wallpapers and icons and such off of the iM@S anime website's Special Page. Also, I couldn't just leave this with a post just about the birthday freebies, so I've also included a Kotori video I enjoyed from the recent 7th MMD Cup on Niconico.

iM@S Opera Troupe Appears!

2011-09-05T20:11:00.000-04:00

So I couldn't let a iM@S x Sakura Wars video go by without posting it so here it is. I think it's pretty cool. Enjoy!

Lawson Station

2011-09-04T12:50:00.002-04:00

I think the post title speaks for itself.

;ほっとステーション by ;くろのくろ on pixiv

Kami-sama Dolls

2011-09-03T10:11:00.000-04:00

Started watching Kami-sama Dolls (神様ドォルズ) last night and am basically caught up now. I like it. I was amused that the moment I saw Aki, I thought: "It's Accelerator", and I've been more or less right. Utao is really cute; I bet I would tease her like Kyouhei does since she's so cute. I don't understand how most of Hibino's clothing clings perfectly to the underside of her breasts. I blame danbooru and their "impossible_clothing" tag for making me even notice such things. And mikos? Mikos are awesome. Moyako is awesome. I'm glad to see even after they've left the village she will be around. And her sister wears an orange hakama. I'm not sure I have ever seen an orange hakama before. That was weird. And the opening is pretty cool and the songs for the opening and ending are both Chiaki Ishikawa goodness. I'd give a YouTube link, but all the ones I've found there have had their audio made crappy so YouTube won't take it down for copyright infringement.

There are so many Yukihos!

2011-09-01T19:31:00.000-04:00

Yukiho is too cute!

ゆきほ</a> by <a href="http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=12404" target="_blank">い～どぅ～</a> on <a href="http://www.pixiv.net/" target="_blank">pixiv</a></p>

Yumi Hara vs Chihuahua

2011-09-01T09:39:00.000-04:00

I just found out from her official blog that Yumi Hara (原由実) is afraid of dogs, even small ones like Chihuahuas. That's so cute! It's just like Yukiho, except it's Takane!

Nichijou the Fire!

2011-08-31T22:09:00.000-04:00

Now I have only seen the first episode of Nichijou, but watching this video has totally made me want to watch more of this show.

New Blog Look

2011-08-27T18:08:00.000-04:00

If you're one of those rare people that actually come to visit this blog, you may have noticed that the visual style has changed. I've been learning CSS lately, so I thought I'd give customizations a shot. What do you guys think? Feel free to leave feedback in the comments.

More G4U! Details

2011-08-27T14:36:00.003-04:00

The official IM@S blog brings us new details on G4U! First off, Although the video has been up since the beginning of August, I never linked it, so for those who haven't seen it yet, here is the G4U! playthrough promotion video.

G4U! VOL.1 will be on the beach, and as can be seen from the video, the featured outfits are swimsuits. G4U! VOL.2 will be in a school classroom, and we get two school related outfits, one being the school uniform, and the other being the school swimsuit. There are no details yet on further volumes of G4U!.

As posted previously, G4U! VOL.1 will be included in the the PS3 [THE IDOLM@STER 2] First-run Limited Production Edition Special Box, while subsequent volumes will be included in the [Anime & G4U! Pack] for each anime Blu-ray. The IM@S blog warns however that like the Special Box, the Anime & G4U Packs will also be limited production, so to be sure to pre-order if you want to get the later volumes of G4U!.

And it has been confirmed that a film strip containing scenes from the anime will be included as a pre-order extra for ordering PS3 [THE IDOLM@STER 2]. In case you didn't want to spend the money on the Special Box, the pre-order extra will be included even with the standard edition of the game.

IM@S PS3 update and G4U! Vol. 2 info

2011-08-26T18:31:00.001-04:00

Official news on IM@S 2 for PS3 and G4U! Vol. 2 comes by way of Dengeki Online! Some of it confirms what I posted previously, but there is a bunch of brand new stuff too.

First-run Limited Production Edition (19,800 yen, tax included)

PS3 Software [THE IDOLM@STER 2]
Anime Blu-ray [THE IDOLM@STER Vol. 1] Complete Production Limited Edition

Vocal CD [PERFECT IDOL 01]
Newly commissioned novel
Voucher for priority event ticketing
Digipak case with commissioned illustration by Atsushi Nishigori
Special Pin-up

Box to hold all 9 Blu-ray volumes of the anime
PS3 Software [THE IDOLM@STER Gravure for You! VOL.1]
Soundtrack CD for [THE IDOLM@STER 2]
[Monthly Idol Gravure VOL.1], a seasonal idol support magazine

For Monthly Idol Gravure VOL.1, Haruka and Iori are the "PUSH GIRL" for it, which I'm guessing means they're the featured idols.

As for the PS3 game, it will have a new song and a new costume for Ryuuguu Komachi. The song is 七彩ボタン (Seven-colored Button) and the new costume is called プリンセスメロディ♪ (Princess Melody♪). They'll use these in game when you come up against them as rivals in a festival with HYPER mode. They can also be unlocked for use in Stage for You!. A trailer is going to be shown with the new song and outfit at the Tokyo Game Show in mid September.

G4U! VOL.2 will have Mami as the cover girl (yay!), and it will be included in a pack called [Anime & G4U! Pack VOL.2], on sale November 23, 2011 for 9,980 yen, tax included. The pack will also include [Monthly Idol Gravure VOL.2] and of course the anime Blu-ray disc, which will contain episodes 3 through 5. It will also include the following extras:

Drama CD Vol. 1
Material Collection Part 1
Digipak case with commissioned illustration by Atsushi Nishigori
Special Pin-up
Audio commentary from the cast

Well, seems pretty awesome to me. I'll probably end up with all of this somehow. I have no idea how I'd use the voucher for priority event ticketing. I hope it's for more than just one event, so maybe I can get priority ticketed for some IM@S concert. Noooo, I can feel NBGI sucking the money from me already!

IDOLM@STER 2 on PS3?!

2011-07-20T07:04:00.002-04:00

Nooooo, if this source is correct, IDOLM@STER 2 is coming to PS3 on October 27th! Now I might need to buy it again! It will include all the clothing, songs, and accessories up through DLC catalog 3, and it will also include "READY!!", the new anime opening song. I wonder if it will include Little Match Girl? Anyway, I'm actually kind of sad that it's losing Xbox 360 exclusivity. Hopefully it'll be a good port though; I still want people to experience IDOLM@STER favorably. It might be interesting if it did some kind of hook up with the PSP versions to unlock stuff if you had their save data. I doubt it though.

Update:

After reading more stuff on the internet, it seems they will be releasing some kind of super edition of the game that includes a the first disc of the anime as well. This site says this edition will contain:

PS3 Game "IDOLM@STER 2"
PS3 Game "IDOLM@STER Gravure for You! Vol. 1"*
First Blu-ray disc of the IDOLM@STER anime (Limited Production Edition)
Box to hold all of the IDOLM@STER anime Blu-ray discs
Soundtrack CD for the IDOLM@STER 2 game
"Monthly Idol Gravure", a seasonal idol support magazine

*Gravure for You! Vol. 1 is a special disc only available in this set that allows you to do gravure shoots of the idols. Vol. 1 is on the beach, while the planned Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 will have different situations prepared. Each volume will have a set cover girl. Vol. 1's cover girl is Haruka Amami.

Those who pre-order the game (either limited or standard edition) will get a film strip taken from the anime.

Headphone Auditioning

2011-06-04T11:58:00.001-04:00

So I went to a nearby hi-fi audio store the other day to see if they had headphones that I could audition there. I didn't go in with any kind of prepared playlist or anything; I just tried songs off my iPod that I thought might be interesting. Anyway, they allowed me to audition the following headphones:

Grado SR80i
Bowers & Wilkins P5
Denon AH-D5000
Beats by Dr. Dre studio
Grado SR125i

So out of all of them, I liked the Grados and Denon the best. The Denon I liked better for punch and clarity, but the bass was too strong for my taste. They were very comfortable too. The Grados were pretty good, but like other open-backed headphones I've used, they feel like they're missing some impact. It's like they can't focus the music into my ears. That doesn't stop me from using open-backed phones, but it's not where I want to go for impact. Anyway, both Grados sounded very similar; I wasn't able to tell the difference, but I also wasn't able to listen to them side by side.

The Bowers & Wilkins P5 and Beats by Dr. Dre studio headphones were both disappointing. The P5 would not initially stay on my head, but I eventually figured out a way to wear them where they would sound best and stay put. They were pretty comfortable once I was able to do that. When I listened to some recorded piano music on the P5, it seemed to have some problems properly reproducing some of it. I'm thinking perhaps it was muddy? Not sure, but there was definitely something wrong. The studio headphones from Beats by Dr. Dre were quite bad. I couldn't put my finger on how exactly though. It kinda seemed like extra echo or something was being added to the music. Stuff just sounded wrong. I think there was more than that, but that was the most noticeable. So not a fan.

So based on this list alone, after looking up prices on the internet, I'd say go for the Grado SR80i for best price/performance. The SR125i is only about $50 more expensive, but I couldn't tell the difference really, so it might not be worth it. If you don't mind some extra bass, the Denon is definitely the best, but it's also very expensive, being twice as expensive as any of the other headphones on the list. Stay away from the Bowers & Wilkins P5 as well as the Beats by Dr. Dre studio. Definitely not worth the money.

Arcade Stick Artwork 2

2011-06-02T00:54:00.004-04:00

Keeping in mind the advice I got from you all on things to keep in mind when doing arcade stick artwork, I have created a second design. I think this one should still look fine even when hands are covering most of it while in play. Still don't know if I should do something with the buttons or not. Once again, any comments or suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

New and improved(?) arcade stick artwork design

After some advice from another friend, here is an alternative.

Perhaps more improved?

Making Bento

2011-06-01T13:01:00.000-04:00

So I bought a bento box from Kofuku Shop at Harvard Square in Boston, MA this past weekend, and decided to try to make use of it today. This was my first time making a bento. When making the food for it this morning, I discovered that it didn't actually hold a whole cup of rice in the bottom tray, so I'm thinking next time I make rice for it, maybe 3/4 cup is the way to go. Nevertheless, I didn't really plan out the box, so it's not a particularly balanced meal, but still, at least I got some vegetables in it. It's got some approximation of tamagoyaki in it, a hot dog, and my first effort at blanching spinach. Spinach really does take up a lot less room after cooking it, so I'll have to make more next time. Anyway, I have a picture below of my finished efforts right before I was going to start eating it for lunch today. The milk coffee is mine too, but anything past that is not.

My delicious first-time bento (with Milk Coffee!)

New keyboard

2011-05-20T18:15:00.001-04:00

Just got my Japanese keyboard from Lenovo today. They were FAST! I just ordered from them yesterday! They also spelled my name totally wrong, replacing all S's in my last name with F's. As I expected from when they gave me the part number, I got a Chicony-made keyboard. I haven't really used it enough yet to say if I think it's any better or worse than my old keyboard. Taking out the old one though, I discovered it was an ALPS-made model. Anyway, successfully installed it into my laptop. Some pictures are below.

My new Chicony-made JP keyboard installed in my laptop

My old ALPS-made US keyboard after being removed

With the new keyboard in, of course I had to now get Windows to understand that I had a 106-key keyboard now instead of a 101-key keyboard, so I relied once again on my friend caelk's posts on his experience with changing the mappings, and did the instructions in reverse, since he was trying to change from 106-key layout to 101-key layout. I followed his link, and voila, it works beautifully!

Weiß Schwarz IDOLM@STER 2 Trial Deck!

2011-05-19T08:18:00.003-04:00

The IDOLM@STER blog announced that Bushiroad is releasing the IDOLM@STER 2 Trial Deck this weekend! It will include the GO MY WAY! climax card, and a the BK MANIAC event card. It will sell for 1,300 yen (tax included). Need to pick it up sometime! Go my way, whoo!

Arcade Stick Artwork

2011-05-17T23:36:00.001-04:00

After modding my Mad Catz Fightstick TE recently with the Toodles MC Cthulhu and Imp v2, I started thinking about maybe replacing the artwork on it with custom artwork as well. I put together a quick design with gimp...well, it would have been quick if I could use gimp properly.

Anyway, what do you guys think? Feel free to leave impressions and suggestions in the comments.

Pretty Cure Splash Star

2011-05-02T00:17:00.000-04:00

Just finished Pretty Cure Splash Star! Moving on to Yes! Pretty Cure 5 after this. Hopefully will update later with actual impressions of Splash Star.

Anime Boston 2011

2011-05-01T22:06:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of updates. However, I recently went to Anime Boston, and now you can see my photos here!

