Monday, May 21, 2012

Last days in Tokyo, return to the Normal life

Sorry for the Silence, but I was enjoying time with my love, and I was kinda tired of writing.

Last day before My girlfriend got back in japan, we went to Asakusa, and finished our shopping in Akiba. I don't have the pictures yet, sorry.

So the day after, Nanae got in Japan, I met her in the morning, really really early, and spent a little time with her, then we met with BenPi. We went to Akiba, played some arcades, when to Shinjuku to pay for the bus trip for the day after, then went to Shibuya to see the huge crossing. We also had a taste of the Japanese Otaku culture, girl side, as Nanae showed us Otome Road, in Ikebukuro.

We finished that day In Ginza by meeting with one Of Nanae's friend.

The day after we went to Fuji-Q Highland, It's an amusement park near to mount Fuji. The reason I really wanted to go there is because that's the place where there is the life size Evangelion unit 1 head and entry plug. We took a couple of pics there, it's pretty nice. After that we did some roller coaster... Nanae went alone is the one that has the steepest drop in the world... it's actually reversed, and does a lot of loops, I don't like this kinds of things so much... it actually scare me a lot.
We also went to their haunted house, which is supposed to be very very scary.... well it was a little I guess... Nanae was terrified, but as for me... anyways, I mostly went there to see Nanae's reaction... sorry.

The day after I went alone to Nanae's house to met her mom.
For my future to be happy, It had to be a good meeting, and I think it went well.
After that we went to the Karaoke! 3 hours of Karaoke, it was interesting, but unfortunately, all Japanese songs have only kanji lyrics so BenPi could only do English song, as for me I was able to do just a couple of songs I knew enough, and very slow ones that I was able to follow (Atashi Marisa was easy to read). Nanae if course had no problem with this, since well, it's even easier if it's in Japanese for her, so she sang a couple of songs, and danced on the sofa there. I got some pics and videos that I will upload later.
After the Karaoke went around Akiba the 3 together.

Saturday we went to a cosplay event in some small amusement park close to Ikebukuro. It was my first time in a small cosplay event in Japan. This has nothing in common with anime conventions or Comiket. It's a little like the cosplay day at L'Imaginaire in Quebec, but without the shop. It was an interesting experience, I think I prefer Canada's cosplay event (conventions mostly) because people seem to have a tendency to speak more to each others. But according to Nanae, since the area was so big, and there was not so many people, it's usually not like this... well maybe I'll see next year. We took a couple of pictures of cosplays, we got the permission of everyone to post them on the Internet. except one, that I will not upload, obviously. The To Aru group and K-On group were really nice. The K-On groups gave us K-ON chips, no idea why, but Thanks!

After that we Went to eat sukiyaki, then we said bye to BenPi for the night, to spend one last night with my love before returning to Quebec.

Sunday we cleaned the apartment, then went to the airport, said Good-Bye to Nanae. Sad time, Some tears, then the FUCKING plane...
I hate planes, especially going to japan. 13 hours cramped in a seat built for midgets.
Then the customs in Detroit... I kinda hate the united states now, so fucking paranoid, and especially after leaving japan where everyone is always so kind and respectful, getting to see the stupid asshole face of the custom guy at Detroit got me in a bad mood for at least an Hour. I'll pick Air Canada for sure next time.

And now I'm back at my house. I miss My girlfriend, I miss Japan, I think my bed is way too fucking big, but at least it's a lot more comfortable than the one we had in japan.

That pretty much sums up everything. Pics will be posted later, and I'll probably update the old albums with better or modified pics later, I'll post about it I guess.

Thanks for following me, during my trip, my blog reached an average of like 40-80 person per day where there was a new post, peak being at 112. I'm really impressed.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Lucky Star City and the Tokyo Tower

So today we went to Washimiya, the city in which the shrine you can see in the opening of Lucky Star is. The city is proud of it and there's a lot of Lucky Star stuff everywhere.


