-What will I be posting? Well let me tell you.
1. I will be telling you something interesting about my weekends and what I got over that period of time.
2. I will be telling you about what new things will be coming up next in Toronto, events and such *ouuuu*

So starting now, as of now… I will tell you what I did over the weekend that just passed; first of all I went to Huntsville Ontario to go watch my two buddies compete in the Ontario winter games for Table tennis. It was an exciting trip and full of extremely intense matches and conflicts. I stayed at the Comforts Inn hotel. Mainly because the hotel we were going to stay it was booked full. So we were pushed into Comforts Inn.

The matches were held at the Delta Grandview Rec. Center and had over 500 people competing and over 1000 spectators! For this game, they were set in teams, Northern, Eastern, Western, Southern, and Central. My two buddies are in the Central team.

Hollie, who came back to Toronto with a gold and silver metal, did an AMAZING job. Timmy, who is my other buddy, came back with a silver metal. Both did amazing jobs and did some hard work. Congratulations to them both. So that pretty much sums up my weekend. Boring I know but I needed to write something =S
Well till next time ^^ bye!

Sorry for the lack of posting. Been slacking off and been watching too much Japanese live actions. Well, time for another Easy Guide To Japan. Today’s edition is about Comiket and how you can prepare for this epic Japanese convention. I’ve decided to split this in a few parts. Part one is about what you need and how to prepare for it. The next parts I plan to do a video about me going through Comiket and helping you see what Comiket is really like. I’m also going to post more about what you need to do the day before Comiket later on. Comiket or Comic Market is a 3 day bi annual convention that happens in August and in December in Ariake, Tokyo, Japan inside the Tokyo Big Sight. This event attracts over 500,000 each event. This event sells mainly retailing company goods (stores like Gamers sells limited edition goods) and doujinshi.

What is doujinshi:

Doujinshi can be classified as fan made items or self published work. Most of these work are self made or group made called circles. Most of the work circles released are either in book form, CD form or in game form. An example of a doujin game would be the extremely popular 2D shooter Touhou by Team Shanghai Alice (A.K.A. ZUN). An example of a CD form doujin is C-Clays music CD. CD doujin music are basically music that are similar or remixed of popular music like such music from Touhou.

Example of what doujinshi are and also what you can get at Comiket too. All these products above are self published items. They can either be obtained in special events like Comiket, stores such as Mandarake or Melonbooks.

Doujin books can be either a small illustration book such as the book above.

Another form is a small comic/ manga.

Most doujinshi are original works to original art works featuring characters from anime and manga. Also doujin ranges from all ages to 18+.

What you need:

Comiket Catalog:

(Using my Comic Market 76 Catalog from my past Japan trip)

The Comic Market Catalog is extremely needed to go to this convention. Unlike it’s figure counterpart Wonder Festival which requires you to have the catalog, Comiket doesn’t as it’s a free convention. Still, I do recommend getting the catalog due to the fact it helps you find your favorite doujin circles or tell you where the official retailers store is. The catalog contains maps of the doujin halls and a map of the official dealers. The catalog lists the location of every circle that attends Comiket and also a small thumbnail picture of their work.

Example of what the inside of the catalog looks like. All circles are organized and shown in small thumbnail like pictures. It’s somewhat of a phone book for Comiket.

Example of a map of one of the halls in Comiket.

The catalog cost around 2400yen. It comes in either book form like above or in CD form for the computer. I recommend the book due to the fact you can bring it along with you when you are at Comiket.

Note: Knowledge of Japanese is needed to look for your circle and location. Also, buy checking your circles website, you can also find out which day and where your circle is going to be.

Backpack:

This helps you carry your stuff in. If you buy a doujin, it’s better to put it in the bag. Also helps you hold your camera, water bottle and Comiket catalog and so on. It’s a must when heading into a convention.

Water:

This is extremely needed, especially if you go during the summer due to the hot weather. Bring a large bottle of water will refresh you during your doujin hunt. You can either bring it along with you or buy it at a AM PM or a 7/11 near the line. A large bottle of water doesn’t cost a lot (around 100yen to 200yen) and it is better to buy it before Comiket starts. There are vending machines inside but the main problem is a lot of drinks tend to sell out quickly.

Money (Japanese Yen):

The major need when going to Comiket. If you intend on buying goods, I say bring only Japanese Yen. Comiket only accepts cash. There are bank machines in which you can go withdraw money from but I do recommend to do that before Comiket starts as there is always long lines at the ATM inside Tokyo Big Sight.

Planning:

I can’t say this enough. Planning is extremely needed when heading into Comiket. Sure you can go in blind and buy what you see, but you might not get what you what at times as the item you might want. By planning on what you want, you can carefully lay out how to get these items. So prioritize on which to get first and which item is more important. Also by knowing where the things you want is also needed.