AQUAPAZZA, the official Queen of Heart

2011-02-25T16:36:00.003-05:00

Just found out today about a fighting game to be released by Examu (the makers of Arcana Heart) and Aquaplus, called AQUAPAZZA -AQUAPLUS DREAM MATCH-. It's kind of crazy that this exists. I remember playing many years ago a doujin Aquaplus character fighting game called Queen of Heart (by 渡辺製作所, no longer active), and I would never have expected an official fighting game to eventually happen. So far, it looks like the game will have at least the following Aquaplus properties in it:

Routes
To Heart
To Heart 2
Comic Party
Tears to Tiara
Utawarerumono

It will be for the TAITO Type X² hardware, and it will use the NESiCAxLive service. The first trailer is below, and the second trailer can be watched on the official website.

This Season's Anime

2011-02-21T05:07:00.001-05:00

Just got through watching a bunch of anime from this season. I have included below a one sentence summary of what I've seen of the show (which may only have been one or two episodes), followed by some brief impressions. Take them as you please.

Infinite Stratos: A fanservicey show about girls at a school who pilot flying robots, and the one guy that can also pilot the robots. An okay show, initially annoying due to how dense the main character is. Cecilia made me think of Mint from Galaxy Angel, due to her blue color scheme, high-class background, and mech that uses remote controlled bits to allow her to fire from any angle. Also, so far Charlotte is totally the cutest. I'll plan to keep watching it.
Yumekui Merry: A guy who has the ability to see when Dream Demons are attempting to enter reality helps a girl with no memories of her past try to return to the world of dreams. There's more to it, but I couldn't figure out how to do it in one sentence. A pretty good show; I recommend it. I will forewarn you that it will make you want donuts.
Fractale: Set in the far future, in a world where humans live like nomads and rely on technological dopplegangers to do all the work, a boy with an affinity for old technology meets a priestess on the run and rediscovers the joy of direct human interaction. Not sure where it's going from here, as I've only seen up to the second episode, but it seems interesting. I'll probably watch some more.
Level E: An alien crash lands Earth, and asks for help from a guy who just moved into the area. Only seen the first episode, and the character interaction has been pretty funny so far with this show, but I'm not sure I'm going to pursue it any further.
Dragon Crisis: A boy gets dragged into helping his older female cousin retrieve a suitcase in which they discover a dragon in the form of a young girl. I've only seen the first episode, so that's all I've got for you. I'm kind of tempted to watch it since the dragon is voiced by Rie Kugimiya, but other than that, I'm just not very excited about it.
Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka: A guy, who is a zombie brought back to life by a necromancer girl, ends up also getting involved with a magic clothing girl armed with a chainsaw, and a vampire ninja girl while attempting to discover the serial killer who murdered him. As you might expect from the description, fanservicey, and generally over the top. Not sure where it is going, but not terribly interested.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica: In exchange for becoming a magical girl who will fight evil witches that spread misfortune across the world, a magical creature will grant any wish you desire; however, being a magical girl is far harder and sadder than you might imagine. I'm not sure what I think about it. It doesn't really leave me interested in finding out what happens next. Regardless, I'll keep watching it for now and see how it goes.
GOSICK: A girl with an extremely sharp intellect who is locked away in a library ends up on adventures with a new student where she finds some intellectual stimulation in solving mysteries for her incompetent half-brother detective. Not a bad show, but a few of the mysteries have been far too straightforward, I would have thought anyone could have solved it. I'm not sure mysteries really are the true point of the series though, and I see it as rather more focused on the relationship of the new student and the very tsundere girl. I do enjoy it so far, so I'm planning to keep watching.
Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne: About a guy who with many erotic urges and two girls, one his sister, that totally want to get in his pants but can't, and a third girl who loves BL and has made him her pet. First thing is dang, that's a long title for a show. Next is that it actually got kind of interesting after the first episode. Also, it is fanservicey, but not as much as you might expect. Perhaps the home video release will change that. I'm somewhat interested in seeing what happens, so I'll be watching more of this for now.
Rio - Rainbow Gate!: Based on a popular pachinko game character, it seems to be about a dealer girl who befriends a little girl and goes around bringing luck to gamblers and beating people at casino games. At least that's what I got from the first episode. Definitely fanservicey. I might watch one or two more episodes to see if it's going anywhere, but I don't know. Maybe they can make casino games as exciting as eating bread was in Yakitate Japan.

New IM@S Anime Info!

2011-01-28T23:34:00.001-05:00

The IM@S anime website updated today with brand new info on the the series! We now know who some of the staff are besides the voice actors. They are:

Original Creator: Namco Bandai Games (That was a given)
Original Character Design: Toshiyuki Kubooka (Another given)
Director and Character Design: Atsushi Nishigori

Nishigori's Former Works:

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (Main Character Design, Animation Director)
Gurren Lagann (Character Design)

Series Composition: Touko Machida and Atsushi Nishigori

Machida's Former Works:

Lucky Star (Series Composition, Screenplay)
Tears to Tiara (Series Composition, Screenplay)

Series Director: Noriko Takao

Takao's Former Works:

K-ON! and K-ON!! (Storyboard Direction for several episodes)
CLANNAD (Storyboard Direction for several episodes)

Lead Art Directors: Haruko Iizuka and Akira Takata

Iizuka's Former Works:

WORKING!! (Art Director)
A Certain Magical Index II (Art Director, Key Animator for the Opening)

Takata's Former Works:

Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. Solid State Society (Key Animator)
Durarara!! (Overall Art Director)

Production: A-1 Pictures

A-1's Former Works:

Valkyria Chronicles
Welcome to the Space Show

As many have assumed, it seems the new show will in fact be set in the world of the IM@S games, so I'd guess that we aren't getting giant robots this time. Unless they're introducing giant robots in IM@S 2. That would be pretty crazy.

New IDOLM@STER Anime announced!

2011-01-10T22:53:00.005-05:00

Earlier today on the official IDOLM@STER blog, they revealed that a new IDOLM@STER anime had been announced at "THE IDOLM@STER 2 765pro H@PPINESS NEW YE@R P@RTY !! 2011" event that same day! Further details will be contained in the March issue of Megami Magazine, due to be released on January 29th. The broadcast of a new IDOLM@STER radio show at HiBiKi Radio Station, tentatively called "Anime IDOLM@STER Radio" will also begin on that day. You can listen to a pre-broadcast commentary found there currently. Although many details will not be available until the release of Megami, all current info can be found on the newly opened anime official site, including the 1st PV below that was shown at the event. The site includes a countdown to the 29th, and for each day, a celebratory handwritten message from the cast will be added to the site.

From what is provided in the PV and the pre-broadcast commentary, we can determine the following about the new IDOLM@STER anime:

It uses the same voice actors as the game does.
The character designs are based off of the ones for iM@S 2.
All thirteen of the current 765 Production idols will be in it.

Anything more would be pure speculation at this point. For those that are up to it, they are taking guesses as to who you think the anime character designs are being done by. If you would like to guess, you can send them a message from the Anime IDOLM@STER Radio site.

(Steam) Punk isn't Dead!!

2010-12-12T15:31:00.006-05:00

Hi, I'm Kuukai! I'm new to the blog, but I'm a longtime friend of AmakaseP and we have similar interests! I have no idea how to use Blogger, so bear with me!

When Famitsu first ran the headline "Brand-New Sakura Taisen Game Underway" I pretty much joubutsu-ed in my pants. This excitement quickly subsided due to it being browser-based and a general lack of information, but now it's back!

As they announced before, the game is an online browser-based game being developed by TRINITY.GS and published by RoCWorks Co., Ltd., but with all the art and concept work being done by Red Company. I didn't know what to expect, but probably should have. Feast your eyes on Daiteikoku Gakuen!

Sakura Taisen: Taishou Rōman Gakuentan, newest game in the Sakura Taisen series, is a high school simulation game! It's like they combined Sakutai with Tokimemo Online! It seems like it will feature all of the characters we've met up till now, plus the players themselves. It's probably of dubious canon status, and I doubt Akahori is penning the story, but in any case I'm casting my lot that the villain is either Christianity or Shinto. The teaser video they have up on the official site looks pretty impressive, the battle system already looks more exciting than Kimi Aru ga Tame! I leave you with the epic main visual for the game, by Hidenori Matsubara:

Nanoha stuff arrived!

2010-12-02T23:21:00.001-05:00

I got my Nanoha-type and my Nanoha THE Movie 1st Blu-ray today! The first thing it had to do to me of course was make me sad I didn't get the Blu-ray from GAMERS, since the first page of Nanoha-type is an promotion that shows off a super special GAMERS edition of the blu-ray with all sorts of extra cool stuff. It's got a tapestry (i.e. wall scroll) that I could probably never put up and B3 posters and a tote bag and a clear file and an even more special box. NOOOOOO! Well, it would have been considerably more expensive though, so I guess I'm sorta okay with not getting it? No not really, but oh well. Anyway, Nanoha-type is surprisingly hefty, being about 13mm (1/2 inch) thick. So the biggest news I discovered upon getting Nanoha-type is that: Magical Girl Lyrical NANOHA The MOVIE 2nd A's has been confirmed! Ok, so you probably got that from a different site by now, since not only has the magazine been out for a few days now, it's just reporting on how they announced that over a week ago at Lyrical Party IV on 2010-11-23. Nevertheless, I was excited.

Their other big announcement that occurred during Lyrical Party is that they're making another Nanoha game for the PSP: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's PORTABLE -THE GEARS OF DESTINY-. A quick glance over the content for that seems to show that they're adding two more heroines to it. They will be original characters named Amitie Florian and Kyrie Florian. There seems to be quite a bit more information about it as well, and maybe I'll get to putting it online a different day. Besides info on the new game, they also have a nice section about -THE BATTLE OF ACES- with some short stories included.

As for the rest of the magazine, I would bet the most interesting new information would be in the special dialog with Yukari Tamura and Nana Mizuki as well as the long interview with Masaka Tsuzuki. Outside of that, there are the guides to the comics ViVid and Force, as well as the complete The MOVIE 1st guide (I was highly amused that they accidentally did a combination of Raising and Raging for Raising Heart's name and labeled it Raiging Heart). There's also a history of Nanoha through event dates and DVD and comic release dates, and a section with pictures of every single piece of Nanoha merchandise ever. That's actually where the Weiss Schwarz Nanoha pin-up comes in, as it is exactly that: a pin-up poster that has images of all the Nanoha Weiss Schwarz cards. That kind of disappointed me, but I really didn't know what else to possibly expect from that. There's also a section that has various comics by guest artists, and that is what makes up a fair portion of the girth of the magazine. In terms of included merchandise, it does include the one year (from December 2010 to December 2011) planner and ballpoint pen as listed. The most amusing thing is that the planner and pen came with instructions, telling you things like "Don't wave the planner around" and "Don't throw the planner." It was pretty funny.

Anyway, there is undoubtedly a treasure trove of info in here, and I may highlight some interesting tidbits once I get through it, but otherwise, I'm sure there's a lot of good info that could go on the Nanoha Wiki. I bet someone there is already working on it.

As for the movie, I'd already seen it before in Japan, but overall, I still recommend it over watching the regular series. Although you miss out on character development for Alisa and Suzuka, and the development of Nanoha and Fate's relationship gets a little rushed, for the most part, making it a movie made the plot more solid. They also added a fair bit on Precia's past, making it worth seeing the movie even if you have already seen the show. They did update some things for the movie though, with Alisa's house suddenly having a Wii, even though they didn't even exist yet when Nanoha first came out in 2004.

As for the Blu-ray itself, there are a number of extras that came with the Blu-ray too, and those were all listed in the last post. I'll perhaps look at those another day. I did look at the special disc though, and figured out what the recording of the string instruments thing was about. It seems that for the movie they actually had a string orchestra perform the string instruments, so the recording is just a recording of the string orchestra. As for the first day stage greeting, it seems at some movie theaters in Japan, on the first day of the movie release, they had a special appearance by some of the voice actors after the movie was over and they talked for a bit, so this is just a recording of those events.

Wind Translation

2010-11-29T21:48:00.007-05:00

So because a friend brought it up, I remembered that my very old transliteration of the song "Wind" by Megumi Hasegawa (長谷川めぐみ) comes up in a Google search for me. I looked at it, and while there are certainly things I would like to change (actually, I think it's just one thing in particular), for the most part it's good. There just isn't too much to mess up in a transliteration. Anyway, being unsatisfied with the translation that a friend of mine tried to make for it (to be fair, it was his first translation, and song translation is hard), I thought I'd give it a shot myself, now that my Japanese level has improved considerably over the years. It's not a straight literal translation, as I took a few minor liberties that I felt conveyed both the meaning and feeling of the words better. Anyway, you can find both the original lyrics and my translation below:

My Tranlsation:
Somewhere in this blue sky, there is someone I meet suddenly.
The summer sun shines down brightly.

Being shaken by the streetcar, escaping the never-changing city.
The unchanging seasons are carried by the wind.

I'll never forget what it's like to be in love.
Even an insignificant promise is a treasure to me.

Even if the memories of those days become distant,
they will never fade from my heart.

When my lips part, an overflowing melody
streams through the window. The road goes on.

Because of things like wanting too much
or words being inadequate, lovers will always face trials.

How about you and me? Would you say our hearts are lost
and we hurt each other over everyday things?

I want to grab hold of the important things.
Catch it all in a lightly floating cloud!

