Furu Anime Panikku

Here’s the second day from the land of the rising sun (and bishoujos).

Today was another of those interesting days where we meet a new face. I’m not sure if you know Bangin, but you should visit his blog. He’s a Japanese, but his English is really good, and so are his in depth explanations on various otakuish Japanese phrases.

We woke up really late today, at 11.30 am. Must have been the lack of sleep. I slept only 2 hours the day before on the plane, while Windbell slept slightly more. We were partially the living dead yesterday. Anyway, we ran half an hour late, and met up with Bangin at Akihabara Station. From there, we roamed the streets and shops, beginning a new (half)day of adventure.

Some cute newbie singer named Yuki

Since she’s cute, I shall do some free advertisement here ^^

Visited a couple of shops and bought a couple of goodies. It’s nothing much to what I grabbed on my previous trip here, but I actually enjoyed it more this time. It seems my level of resistance has grown to level 1000 where I do not get all excited and weak in the legs when I see shops brimming with anime merchandise. Either my interest in such stuff has dipped and I’ve become interested in other stuff which I don’t even know, or a year of experience has made me as such.

As it was Sunday, the main road was closed and swarmed with cosplayers and otakuish photographer. What I saw before my very eyes was almost similar to what I saw on the Internet. No really nice cosplayers today, so you’ll have to settle with the following cosplayers below.

Actually, some are rather good, if you compare them to local average standards.

We had some snacks at Mister Donut, something which Singapore doesn’t have. The donuts here taste much better than Singapore’s Donut Factory. Maybe it’s one of those instances where I’m extremely biased.

After spending some time shopping around at Akiba, it started drizzling and the wind was quite chilly. Only armed with my TDD-1 windbreaker, my hands felt rather numb. We decided to head over to Ueno for some Karaoke before the weather gets worse.

This was my first karaoke session in Japan. I can’t sing for nuts, so going to karaoke sessions in Singapore would probably be a waste of money for me. However, this short session changed my mindset a little. In karaoke, no one cares if you can sing properly. You just sing your lungs out even if you go out of tune or screw up the lyrics, and have pure fun. It’s quite a good way to release stress, so I can see why it’s such a popular activity among the Japanese. I wouldn’t mind going for karaoke again.

Dinner was at a sushi shop. I was too lazy to take any photos of the food, so you can check it over at Windbell’s once he posts them up. His photography skills far surpass mine in any way I can ever dream of, so check out his site for the prettier cosplayer photos too.

After dinner, Windbell and Bangin did some window shopping in the Adult shop next door, while I waited outside. Apparently, they were checking out this tsudere Tenga-type and I missed out on the fun. Sucks to look young at this age >_<

We visited a game center after that, and there were a couple of interesting games there. This reminded me of how much some arcades in Singapore suck.

Gundam POD

Halflife 2

After that we parted ways and went back to our hostel, K’s house in Asakusa. It won’t be our last meeting though. We’ll be meeting up once more for a cosplay photo shoot at a place near Shibuya in exactly a week from now. I can’t wait!

Well, it’s time for me to sleep now. Tomorrow’s itinerary will be lunch with Tokyo’s famous Stormtrooper. It’s my first time meeting him, so I’m really excited about it. More updates soon to come, so stay tuned!