Travel Guide: Tokyo Part I - Electric Town and Types of Cafes

Travel Guide: Tokyo Part I - Electric Town and Types of Cafes

Sunday, May 22, 2016 / No Comments

With June holidays approaching, and many people getting prepared to go on a holiday to Japan, I believe that it is only right for me to have such a reference article to provide the basis for all who are intending to go on a holiday trip to Tokyo. I would be incorporating into this series my own personal experiences as well as results from the research I have done, so feel free to leave me a comment to correct or provide further insight!

Akihabara, a central district in Tokyo, is well-known among anime otakus (die-hard fans) for their wide-range of shops merchandising anime merchandise and variety of food stores setting up trends, such as Maid cafes. However, that's not how Akihabara started. Akihabara began as a Denki-gai (electric town).

Its reputation of Denki-gai comes after World War II, from how small retail shops were set up under the Sobu line tracks. They specialized in selling devices and parts of electronics at cheap discounted prices. Companies such as Sony launched their first products, and rode the electronics boom, and casting Akihabara with the reputation as the to-go place for electronics. In fact, some of them still remain huddled along both sides of the streets toward Chuo Dori.

The Akihabara Radio Center is one of the landmarks that people think of when they refer to Akihabara's Denki-gai. It opened on March 8, 1950 by 10 prominent vendors at that time to house the increasing number of vendors selling parts. On November 30, 2013, Akihabara Radio Center closed doors, marking an end to this page of history. Despite so, many other electronics store in the region have made their name and Akihabara's infamous reputation of a Denki-gai would last for many more years to come.

Perhaps having a link with Denki-gai through this show called "Denki-gai no Honya-san" exists for an easy maneuvering the topic away from Akihabara's electronics to its currently more prominent Anime haven.

Gaming would perhaps be one of the more important aspects in this context. Gaming centers and stores selling a range of games, from the newer popular games to old-school retro games with its sturdy fan base. Treasure hunting at stores for games which are out of circulation for quite some time, such as Liberty or Retro Game is an excellent idea, though do note that some of the older and more popular ones can go scarily high in price!

Akihabara is also well known for its Crane Games. Each play costs about 100 to 200 yen, and you can try a whole variety of crane games to hone your skills at snatching up different prizes. Maybe you could even try your hand at a UFO catcher for one of Banpresto prizes while you're at it?

On weekends, the sidewalk of Chuo is usually lined with cute girls dressed in maid uniforms, giving out flyers and coupons for their respective maid cafes. On Sundays, you might be able to chance upon people lounging around in their cosplay attires or even posing for snapshots!

Speaking about Maids, Akihabara would definitely not be short of Maid Cafes for food! They are famous for their cuteness and impeccable service that has melted the hearts of many. Needless to say, they probably also melted the wallets and banks of many, as their food definitely don't come by cheap, and some of the more popular cafes do have a "cover fee", which you can consider as a tip.

Nevertheless, the concept of Maid Cafes, being established firmly as one of Japan's most striking footholds in their Kawaii culture, has branched out to include Butler Cafes and even Tsundere Cafes. Perhaps the time when Yandere Cafes appear would come by soon?

But speaking of Cafes, we definitely can't miss out Animate Cafe that collaborated with Good Smile Company and opened in Akihabara on April 25, 2014. Their very first theme was Love Live! and the latest themes for their cafes can be found on animate cafe's official website here (in Japanese). Animate Cafe serves delicious food, albeit at higher than usual prices, but compensate for those with freebies that is related to the anime theme of the month, such as coasters.

Not only are the decor changed to match the monthly theme, the menu changes as well. Drinks and food are prepared based on an image of the character, and such tactics are actually quite useful in getting avid fans of the series as customers! Even I am quite psyched up for visiting an Animate Cafe on my trip to Tokyo this June!

On the topic of cafes, I'll like to give a shout-out to Manga Cafes, otherwise known as Manga Kissa,

Manga Kissa are internet cafes where people can read physical comics in a more-or-less-private small room all to themselves. They are the crucial places to stay at when teenagers run away from home in Dramas, but in reality the people who use these places really do treat them not any more than a regular would frequent an internet cafe.

But perhaps more than these cafes, the one that's closest to heart would be...

Gundam Cafe has an official site here. This Gundam cafe is like a long-tern Animate Cafe catered to Gundam lovers. Not only do you have a huge Gundam statue to welcome you in, the cafe is also decorated with a lot of posters of Gundam to increase the atmosphere. Furthermore, most of the food are usually given a Gundam theme.

For instance, Taiyaki now have a Gundam picture instead of their tradition fish-shape. Furthermore, food are now arranged to give a more Gundam-esque image than the usual presentation in normal local restaurants.