When I blow softly into my pocket harmonica,
my heart is suddenly pained.

With tears down my cheeks, I overcome my sadness.
Together, I want to reflect the sunset in our eyes.

My feelings live on, because someday, surely, we'll meet again.

Original Japanese Lyrics:
この青い空のどこかに　突然出会う人がいる
夏の太陽がまぶしく照らす

路面電車に揺られてく　変わらない街を抜けて
変わらない季節　風が運んでく

恋する気持ちを忘れないよ
ちっぽけな約束も私にはたからもの

あの頃の想いは遠く離れてても
私の胸の中　色褪せない

くちびるを開くとあふれるメロディが
窓を流れていく　道は続いてる

何かを求めすぎてたり　言葉が足りなかったために
恋人はいつもテストを受ける

あなたと私はどうかな　心は迷子になって
なにげないことで　傷つけあうかな

大切なものをつかみたいよ
ぽっかりと浮かぶ雲　そのすべて受け止めて

ポケットのハモニカ　そっと息を吹くと
心が急にせつなくなるよね

涙が頬伝い　悲しみを乗り越え
ふたりで夕暮れを　瞳にうつしたい

想い続けている　いつの日かきっとあえるから

Nanoha The MOVIE 1st

2010-11-28T11:40:00.001-05:00

While I was pre-ordering Nanoha-type a few day ago, I figured I would also pre-order the First-run Limited Edition Nanoha The MOVIE 1st on Blu-ray since it was also coming out within the next few days. I had no idea what it came with really, other than that I was pretty sure it had some kind of booklet with it. I wasn't expecting it to have English subtitles, but I figured I could find some fansub of it later to show people who didn't understand Japanese. However, looking at the what actually comes with it, I'm even more excited than before. Behold, the contents of the First-run Limited Edition Nanoha The MOVIE 1st Blu-ray box!

First-run Limited Edition (taken from Amazon.co.jp)

First-run Limited Edition contents (taken from Official Nanoha Site)

8,800 yen with tax included
Comes in a special package
Pocket-sized movie pamphlet
A 52-page booklet
Blu-ray of the movie (Same as standard edition)

130 minutes long + extras at 1920x1080 on a dual-layer disc
Audio Tracks

2-channel Linear PCM
5.1-channel dts HD master audio
Character Commentary in dts STEREO by:

Subaru Nakajima
Teana Lanster
Erio Mondial
Caro Ru Lushe
Vivio Takamachi
Nanoha Takamachi
Fate T Harlaown

Subtitles

Japanese
ENGLISH! (Okay, I was far too excited about this part)

SPECIAL DISC

Collection of the Nanoha movie trailers
Collection of the Nanoha movie TV commercials
Footage from Tokyo International Anime Fair 2009
A recording of the movie's string accompaniment
First day stage greeting
Footage from JAPAN EXPO 2010
A symposium featuring the movie voice actors

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha-type!

2010-11-24T22:29:00.002-05:00

Cover for the first Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha-type

I heard about this a while back, but now that I know more about it, I decided to post about it. They're coming out with a -type magazine for Nanoha! When I say -type magazine, I mean of the same series as Newtype and Nyantype, and as such, it will also be published by Kadokawa Shoten. As per the name, it will be a magazine dedicated entirely to Nanoha. The first issue, the January 2011 edition, will be released on 30 November 2010, so in just a few days really. It will cost 780 yen including tax, and will include things such as the following:

An item set that consists of a Lyrical Schedule Notebook and a Magical Ballpoint Pen
A Weiss Schwarz Nanoha Series Complete Pin-up
A complete report on NANOHA The MOVIE 1st in commemoration of the DVD & BD release
A special dialogue between Yukari Tamura and Nana Mizuki
A long interview with Masaki Tsuzuki
And much more!

IDOLM@STER 2 Release Date and Extras!

2010-11-18T20:18:00.008-05:00

THE IDOLM@STER 2 First Run Limited Edition Cover

The release date for IDOLM@STER 2 has been decided! It will come out on Thursday, 24 February 2011. Pre-orders are slated to begin on 19 November, 2010 in Japan, which means they've probably already started, or will be starting very soon. It will be priced at 8,800 yen with tax included. There will be a first run limited edition version of the game with special extras. Once the limited edition version sells out, people will only be able to get the standard edition, so you should hurry up and pre-order if you want the special edition! There will of course also be pre-order extras as well. The details are given below.

Illustration of the Contents of the First Run Limited Edition

First Run Limited Edition Contents*:

Sparkly package
Specially commissioned promotional photos of the 765 Productions idols (Set of 4)
765 Productions employee identification card (includes employee no. + serial ID)

If you register your serial ID at Lalabit Market, you'll be able to access early pre-orders for concerts and other such services.

*The first run limited edition will be produced in a limited number. Any orders beyond this limited number will receive the standard edition. Box design and contents may be changed without notice in the final version.

Illustration of the Pre-Order Contents

Pre-Order Contents*:

An exclusive card that allows downloading of the new song: Little Match Girl

The song will NOT be available any other way
The PV for the song will be released in December

A set of 2 IDOLM@STER 2 promotional cards for Weiss Schwarz.

*Please be aware that there are only a limited number of pre-order items. Pre-order item design and contents may be changed without notice in the final version. Some stores may not offer the pre-order items, so please check before you order.

MASTER ARTIST 2 -FIRST SEASON- Cover Song Info

2010-09-10T16:23:00.007-04:00

The cover songs for the first set of THE IDOLM@STER MASTER ARTIST 2 -FIRST SEASON- CDs have been decided, and you can submit requests now for songs you would like them to cover for the second set of CDs. The first set of song covers are:

Haruka Amami

Sekai de ichiban ganbatteru kimi ni (Original by HARCO)

Hibiki Ganaha

Nada sou sou (Original by Ryoko Moriyama)

Miki Hoshii

Squall (Original by Eiko Matsumoto)

Haruka Amami, Hibiki Ganaha, Miki Hoshii

Tip Taps Tip (Original by HALCALI)

The second set of CDs will feature Makoto Kikuchi, Chihaya Kisaragi, and Takane Shijou, and they are taking requests now for a song that each one will cover, and what they will do as a group. For those interested, you can fill out a request here. It's a pretty long application, and it's all in Japanese, but if you succeed, these three will sing the song you choose. Good luck!

IDOLM@STER News!

2010-09-09T18:22:00.005-04:00

Lots of exciting IDOLM@STER news coming out now! I just caught up on the official blog, so here are the most exciting news bits I found.

Starting with IDOLM@STER arcade news, the arcade machines no longer support online play as of the end of August. In commemoration though, they showed off an awesome device on the official blog, being a portable THE IDOLM@STER arcade machine in a suitcase! The pictures are below.

The innards of portable IDOLM@STER arcade

Slot for inserting your Producer Card, etc

Portable IDOLM@STER arcade in action

As you can see, it's totally awesome. With this, who needs IM@S PSP?

For IDOLM@STER fans with a PS3, although they still haven't made any plans to release the game on the PS3, the people who participated in the THE IDOLM@STER SPECIAL LIVE in PlayStation Home could very well become part of the Guinness World Records. With 124,750 participants, they are aiming for a record in "Most Participants in a Virtual Concert".

In IDOLM@STER 2 news, Ritsuko is moving up in 765 Production, now taking on the role of producer. It's not clear if she will continue to be an idol, but it says she is still doing multiple things at 765 Pro, so I'm guessing yes. As a producer, she will be managing an idol group by the name of "Ryuuguu Komachi" (竜宮小町), consisting of Iori, Ami, and Azusa. It should be interesting. I'm going to guess that they'll be an idol group you compete against in Idol Academy, probably in some kind of story mode like in IM@S PSP. I'd also assume you can't pick those 3 idols to be in your group for that mode either. I'd expect to be able to use them in Free Produce though. We'll see.

The members of Ryuuguu Komachi

In further news, they will have a playable demo of IM@S 2 at TGS2010, and there will also be a new PV, featuring Ryuuguu Komachi singing one of their songs, "SMOKY THRILL". The demo and PV will also be available for download on Xbox Live. I can't wait!

Title screen for IM@S 2 TGS TRIAL EDITION

They'll also be selling IM@S 2 merchandise at TGS. One of the items is a "THE IDOLM@STER 2 765 Production Guide", which comes with individually wrapped cookies. Just looking at the box makes me want it.

The irresistible 765 Production Guide

They're also selling a case of THE IDOLM@STER 2 Strawberry Crunch snacks. The box for that didn't excite me nearly as much, but it's still cool. Apparently these will actually still be available after TGS from LaLaBit Market.

Well, that's it for now, I'll try to keep on top of the IM@S blog and bring you the latest in IM@S news!

A dream I had last night

2010-08-15T08:47:00.003-04:00

I don't remember it all very clearly, but I figured I'd try to put down what I can remember of a dream I had last night. Sorry for it not making a lot of sense, but I figure that's how dreams are.

In my dream, there was going to be a new Lois and Clark TV show, and I was probably talking to a friend about it. It moved into being the first episode of the show, and Lois and Jimmy were at the Daily Planet office when Clark just kind of wanders in and starts listening to their discussion. It takes them a while to realize Clark is there, but then when they do they're like, "Oh my god, where have you been" because he'd disappeared for a long time. Then the Daily Planet is attacked by some kind of liquid alien that starts to fill up the Daily Planet building and I remember finding it bizarre that the roofs for different rooms in the building opened up as the water/liquid started reaching the top of the room. I was suddenly in the episode at this point, and we somehow escaped that, then came to know that another space object landed at some remotely located giant mansion, and that we had to go retrieve it before the bad guys did. We showed up there, and got it, and then for some reason Clark had to transform into Superman, but it actually required some kind of alien transformation he received that made it look like he had to hold his breath and make his face turn red, and his red face persisted with a clearly defined black border on on his face when he was Superman. He also was like "Lois, I'm Superman, sorry I never told you" and they flew off. I ended up having to get something else at the mansion, and was there with someone else too. We went in and got stuck in a pit room where like all the walls and shelves were like couch cushions and it was very difficult to climb out because of all the stuff around too like phone book manga and a computer. One of the kids of the people living in the mansion was there, but couldn't help us get out. We finally did, and my partner got a fancy replacement yellow car since our car got run over and smashed to pieces by the car of the family that lived there. Since he got out first, he left in his car, and then they gave me my car, which was on a trailer attached to some small vehicle that was about the size of a riding lawnmower, and I couldn't use the car itself or transform the car until I got down to the bottom of the mountain the mansion was on. The small vehicle was also manual transmission, and had to be set in a specific way to successfully start up in different countries. I got going, but some of the bad guys caught up with me as I was leaving so I barreled down the mountainside fighting them off. I got to the bottom and was able to get into my transforming car, but one of the bad guys hopped on the back and was trying to stop me from transforming the car so I could use it to drive away. I got it started, but I could only find one of the two pedals I needed to push to make it transform, and of course the bad guy was continually trying to stop me from behind my seat. Then I woke up, and the dream was over, and I decided to type it up on my blog.

Craig's Visit and Otakon 2010

2010-08-05T00:17:00.004-04:00

My friend Craig came to visit this past weekend for Otakon 2010; I've now posted pictures of that. You can find the pictures here. A selection of some of the more interesting images are provided below.

We actually ate at Geno's, but I took a picture of Pat's

Autograph and small sketch from Hiroshi Koujina

Everyone evacuating due to fire alarm at Otakon

This Talim was apparently quite popular;
She told me I was the hundredth-something person
to take her picture.

Craig as Adult Akatsuki Naruto with Rasengan
was surprisingly popular.

Dolphin Show at the National Aquarium that we saw after the con.

Alaska Cruise

2010-06-07T22:07:00.000-04:00

For those that may not have heard, I was on an Alaska cruise last week. I went with my brother and parents, and we took Norwegian Cruise Lines' Norwegian Star. I had a good time for the most part, but I now know that even with Meclizine, small planes are bad for me. Got wonderful views of glaciers though before I had to cradle my head in my hands. Anyway, I won't be providing a travelogue of this trip, as my brother will already be doing so, with pictures that are probably better than mine. As such, I defer to him, and you can check his website - http://www.andeys.com/. He doesn't have anything up yet, as we just finished the trip, but he'll definitely be putting stuff up. Look forward to it!

Touhou x Macross 7

2010-06-07T21:41:00.004-04:00

I was looking through my Niconico settings today, and while I was at it, I took a look at my favorited videos list and found some stuff that I had completely forgotten about. One of them is particularly awesome, because Macross 7 is awesome, so I have provided a YouTube link here for your pleasure.

Japan 2010, Day 17 (Final Day)

2010-05-02T23:28:00.003-04:00

Sunday, March 28, 2010

This was the last day in Japan. We got up and did any last minute packing, and Arnond borrowed my scale for his luggage. I headed out first, leaving my bags at the front, and went to Akiba for the last shopping on the trip.

