Devi Japan Travels Part 15: Fuji Five Lakes and Sayonara

Devi Japan Travels Part 15: Fuji Five Lakes and Sayonara

Tuesday, July 24, 2018 / No Comments

This is the final blog of my Japan travels, which span over a month. It started out in Fukuoka, went all the way down to the southern point of Japan's main islands. From there on, while having adventures, I traveled upwards to Tokyo to meet a lot of my old friends and then finally say goodbye and return to Singapore. This part will be about the final four days, well actually the last day doesn't count because I travel back on that day. So three more days of enjoying Japan to the fullest!

Tokyo Day 3: Fuji Five Lakes with Dex-kun 

I got up really early to meet up with my Dutch friend Dex who lives and works in Tokyo. He arranged a car from his company, picked me up, and we drove to Fuji Five Lakes. Sitting dead tired on the train to the meetup point I realised all that traveling and meeting up with people has taking its toll on me. But, a few more days to go and lots of friends and places to see, this always gives me energy! Adventure instead of red bull, works for me. On the way to Fuji five lakes we had a few stops. First one of course to get snackageee.

So we stopped at a parking lot and went to the Family Mart to get some snacks. Dex got something I never had before, and it is SO GOOD that it became my new addiction!

Little cheese breads with a mochi like feel to it! SO gooddd!

On the way to Fuji five lakes, we went to this place Dex wanted to visit. I don't remember the name of the place but it had caves. We put on some safety helmets and went to explore! And I must say it was a hot day but so so cold in the caves, so people that visit caves be ware. I was also really cold when I visited some caves in the south of the Netherlands even though it was hot that day.

 Not without the safety helmets!

 To slide off or not.. I think NOT.

So dark in the caves, and sooo cold! I am ready for a cold winter.

We drove up to Fuji five lakes and it was kind of rainy and a bit cloudy, but despite that the first lake was already very nice. From there on the next few hours we just drove around, looked at stunning views, had lunch, took pictures, more pictures, a LOT of pictures, and not only of the Fuji, but also it was selfie time with BFF. Luckily the weather cleared up and it became really sunny!

 Random people camping.. 

 Cloudy though... will it or won't it rain?

 The waters are a bit restless..

 .. But it is clearing up!

 The clouds are dissipating slowly

 Omg it's getting soo bright!

 While driving away we saw this and we HAD to find a clearer view... 

 ... a soccer field will do!

When we were driving around trying to get the perfect shot of mount Fuji, Dex suddenly had a thought. Wasn't the suicide forest near here? We looked it up and we were just 5 minutes away from it. Dex was in a bit of a Blair Witch mood, so we parked the car on the side of the road where there wasn't even a parking space (I am quite sure we weren't allowed to stop there..). We saw a white ribbon that was lying there and we didn't know what it meant. I didn't know much about the suicide forest, only that people went there to commit suicide sometimes. There wasn't a clear path so we decided to walk near the white ribbon and walked on some rocks, dirt, and tree roots, trying not to fall. I didn't feel like hurting myself so we left. We did see a license plate lying around, apparently they were from people that just drove up there, left their car and walked into the forest with no intention of coming back. The more I knew about this place, the creepier it got. They say the forest has pieces of clothes and stuff as well, only thing I thought was why would someone go naked for that. Anyway, it was a bit of an adventure, but hearing about the youtube dude Logan Paul being so disrespectful after going there made me realise that I don't want to go back there. Maybe only to go hiking on the designated paths. 

We went back to Tokyo and had some drinks at a very nice jazzbar with nice jazz music. Afterwards I went home after yet another long day.

Tokyo Day 4: Nakano Broadway

Today Aya is joining me to go to broadway! Well, Nakano broadway, not the musical one. Besides Akihabara this is the other main place to go to for anything anime, games, manga, figurines, and such. This place has a very old feeling, nothing like Akihabara which feels a bit more modern. The shops outside of the building seem to be more for old people as well.
Getting out of Nakano station towards Nakano Broadway, there was a promenade with shops and we saw some currypan. I tried one with cheese and it was really delicious! That and some of the anime stuff was definitely the highlight of my day. There was a big Mandarake, lots of shops with gadgets too. Overload everywhere. There was a Western girl that really got excited when she found a big Guts figure and I was happy for her. I really like Guts as well but I couldn't take one that big in my suitcase. I am a very minimalist anime lover. There is another blog here by Reina that also writes about Nakano Broadway, so for more on that click here.