AKB48 Cafe is another popular cafe for those who like Akihabara as AKB48 is really popular in Japan. I will not mention much about AKB48 cafe as I really don't know much about them, but only that you can buy tickets for their lives in the cafe, though they seem to be really limited in stock!

In part II, I would be commenting on Figure shops as well as how to travel within Tokyo to Akihabara, and some cheap hotels you can stay at.

From Your Fellow Japan Fan,

Reina-rin

All information and photographs in this blog are credited to their respective owners.

Japan Times, PCWorld, meetrip, japantravel, Guide
Part I | Part II

Figure Unboxing and Review: Nendoroid Harvest Miku (Good Smile Company)

Figure Unboxing and Review: Nendoroid Harvest Miku (Good Smile Company)

Friday, May 20, 2016 / No Comments

To All,

For this listing I would be explaining using the official pictures as I do not feel that my pictures do justice to her beauty. As usual, I will be viewing this Nendoroid in different sections and ranking as I see fit.

Packaging

The design for this Miku's box is slightly different. It is more luxurious than usual, coming with this smoke-like effect as well as a more unique cut-out for the window as compared to the usual rectangular cut-out on usual Nendoroids.

However, I was probably expecting something more unique, like a Snow Miku box, which wasn't the case, thus leaving me a little disappointed.

Taking a look at the blister and all her parts shows that she comes with a fair bit. She has 3 faceplates, limbs, a moon cake, a fan, a flute and a backdrop along with her itself.

Base

She comes with a larger base than most other Nendoroids so Harvest Miku is able to stand firmly on the base while space is left behind her to attach the backdrop. Though, apart from the larger size, there isn't much else notable for the base and undeniably, it still leaves a lot to be desired for this Nendoroid.

Posing and Assembly

Harvest Miku is very pose-able even without the use of any accessories. However, as she comes under the theme of the Moon-cake Festival, it is only right that she comes with several suitable accessories, such as the flute and moon cake, which I would elaborate more on in the next section.

For now, I would like to mention that the use of translucent parts are adequate and adds to her ethereal beauty which makes her a goddess of the moon. Her outfit is also one of traditional Chinese, which fits in with her theme better as Chang-e is of the Chinese mythology.

Assembling her parts aren't difficult at all and the hardest part would probably by placing her raiment in place as you'll have to tuck it between her arms and waist in the right angle so it'll stay up. I particularly like the little ribbon at her waist as it adds a nice modern feminine touch to this figure.

Sculpting and Painting

I love the sculpt of her hair and the flower accessories on her hair the most out of all the Miku Nendoroids available on the market as of now. Her hairstyle is really unique and that forms part of her cuteness. The hair accessories is another part of her special design and it actually adds on to her theme rather than just a simple accessory.

In this figure, gradients are often used. Not only is it visible in her hair, the tassels on her hair accessories, but also in her outfit (skirt section) itself. These gradients do help give her more presence as a beautiful goddess.

This faceplate that she has on in this photograph, the blushing one is my favorite faceplate that she has. The way she hides her mouth with the moon cake makes it look like she is hurriedly hiding her embarrassment, making her embarrassment more evident and thus, more adorable. Using this chance, I'll like to point out that the moon cake is extremely detailed as well. It has the ridges that you will normal find on a moon cake. There is still a design on the top (or front) of the moon cake, which is a nice detail that Good Smile Company added, looking as they could have possibly left it blank.

The fan which Miku is holding is something which is commonly seen in an Ancient Chinese context. Though a folding fan could be used as well, in this case, I found it more appropriate for this hand fan to be used after comparison. It looks much more elegant and somehow just more deity-like than using a folding fan. Likewise, Good Smile Company could have left it blank, but the lotus image on it is very fitting. Pale red and green for the flower helps to make it appear more visually appealing. The "frosted" translucent material used further adds to it appearance.

The last major accessory which Harvest Miku came with is her flute. The color of the flute is natural though jade is constantly used for flutes as well, perhaps the main reason as such would be that the green would clash with Miku's green hair color, while the brown color would pop from most of Miku's features. My only gripe about the flute is that the black lines used are slightly too thick on a Nendoroid of such small scale. In contrast, this makes the flute looks much shorter visually.

Enjoyment

This is the original illustration which Good Smile Company based the Nendoroid off of. Although Good Smile Company made a valid representation of this figure, there are still several inaccuracies which I wish to point out.

Firstly, this Nendoroid has faced slight criticism on its eyes as the eyes used in the illustration is not accurately depicted in the Nendoroid, where the usual Nendoroid Miku eyes are used instead. This results in complaints about how a cute quality of this illustration was failed to be represented properly. 