Arriving at Akiba on the last day

Chris didn’t realize what time it was and ended up checking out of the room late. I hope that hotel isn’t unhappy with us, we certainly used their rooms in ways that I think they had never intended, but we certainly didn’t mess them up and properly paid for it all. I had lunch at Star Kebab, and I went back to the hotel to pick up my stuff, getting there a bit after 13:00. I ran into Chris there, and we both hauled our bags to Ueno, then Tokyo, and succeeded in catching the Special Rapid Narita Express that we had tickets for.

Chris and our luggage in Tokyo Station

We ran into Arnond heading to the hotel as we got to Ueno Station, so not surprisingly, he was unable to catch the same Narita Express and took the one after us instead. Security at Narita was different than in the US; after getting off the train, there was a checkpoint before even entering the airport where you had to first show some ID. Then at security, you didn’t have to remove your shoes. Anyway, made it to the gate without any trouble and waited there for the plane. Arnond took quite a bit of time to make it to the gate though; he apparently had run into a lot of trouble getting there. First he apparently lost his JR pass after getting on the Narita Express, so he had to pay upon exiting the station at Narita, and then they gave him trouble because his passport was in bad condition because he accidentally put it through the laundry on this trip. I think he may have had some other problems too, but regardless, this put him a little behind. Luckily, we all left for Narita early enough that he made the plane on time. On the plane ride back, although I was on the same plane as Arnond, we basically didn’t talk, just because we were asleep for most of the time, and our seats weren’t close. He was lucky and got an exit row seat though. I talked to this lady next to me who hadn’t been living in the US for a while now, coming from Singapore where she was helping train people for her company in other countries. It was interesting speaking with her. Anyway, we got to Chicago early, and though it took a while, I made it through immigration and met up with Arnond at the bag claim.

Arnond, safely back in the USA

We then went through customs without a problem, although we were both sent to be more thoroughly interviewed, as we had bought a lot of stuff. Although he had gotten ahead of me at customs, he passed up the area to check in his bags for his next flight, so had to head back for that, putting him behind me by the time I got to security to get into the area for the domestic flight gates. I hung out with him until he had to board, and then got on my own plane to Philly. I think we may have been a bit delayed in landing at Philly due to the low cloud ceiling, and we had to wait a little bit after landing before we could taxi all the way to the terminal. Picked up my luggage and found that the commuter airport train was not running for some reason, and that they were running a shuttle instead. I got on that, went back to 30th Street Station and stopped by my office cubicle. I found they had completely redone my cubicle and my stuff was in all sorts of crazy boxes, which I’ll sorted out later. Then I caught a cab back to my place from the station. I tried to figure out what I needed to do for work the next day, set my alarm, messed with the computer a bit, then went to sleep. And that’s the end of the trip!

Japan 2010, Day 16

2010-05-02T23:19:00.002-04:00

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Chris and I got up kinda late, since we both wanted a little more sleep, and Arnond dropped by before heading out. He actually hung around for a while as I was prepping to go and Chris was doing laundry, even though we told him he should go ahead without us. He finally relented about going on his own and left. I left not too long after, but came back since I forgot my coat and money. By that point, Chris was about ready to go, so we left for the fair together and picked up train tickets to the airport for tomorrow. We tried the “back by popular demand” Texas Burger at McDonalds for lunch, and didn’t find it that great. We then went into the fair, and began walking around the trade show. As to be expected, there were flyers galore, and official booth cosplayers.

Booth babe for SATELIGHT

It seemed showing off anime on 3D televisions was a big thing this year, with several booths doing that. I was able to get some free custom stickers from the GONZO booth, which had apparently revived itself, and I passed on getting the special Saki pack they were selling. I picked up a Neko Jump CD from the SATELIGHT booth, and saw part of their stage performance later in the day. I also picked up an official guidebook, more as a commemorative thing, as I didn’t open it once while I was there. Arnond left before me as he had finished looking around, and after I finished up, I also left. I dropped off stuff at the hotel, and Chris called up asking where we were. I told him I was meeting up with Arnond for dinner at AKIBA ICHI, and so he asked us to wait, which we did. I tried to find the place I’d heard had some kind of huge 20cm thick burger there, but to no avail. We settled on a curry place, and then Arnond and I rushed off to do some last minute shopping before Akiba closed. Afterwards, we met up and went to karaoke, although it seemed we should have come earlier, as there was a 40 minute wait.

Chris with Pikachu while we waited for Arnond to meet up with us for karaoke

We got in about an hour of singing before we had to catch the train back to our hotel, and then we spent a good amount of time trying to pack all our stuff so we could leave Japan tomorrow. As I had predicted, my portable scale came quite in handy for properly packing all the bags so they would not be overweight.

Japan 2010, Day 15

2010-05-02T23:14:00.002-04:00

Friday, March 26, 2010

I got up and checked out today, and had the front desk hold on to my bags. I then rushed off to the IDOLM@STER machines to get my producer name right, which I did do properly this time. I also succeeded in trying the Mega Muffin breakfast meal set at McDonalds, which was basically a Sausage McMuffin with Egg, but with ketchup, bacon, and another sausage patty added. It was interesting, but I think I prefer the normal Sausage McMuffin with Egg. I then did a small bit of shopping, picking up a few Weiss Schwarz cards, and then I picked up my bags and headed to Osaka station to leave my bags there. I met up with Chris at Settsu-motoyama station, and he had invited Justin to join us in our visit to Konan University.

The front gate of Konan University

We walked there from the station, commenting on some of the stores that changed, and upon arrival, we found that the Ajisai room layout had changed a bit, with more tables than before, and that the office area had expanded as compared to before. Also most of the staff was different. I had them direct us to where Morikawa-sensei was, and it turned out that a couple of the other Japanese teachers were there too. We talked to them a bit, updating them on what we were up to, and then parted ways. We tried to find some of the other teachers, but they were not in. We left Konan and had lunch at La Pausa by the station, and then Chris and I headed to Shin-Nagata station to see the 1:1 scale statue of Tetsujin 28 that was there.

Chris standing next to Tetsujin 28's foot

We explored the station area a bit and found a statue of Guan Di, since there was also Romance of the Three Kingdoms statues around too, and Chris took a picture with that as well. Afterwards, we went to Sannomiya and shopped around our old haunts. Then we tried to get into a Rumiko Takahashi exhibition at the Daimaru Museum Kobe, but we got there too late.

An inflatable Inu Yasha outside the exhibition

Though we were short on time, we made a quick stop at a cool place called Die Currywurst, which was dedicated to bringing German bratwursts to Japan. Their main menu item was a bratwurst infused with curry. They told us about how they served their fries with mayonnaise, like they apparently do in Germany. Anyway, by that point, we’d spent way too much time there, and rushed to the train to try to catch a shinkansen back to Tokyo. By the time we got to Shin-Osaka, we had no choice but to catch the last Nozomi headed to Tokyo for the day. We made it back safely, and did a little planning for the Tokyo International Anime Fair the next day before going to sleep.

Japan 2010, Day 14

2010-05-02T23:00:00.003-04:00

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Arnond and I both made our way to the IDOLM@STER machines in the morning and tried to get ourselves satisfactory Producer and Unit cards, but I messed up my producer name twice and decided to just try again the next day. I did a bunch of shopping, and then we headed to my host family’s house for dinner that night. We met up with Chris at Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi station around 6:30PM, and then went to my host family’s house.

Some new greenery in Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi station

I met their new exchange student, Ryan, and a couple of his friends. Both Ryan and one of his friends were from UIUC, and the third was from Canada. I got the feeling that Ryan was vaguely making fun of us and otaku in general during dinner, but I decided to not pay it much mind. I had a good time, and I probably interacted more with Reiko than I had ever done while I was living there. After dinner, Justin brought Chris, Arnond, and I to a Japanese plum wine bar that was cool, and I had a bit to drink and socialized with the people there for a bit. Then Arnond and I had to leave or we would be unable to take the train back to get to our hotel. We got back safely and I went to bed after I packed up stuff for the next day.

Japan 2010, Day 13

2010-05-02T22:57:00.002-04:00

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Today was more shopping in the morning, but since it was still rainy, and I wasn’t glad about how wet I had gotten the previous day, I finally got an umbrella from a 100 yen shop. We shopped around for half the day before we went together with Chris to Rokkomichi to visit and have dinner with his host mom. We originally planned to drop his stuff off, go to Sannnomiya, and come back for dinner, but instead we just stayed there once we got there. We ran into Justin, a previous exchange student I had met before, who was half living there, and we talked with him and Chris’s host mom. We had sukiyaki that night, and it was delicious. Arnond, Chris, Justin, and I all then went to have a quick look around Sannomiya, even though it was closed now, and then Arnond and I headed back to Osaka before it was too late to catch the last train.

Chris and Justin in the closed Sannomiya shopping arcade

Chris would be staying with his host mom for the remainder of the Osaka part of the trip.

Japan 2010, Day 12

2010-05-02T22:55:00.002-04:00

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

We headed down to Osaka today, and checked into Hotel Mikado by the Shin-Imamiya train station. We then simply spent the rest of the day shopping around Den-Den Town. I discovered that the area now had a mascot girl named Neon, and was very tempted to buy a netbook featuring her on it.

The ad for the Neon netbook

Luckily, I kept my cool, and by the next day had realized that it would not have been a good purchase for me. Otherwise, it was nice going around, seeing how things had changed, etc. Arnond and I found an arcade that still had THE IDOLM@STER, and both of us would come by the next day to play a bit on their machines. The day was kind of crappy, with on and off rain, but I still didn’t decide to get an umbrella. We had dinner together at Oushou, and Chris got a huge “Super Spicy” Korean kimchee ramen set that he couldn’t finish.

Japan 2010, Day 11

2010-05-02T22:54:00.002-04:00

Monday, March 22, 2010

This day, I decided to take my time in going since I didn’t want to stand in line for as long to enter, and I knew I wouldn’t be going early enough to be able to get in before a lot of big groups sold out. I showed up at the line at around 10:30, and apparently, so did Arnond. The line had spilled over already to the second Cosplay Area, since of course no one could get in until the event started at 11:00. It didn’t take too long for the line to move after the event started, and we were led to the first Cosplay Area, where I had waited the day before. I got in at about 12:30, and as I predicted, the popular places were all sold out. I wandered around for a while, picked up a few books, and found some interesting stuff in the travel section that I picked up. I met up properly with Arnond today at the Cosplay Area for our lunches, and I hung around the area to take pictures of cosplayers.

Some Gintama cosplayers

I got a few pictures of Chris, and it was really neat to see him being asked by Japanese people for his picture. He even got a line at one point of people that wanted his picture, and it turned into a wall of people taking pictures. One girl said he was “cool”. Another girl wanted a picture with him, which Chris got them to let me take a picture as well.

Chris, still popular with the chicks

Anyway, it was good fun. I unfortunately missed out on a good Ino as well as some Tales of Vesperia cosplayers from earlier in the day. When that was over, Chris and I caught a train back to Tokyo to try to make it to a anime creators event in Shinjuku. Arnond was delayed and caught the train after us. We tried to do tickets at the door for the event, but failed, so Chris and I walked around the area a bit before heading back to the hotel.

IDOLM@STER players might recognize this location

While we were there, we had ramen at this awesome place in Kabuki-cho, although I seem to have not photographed it, nor do I remember its name. Also, while we were walking around, Arnond was at the hotel, and had some trouble checking into the hotel, where the hotel apparently could not find our reservation number, and he almost reserved an entirely different room. Luckily, the problem was sorted out and they found our reservation, and all was well.

Japan 2010, Day 10

2010-05-02T22:45:00.003-04:00

Sunday, March 21, 2010

First day of CS5! Arnond and I got up early and headed out separately to get into the line for entry at around 9:00. We both got in line by around 9:30. It was raining on and off, so it was interesting to see all the other participants suddenly whip out their umbrellas for the rain, then put them away when it cleared up again. Nearing the start of the CS5, we were entertained by some guys from a sentai series.

Our entertainment as we stood in line

CS5 then started at 11:00, but with the long line, I wouldn’t get into the doujin selling area until an hour later. It was amazing that even by that point in time, several groups had already sold out completely, and any popular groups were no longer taking requests for sketches. It was also quite a bit smaller than I had expected, and I was able to get around most of the booths with time still remaining before the doujin selling portion was over. I also stopped by the Bushiroad company booth to pick up some Nanoha StrikerS Weiss Schwarz cards. I left the doujin selling area and headed to the lunch area, where I picked up a little kara-age from the nearby 7-11.

Goosefish, a local specialty on display in the lunch area

I sat outside 7-11 to eat the kara-age, and suggested that Arnond meet me there earlier than planned to give me my lunch. We had decided yesterday to have Arnond pick up our JTB lunches since we figured we'd be busier than him at the con, and we had set up that he would bring them to us at 14:30 at the entrance to the doujin selling area. Since I finished up before he arrived, I started heading toward Animate, which would have been in his path to me anyway, and informed him I was going there. But then I decided not to go into Animate and that my time would be better spent checking into the Daiwa Roynet Hotel, where Chris and I would be staying at the second night, since JTB failed to get a second night reserved at the River Side hotel for us. I told Arnond to go ahead to Chris instead, but for some reason he decided to just wait in front of Animate for me and give up on seeing Chris. We ended up meeting at Animate about half an hour later, and we ate our lunches at the lunch area, then found Chris at the cosplay area to give him his lunch. I wasn’t really able to get any pictures at the cosplay area that day, only being able to join a wall of photographers taking pictures of a Darth Vader, Kim Jong Il, Ultraman, and Kamen Rider posing together.

