Hey all,
Well, Golden Week is officially over. I'd have to say that I spent 99% of it doing absolutely nothing, which is ok cause that was my goal, pretty much. There were primarily two events: the Saturday of Haley's birthday, and the following Friday when I went out with Sam and friends to karaoke.
Saturday was really great! It was Haley, Sam, Kate and I, and we partyed it up real nice. By that, I mean we spent the whole day in DenDen town, looking at/ buying anime goods. Both Haley and Sam were looking for games for their new DS's, and similarly I had a mission to buy the new Naruto op single. We managed to accomplish all that, through getting lost, occasional rain storms and losing members of our party. Most amusing was the entire floor full of Gashapon machines, in which all but I gambled copious amounts of money on (I've had too many bad experiences). Case in point: the Sailor Moon one ate Haley's 100 yen, and the Full Metal Alchemist one kept spitting out Roy Mustangs at Sam (which was rather hilarious. I think she got like, six of him. She wanted to get rid of them, so she gave me one).
PS- for all those in the dark, Gashapon machines are like bubblegum machines, except instead of bubblegum, they sell tiny figures of almost anything you can imagine, from tiny plastic food to cell phone charms (but mostly anime related). There are so many of these things that I just can't describe. Especially in DenDen town, where they are in every anime goods store. Here, I'll let Wikipedia say it more eloquently:
"Gashapon (ガシャポン or sometimes ガチャポン in katakana), also referred to as "capsule toy", is a Japanese onomatopoeia, made up of two sounds: "gacha" for the turning of a crank on a toy vending machine, and "pon" for the sound of the toy capsule dropping into the receptacle. It is used to describe both the machines themselves, and any toy obtained from them.
Gashapon machines are similar to the coin-op toy vending machines seen outside of grocery stores and other retailers in the United States. While coin-op vending toys are usually cheap, low-quality products, sold for a quarter or 50 cents, Japanese Gashapon can cost anywhere from 100 - 500 yen (Equal to $1–$5 US) and are normally a much higher quality product.
They are often constructed from high-grade PVC plastic, and contain more molding detail and carefully painted features. However, these are not simply toys: they are collector's items, with rare ones fetching extremely high prices.
Gashapon toys are often based on popular character licenses from Japanese manga, video games, anime, popular icons and few American entertainment inspire toys. These highly detailed toys based on popular culture icons have found a large following among adults in Japan, and the trend is filtering to the West with other popular culture influences such as anime and manga. It is not at all uncommon to see sets based on licenses explicitly for adults, with figures of naked or near-naked women."
-Wikipedia.orgTis true, we saw a "bondage" Gashapon machine, which was completely empty but the illlustrations on it made perfectly clear what kind of gashapon it was. I tend to stay away from Gashapons because they are incredibly addictive and costly. You could just keep pumping in 100 yen, saying, "Oh this time I'll get the one I want" but you never do. It's a trick, I tell you! It's far better to buy the complete set of figurines at an anime store and spend a bit more money, but get the one you want. Example: Haley's been trying to get the Kyon figure out of the Haruhi Gashapon machine near her home. She's tried at least more than five times, which means she's spent probably at least 1000 yen. However, when we were in DenDen town we saw the Kyon figure sold separately for 980 yen, which of course is a better price. But, of course she might have plans for her unwanted figures - perhaps to give them away as gifts. But anyways, you get my point. DON'T USE GASHAPONS!
Anyways, we went into tons of stores in DenDen town, including a cosplay store, where they sell anime costumes. I wanted the Naruto jacket sooo bad, but of course it has to be like $115, way way out of my price range. Seriously, they make these things for cheap and sell them for waay more than they're worth. Finally we ended up at Animate, the store we found in Akiba, and I bought a good deal of merchandise, three folders and one pencil. And! I found the Naruto CD and bought it, yay!!! Mission complete!
(Oh, I forgot to mention that we found a real Death Note being sold (just after I mentioned that I bet they sold them, and how much I would like to buy one). After I saw it, I figured it wasn't worth it (just a black notebook with some fancy writing on the front), but! What a great opportunity to take pictures! So Sam took a pic of Haley and I with the Death Note, and it came out AWESOME, I can't wait to post it here).
But the day was not yet complete, because we needed to find the cake buffet restaurant (keeki baikin). My Okaasan had drawn a quick map for me, but unfortunately it was a bit...inaccurate. Because of this, I had to rely on my instincts from having visited there previously, and we asked some storekeepers. Finally, we found it! Called SweetS Paradise, this place lets you eat all you want for 90 minutes for 1200 yen. They not only had cake, but dinner foods like curry and spaghetti as well. The thing is...of course the cakes weren't that good. Plus, they seemed to be all jello-type consistency, which is the type I hate most. Because of this, I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought, but that's ok. It was Haley's birthday, and she enjoyed it so that's great. We sang Happy Birthday for her too.
After that, we started heading back towards the station. Let me tell you, that place, Shinbashi, is really something at night. It's all lit up like Times Square, with huge ads and TV screens blasting stuff, and so many people. I saw what was probably the biggest movie poster I've ever seen in my life on the side of a building, advertising for Spiderman 3 (which I want to see omg). But seriously, it was awesome-looking.
Back in Hirakata, we went to that karaoke place that I went with Sam and Haley before, soley for the reason that we had membership cards and wanted to use them. And so, we proceeded to do three hours of karaoke. Of course, it was fun. Then we disbanded, as people needed to get home.
I did nothing on Sunday and Monday, and went to school on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Wednesday night I went over to Haley's house, and just relaxed on Thursday. Highlights of being at Haley's house - comfortable futon, Internet access, big beautiful TV, and good food. Who wouldn't want to be there?
Then, Friday I met up with Sam, Jake & speaking partner (Haley wasn't feeling so well) and we did, guess what, more karaoke! This time, Five hours worth! (a deal, it was cheap). I met Sam's speaking partner and her friend, Sasori and Eri. We had fun! I think there is no activity with friends that is more suitable for me than karaoke in Japan. I like to sing Japanese songs....it's really perfect. Everyone complimented me on both my singing voice and knowledge of Japanese songs. Of course, they had good voices too (I've been singing for a long time with Sam, so I was able to do some harmony with her). And Jakes' got a good voice for doing Frank Sinatra and Johnny Cash.
AFter that, dinner and then back home. I did absolutely nothing on Saturday and Sunday. And now I'm facing two papers due on Wednesday. I'd better get crackin'. Talk to yous later!
As always, plz leave comments/tags.
