Shurikn's Blog: March 2013

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Sakura

Right now Japan is really beautiful. The Sakura (Cherry tree) are blooming, and it's probably the most beautiful tree in the world, during this period... but this period doesn't last long. The Sakura stay in bloom for about a week and a half. this season was earlier than usual too so it took us by surprise, I think I missed the full bloom in Oume, but I still got to see a wonderful sight.

Apparently there was a lot of Sakura in Oume, that's what my friend told me, so we went there to see them. Beside the supposed lot of Sakura, there's also a museum of the Showa period in Oume, so before going to see the Sakura we went to see the museum... it was pretty boring, it's not really an interesting period for me... I guess... well it kinda felt like Fallout, but in japan... anyway you can see the pictures from the museum and Oume here: Oume

While Oume didn't have that many Sakura, there was still a bunch of them. You can see it at the end of the previous album, but here are some of what I think are my best shots

After walking for a while in Oume, I wasn't satisfied, I wanted to see more, and more beautiful Sakura. So we went to Ueno park. I have already been there twice in the past, but never during the Sakura season... and it was Beautiful! There was a lot of people as usual, and it was pretty much a matsuri for the Sakura. Unfortunately, my camera's battery dead when we got there, so I could only take pictures with Jiyu's camera.
I think the pictures can't really make you feel how beautiful it was, but it's still nice to look at them, you can see them here: Ueno Sakura
Here are my favourite shots from Ueno:

When I got back home after that, I went on Google+ and I saw this wonderful picture:

(you can see the original post here: Takashi Asao - Google+ - Sakura 2013 )
This picture was taken at the Hotel Chizanso Tokyo in Mejiro. So Jiyu and I went there the day after... This garden is fabulous! Unfortunately, my night photography skills sucks, and I don't have a stand, so Lot of my pictures were blurry, but I still managed to capture a few gems. You can see them all here: Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo
My favourite shots were these:

It's free for anyone to enter and see the Garden of the Hotel, you don't have to pay, or be staying at the Hotel. It's a really beautiful garden, and I'm sure it's still beautiful even when it's not the Sakura season.

That's it for today, I hope you enjoyed it.

Friday, March 22, 2013

What hapenned lately part 2/2

Like the last post, this post is a summary of what happened to me in Japan lately. Most of what you'll read here was previously published on G+. If you didn't read the last one yet, please read it here!

Poutine in Japan

Most play who say they sell poutine in Japan actually sell a very poor imitation of poutine. The gravy is awful, and often replaced with seir sauces, and the cheese is grated, and in very low quantity.
I found a place that's not so bad in Shimokitazawa, it's called Robson Fries. While it's still grated cheese, at least they put a decent amount of it, and their gravy is good... It's still not a real good poutine from Quebec, but they don't seem to have any fresh cheese around here so I think it's the best I'll ever find... I really miss Quebec's poutine!

Akihabara Again!

Of course I'll go to Akiba a lot, it's the main spot for Otaku after all!
But this time I didn't go for a fun purpose, I had something important to do, and I did it. That's all there was to it... but I spent a lot of time walking around until that thing was done. Akiba is still a great place to walk around, and you'll often see Itasha like this one while walking around:

Because I still don't have enough money to waste it carelessly, I didn't buy much, but I found an old album by Kimino-Museum, that I never though I'd be able to find, so I bought it. When I returned home I listened to it... it's fucking aweosme! Kimino-Museum are really the best. It's an album fro when Cherose was still around too so it's perfect... I'm still so sad that he left the bad :(
You can listen to a demo here: monologue ～交差する彼方の旋律～

View from my apartment's window

No real idea why, but I felt like taking pictures from my window. The weather was great, so I took a couple of shots, and this is the best one:

I really like it :)

Akihabara... Again! but this time, with friends!

So I went to Akihabara again, but this time with my 2 friends from work (the same one I went to see the To Aru movie with). We walked around and visited a couple of shops.

I learned a lot more about each of them, especially the taste of the one on the left in the picture are really similar to mine.
We went to a maid cafe, both of them had never tried it, so I was the one guiding 2 Japanese Otaku in Akihabara. It wasn't my best maid cafe experience, but it was fun anyway. One of the maid was really cute and had a great smile. After leaving the maid cafe we visited a couple of shops, there was however a really b ad pollution cloud coming from china around on this day, and it was really bad outside with big gust of wind, so we enter a random shop and I was surprised to find portal related goods!

While it's really popular everywhere else, portal seem unknow to most people in japan, so I was really happy to see it.
After that we went to a Karaoke again, and finished the day while eating yakiniku at one of their house (guy to the right of the picture).
It was a really nice day. It's a little sad, the guy on the right can't really speak English, and I can't really speak Japanese, so we have hard time communicating. but we have similar taste, I really wish we could speak more.

That concludes part 2/2 of my summary.
Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

What hapenned lately part 1/2

This post is gonna be a summary of everything that happened to me since my last Japan related post (february 12). A lot of little things happened, but nothing big, so I didn't want to post about it, but it's been so long, so I should at least put everyone up to date... Thanks to Justin and SuperSugoi who helped me raise my motivation enough to write this...

most of what you will read here was previously written, or hinted at on my G+.

Valentine's day

Valentine's day in japan is not like in Canada. Girls give chocolate to guys, and it doesn't actually mean it's love, it can also be "giri choco" which is the chocolate given to pretty much every guy a girl have to interact with, as to not let them be disappointed. It's a very Japanese thing, and has it's good points and bad points... Anyway, I received a chocolate from a really cute girl. It was an obligatory chocolate, but it was still fun. Other than that, It didn't really feel like it was valentine's day so there's nothing more to say about it.

Cinema in Japan

I went to see the To Aru Majutsu No Index movie at the cinema with 2 friends from work. We wanted to go on the first week-end but it was full (and we didn't buy out tickets in advance) so we went to the Karaoke instead.

We went again the next week-end and reserved tickets in advance this time.
The movie was good. Even if I didn't understand everything. They pretty much used all characters, I was really happy to see the Misaka Imoutos. But unfortunately I couldn't spot Misaka 10032. Unless the movie happens before she gets her googles stolen.

The seats are actually bigger and have more leg space than Canadian's cinemas. That surprised me. The screen was small though. Beside that (and the language of course) the only difference with a Canadian cinema was that after the movie, when the credit started... nobody moved. EVERYONE watched the credits until the very end... wtf

Before the movie they gave us a copy of one of the To Aru novel (I think it was the one for the movie but I can't read it and confirm). Later I've seen copies of this novel in re-seller shops for like 3000yen, so it'S worth more than the actual cinema ticket.

Office moving

The company where I work moved it's office from Shibuya to Shimokitazawa. Before leaving the old office I took some pictures from the roof of the building, you can see them here: OldOfficeRoof
Personally I like the old office better... but the new one is cheaper.

Nakano broadway again

Well it's an Otaku hotspot so of course I'd go again. I went with one of my friend from work, and I just showed him around. nothing especially new excepted we counted the number of Mandarake inside the building... I lost count after 14.
Also one of them changed it's entrance.
It looked like this before:

Now it looks like this:

Lawson and their lottery

The convenience store chain Lawson has a lot of Anime themed lotteries. The one close to my house has one about To Aru, so I tried it a couple of times. Got 2 figure and this nice cell phone strap:

If I had more money I would have bought a whole bunch more =/

This was part 1
I'll post part 2 later this week.
(Update) Part two has been posted here!

Friday, March 8, 2013

Adieu

I'll never see you again. It pains me so... but at least now everything is clear.

Shurikn's Blog