Hey all,
Well I thought I was going to be able to update on Tuesday, but that didn't come to pass as I was not feeling so well and thus didn't go to school. But on Wednesday I felt better and went to Denden Town with Haley and Shin.
First Shin wanted to take some pictures so we went to those PuriKura machines (read: those mechanical booths where you walk in and get pictures taken with people) at an arcade. Man, those things are LIGHTYEARS beyond what we have in America. Everything works with touch computer screens. First, you put in 400 yen (bout $3.50), then you can scan in a background if you have something special in mind. If you don't, you get to choose 6 backgrounds/picture styles (like french fries, Pocky, circus, teddy bears, etc) and that's all BEFORE you go into the booth. Then you go in, and you get only one try for each of the backgrounds and then choose the ones that you like the most. Then you go back out to another booth where you get to edit the images as you see fit. With the stylus you can draw on the images in a variety of colors and styles, you can put preselected sayings in Japanese (like, "Friends Forever!" type thing) or a date stamp. You can add sparklies in many varieties, and little icons of hearts or bears or food or anything, really. It is just amazing. The machine gives you about 5 mins to do this, and then you can choose how many and what size pictures you want to print out. Then it prints them, and there's a little table with scissors for you to cut them up with. Truly spectacular.
After we did that, Haley and I decided to visit DenDen Town for the last time *sniff* . Shin came with us, but only for an hour or so because she had alot of stuff to do before leaving for Taiwan (lucky girl! From Japan, an all-expense paid trip to Taiwain for three days is in the range of $300. So cheap!) so we said our goodbyes.
To make a long story short, Haley and I accomplished all our goals for Denden Town. We found the stores we wanted and bought what we wanted (thanks to a last minute money transfer from Dad, I was able to go out and buy something that I really wanted). So, we were both happy.
Now here's the short story made long:
~~~~~~Begin Otaku-speak~~~~~~~
Ok so for my last time in Denden town, I wanted no regrets! We started with a figure store, the one the Death Note had been in last time. I FINALLY caved in and bought a Giroro keychain. I looked at the big Miina figurine, but of course it was 4500 yen.
Here's a picture:
Of course it looks JUST LIKE the one that Densha Otoko had, so I wanted it but that's just too expensive. So I settled on getting the small Gashapon version. Still looks good ( I hope).
So, then we saw the famous MANDARAKE store (we visited its biggest outlet in Akihabara, of which this one was just a mere shadow). I have never seen such narrow aisles in my life. BUT! It was in this store that I saw the Athrun figure that I have been wanting for nearly two years. It was the going for the cheapest that I've ever seen in Mandarake, probably because its a figure of a guy and not many guys will buy those. It was priced at about $16.50, which is SUCH A DEAL because I've seen it for $40 + shipping on Ebay. Even in all the other stores in Denden town it was at least ten dollars more expensive. So, I went ahead and got it, and now I have it, yay! Definitely my best purchase of the day, and maybe in Japan (but plastic ramen, i mean come on...).
AFter that we stopped by Osaka Gundams (yes, a store devoted entirely to Gundams)which was AWESOME. They had a 6 ft Gundam model right in the middle of the store, and one the second level they had made it to look like a giant Gundam hand was crashing thru the wall. Too bad you coudlnt' take pictures, because it was SOO COOL.
So I must have had amazing luck that day, because you could get pencil boards with Gundam characters on them, but they were all wrapped up so you couldn't tell which one you were getting. I really wanted a certain two of them, so I picked at random and, guess what! I GOT THEM! Even the super rare one that I wanted, I got! Fortune must have been smiling on me that day. (But not Haley. Even when I picked for her when she was buying KKM plushies, she still got Conrad. Too bad). Ha HA ha .
Then we went to a doujin shop that I hadn't been to before, and it was like...omg so big with so much stuff. I got Haley to buy her first doujin! And of course I bought some too....And on the CD floor there was a CD of Chemistry's song that was used for the last GSD opening theme, so I got that too. Then, on to Animate!
Animate was, and still is, the best anime store around. I got a Haruhi mousepad and John's present (John, your souvenir will be three-fold). Then we went to the CD floor and of course, guess what day it happened to be? That's right, the hatsubai (opening day) of the Motteke! Sera Fuku~ CD! (Lucky Star op). They were blasting it all thru the store and even on the same floor from different locations, while of course still replaying the OP on a small TV in front of the counter. Simply amazing. Well, I decided to do my part and parcel to make it #1 on the Oricon chart, so I went ahead and bought it. That felt good! Oricon #1 wo Mezase!
So then, we left Animate and wandered around, looking at the cosplay shop for the last time, and the figure shop that had the Kyon figure that I desperately wanted. We found it! And both Haley and I wanted it, so I finally did something good and bought it for Haley as a birthday present, since when it was her birthday I didn't have enough money to get her one. So that was great and now we have a matching set of chibi Kyons. Can life GET any better?
Finaly we found this figure shop that Haley was wanting to find, and she bought an L plushie that i pointed out to her and I got something else for John. Then we bid a tearful farewell to Denden town *sniff* Gooodbye~~~~~
~~~~~~End Otaku-speak~~~~~~~
But getting home sure was a bother. We were both so tired that we must have been spacing out because we missed our stop and had to ride the Osaka Loop around again. Darn! As a result, we were late for dinner. This was the night I told Okaasan that I would bring Haley over for dinner, and we were late. Not a good thing. But Okaasan didn't seem angry. She had made mochi for dinner, so we ate mochi for dinner. All kinds - cheese mochi, soysauce + seaweed mochi, adzuki mochi, and daifuku! And then she helped Haley put on one of her kimonos and we took pictures. Then Haley left and Mayu-chan and I watched Rozen Maiden. Yup.
So I'm kina hurrying cause I gotta go soon, but tomorrow Ryan (friend from Colby) is gonna visit us on our last day! So we decided that Kyoto is a good place to show him around and for us to end our Japan semester on a very Japan-like note. In Kyoto we will go see two temples that we've been wanting to see, probably eat ramen, and do karaoke. My last excursion in Japan~\
Probably on Saturday I will spend most of hte day with my host family and make sure I am packed. Then it's the long plane flight on Monday. Too soon, too soon.
Things I will miss about Japan:
1. Being able to leave your stuff anytime, anywhere without fear of people touching it (I seriously left my computer and backpack sitting in the lounge for hours and no one disturbed it at all)
2. Ramen.
3. Being bowed to by people and made to feel like you are really important when buying something at a store.
4. Being called "Ojousama" by a policeman (!)
More to come.
I will update at least once more, stay tuned!
As always, comments are appreciated
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