Darth Vader, Kim Jong Il, Ultraman, and Kamen Rider

Arnond and I then headed to the Chewable Soft Live and Talk, while Chris headed off to do something else as he was planning to head to some kind of CS5 party later that night. The Chewable Soft concert was definitely crowded, as it was a small venue, and there were a lot of us. The songs that were sung were opening and ending themes from the few games that they had made up to this point, and they were pretty good. The singers cosplayed from the games, and the talking portions were nice, with them talking about their experiences with Mito, since several of their staff members were from the area. One of the guys recommended eating some Goosefish, which is what I saw earlier in the day and ended up eating later that night. Near the end, people were tiring out from standing for so long, but they were able to get us energetic again by getting the crowd more involved with the last few songs. They also had a rock-paper-scissors competition to get the concept art of characters from their game in development. After the concert, Arnond and I found that Chris had moved his and my luggage to the new hotel for me, and we dropped in to put down our stuff and find a place to eat. Chris was apparently still trying to figure out a way to the party, and hadn’t gotten there yet. We went to another place recommended by the CS5 catalogue, and I got Goosefish kara-age there, while Arnond got some kind of sashimi. It turned out we had basically just gotten appetizers, and that the place was pretty expensive, but when we tried to order more, it was too close to closing time to get anything else, so we left. It was quite good though. Arnond and I then went our separate ways, and I went back to my hotel room to plan for the next day. Chris showed up after a while and it turned out he failed to make it to the party he had been trying for, so went to some anisong dance party instead.

Japan 2010, Day 9

2010-05-02T22:24:00.002-04:00

Saturday, March 20, 2010

We woke up for breakfast at the lodge, and took the provided 9:30 shuttle service to the station. We again left our bags at a coin locker in the station, and did a bit more exploring.

A view of the mountains coming up from the JR station

We checked out Inari Shrine and also a temple, Kanon-ji, which housed a statue of Kanon that Kuukai had carved on his way through the area. We then went back to the station, picked up our bags, and left. I called this tavern (Kayabukiya Tavern) that was famous for having monkeys as waiters to try to get in a reservation for later in the day, but couldn’t get a hold of them, so gave up on it. We instead made straight for Mito. Upon our arrival, we headed to the Mito River Side Hotel and checked in. Chris stayed in the room and worked on his FFXIII costume, while Arnond and I scouted out the Comic Market locations around town and also stopped in the local Animate. We returned to the hotel to meet up with Chris for dinner, and took one of the suggestions of the Comic Market Special 5 in Mito (CS5) catalogue on a place to eat. We went to a nice katsu place, which had totally delicious katsu. We tried the Mito-style version, which involved katsu infused with ume and covered in natto, both of which are local specialties. The play of the natto against the ume was very good, although eventually the natto did get to me and I was almost throwing up by the end of the meal.

The delicious Mito-style katsu meal

We then stopped at a convenience store, where I picked up a pencil for CS5 planning, and we returned to the hotel. I was doing some laundry, so Chris and Arnond threw their clothes in too; that kind of sucked because our experience with Japanese dryers has been that they take a long time to dry clothing, and it takes even longer to dry jeans, which both Arnond and Chris had. I was up rather late that night, but I did take that opportunity to plan for CS5.

Japan 2010, Day 8

2010-05-02T22:11:00.002-04:00

Friday, March 19, 2010

We woke up the next day and took the 10:46 Yamabiko to Utsunomiya and switched over to the JR Nikko line, which we took the rest of the way to Nikko. Arnond then informed us that the place we were staying would hold our bags, but wouldn’t guarantee them, so we ended up stuffing our stuff in a coin locker at the station before heading out to do sightseeing. We headed up to the major shrine and temple complex of Nikko, walking our way up the major road to get there. Arnond and I still had our backpacks, and so upon arriving at the complex, we left our bags with a lady providing bag holding services. We then got the combined tour ticket, and proceeded to explore the complex. I took pictures when I could, but many of the places did not allow photographs of the interiors.

The main hall of Rinno-ji, the Buddhist temple that administers Tokugawa Ieyasu's mausoleum

It was an interesting contrast to come here, as the shrines and temples were much fancier than you find most anywhere else in the country. Chris told me that this was because this complex was built for Tokugawa Ieyasu, whose mausoleum was also part of it. The complex is also known for having the “See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil” monkeys, so I took pictures of them as well.

The famous "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkeys

We considered going into a weapon and armor museum along the way, which required a separate fee, but with little time before we had to pick up our bags from the baggage lady, we hurried our way along. After seeing the remaining shrines on the combined ticket, we rushed to get our bags from the lady, and then headed down to the station to get our other bags. We then went to the hotel, which was farther and more uphill from the station than any of us had expected. Arnond had chosen it because he wanted to be able to pay using credit. It was the place with the most non-Japanese feel that we stayed at during the entire trip. All the guests were foreigners, and the place exuded the feel of a lodge, which I guess shouldn’t be surprising as the place was named “Nikko Park Lodge”. It didn’t even have the normal Japanese amenities provided, like a yukata to sleep in. Nevertheless, the lodge people were very nice, and it wasn’t a bad place to stay at.

Arnond coming up to the second half of the room

Chris tore into his “Letter from the Alps”, and it was delicious. We had dinner at the lodge and ordered breakfast for the next morning, and then we headed back to the room to relax and do more Comiket planning. Chris also prepped for an interview he was to have the next morning, and then we all went to sleep.

Japan 2010, Day 7

2010-04-09T22:29:00.002-04:00

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Arnond was in charge of the plan for today, and he graciously allowed us to go to Matsumoto Castle before heading to Tsumago, since we were unable to do it the previous day. We showed up at the castle not long after it opened, and it was a pretty chilly morning. It was a much less complicated castle complex than Himeji, with a very simple layout for the outer walls. There was a collection of donated period firearms on display in the castle, and the way displays were set up inside it was very similar to Himeji Castle.

Some of the guns on display

There were some interesting later additions to the complex, like one section that used lotus flower-shaped windows due to later influence of Chinese Buddhist architecture. This castle was also one of the few castles to have a moon viewing room, an addition used to entertain guests during the peaceful later years of the castle. The room was quite a bit more open than any other rooms of the castle, and the outside terrace was painted red, in contrast with the white and black of the rest of the castle.

The moon viewing room from the outside

When we finished up looking around the castle, we checked out the city museum next door, as our admission ticket covered that as well. While we were looking around it, an old Japanese lady kept coming up to us to explain little things about Japanese religion. I think at first she didn’t want us to misunderstand Japanese traditional culture, coming up to us to explain that the phallic worship objects on display were not to be taken in an erotic fashion. She popped up a few times later to explain things as we ran into her again in the museum. She seemed to primarily talk at Arnond, probably because he looked the most Japanese, as she had pegged me for Chinese, and Chris was just clearly not Japanese.

Hina Matsuri dolls on display on the 2nd floor of the museum

It was kind of funny since Arnond was probably the least capable of understanding what she was talking about since he had the least experience with Japanese. On our way out, Chris picked up some omiyage, being this delicious thing called “Letter from the Alps”, and if I remember correctly, also Kit Kats with a local flavor for his family back home. We then left for Tsumago. I was actually surprised at how long Arnond had allowed us to stay at the castle, as at that point in the day, we would have very little time in Tsumago. I hope he didn’t cut into the time too much by trying to be considerate; I think we would have been fine with hurrying up if he wanted us to. Anyway, we got to the station with our bags, and it took a bit of work before we were able to figure out that the best way of getting to Tsumago would be by taking a local the whole way, as any expresses we took would not stop there, and we’d have to wait for the same local to get to the right stop anyway, which was Nagiso. After we got on the train, I slept for a good portion of the way, but when I woke up, I found the scenery to be breathtaking. The path the train took followed a river through the mountains, and looking out at the river and the mountains was just very beautiful. I should have taken photos of it, from the train, but I was thinking I’d be better off taking photos once we got off the train, which didn’t work out. Anyway, upon arriving at Nagiso, we found that we basically only had an hour at Tsumago before we had to take the bus back to the station to catch the last train out to Nagoya, which is something we had not realized. We made the best of it and took a bus from the station to Tsumago and looked around the preserved Edo-period town.

Arnond looking at the Tsumago guide map

It was actually somewhat of a disappointment because although the buildings were all certainly Edo period, the road was still paved, giving it the same feeling as you might get from an older section of any other rural Japanese city. Also, the weather wasn’t so great, with the air misty and it raining on and off.

A view of the town and the mist

We then caught the bus back to the station, and caught the express to Nagoya. We got there early enough to switch over to the Hikari, and we made it all the way back to Tokyo. As we hadn’t been sure that we’d be able to get there that night, we hadn’t made hotel reservations in advance, and were unable to get rooms at the hotel we were keeping our stuff at. As such, Chris and I just got a room at a different hotel in the area. The arrangement led to a strange thing with our original hotel, where they wouldn’t let more than one of us go up to the room with our stuff because of their policy. That meant we had to go up separately to prepare our stuff for the next few days at Nikko and Mito. After Chris and I got our stuff, we went to our hotel and talked a bit with each other until going to sleep.

Japan 2010, Day 6

2010-04-06T17:37:00.003-04:00

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

I ended up waking up very early, like around 4:30AM, but then went back to sleep for a short while. Then I got up again and decided to write up the trip so far. After finishing that up, I got packed up so we could have breakfast and then leave. I went down at 8:30 for breakfast, and found a gorgeous meal waiting for all of us.

The nice Japanese breakfast that came with our room

Arnond came down shortly after, but Chris had gotten out of bed around 8:25, since he slept through his alarm, and the rest of us just assumed he knew what he was doing, so didn't wake him. He didn’t come down until later, after he got dressed, and managed to make it to breakfast before Arnond stole any of his food. Our first stop after checking out was to leave our luggage at coin lockers at the station. We actually managed to fit all our bags into one of the large coin lockers there. We then traveled to Shimosuwa Station to see the remaining half of Suwa Taisha, being the lower Fall and lower Spring shrines. When we got to the Fall shrine, we found the main hall was under renovation, so we were only able to see the construction tarp covering it completely, although a 1:1 picture of the hall was on the sheet.

The main hall under renovation

We looked at the ema again, and once again found many Touhou related ones. In fact, this location had the most, very likely due to the fact that this shrine was the most convenient of all the parts of Suwa Taisha to get to. I noticed here too that the main hall was surrounded by a rectangle created by the onbashira, and concluded that every main hall of Suwa Taisha was this way. This was confirmed upon our visit to the Spring shrine. We took a short side trip to an overlook, and Chris got some C.C. Lemon from a Boss vending machine featuring Tommy Lee Jones.

Tommy Lee Jones thinks you should drink Boss coffee

Then we headed towards the Spring shrine. We passed by Raikou Temple along the way, and found many fire prevention items around it. Perhaps it’s in a very fire-prone location? Anyway, we continued onward to the Spring shrine, and completed our circuit of the 4 shrines of Suwa Taisha. Near Suwa Taisha though, we found signs for a statue of a Buddha that seemed to be one of the major attractions of this area of Suwa. Since it was close by, we stopped by it, and found instructions in front of it on how to get your wishes granted by it. We saw Japanese people doing so, so we tried it out as well. We then headed back to the station and took the train to Okaya for our final stop in the Lake Suwa area, Moriya Shrine. It was a fairly short walk to the shine from the station, and it certainly was not a shrine that seemed particularly well known or visited. It was a small shrine, with no reception office or anything, and had a small main shrine building.

The three of us posing in front of the main shrine building

Arnond and I donated and prayed to the shrine. As we were looking around the shrine, we found an odd sign indicating that we were at the 18th hole. After further exploration, we found that the shrine was surrounded by a course for mallet golf, a Japanese-invented variation of golf similar in some ways to miniature golf.

The mallet golf map detailing the course layout around the shrine

We then returned to Kamisuwa to pick up our bags from the coin lockers. Arnond and I had some kind of avocado themed hot dog there at a coffee shop, and then we left for Matsumoto on a local train. Upon arriving, we found our hotel, checked in, then headed out to see Matsumoto castle. Unfortunately, the castle closed at 5PM, so we simply walked around it, taking pictures, and also checked out Matsumoto Shrine next to it.

Matsumoto Castle as the sun sets

We stopped in at a soba place next to the castle, Kawafune, and had some local specialties like the soba and the mountain vegetables. We returned to the hotel afterwards and did further trip planning and some laundry. I ended up conflicting with Arnond a bit that night partly because I was tired, and partly because there seemed to be a mismatch in the way we communicated to each other, leading to some delays in the trip. I think I expected Arnond to have the same kind of trip sense and initiative that I had, and so I left some things unsaid that should have been said, and then got annoyed when he couldn’t seem to handle something on his own. We more or less settled things for the night, and then went to bed.