It's my second time there. I didn't speak about it in my blog last time maybe, but last time I went, it was so fucking hot, like really really hot and humid, and I was really hungry, and unable to find a restaurant, and someone from a random shop helped me. So this time I went back and brought them a gift, Canada's maple syrup to thank them!
They we're happy, I'm not sure if they understood everything but it was funny.

Pics are here: https://plus.google.com/photos/109767154943043622747/albums/5742369968559643649

After coming back from there, we went to the Tokyo Tower, nothing much to say, it's a tower, I've been before, pics are here: https://plus.google.com/photos/109767154943043622747/albums/5742373172269968673



Sunday, May 13, 2012

Flowering Night 2012!

Hello everyone, this post will be more like the usuall post from this blog used to be, it means it's about Doujin music!



Today was Flowering Night 2012, day 2! So there was 5 band playing today, Opening the show was, My favorite band, Kimino-Museum ( 君の美術館 ) They did a very good performance, even if Cherose was not there. They mainly did the song which only girls sing, except for the last song. Satoshi did a good job singing it, but of course it's not as good as with Cherose... whatever.

Next was Sound of Swing, which is a Jazz band. I don't really like Jazz, I don't like to listen to Jazz, but I can always enjoy seeing the Jazz musician playing, they are really skilled, and it was the case for SOS.

Next was Kairo, it's also the second time I saw them I think. Their signer is really weird, but she has a cute voice. Most band (read all except Kairo) loves to talk a LOT between songs in japan, but Kairo did just a non stop music performance, and this is also a band I like, and it was great.

The speaking the bands do between their song seems like something nice, a way to get close to their audience, but for us who don't understand Japanese so much, it's not so much interesting, but I understand this practice.

After Kairo was 岸田教団&THE明星ロケッツ (KISIDA KYODAN & THE AKEBOSI ROCKETS)
I didn't recognize this bad at first, because the name was in kanji, but it was clearly the most popular band there.  (when I came back home I went to their website and noticed I knew them and actually bought their last CD at M3). Good performance, but I don't like how their signer act on stage. She however has a good voice and the rest of the band has a really good stage presence. There was a mush pit beside me... but a Japanese mush pit can't move me so it stopped at me.

The final band was TaNaBaTa, Good performance too, I especially liked their version of cirno's song when he asked the crowd to sing "chiruno, chiruno, chiruno" while waving their towel it was a 'Refreshing' moment, in this very hot and smelly concert hall.

After this there was an encore, 1 song by TaNaBaTa, and then all the bands got on the stage for the final thanks.

It was a really good show overall, my only 2 disappointing moments were that Cherose was not there, and that, when fi-fy was just beside me I couldn't speak to her because of my lack of Japanese skills.


Saturday, May 12, 2012

Back to Akiba

So we're back from our week in the west. The last 2 days were spent in Osaka and Kyoto.
In Osaka we walked around DenDen Town a little, unfortunately we were too early, and everything was closed, we waited a little to visit some shops then left to Kyoto. While there we spent a lot of money on a stupid UFO catcher... "this one will be easy" ... sigh.
For those who don'T know, DenDen Town is like Osaka's Akihabara, but a lot less impressive.

Once in Kyoto, we went to the Kinkakuji (Golden pavillion) it's a really beautiful building, we took a lot of picture. After that we went to eat at Gyuzen, my favorite restaurant from my last trip to Japan, we eat shabu-shabu and sukiyaki, it was delicious.

After that we went back to the hotel, were there was a live performance from a Western concert flute player.

The day after we went to the Nijo castle, that I visited last time, but it's worth seeing it again, especially since BenPi had never seen it. After that we went to see a maiko dance in Gion. After that we took the shinkansen back to Tokyo.

Tonight is flowering night, Woohoo!

The pics from the west will be uploaded soon, there is a lot so it's long to sort.