Another would be the jacket or cardigan part, which is seen to be hanging loosely off Illustration Miku's shoulders, but worn properly by Nendoroid Harvest Miku. Although I do agree that with the cardigan hanging loosely, it would add more to her theme but at the same time, it would make her parts more fragile, so I'll be contented with this.

From Your Fellow Collector,

Reina-rin

Figure Unboxing and Review: Nendoroid Snow Miku 2013 Version (Good Smile Company)

Figure Unboxing and Review: Nendoroid Snow Miku 2013 Version (Good Smile Company)

/ No Comments

To All,

Snow Miku 2013 has been my long-time grail and I finally managed to get my hands on a unopened copy of her Nendoroid. Sadly, she costs me about $120, which makes me wonder why I didn't pre-order her back in 2013.

Packaging

As far as Nendoroid boxes go, Snow Miku boxes have always been quite luxurious and unique and being one of the most sought after Snow Miku figures, this Nendoroid is definitely no exception. At first glance, she might seem to only have a simple white piece bordered by red, with gold letters stating the name and title of Snow Miku. However, the white paper can be removed to reveal...

A clear view of Snow Miku is depicted on the cover and the red circle behind her just reminds me of Japan's flag, although the rest of the box is red instead of white.

As a Nendoroid, Snow Miku 2013's box is quite deep-set and she comes with quite a number of parts. She has two separate layers to her blister, as seen in photograph above. She has three faceplates, and two hair-parts (you can choose to display her with her usual twin-tails Hatsune Miku hairstyle if you'll prefer!), an umbrella, a sitting body, a sake cup, a couple of changes of arms, Yukine (a snow rabbit) and a base (the large red tray). The hood that comes with her, along with the clip on her hair are removable, though removing the clip would result in a 'hole' on her bangs. She also has a sticker part which you can add on to her hood to make it similar to the printed illustration on her box!

Base

As seen in the pictures, she comes with a round tray. The inner part is red while the other part is black. This is a really simplistic design but it really enhances the figure by giving it more of a Japanese Shrine Maiden feel.

She also comes with a normal base, although it is clear instead of how it is translucent with the Nendoroids nowadays.

Posing and Assembly

There are many posing options for Miku, especially since she comes with many different accessories that can be varied slightly to come with different effects. From this angle, Miku might look to be smiling happily, but that would give you a completely different effect if you notice the tears at the corner of her eyes or change her hairstyle!

My only issue with this figure would be that it follows the old Nendoroid style so the neck joints work very differently, making the head and body parts slightly more difficult to switch between Nendoroids, especially with those from the newer line.

Not to mention that as my copy has been kept unopened for so long, the plasticizer might have resulted in the joints being slightly sticky and more difficult to remove than usual.

Miku comes with a removable hood that I find very difficult to balance while she is sitting down hence I have not been using it. Though, this removable hood's interior is really pretty, sticking with the title of "Strawberry" in her name.

Sculpting and Painting

The umbrella is really elegant. Though I do wonder if red would be a better choice than beige-yellow sometimes, However, it might be a little too red if everything follows the red theme, I suppose. Each alternate section of the umbrella has an intricate snowflake pattern that ties it in with the Snow Miku theme. This same pattern is also on Miku's outfit, this time in silver.

Miku's shrine maiden attire is lined by red, making it eye-catching if you display her on the usual standard Nendoroid base, but also continuous with the base if you display her with the red base. She comes with a little white bow at the back too, though only one bow is provided so if you wish to display both the standing and sitting bodies, one of them has to go without the bow.

I particularly like the little buns on the more-unique hairstyle of this Miku, however do note that the loose strands are not directly connected to the figure and are connected via pegs so they are not very resistant to breakage. The traditional Miku hairstyle is also made more unique with the gradient and snowflake designs.

I would also like to highlight that Yukine is done simply in this case but he looks very nice and complete with this theme. However, the Yukine shown in 2014 and later versions show a more complete Yukine with a complete rabbit head and body unlike in 2013 version, where Yukine is only a rabbit constructed out of snow. The leaves on Yukine's head is nicely detailed and the size of his red eyes is perfect, depicting how Good Smile Company does indeed put in effort for sculpting and painting Yukine although he is only of a simple design.

Enjoyment

Not only does Snow Miku come with a lot (pardon me, but shipping her was really expensive) she has high play value and this makes her very easy to co-ordinate with many other Nendoroids, especially with the recent hype over Touken Ranbu Nendoroids.

This Miku Nendoroid and Mikazuki's Nendoroid are often used together in photoshoots and they look really good together!

However, more importantly than this, I would like to highlight...

How amazing Harvest Miku looks with Snow Miku's outfit! The translucent gradient along her ponytails make her look so good with this outfit! Not to mention that the red and white traditional outfit look so good with her hairstyle and she looks so much more like Chang-e than how she did with her original outfit, at least to me!