Japan 2010, Day 5

2010-04-06T17:29:00.003-04:00

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Today was our first day out of Tokyo. I had suggested going to Suwa both for the fact that it was a site related to Touhou, and because it seemed like it would be interesting. The main shrine there (Suwa Taisha) is extremely old, being mentioned in the earliest Japanese texts. Arnond had not yet exchanged his Japan Rail Pass, as he had wasted all opportunities to do so the previous day, so we had to wait for him to get that done when the pass exchange at Ueno opened up at 9AM. I picked up breakfast at First Kitchen in the meantime, and then we headed out to Suwa. We caught the Super Azusa train from Shinjuku at 10AM, and got off at Kamisuwa station. The station itself had a small hot spring for feet, which is something the area is known for, but we didn’t use it.

The foot hot spring in the station

We then checked into our ryokan, and boy, was it nice. Certainly a big improvement from the small rooms we were staying at in Tokyo. Anyway, we left our bags there, and went out for sightseeing. We stopped first for some food at an Italian themed place called Chianti, where some Engrish told us that once we had pizza there, Buono would shoot us. We couldn’t resist.

The Engrish warning us about Buono

I had a raw ham salad 8-inch pizza. Then we went and walked by Lake Suwa, checking out the swan and turtle boats, and heading to the geyser. We checked out the museum in the geyser complex as we waited for the geyser to erupt. There was a warning that the geyser had been erupting less spectacularly as of late, so to be aware of that. Once it did go off, I could certainly see that, as it only went up maybe 2 meters, instead of the usual 5 meters or more.

Arnond and Chris pose in front of the erupting geyser

We then went exploring around town, visiting Kodama-ishi Shrine and then Onsen Temple. We then saw Tenaga Shrine, and headed to the station to take the train to Chino, where we would catch a bus to the upper shrine of Suwa Taisha. I picked up some cream-filled melon bread at a bakery in Chino, it was actually pretty tasty. We went first to the main upper shrine, which was pretty cool, and not surprisingly, we found several Touhou related ema (Wikipedia link) there.

One of the several Touhou related ema

It seems the main shrine building is surrounded by a four onbashira (Wikipedia link) that make a rectangle, although I am not clear as to its significance. Also, the shrine seems to hold a sacred mirror that we saw; I can only assume it is the mirror that is on Kanako’s chest.

The main shrine building with the sacred mirror

I also picked up a new protective charm to replace the one I had gotten from Washinomiya Shrine the previous year. Afterward, we walked down to the front upper shrine, and saw a four more onbashira there. I wonder if all of these onbashira get replaced during the onbashira festival, which unfortunately for us, would occur after we left Japan, and only repeats every six years. We then hung around a Family Mart until we were able to catch a bus back to Chino Station. Then we returned to the hotel, got dinner nearby at an okonomiyaki place called Hiroshimaya, and settled in for the night after using the open-air bath on the seventh floor of the hotel.

Japan 2010, Day 4

2010-04-06T15:33:00.002-04:00

Monday, March 15, 2010

Today was a day I had Chris put into the schedule to let me freely shop in Akihabara. I first got some laundry out of the way in the morning since we’d be heading out the next day for our excursions into Nagano Prefecture, then I headed to Akiba.

Arriving at Akiba for the first time on the trip

I believe Arnond basically spend all day sleeping, and then did his own laundry later in the day. Chris went and explored Tokyo after doing his laundry as well. Anyways, in Akiba, I started off the day by going to Star Kebab for the first time. I had heard about it on the internet, so I figured I'd give it a try. It was, in fact, quite good, and it threw me off a bit for me to order from a guy who clearly looked European, yet spoke perfectly natural Japanese.

The Star Kebab stand I bought from

Then I went around and picked up a lot of things from the list of items I wanted, as well any good deals on things I wanted but neglected to list. This mainly consisted of video games, CDs, and some computer hardware. Also, it seemed like Touhou had in some sense taken over half of Akiba, as I was randomly finding that entire corners of stores were now dedicated to Touhou merchandise. I suppose it isn’t surprising as Touhou finally made it as its own Comic Market category, much like Gundam, etc. After a point, my bag of stuff got pretty heavy, so I decided to head back to the hotel to drop stuff off and do more shopping later. When I got back to the hotel, I decided to look up a movie to see later in the day, and though initially we were going to try for the Yu-gi-oh movie (It was in 3D!), it turned out we had missed all the showings, so we settled for the Nanoha movie. With the show time I found, there wasn’t going to be much time before the movie to do much else. Nevertheless, I left for Akiba again to meet up with Chris, who had finished his exploring for the day, and Arnond met up with us shortly after. We picked up food at McDonalds, where I tried the California Burger. It was ok. Based on the ingredients of the various US States themed burgers, I can only assume that bacon is apparently very American. We then went to Ikebukuro’s Cine Libre and watched the Nanoha movie.

Ikebukuro outside the station as we headed to the theater

As I expected, the movie effects were very flashy, and it more or less followed the first season plot. It actually provided a more sympathetic view of Precia, giving more of her back-story, and having her realize as she plummeted to her doom that she should have cared for Fate. We then went back to the hotel, and prepped for leaving to Suwa. I stayed up a bit later ripping some of the CDs I had bought, then went to sleep.

Japan 2010, Day 3

2010-03-31T12:33:00.004-04:00

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Arnond and I woke up early today, and moved the remainder of the stuff into my room. We then found that the hotel had been smart enough to figure out that the two reservations were connected and that we didn’t have to check out. Oh well. We then headed towards Reitaisai at Big Sight, leaving Ueno around 8:40AM. We used the Yurikamome Line to get to Kokusai-tenjijo-seimon station. Once we arrived, there wasn't a super line from the station to get in, so Arnond accompanied me to pick up some shikishi from a 100 yen store on Daiba. That turned out to be an error in judgment, as the line turned out to be in a very different place than my experience with Comic Market, so there was in fact quite a large line to get in by the time we got to it around 10:30.

The crowd of people that was the line

We finally got in at probably 11:15 or so. Arnond headed straight for the East 3 Hall to try to pick up doujin music, and I went to the line for obtaining permission to take photos. Unfortunately, that line was also very long, and it took about an hour to make it through and get my camera registered. I then visited the list of places I wanted to go and, as expected, found that several places were already sold out. After getting all around, I went to the cosplay area (which had been moved to the East 2 Hall), and was determined to take advantage of my camera wielding permissions.

Marisa and Reimu cosplayers at Reitaisai

Unfortunately, I didn’t take as many pictures as I would have liked, as I didn't have a lot of time. Not surprisingly, there was a large amount of crossplayers. Anyway, when it was over, we headed back to the hotel and dropped off our stuff. I then ran into Chris there for the first time on the trip.

Meeting Chris for the first time on this trip

We then headed out together to the Kira Kira Majokko concert at Shibuya-AX, where it seems a lot of lesser known female bands and idols did covers of magical girl show songs, and they were selling a CD of the songs at the concert too. We got there late too, partly from getting lost in Shibuya. On the way to the concert, Chris told us about how the STANCE PUNKS concert had been the best he had ever been to, and that he was interviewed for Japanese TV in Akiba, during which he sang part of the Mazinger Z theme song. Anyway, the magical girl concert was pretty cool, and it was capped off at the end of the night with who we had gone to see, Tomoe Shinohara. They also had the voice actor for Mami from Creamy Mami, and she did some duets with Shinohara and also some solos too. Got food from Mos Burger and cherry blossom themed drinks from Starbucks after the concert and headed back to the hotel. On the way back, we saw an interesting advertisement for McCafe; I really had never associated McCafe with the crowd that wore montsuki kimonos, and I still don't get it. I always figured montsuki kimino wearers were too badass to drink caramel lattes from McDonald's, but I guess I was wrong.

An advertisement for McCafe in Shibuya Station

Anyway, once we got back, I stayed up to rip the CDs I bought to put them on my iPod, and then prepped for a day of Akiba shopping the next day. Not much sleep for me again.

Japan 2010, Day 2

2010-03-30T23:27:00.004-04:00

Saturday, March 13, 2010

After waking up on the plane, I watched a Japanese movie called 笑う警官 (The Laughing Policeman); it was not too bad. After that, I think I may have fallen asleep again for a short while, but at the right time to miss both the second meal and the passing out of the embarkation/debarkation and customs forms. This left me with little choice but to obtain and fill out the forms in the airport. After arriving, since it took a while to get through the immigration line, my luggage was already at the luggage counter instead of the bag claim, so I ended up losing some time waiting at the bag claim even though my bags were no longer there. I then went through customs with no problems. I spent a bit of time finding the second post office in Terminal 2 (the first one I found was closed) to pick up a rental cell phone that I ordered, and then I activated my JR rail pass and took the express into Tokyo.

Upon reaching Tokyo, I switched over to the Yamanote line to get to Ueno to meet up with Arnond. He had apparently not taken JR since his arrival there, so he told me he was waiting at something like exit 8 and 9 of the station, even though the JR station had no numbered exits. It turns out that he was at the Tokyo Metro station, and for some reason he didn't come to my station, but had me go to him hauling all my bags. So much for him helping me with my bags. Anyway, I quickly checked into the hotel, and then we rushed off to see the Higurashi Opera in Nerima.

Arnond as we headed to the Higurashi Opera

We arrived late due to my various delays in leaving the airport, but it seems we still came in at the same time as a group of other people. The opera itself was actually pretty neat. The opera's story basically followed the first Higurashi arc, being Onikakushi-hen. It was tough sometimes to catch what they were saying since they were not only singing in opera style, but in Japanese as well, and sometimes they would also be drowned out by the music. Satoko's voice was surprisingly similar to her anime incarnation, and just about every scene with Ooishi was hilarious. It seemed there were also two different people playing Rika, one for the Watanagashi kagura scene, and then one for all the other scenes. At least that's what I guessed after coming in late. After the opera, we stopped to get some food (I got some Kara-age-don) and stopped at a Book Off to browse before heading back to the hotel. We stayed up late prepping for Reitaisai the next day and getting Chris's and Arnond's stuff together to put into my room since they were going to have to check-out of their room the next morning, only to check-in to a different room later in the same day (it was a limitation with the length of a single registration you could make at the hotel). I slept in Chris's and Arnond’s room since Chris was not around due to heading out to a STANCE PUNKS concert before I arrived, and because my room was now relatively full of people’s stuff.

Japan 2010, Day 1

2010-03-30T23:03:00.005-04:00

So continuing off of the "Long day before Japan", I'm planning to put up a post for each day of my trip in Japan, with pictures even! Of course I can't reasonably fit all the pictures into a good narrative, so to see them all you're going to have to head to Picasa Web Albums to see all the pictures I wanted to post. Well, with that out of the way, let's begin!

Friday, March 12, 2010

So it turns out I was able to sleep for a maybe an hour the night before the flight, so I got a little in. Anyway, safely made it to the airport by taxi, and made it onto my flight without a problem. The flight to Dallas/Forth Worth International (DFW) was uneventful; I'm pretty sure I slept for most of the way. I picked up a banana and a hot dog from a convenience store (hereafter called "conbini") there, and then boarded my flight to Japan.

The plane I took from DFW to Japan, a Boeing 777.

For once I decided to have some Dramamine to help me with staying nausea free on the flight, and it worked out, though mainly by knocking me out for half the flight. So I went across the International Date Line asleep, and woke up finding myself in the next day.

Long day before Japan

2010-03-12T00:36:00.000-05:00

Today's been a hectic day. After discovering mid-day that the Japan Rail Pass issued to me was not what I had ordered and was for the wrong length of time, I quickly called JTB to get it rectified. They'd exchange it for me, but if I had it delivered, it wouldn't reach me until 2PM tomorrow. Unfortunately, my flight is at 6AM. So I told them I'd get it at their office. Made a rush up to New York City after work, and luckily was able to get my pass exchanged. Wasn't able to catch a train back until 8PM. My plan was once I got back, I'd rush my bags to the airport, check them in, go home, sleep a bit, then go back in the morning to go through security and get on the plane. No such luck. On the train ride back, just 15-20 minutes outside of 30th Street Station, our train hits someone. We are stopped. Luckily they can evacuate onto the next regional train that passes us. Unfortunately, that's an hour later. By the time I get into 30th Street Station, it is no longer feasible for me to make it out the the airport with my bags before the train line to the airport shuts down. Now I'm stuck catching a cab at around 3AM if I want to successfully check my bags before the flight. I've come back to my apartment to do some last bits of cleanup and picking up a last few things for the flight, take a shower, and get going soon after. Looks like no sleep tonight. Hopefully that will be a good thing for getting me through the long flight.