Tokyo Day 5 & 6: Auf wiedersehen Tokyo, see you again!

I did absolutely nothing but chill this day, all the traveling and meeting friends had gotten to me. But since we are here, let's meet up with other friends anyway. We met up with a friend of mine and had some dinner at Grandma George's in Shibuya. This was awful, the food was so so but the waiter was very arrogant and not nice at all. So it DOES happen in Japan, that rare bad service! After this we were like let's just get a drink somewhere. While searching I stumbled upon a shisha bar, my friends had never tried it before but always wanted to. We walked in, it had a very chill atmosphere and they were playing Nujabes! Instant love. Nujabes is one of my favorite artists, may he rest in peace. I love his music, it's very chill and relaxing. Been in love ever since I first saw Samurai Champloo, of which he had done the soundtracks. One of the best anime soundtracks in my opinion. We had a cherry shisha and some tea, they also did shisha with alcohol in it but that would have had a different impact.. After a nice time we went home, I spent my last day in Tokyo kind of chill. Aya kept saying I should just come to Tokyo every weekend, if there was a magical portal that got me to Tokyo instantly for free, yeah. Maybe. Queue up Singapore! Queue for daysss lol.

The next day it was very sunny, time to fly back to Tokyo! We got up, had some breakfast and took our time getting on the train to Narita airport. When we arrived we had some lunch at... yep, soup again. The same I had when I came to Tokyo. Very nice and affordable meal. After this my very last matcha latte while sitting at the observation deck seeing planes land and take off. The sun was shining and I had good company. I think this is the chillest I have ever been before a flight. After hugging Aya goodbye I went through everything in like 5 minutes, there were no lines! Indeed the chillest ever! Getting on the plane a Japanese lady sat next to me and we started talking. turns hout she had lived in Singapore for many years and was a total nice person. We saw mount Fuji when we were in the air with a sunset, definitely the most beautiful scenery I have seen on a plane. Japan bids me farewell, for now, with one last beautiful view of mount Fuji as a parting gift.

 It looked better in real life, I swear!

~Written by Devi~

Figure Unboxing and Review: Super Sonico's 10 Year Anniversary Figure - Wedding Sonico!

Figure Unboxing and Review: Super Sonico's 10 Year Anniversary Figure - Wedding Sonico!

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Can you guess who this is... ... 

Yes, it's Super Sonico!

Similar to how Hatsune Miku celebrated her 10 year anniversary with songs and figures, Sonico is also given a figure for her ten year anniversary, and it is her first figure in a wedding dress! As much as I dislike how revealing it turned out to be (can't she have a proper wedding dress?), it's Sonico that we're talking about and I always wanted to have one figure of her (most of hers are too lewd for my tastes) and what's a better memento than this particular one?

Packaging

Her box comes in two parts--an outer paper casing and a box with a window on the inside. For the paper casing, you'll find an illustration that inspired this figure (image above), as well as several different shots and highlights of the figure on the back (image below).

After sliding the paper casing off, you'll reveal the proper cardboard box that Sonico is in. And the following four images show the different sides of the box. You will also see the plastic windows at the front and back on the box and they are painted with gold grids to add to the atmosphere of the tranquility and elegance that a church wedding would have.

Straight out of the box, Sonico is extremely heavy and although she appears to come assembled, there is actually a lot of manipulation required in order to put the other accessories in place. Her assembly is a long and tedious process which I would cover in another article, especially since she also comes with a cast-off option, so let's move on for the review in this article!

She comes with a pretty large base, which includes a red stairway and a gold ornament that is held up by a metal pole. These are placed behind and below Sonico in the blister pack.

 Base

The red stairway base is gorgeous and carpeted. The texture resembles that of a red carpet as well. At the front of the stairway is a peg for Sonico to connect to, and at the back (near the stars) is a hole which you can insert the metal pole holding up the gold ornaments to.

The feather-like wings on the gold ornament is incredibly detailed and has multiple layers of sculpting. In addition, all three wings on the same side are different and thus, creates symmetry that matches the other half.