Version francaise plus tard.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Update from the east's west


Hello everyone here's a little update of our trip in western japan so far.
first we took the shinkansen from Tokyo to Kobe, from there we took the bus to awaji island, then to shikoku island, where we stayed in the renaissance Naruto resort, in Naruto. It's a really nice hotel, we stayed there one night then took the bus back to kobe where we took another bus to tour around the city. We also ate the famous Kobe beef while in Kobe.... it is worth it's reputation. It's the best beef I ever ate in my life.

After visiting Kobe we took a boat to Kyushu. We slept in the boat and accosted in the morning. In kyushu we went to the suginoi hotel in buppu. Another great hotel, and this one is especially famous for it's onsen, but due to a communication problem with our guide, we didn't get to try them, however we still went in the aqua garden, which is like a pool with onsen water. while in kyushu we also visited yufuin and the jigoku meguri (hell hot spring).

We are now on the boat back to kobe to then take the train to osaka where we will continue our travels.

The french version and pictures will come when we reach tokyo.

***

Allo tout le monde, voici une petite update de notre voyage dans l'ouest du japon jusqu’à maintenant.
Premièrement nous avons prit le shinkansen de Tokyo a Kobe, de la nous avons prit une autobus qui nous a mener a l’île Shikoku en passant par l’île awaji. Nous sommes rester dans le Renaissance Naruto Resort a Naruto. C’est un très bel hôtel, nous y sommes rester une nuit et ensuite avons repris l’hôtel jusqu’à Kobe. Une foi a Kobe nous avons manger le légendaire bœuf de Kobe, et il mérite sa réputation, c'est littéralement le meilleur steak que j'ai mangé de ma vie. Nous avons ensuite prit une bus qui fessait le tour de la ville.

Apres avoir visité K et nous avons prit le bateau vers Kyushu. Nous avons dormi dans le bateau et avons accoster le matin. A kyushu nous somme allé a l’hôtel suginoi a beppu. Une autre magnifie hôtel, et celle ci est spécialement bien connu pour ces onsen, que, due a un problème de communication avec notre guide, nous n'avons pas visiter, nous avons cependant visité le Aqua garden, qui est comme un grosse piscine mais rempli avec de l'eau de onsen.
Nous avns aussi visité Yufuin et le Jigoku Meguri (source thermal de l'enfer!)

Nous somme présentement (prendre note ue ce message a été ecrit le 10 mai a 9:23 pm heure du japon) sur le bateau en direction de Kobe ou nous prendront le train vers Osaka et Kyoto ou nous allons continuer notre voyage.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Upcoming silence

Just a post to warn you that there won't be any uploads of pictures for about a week, and then I don't know when and if I will be able to update this blog for the next week, as we're going in the west and I'm not bringing my laptop with me.
I'll try to take as much not as possible during the trip to be able to give a nice resume when we come back to Tokyo!

Juste un petit message pour vous avertir qu'il n'y aura aucun upload de photo pour approximativement 1 semaine, et que je ne sait pas quand et si je pourrais updater ce blog au courant de la semaine prochaine puisque nous allons dans l'ouest et que je n'amene pas mon laptop avec moi.
J'esserais de prendre le plus de note possible pour vous faire un beau petit résumé a mon retour a Tokyo!

Doll Party

So today we went to the volks doll party at tokyo big sight. There was some kind of lottery thing to get the new dolls  but even if I gave him my better number 1081 he couldn't get anything.
While he was waiting I walked around to take some pictures. at 11 I was done, and then I spent the 4:30 most boring hours I ever spent in Japan.
Nothing much to say, if you want more info, ask BenPi, he liked it a lot more than I did.
You owe me one T.T

**

Alors aujourd'hui nous somme allée au volks doll party au Tokyo Big Sight. Il y avais un genre de lotterie pour savoir qui aurais le droit d'acheter les nouvelles poupée, mais malgré que je lui ai donné mon meilleur numero tout étais sold out avant que son tour vienne.
Pendant qu'il attendais, j'ai fait le tour de la salle en prenant es photos. A 11h javais fini, ensuite j'ai vécu les 4 heures et demi les plus plates que j'ai jamais vécu au Japon.
Rien de plus a dire, si vous voulez plus d'information, demandez a BenPi, il a aimé sa beaucoup plus que moi.