Lost Packages

2010-02-17T18:59:00.000-05:00

Well, looks like the post office has managed to lose two more of my packages. I'm not sure whether to blame to the post office, or whether someone in my building is stealing my packages after they're delivered. I check the delivery confirmation and it says "Delivered", but I find I do not have the packages. I've gotten the companies that sent me the packages to get on the case, and the post office says to give it a couple of days as well and to contact a supervisor they gave me the card for if I still don't have anything. We'll see what happens.

Twitter

2010-02-15T19:34:00.000-05:00

For those that are not already aware of it, I have succumbed to the evil, and gotten myself a twitter account. All those interested may follow me @amakaseP.

Get a FREE CHILD!

2010-02-15T15:52:00.002-05:00

I was looking through some old pictures I had taken and had forgotten about this one. I sat there laughing for while before I decided I needed to post this online. If you're curious, this is from a snow cone shop somewhere near or in Edwardsville, Illinois, USA. Sorry, I don't actually remember exactly where.

Bad Apple!! on CNN

2010-01-31T09:17:00.005-05:00

"Bad Apple!! feat. nomico" was featured in short clip on CNN! Based on the video, it seems it was shown at some point in the afternoon on CNN Newsroom. Now normally, this would be awesome. But it's not. Before I show the video, let me give a short history of "Bad Apple!! feat. nomico".

2007/05/20: Doujin group "Alstroemeria Records" releases "Bad Apple!! feat. nomico" on their album "Lovelight" at Reitaisai 4.
2008/06/08: NicoNico user "Μμ" uploads a video detailing what he would like to see in a Bad Apple!! music video (NicoNico, YouTube). Many users oblige, leading to several popular versions.
2009/10/27: NicoNico user "あにら" uploads his 影絵 (shadow picture) version of the video, which instantly becomes a hit, keeping the top ranked position on NicoNico for weeks (NicoNico, YouTube). Many derivative videos start going up.
2010/01/28: NicoNico user "shige-ruuu" uploads his own derivative version of the shadow picture video, made using stop-motion animation, and it is one of the more popular derivatives (NicoNico, YouTube).
2010/01/30: CNN runs a short news clip about "Bad Apple!! feat. nomico" on CNN Newsroom.

For the CNN video, I have provided not only the usual NicoNico embedded player and link, but the YouTube link as well to allow you to see how much CNN fails.

NicoNico Link, YouTube Link

RockmanP

2010-01-28T06:21:00.002-05:00

765 Production really does try to pick up anyone don't they? They must really be hurting for idol producers. Good luck, RockmanP!

【ニコニコ動画】ロックマンプロデューサー　アイドル紹介

THE IDOLM@STER SPECIAL LIVE

2010-01-27T19:42:00.027-05:00

I just found out they're going to have a series of "The IDOLM@STER SPECIAL LIVE" concerts in Japanese PlayStation Home! It'll feature Haruka, Yukiho and Chihaya and will run from 1/29 20:00 to 2/8 16:00 Japan time. That converts to Jan 29, 6:00AM EST to Feb 8, 2:00AM EST. Accessing the concert can be done through an iDOLM@STER vending machine placed in Home Square. I have posted the concert schedule below, converted to Eastern Standard Time (UTC-5).

Jan 29: 6:00AM, 10:00AM, 12:00PM
Jan 30: 6:00AM, 8:00AM, 10:00AM, 12:00PM
Jan 31: 6:00AM, 8:00AM, 10:00AM, 12:00PM
Feb 01: 6:00AM, 10:00AM, 12:00PM
Feb 02: 6:00AM, 10:00AM, 12:00PM
Feb 03: 6:00AM, 10:00AM, 12:00PM
Feb 04: 6:00AM, 10:00AM, 12:00PM
Feb 05: 6:00AM, 10:00AM, 12:00PM
Feb 06: 6:00AM, 8:00AM, 10:00AM, 12:00PM
Feb 07: 6:00AM

In addition, each show will be reshown twice.

The 6:00AM will be reshown at 4:00PM and 1:00AM later that day.
The 8:00AM will be reshown at 5:00PM and 2:00AM later that day.
The 10:00AM will be reshown at 6:00PM and 3:00AM later that day.
The 12:00AM will be reshown at 7:00PM and 4:00AM later that day.

UPDATE (January 29, 2010):

Things to do during the concert:

At times during the concert, a heart will be displayed in the upper right quadrant of the screen. When this occurs, use R1 to select either 拍手する (Applaud) or 応援する (Cheer) , and the heart will grow with the number of people doing this. The heart size will affect the performance.

The following actions cause different things to be displayed depending on idol's items you are wearing. I will list them in the form X/Y/Z where X is what is displayed when wearing Haruka's items, Y is displayed when wearing Chihaya's items, and Z is displayed when wearing Yukiho's items. You can only wear the items if your avatar is male.

Those with the cheering headband on, if you

丁寧なおじぎ (Flourish):	天/如/萩
敬礼する (Salute):	海/月/原
ターン (Spin):	春/千/雪
アビール (Pose):	香/早/歩

Those with the cheering Happi coat on, if you 手を振る (Wave), then an image will be displayed in a circle with a 春 in a Star/Crescent Moon with Stars/Snow Man.

Using any of the sets of 3 glowsticks (red/blue/white), if you

イエイ (Yeah!):	L
ガンポーズ (Guns):	O
指差す (Point):	V
テレる (Shy):	E

If you have on the full cheering goods set, if you

両手を振る (Over Here!):	春香/千早/雪歩
投げキッス (Blow Kiss):	LOVE

UPDATE 2 (February 06, 2010):

For the shows on February 7th, 1AM and 2AM are the last Yukiho shows, while all remaining shows are 765 Production shows. The last show is at 6AM on February 7th! There may be rebroadcasts of the last show, but you won't know when unless you go to the last show, so be sure to go! Remember that all times are in Eastern Standard Time, and to show up to the concert 15 minutes early to be sure it properly loads for you.

FINAL UPDATE (February 07, 2010):

It seems the rebroadcasts of the final show will be at the expected 4PM and 1AM. They were having problems with the amount of people this morning, so it was a two hour delay before the concert got started. Hopefully they won't have that problem for the rebroadcasts. Do be sure to go though, as you get a completely different item than at any of the other concerts, and it's pretty nice. Also, if you hang around a bit after the concert is over, a countdown will start for an Extra Live at the next hour. You need to leave the concert lounge and come back and hope the countdown reappears; if so you're set, and you can sit back and wait for the Extra Live!

THE IDOLM@STER!

2010-01-19T22:15:00.002-05:00

When I made this blog, although I named it "Hakurei Shrine", I actually thought that Touhou posts would be somewhat rarer. Posting stuff here though made me realize that a lot of the stuff I look at on Niconico now is Touhou related. Anyway, for the sake of my friends more interested in IDOLM@STER than Touhou, today's post focuses entirely on IDOLM@STER videos. Yes, some still are Touhou influenced, but they're definitely good. With that out of the way, the videos are provided below!

【ニコニコ動画】[高画質版] アイマス×東方アレンジ美希『緋色月下、狂咲ノ絶』似非PV

【ニコニコ動画】【アイドルマスター】　inferno　PV　【雪歩/千早】

【ニコニコ動画】アイドルマスター×らき☆すた - 雪歩寝・逃・げでリセット！ PV風R2

【ニコニコ動画】アイドルマスター春香×さくら(丹下桜)『10th anniversary』

【ニコニコ動画】アイドルマスター手描きMAD「シビれさせたのは　誰？」

【ニコニコ動画】【手書きMAD】アイマスでけいおん!EDパロ

【ニコニコ動画】【手描きMAD】オーバーマスター【アイドルマスター】

Help me, TOUMAAAAA!!

2010-01-18T15:15:00.008-05:00

A clever parody of the song "Help me, ERINNNNNN!!", which is a Touhou arrange song by Beat Mario, this song is sung by recog, and should be amusing to those who are familiar with "A Certain Magical Index" and "A Certain Scientific Railgun". Once again, I will be providing a rough translation below. Also, I used as reference the translation for "Help me, ERINNNNNN!!" from the Touhou wiki (Link).

【ニコニコ動画】【替え歌】　Help me, TOUMAAAAA!! / recog　【禁書目録】

Touma, Touma, Touma, One, Two, Three, Hey!
Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey
Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey c'mon!
Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey
A one, a two, a one, two, three (Hey x9)

Touma! Touma! (Touma! Touma!) x6
Touma! Touma! Touma! Touma! Touma! Help me, TOUMAAAAA!! (Touma! x7)

Ah, what will I do!? I brandish my right arm (Touma! Touma!)
You are Level 0, the weakest Level 0! (Help me, Touma!)
Geez, strengthen your resolve! The arm I'm projecting in front of me (Touma! Touma!)
is the sign of "SoGeBu"*, the Imagine Breaker sign

"Touma! Touma! Help me!", I hear it again today
With all sincerity, let's go and help
As usual, there isn't any public order in Academy City
Oh, look, someone is calling for me again! Hey c'mon!

(Touma! Touma! Help me, Touma!)
Touma! Touma! Help me, Touma!
(Touma! Touma! Help me, Touma!)
Now, let's go! (One, two, three, go!)

"Touma! Touma! Where's my food?", I hear yelled again today
She's the nun of the Church of England's grimoires
My memories from up 'till recently are never coming back
Oh no, somebody's here; they're going to get me!

(Touma! Touma! Help me, Touma!)
Touma! Touma! Help me, Touma!
(Touma! Touma! Help me, Touma!)
Hurry up and get here!

Now, let's go help!
With the arm that can negate any superpower (Touma! Touma!)
You sure do like to preach, you're serious about the preaching (Help me, Touma!)
Oh, I've got to hurry! The day I want to hurry back (Touma! Touma!)
has the egg buying sign, the supermarket sale sign

Touma! Touma! (Touma! Touma!)
Touma! Touma! (Touma! Touma!)

Touma! Touma! (Touma! Touma!)
Help me, Touma! (Help me, Touma!)

Touma! Touma! (Touma! Touma!)
Kamijou! Kamijou! (Kamijou! Kamijou!)

Touma! Touma! (Touma! Touma!)
Kamijou-chan! (Komoe-sensei!)

Misaka! Misaka! (Misaka! Misaka!)
Misaka! Biri Biri! (Misaka! Biri Biri!)

MISAKA! MISAKA! (MISAKA! MISAKA!)
Misaka! Sister! (Misaka! Sister!)

Kuroko! Kuroko! (Kuroko! Kuroko!)
Perverted Kurokooooo! (Perverted Kurokooooo!) (I'm with Judgement!)

Heaven Canceler! (Gekota! Gekota!)
Doctor~ (Who's the one that said Gekota!?)

Innocentius! (Innocentius!)
Innocentius! Innocentius! (Innocentius! Innocentius!)

Accelerator! (Accelerator!!)
20001! Se, serial number 20001! (Last Order!)

Boobs! Boobs! (Boobs! Boobs!)
Boobs! Boobs! (Boobs! Boobs!)
Big boobs! (Big boobs!)
Boob Kanzaki! (Big sis, we love yoouuu!)

Touma! Touma! (Misaka! Misaka!)
Touma! Touma! (Misaka! Misaka!)
Touma! Touma! Touma! Touma!
Hey, don't ignore meeeeeeeeeeee! (Help me, Biri Biri~!)

Ah, who are you again? That person wearing white clothes (Index!)
She's a nun! A hungry nun! (Help me, Touma!)
Look, hurry it up! In-something-or-other's voice (Touma! Touma!)
is the begging for food sign! Touma! It's a sign to you (One more time!**)

Now, let's go help!
Brandishing my right arm up high! (Touma! Touma!)
You are Level 0, the weakest Level 0! (Help me, Touma!)
Oh, I've got to hurry! The arm I'm projecting in front of me (Touma! Touma!)
is the sign of "SoGeBu"*. Touma! Help me, Touma! (Random cheering)

*SoGeBu is short for "Sono Gensou wo Buchikorosu!", which is one of Touma's "catch phrases" meaning "I'll break that illusion of yours!"

**I'm not entirely sure if that's what they say there, any corrections are welcome.

Our Hisoutensoku!!

2010-01-15T18:56:00.007-05:00

Do you like BURNING giant robot songs? Because this one is totally on fire! Well, not the robot, but the song totally is. The song was originally a BGM from Touhou 12.3, but its old school giant robot feel quickly got denizens of niconico to add lyrics to it and try to sing it. Probably in response to that, Tasogare Frontier released an extended karaoke version of the song on the game soundtrack, and thus, I present below, the full version of "Our Hisoutensoku" sung by Yuge.

【ニコニコ動画】ぼくらの非想天則（Full Ver.）を歌ってみた / 湯毛

And because I feel like it, here is a rough translation of the lyrics:

It flies high in the sky, did you see it? That giant steel frame?
The ground shakes below it, did you hear it? The voice of a giant?
The lake parts beneath it, it truly has an invincible giant arm.
With a power granted by the Moriya's, a truly invincible power.

Aah, the miracle nuclear power made by the kappa.

Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn! Now!

MASTER SPARK!!