The stars are on a chain that ends in a circle which you can hook onto the main golden ornament. Due to how shallow the hook is, the stars are likely to fall when transporting the figure so be sure to exercise caution for these. The stars are all metallic and slightly reflective, which adds a very nice touch to the matte main golden ornament.

This is the entirety of the base all set-up. The metal pole is completely covered when Sonico is assembled in front of it, which makes it look a lot better than its bare self now.

Accessories

Sonico comes with an additional flower bouquet that you can have her hold to complete the wedding look. There are three different colors to the bouquet, white, blue and yellow, and these colors really contrasts well against the deep green of the stems. The green stems also have a slight gradient to it, and the general matte feel of the bouquet contrasts really well against the pearl white paint of the ribbon on the bouquet and her wedding outfit.

Her other accessory would be this other faceplate, which has her eyes closed and lips pursed, the likely pose for a wedding kiss scene! However, I'm too much in love with Sonico's eyes to have her in this faceplate so I wouldn't be showcasing it here c:

Figure

The main weight of Sonico herself is easily balanced out by the weight of her skirt part. The metal peg placed into the peg might not be a 100% protection against leaning issues in the future, though I do hope that GSC did take that into account when planning and manufacturing this figure.

For now, let's take a simple 360 of Sonico after she's assembled and then zoom in to view individual parts of this figure that I love!

 From the simple series of images, you can see the amount of details that went into sculpting the flow of material of her veil and skirt, the gradient from purple to white in the underskirt part, and the patterns and ruffles at the hem of the skirt.

From the front, we see that the lace and ribbon around Sonico's chest is detailed and cleanly painted. There are no paint spills and it is even sculpted with a slightly tight look to illustrate the resistance from Sonico's voluptuous chest. The pearl paint on the cloth parts that goes over her chest area are large enough to realistically cover her nipples, and even has the sculpt to "show" what is underneath.

Her gloves end with lace bits at her upper arms and the curve at her elbow also show realistic and detailed creases and shading. Although the base color for her outfit is white, I love how they mix in bits of blue and purple in their shading, as well as accent with yellow and blue flowers. 

And as always, Sonico can only be Sonico if she comes with her headphones. The design is kept accurate and the metallic silver and matte black resembles that on a headphones. It would be nice if we get to see her ears for once, but after so many illustrations and figures, and even her ten year anniversary, there's definitely no hope for that now.

The garterbelt that pins onto her stockings can be removed and is an essential part of casting this figure off. 

Also, I really really love the underside of her skirt! Her shoes are also a pleasure to look at since they took the effort to include pearl paint that gives it a slightly different feel from the stockings underneath and we also get to see where the straps are. Her stockings are also skin tight and show where the ankles are--a very small detail but amazing all the details.

There's two layers to her skirt. The upper layer is mainly white with a lavender tint to its underside. The bottom layer is slightly blue/purple and has an even more vibrant purple shade for its underside!

The upper layer has a hem of cute ruffles but the pattern of the cutouts at the bottom layer is even more intricate and amazing!

Sonico's hand isn't attached to her skirt, so do remember to fit the lifted up part of her skirt in between her fingers, or it'll appear awkward! The flow of the material up to her fingers and down from there also feels so natural, making the material appear extremely lightweight. 

As usual, Sonico's hair goes with a gradient, from a lighter to a darker pink. There are four flowers with a mass of green leaves below that are painted with a light glossy paint as opposed to the matte pastels for the flowers. These flowers are actually placed directly above her headphones and are attached directly to her veil too.

There are also a yellow and a blue flower on either side of her waist to embellish her skirt. Her stockings come with a line of ruffles and a sculpted and painted elastic band. Her lingerie here is attached to her skirt part, and when you choose to cast this figure off, you would replace the chunky skirt part with ribbons, to complete the look of lingerie tied at either side of her waist.

Either way, my copy comes with a slight gap at the skirt/string part that doesn't close fully no matter how hard I push on it. It isn't very noticeable at most angles, but do make it a point to note this down before you actually purchase this figure.

As mentioned before, this figure is also quite tedious to assemble despite the lengthy instructions, and while I would make a separate article detailing this, you might not like assembling this figure if you are not one for slowly putting things together.

Sculpting ★★★★☆

Painting ★★★★★
Base ★★★★☆

Pose ★★★☆☆

Assembly ★★☆☆☆

Worth-it ★★★☆☆

Overall ★★★★☆

~ Reina-rin