Link for some pics / lien pour quelques images: https://plus.google.com/photos/109767154943043622747/albums/5739340613310815665

For more picture, go see BenPi's picture on Google Plus (later)
Pour plus de photo, allez voir les photo de BenPi sur google Plus (plus tard)

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Hot day in Harajuku and Kamata

So I once again went to Harajuku, I looked all around and I was unable to find that supposed place with a lot of lolitas... well whatever, today was the "LETS ALL GO TO HARAJUKU" day it seems. The place was full of people.



We went to the Doll salon for BenPi then we walked around and went to the shrine.

After that we went to Kamata, the stations close to where my beloved Nanae lives. Unfortunately for me, she's in Quebec right now.... but oh well. We ate at the restorant she told us to, apparently it's well know for it's gyoza. After that we went to see the T2 art gallery in the Toranoana there.

We wandered the streets of Kamata a little, checked the anime shops there and came back to the hotel to sleep.

 ***

Alors je suis retournée une foi de plus a Harajuku, et une foi encore je n'ai pas trouvé cet endroit mythique de rassemblement de Lolita... mais whatever, aujourd'hui c'étais la journée "ALLONS TOUS A HARAJUKU". Il y avais énormément de monde (voir photo ci haut).

Nous somme allée au Doll salon pour BenPi, et nous nous sommes promeé un peu dans la foule. Nous avons visité le Evangelion store et le temple.

Apres cela nous sommes allée a Kamata, la station près d’où demeure ma bien aimée Nanae. Malheureusement pour moi, elle est encore a Québec en ce moment... mais bon. Nous avons mangé au restorant qu'elle nous avais conseillé, apparemment qu'ils sont réputé pour leur gyoza. Nous sommes ensuite allé au toranoana pour voir la galerie d'Art de T2.

Nous nous sommes promené dans les rue de Kamata un  peu, avons visité les magasin d'animé, et somme revenu a l’hôtel pour dormir.

Pictures are here / les images sont ici: https://plus.google.com/photos/109767154943043622747/albums/5739030705854455489

Friday, May 4, 2012

My birthday in a Maid Cafe and Ueno park

All Maid Cafe are not born equal. I know I've said this last time I came to japan, but it was 2 maid cafe of 2 different companies. Yesterday, for my birthday, we went back to the maid cafe I went, and loved, last time I came to Japan. It's the same company than the one we went 3 days ago, maidreamin. But just a different location. But it's a world of differences! This one was fun and SO CUTE.
I really got my Moe overload. The girls actually paid attention to us, we ate a big curry, which was actually good,  the curry (for 2) also extended our stay by 30 minutes and made us go to the stage to take a picture with all the maids. We also got to see a maid dance and a maid song. This is the kind of Maid Cafe I love!
Oh and since it was my birthday, I got on stage again, everyone wished me happy birthday, and I got a "birthday cake".

Tout les Maid Cafe ne sont pas née égale. Je sait que je l'ai déjà dit la dernière foi que je suis venu au Japon, mais c'étais pour 2 différente compagnie de Maid café. Cette foi c'est pour 2 café de la même Compagnie (maidreamin). Les 2 sont situé a Akihabara, mais a 2 coin de rue différent, pourtant c’est un monde de différence! Celui ci étais tellement amusant et TELLEMENT CUTE!!! J'ai vraiment eu ma Moe Overload. Les filles portait attention a nous, on a manger un tres gros curry (pour 2) qui étais très bon et qui a étendu notre temps au Maid café de 30 minutes. En plus de cette extension, le fait d'avoir commander ce curry nous a aussi fait monté sur la scène avec toute les Maid pour prendre une photo.
Nous avons aussi eu le droit a une danse et a une chanson par des Maid. CA c’est le genre de Maid Café que j'aime!
Oh et puisque c'étais ma fête, j'ai remonté sur la scène encore, pour que tout le monde me souhaite bonne fête et j'ai eu le droit a un "Gâteau de fête".