From Your Fellow Collector

Reina-rin

Confusion cleared: Who's who in PSO2 The Animation, Orgacats and Master Nezumi

Confusion cleared: Who's who in PSO2 The Animation, Orgacats and Master Nezumi

Thursday, May 19, 2016 / No Comments

A common complaint by people who watched PSO2 The Animation is that while they liked it, they could not keep track of who is who, and what their alter ego is in the game. Looking at this alone is confusing enough, but there are actually 17 characters(!) in the series. Add the real life version in, and your eyes glaze over. So, I will put them in perspective here. Come back and read this again if you confused. 

Ogracats is one of the Moe in-game characters, or so one of the players thought. One funny episode was when the players meet in real life and realise that none of them resemble any of their alter egos!

It is widely known that most people usually choose the opposite sex when online, so the ikemen you see walking by in PSO2? That is not a guy. This young man is the real Orgacats. Shocking.

Of course you cannot mention Orgacats and forget Master Nezumi. There are many duos in PSO2 and both of them are construction workers in real life. 

No, he looks nothing like his female petite avatar! This barrel chested middle aged man is perhaps the last person you'd expect to be Master Nezumi.

The ID Orgacats was chosen because of his love for organic food. And Master Nezumi is essentially a Mickey Mouse reference. Disney is huge in Japan. It is nice of them to take some effort into discussing how players find their IDs. And every PSO2 anime dvd comes with a code for character skins! Just take my money already! 

Part 2: RINA and Itsuki

Written by Don

Yowamushi Pedal: Re:RIDE

Yowamushi Pedal: Re:RIDE

Wednesday, May 18, 2016 / No Comments

One thing leads to another, and I dare say that any situation like that could easily make my day. In the context of anime at least, of course. So I was browsing around as always, trying not to bore myself further to death as there hadn't been much to save my dwindling interest. Anime had been taking quite a plunge, though I thought that it was completely normal to have slow days for just about anything. But panic soon took charge when things got a little too slow. It was just tough trying to catch my own interest during times like that. Thank goodness, I saw something. Don't worry, it wasn't the supernatural or anything like it.

I have a couple of anime streaming websites that I go to for my regular fix. Occasionally, when my eyes stare long enough something interesting will magically appear. Okay, that is rather lame. But the moment when something unexpected just claps eyes with you actually triggers a whole trail of events which prove to be helpful in some way. Today, I'm going to talk about Yowamushi Pedal. Yeah, remember Onoda Sakamichi and his (mis)adventures in road racing? Remember the profoundly intense three-day Inter High which a lot of us would have had long known the ending since the manga was way way ahead of the anime? It still is, by the way.  

The third season will officially kick off early next year, but while waiting for that day to arrive there are other things which I believe would help relieve those annoying withdrawal symptoms even for just a bit. So I was browsing around the anime streaming website, and not one, not two but three Yowamushi Pedal films came into my vision! How cool was that? I didn't think for once that getting to watch those films would be remotely possible though. They are: Yowamushi Pedal: Re:RIDE, Yowamushi Pedal: Re:ROAD and Yowamushi Pedal: The Movie. The first two films are mostly recaps of the first two seasons of the anime, but the third is an entirely new story that takes place after the Inter High victory for Team Sohoku.

Anyway, my ever decreasing attention span was enough for just one movie. Hence, I decided to go with Yowamushi Pedal: Re:RIDE. It enjoyed a limited two-week release in Japan following the finale of the first season in 2014. The film condensed the juicy essence of Team Sohoku's ferocious battle against rivals Team Hakone and Kyoto Fushimi during the first two days of Inter High. Of course, there were some new scenes which helped to facilitate the flow of the narrative. In fact, it was a little flashback of sorts with Onoda Sakamichi, his senpai Makishima Yuusuke, and their opponent Toudou Jinpachi from Team Hakone.  

Apparently, Toudou Jinpachi had invited them to his family-operated inn for a short staycation. Makishima wasn't too keen on the idea, despite having a fancy to the hot springs. An easily excited Onoda-kun began reminiscing in the midst of spending time with Makishima and Toudou. The scenes would alternate between their hilarious interactions back at the inn (mostly from Makishima and Toudou) and the first two days of Inter High. Even though I was already aware of the race, the new elements in the film had refreshed my mind greatly. In one of the scenes leading to another flashback of the race, Toudou joked that Onoda-kun would even pedal in his dreams. Indeed. Onoda-kun had grown tremendously and transformed into a true athlete throughout his adventures. I can't wait to savour the remaining movies!

Eccentrically Yours.

Written by J.Fluffysheep ♪