Split the ground! Smash the mountains! The shadow of a giant rises.
Ride the wind! Soar past the clouds! Gazing to the end of the sky.
The heavens know! The people know! It's known far and wide across the land.
Call out it's name! Call it out strongly!
Aah, our Hisoutensoku!

A rain of tears has reached the great mountain of the Yasaka's
and it makes my heart tremble. Did you hear those greiving voices?
The giant's rage protects those mourning people
with the power granted by the Moriya's, the miracles of the gods.

The cruel and heartless evil Youkai Army.
Defeat them! Defeat them! Defeat them! Defeat them! Now!

GRAY THAUMATURGY!!

Go past the Moon! Go past the stars! Past the beginning of the universe.
Surpass time! Surpass the world! It's coming to Gensokyo.
Rise up! Stand firm! Fight 'till your last breath!
Call out it's name! Call it out strongly!
Aah, our Hisoutensoku!

(Talking that I couldn't catch all of)

Aah, the miracle nuclear power made by the kappa.
Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn! Now!

GOLDION PILLARS!!

Split the ground! Smash the mountains! The shadow of a giant rises.
Ride the wind! Soar past the clouds! Gazing to the end of the sky.
The heavens know! The people know! It's known far and wide across the land.
Call out it's name! Call it out strongly!
Aah, our Hisoutensoku!

Split the ground! Smash the mountains! The shadow of a giant rises.
Ride the wind! Split the clouds! Run to the end of the sky!
Rise up! Stand firm! Fight 'till your last breath!
Call out it's name! Call it out strongly!
Aah, our Hisoutensoku!

11eyes and New Anime

2010-01-11T00:27:00.003-05:00

So I just finished watching 11eyes, and overall, it wasn't really that good. I'm still thinking about playing the game though, seeing as how it looks quite different from the anime, I'm going to guess that it is in fact different, and hopefully interesting and engaging. I'm probably going to pick up the Xbox 360 version.

I've also watched the first episodes of a few shows this season now, being Ladies verses Butlers, Baka to Test to Shoukanjyuu, and Dance in the Vampire Bund. Ladies verses Butlers so far is most definitely a fanservicey show, and Flameheart's incredibly huge drill hair vaguely bothered me initially just by the sheer size. I somewhat got used to it as I watched the episode, but for a short while I was contemplating how much hair you would need to be able to pull off that kind of hair. Nevertheless, it seems like it might be fun to watch, so I'll be keeping up with it for the time being. I like Baka to Test to Shoukanjyuu for the fact that it vaguely addresses the problem I have with the Japanese school system relying too much on testing, but highly I doubt the show will actually address the matter. The school battle/rewards system is interesting, and I appreciate that it provides very tangible rewards for doing well, while simultaneously keeping you on your toes as other classes can challenge you. Will be keeping up with this for the time being as well. As for Dance in the Vampire Bund, I wasn't sure what to think of the first episode really. After reading the basic premise of the show, I think I might have been expecting something different from the first episode, so I really don't know what to think. I'll be giving it a few more episodes though to see where it goes. I was also planning on watching some Ookamikakushi to see how that is, but haven't gotten around to it. I'll probably make a post later.

Finally, the usual video is attached to my post, this time, a rough animation of what might be considered an opening video to Touhou Hisoutensoku. It looks really cool, and I'd really like to see what it would look like if fully and properly animated and colored. Anyway, here it is:

【ニコニコ動画】東方ラクガキＯＰ～非想天則編～

MMD Remiliaaa!

2009-12-28T21:32:00.002-05:00

Yay, more awesome cute dancing MMD Remila! That's all I have to say. Now go watch.

【ニコニコ動画】【MMD-DMC】No Life Queenでレミリアに踊らせてみた

More Niconico vids and White Knight

2009-12-27T23:03:00.005-05:00

This video is full of references, I'm pretty sure I don't even get half of them. Most of the characters in it are Touhou, and I'm familiar with Buront, but not so much the other people that show up in it. The references I do get for sure are Gundam SEED, GaoGaiGar, Nadesico, Giant Robo, and probably some other stuff I forgot to mention. Anyway, it's a video with nice animation, so take a look and see what you can recognize.

External Link

This video is based on Shoot the Bullet, and has some nice animated Aya going around taking pictures, and of course being attacked while doing so.

External Link

For my last video of the day, it's Kaiba singing Jingle Bells! His pronunciation is totally off in some parts, but it's somehow really catchy, so I decided to post it. Here you go!

External Link

Finally, in other news, I've been playing White Knight Chronicles recently, just finished up the story mode today and started a new game plus. I really should get to playing online now, so I can have more fun doing the quests and raising my guild rank. Looking forward to the next game, the trailer makes it look like it'll be badass.

It's the power of MMD!

2009-12-18T17:53:00.002-05:00

MMD (MikuMikuDance) has been used for quite some time now to make 3D animated dances and movies on Niconico. Although started with just Miku, a large number of good character models have since been created, and the old ones improved. MMD itself has improved over time, allowing more expressive movement of both the characters and clothing. Of course it's not perfect, but what do you expect for free? Anyway, the following video is notable for it's use of most every decent character model in use at the moment, and of course for having crazy Indian music. You just can't beat that!

External Link

Yukari Tamura feat. motsu from m.o.v.e!

2009-12-07T13:32:00.002-05:00

I had heard from a friend that m.o.v.e was on hard times due to the loss of their composer and producer t-kimura, with their only album so far released since his departure being anim.o.v.e 01, an album of anime song covers. Even so, I never expected a collaboration of Yukari Tamura and motsu (the rapping dude) from m.o.v.e! The result of that is this wonderfully contrasting PV, with half of it being a colorful happy Yukari Tamura, and the other half being a rapping motsu, in usual m.o.v.e PV style. I can't help but be amused.

【ニコニコ動画】田村ゆかり「You＆Me」PV (Full Ver.)

External Link

Bayside Shakedown THE MOVIE 3!

2009-12-07T11:57:00.000-05:00

I'm sure this is old news for some people, considering the announcement was made at the end of March, but I just found out there's going to be Odoru Daisousasen (aka Bayside Shakedown) THE MOVIE 3! Apparently filming is to start sometime in the spring of 2010, and the movie is planned to come out in the fall of 2010. Which means it won't be out by the next time I go to Japan. Damn. Still, great news, looking forward to it coming out. Not sure what it's going to be like, since the in story cast has already split up, and Ikariya Chousuke is no longer around to reprise his role as Waku. At the same time though, they could probably just have it that Waku finally retired, like he'd been saying he was going to do for the whole series. Regardless, I'm sure it'll be awesome Wangan comedy police drama, and it'll be cool to see Aoshima come back (which I assume is occuring).

Google Japanese IME

2009-12-03T18:16:00.000-05:00

Apparently Google has now released their own Japanese IME, and some of its auto-complete suggestions are very otaku oriented, giving such awesome suggestions as 人がゴミのようだ for ひとがご, and パンツじゃないから恥ずかしくないもん for ぱんつじゃ. There are more examples at Sankaku Complex (here, where I learned about it), and apparently the IME is now available (here).

New Monitor

2009-12-01T19:20:00.004-05:00

So, after many years of using the same LCD screen, I finally decided to upgrade. I finally get to try working with a badass dual monitor setup at home now. Yay! I've always wanted to dedicate my old LCD to portrait mode. It's good too that my new monitor supports HDCP and has HDMI in, so now I can finally use my PS3 at HD quality and watch Blu-rays and so forth. Comparing my new screen to my old one, I can certainly see that monitor technology has improved over the past 6-7 years. Either that, or my old monitor has worn down considerably. Probably both.

My setup with my new monitor. Totally badass (at least for me).

Anyway, that was yesterday. Today, I stopped at Kinokuniya and picked up the December Megami Magazine, and ordered the January ゲーマガ (Gamer Magazine). Perhaps I will report on those sometime later.

Idol Ultimate - Iori vs. Yayoi!

2009-11-29T20:05:00.002-05:00

For once, I'm posting about something that's not Touhou, and this time it's THE IDOLM@STER. Anyway, this video is to the song "Lion" from Macross Frontier and it's a clever video of Iori and Yayoi vying for the top in Idol Ultimate, as only one idol can stand at the top. Last time I watched, Yayoi was winning in the comment count, although Iori was right on her heels. Get to it Iori fans!

【ニコニコ動画】ライオン～伊織とやよいのサバイバル

External Link

More Bad Apple!

2009-11-20T16:03:00.002-05:00

The shadow picture version of Bad Apple that I posted about a few days ago has generated some pretty amazing derivative videos. I figured I'd post some of the ones I found especially good or clever. This first one was inevitable, they combined Bad Apple! with Donald McDonald.

【Bad_Apple!!Xドナルド】Bad Hamburger!

External Link

This next one is actually a mix of a number of videos where people made their own arrangements of Bad Apple. This combines a version using a string orchestra, a version with a piano four hands, and a version with a brass ensemble. There were several earlier versions, but I think this is the most well mixed version.

【俺mix ver】Bad Apple!!　弦楽(最終版)＋ピアノ＋金管(改)【東方】

External Link

Niconico is weird, but still awesome.

2009-11-13T20:11:00.004-05:00

You might think that after being on Niconico a long time, you'd get used to all weird things they can come up with. That hasn't happened yet. This video is pretty weird, but somehow great at the same time. For those not so familiar with Touhou mythology, this video is probably about the battle that occured between the native Japanese god Suwako, and the conquering Yamato god Kanako. I have to say I'm not entirely sure why King Ghidorah and Minilla are there too. Also, shakōkidogū and various other traditional Japanese things can be seen fighting. Like I said, awesome, but also weird.

External Link

This other video is also a weird animation thing involving ZUN's artwork, except I'm pretty sure they just manipulated his images instead of really animating them. It's strangely catchy and mesmerizing, so while I'm on the topic of strange and awesome, I figure I'll link this too.

External Link

【東方】Bad Apple!!　ＰＶ【影絵】

2009-11-13T00:04:00.006-05:00

Most of my friends who'd be most interested in seeing this probably have, but I thought this would be an appropriate video to start out the blog with. It's on niconico, touhou related, recent, and awesome, giving it all the qualifications I arbitrarily decided were necessary for the first post. It's been keeping it's position at #1 on the overall video ranking at niconico, basically since it came out.

External Link

The song is by a doujin circle called Alstroemeria Records, and is called "Bad Apple!! feat. nomico."

博麗神社 ～Hakurei Shrine

Happy Birthday Takane and Yumi!

Happy Birthday Yukiho!!

Translation Blog

THE IDOLM@STER2 PS3 Unboxing

Kara-age!

iM@S Social Game

Happy Birthday Hamuzou!

First DLC for iM@S2 PS3

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Demo

2011 Fall Engineering EXPO at UIUC

Happy Birthday Ryo, CHANGE!!!!, and more anime Blu-ray/DVD release details

Happy Birthday Kotori!!

iM@S Opera Troupe Appears!

Lawson Station

Kami-sama Dolls

There are so many Yukihos!

Yumi Hara vs Chihuahua

Nichijou the Fire!

New Blog Look

More G4U! Details

IM@S PS3 update and G4U! Vol. 2 info

IDOLM@STER 2 on PS3?!

Headphone Auditioning

Arcade Stick Artwork 2

Making Bento

New keyboard

Weiß Schwarz IDOLM@STER 2 Trial Deck!

Arcade Stick Artwork

Pretty Cure Splash Star

Anime Boston 2011

AQUAPAZZA, the official Queen of Heart

This Season's Anime

New IM@S Anime Info!

New IDOLM@STER Anime announced!

(Steam) Punk isn't Dead!!

Nanoha stuff arrived!

Wind Translation

Nanoha The MOVIE 1st

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha-type!

IDOLM@STER 2 Release Date and Extras!

MASTER ARTIST 2 -FIRST SEASON- Cover Song Info

IDOLM@STER News!

A dream I had last night

Craig's Visit and Otakon 2010

Alaska Cruise

Touhou x Macross 7

Japan 2010, Day 17 (Final Day)

Japan 2010, Day 16

Japan 2010, Day 15

Japan 2010, Day 14

Japan 2010, Day 13

Japan 2010, Day 12

Japan 2010, Day 11

Japan 2010, Day 10

Japan 2010, Day 9

Japan 2010, Day 8

Japan 2010, Day 7

Japan 2010, Day 6

Japan 2010, Day 5

Japan 2010, Day 4

Japan 2010, Day 3

Japan 2010, Day 2

Japan 2010, Day 1

Long day before Japan

Lost Packages

Twitter

Get a FREE CHILD!

Bad Apple!! on CNN

RockmanP

THE IDOLM@STER SPECIAL LIVE

THE IDOLM@STER!

Help me, TOUMAAAAA!!

Our Hisoutensoku!!

11eyes and New Anime

MMD Remiliaaa!

More Niconico vids and White Knight

It's the power of MMD!

Yukari Tamura feat. motsu from m.o.v.e!

Bayside Shakedown THE MOVIE 3!

博麗神社～Hakurei Shrine

【東方】Bad Apple!!　ＰＶ【影絵】