After that, since it was sunny, we decided to go to Ueno park. Since it's Golden Week there was a lot of people there. Lots of things were in repair mode, but we still got to see a couple shrines and most of the park.
Near the shrine at the center of the lake, there was some kind of Matsuri, but it started raining when we got there.
We went to the other side of the lake, where there was a small outside theater, to cover ourselves. The music was really bad but it was interesting... I guess.
After that we came back to Akiba and did some more shopping.

Apres cela, puisqu’il faisait beau nous sommes allé a Ueno park. Puisque c’est la Golden Week en ce moment, il y avais beaucoup de monde. Plusieurs choses étais en réparation mais on a quand même pu voir quelques temple et la plupart du parc.
Pres du temple au milieu du lac, il  avais un genre de Matsuri, mais il a commencer a mouillé quand nus sommes arrivé a cet endroit.
Nous somme alé dans un petit amphithéâtre extérieur couvert pour nous réfugier de la pluie, la musique étais mauvaise mais c'étais... un peu intéressant je suppose.

Nous somme ensuite revenu a Akiba ou nous avons continuer a magasiner un peu.

Pictures are here / Les photos sont Ici: https://plus.google.com/photos/109767154943043622747/albums/5738833479841201217

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Rainy day - Amano art expo and Nakano broadway

Hello everyone! Thanks for following us!
I've never had so many readers before hahaha.

Bonjours tout le monde!Merci de nous suivre!
Je n'ai jamais eu autant de lecteur avant! hahaha.

Yesterday we went to the Yoshitaka Amano (Final Fantasy, Vampire Hunter D, ...) art exposition in Shinjuku. We took some picture outside, but we couldn't take any pics inside unfortunately.
The Expo was really beautiful, and it was actually an art gallery where you could buy his paintings, the most expensive one was about 2,500,000 yen, which is about 31000$ CAD.
Some people were actually buying stuff so, and they didn't look really rich so... Otaku have a lot of money some time!

Hier nous sommes allé a l'exposition d'art d'Amano Yoshitaka (Final Fantasy, Vampire Hunter D, ...) à Shinjuku. Nous avons pris quelques photos a l'extérieur, mais il étais interdit d'en prendre a l'intérieur malheureusement.
L'exposition étais magnifique, et c'étais en fait une sorte de galerie d'art ou l'on pouvais acheter les tableau d'Amano. La plus cher étais d’à peu près 2,500,000 yen, ce qui vaut a peur près 31000$ CAD.
Quelques personnes achetais des tableau et ils n'avaient pas l'air d'être particulièrement riche... les Otaku ont vraiment beaucoup d'argent parfois!


After that, since it was raining we went to the Nakano Broadway, which is a big covered street + a big shopping center in Nakano. We saw a lot of Anime goods that we need to go buy during the last week, and BenPi spent quite a lot of time in the Mandarake doll shop (I did the whole floor while he did this shop).
After that we eat sushi at a sushi train, where one of the staff could speak a little french. We had fun trying to ask things in french, she was very nice.
After that we came back home early to the apartment to do some cleaning and await patiently our tickets to the Dolpa and the Flowering Night!



Après cela, comme il mouillais, nous somme allé au Nakano Broadway, qui est une grosse rue couverte avec un gros centre d'Achat, situé a Nakano. Nous avons vue plein de goodies d'Anime que nous allons revenir cherché dans la dernière semaine de notre voyage. BenPi a passé beaucoup de temps dans le Magasin de Doll du Mandarake (J'ai eu le temps de faire l'étage au complet pendant qu'il regardais ce magasin).
Après cela nous sommes allé manger dans un sushi train. Une des staff savait parlé français un peu alors on a eu beaucoup de plaisir a lui demander des choses en français, elle étais vraiment gentille.
Après cela nous sommes retourné a notre appartement pour faire un peu de ménage et attendre patiemment nos tickets pour le Dolpa et le Flowering Night!

UPDATE:
Lien pour les photos/link for pics:
Nakano
Shinjuku

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Edo-Tokyon Museum and Akihabara day 3

So we went to the Edo-Tokyo museum. It's a really nice museum, one of the most interesting and impressive I've seen.

When we came back we did the main shops in the second street in Akiba. We went also went to the good smile cafe and we took a lot of picture today, but most of them need to be edited for white balance so they will come much later.

***

Nous somme allée au musée Edo-Tokyo aujourd'hui, c'est vraiment un très beau musée, un des plus intéressant et impressionnant que j'ai vue.

En revenant nous avons visité les gros magasin de la 2e rue d'akihabara. Nous somme aussi allé au good Smile café, et nous avons pris plein de photos, mais il faut retoucher leur balance de blanc alors elle seront disponible beaucoup plus tard.


UPDATE:
les liens des photos / Link for pictures:
Akihabara day 3: https://plus.google.com/photos/109767154943043622747/albums/5738114780765777793
Edo-Tokyo museum: https://plus.google.com/photos/109767154943043622747/albums/5738107943083368145

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Akihabara day 2

So today we just went walking through Akiba. Our first stop was a really really big store called Yodobashi-Akiba. It took 2 hours to visit it, it's like a future shop, size wise, but 8 stories tall. After getting to the 8th floor, we decided to eat there and ate curry, which to my opinion tasted a little weird.

After eating we continued wandering around Akiba, we did the whole main street today (except the shops we did yesterday). We saw a lot of interesting stuff that we decided we would come back for near the end of the trip, if we still had money.

Around 4pm we were tired of walking, but not so hungry yet so we went to a Maid Cafe.
It was BenPi's first time in a maid cafe. I was somewhat disappointed, it's was not the same than last time, and I think it's not as good. It was still nice and I still had that little moe overdose, but not as much as last time.

After doing the main street, we came back and went to sleep. We didn't eat dinner.

Pics of the day can be found here: https://plus.google.com/photos/109767154943043622747/albums/5737712395273708305
And pics of yesterday can be found there: https://plus.google.com/photos/109767154943043622747/albums/5737352502993874977

***

Alors aujourd’hui nous avons décidé de marcher dans Akihabara. Notre premier arrêt fut dans un très très gros magasin appelé Yodobashi-Akiba. Sa a prit 2 heurs a visité, c’est comme un future shop coté grandeur, mais 8 étages de haut. Rendu au 8e étage on a décidé de manger la, et nous avons mangé un curry, qui selon moi goûtait un peu étrange.

Apres avoir manger, nous avons continuer a nous promener dans akihabara, nous avons fait la rue principale au complet (excepté les magasin que nous avions fait hier). Nous avons vu plein de stock intéressant que nous allons retourné voir vers la fin du voyage, si nous avons encore de l'argent.

Vers 4pm, nous étions tanné de marcher et nous n'avions pas encore vraiment faim, alors nous sommes allé dans un maid café. C'étais la première foi pour benpi dans un maid café. J'ai été un peu déçu, ce n'étais pas le même maid café que la dernière foi, et selon moi c'étais moins bien. J'ai quand même eu ma petite moe overdose, mais ce n’étais pas aussi bien que la dernière foi.

Apres avoir fini la rue principale, nous somme retourné a la chambre et nous sommes couché, sans avoir souper.

Les photos de la journée sont ici: https://plus.google.com/photos/109767154943043622747/albums/5737712395273708305
Et les photos d'hier sont ici: https://plus.google.com/photos/109767154943043622747/albums/5737352502993874977