Note: It’s impossible for one guy to get a lot of stuff from multiple places. I say bring friends with good directional sense to help you get the stuff you want or help you get stuff for friends. Trust me, I know this first hand.

Optional Items – (These items are optional, you can survive without it but I do recommend to bring it)

Small portable folding chair:

Something to sit on. Instead of setting on the concrete floor.

A fan: (For summer Comiket only)

You can bring a fan to summer Comiket as it gets hot in the summer. It somewhat helps cool you down. A normal fan to a small electric fan can be useful.

Camera:

If your like me, you love to take pictures for memory sake. So you can bring a camera if you want but I do say that you’re not allowed to take video or take pictures inside of Comiket. You can take pictures at the cosplay square which is where cosplayers go and people take pictures of their cosplays.

Cosplays:

For cosplayers who would love to cosplay at conventions. If you love to cosplay, then bring your cosplay along to Comiket. I do say that it’s a rule that you have to change at Comiket cause you’re not allowed to wear it there. Also props like a sword or staff or any weapon like items are not allowed at Comiket, so don’t bring them.

I hope you all enjoy part 1 of my easy guide to Japan Comiket. I’ll have more info about Comiket later on. I also plan on expanding on what is doujinshi in a future post.  More easy guide to Japan to come in the future.

On a side note, I’ve been pretty busy lately with me watching Japanese live action shows. It’s a great way to learn some Japanese too. Might do some review on the shows I’ve watch later on. Also, I feel the site has been lacking in photo shoots. I haven’t posted anything on figure shoots since last year. I hope I’ll be able to post something about figures later this week.

This is a new segment that I talked about earlier. This is an easy guide to help you explore and be prepared for your trip to Japan. This is going to be an on going series where I will explain on what to do, what you need, how to get there and so on. For now, it’s just going to be small to detail posts on what you need, but once I go back to Japan in the summer, I plan to take some videos in which will go towards this series. Let’s start off this new series with what do you need when heading to Japan. Depending on what you plan to do, some of these items is essential on your survival in Japan. This guide is based on my personal experience when I went to Japan.

What do you need:

This differs from person to person. It differs from how long you plan to stay in Japan and what kind of business you are going to do. For the purpose of this guide, lets say you are going to Japan on vacation and going for 2 weeks.

Clothes

You have to pack a good amount of clothes when heading to Japan. Depending on how long you plan to stay in Japan, you might want to pack a good amount of clothes for your stay in Japan. My suggestion is to pack at least (if you trip is around 2 weeks) a good 2 weeks worth of clothes, minus sleeping clothes. If less then 2 weeks, then pack at least enough clothes per day. If you go in the summer, you would need at least one t-shirt or shirt a day due to the fact of the hot and humid weather of Japan and that people tend to sweat in these kind of condition. Also, pack for the weather, you do not want to bring winter clothes to Japan when it is summer there. Some hotels have a laundry services but you have to pay a good amount of money for them or there are laundry mats where you bring your own clothes and waste them yourself, which is a cheaper option, just make time for it.  So bring enough clothes for the duration of your trip if you want to avoid doing laundry. This including a good amount of clothes for the time you stay in Japan and sleeping clothes.

Money

When heading to Japan, you might need to pack a good amount of money. This might be obvious but sometimes you might want to think about how much things cost and what you want to buy. If you are anything like me, Japan will make you spend. There are deals you might find and cannot resist in spending your hard earn money on. Be sure to plan out on how much you want to spend and how much you can have buy the time of the trip. Japan is a cash country. Most places prefer that you pay cash, but there are places that accept international credit cards. Places such as large malls and well known big stores should accept credit cards. Restaurants on the other hand most likely requires you to pay in cash (Never took the chance in using credit cards in Japan). Also, credit cards are helpful when reserving hotel rooms and helping pay for expensive items if you ran out of cash. Just be careful when spending large amounts of money and remember about the exchange rate from your country’s dollar to the Japanese yen.

Passport

One of the most important item that you need. Not only that you need to when you arrive in Japan and for leaving, but you need it for ID purposes. Also, at some stores, you can receive a discount if you show your passport. Not sure which stores, but there are stores in Japan that does accept passport discounts.

Entertainment

Japan can entertain you with only so much. Well, also the flight to Japan can take a while, and also entertainment on the plane can just entertain you to a point. So I do recommend to bring your own source of entertainment. These sources of entertainment can range from a simple MP3 to a PSP (Playstation Portable) to even a laptop or net book. These small portable devices can either keep you entertained during the time you staying in the hotel to the plane ride to just riding on the train. I find myself needing my laptop during my stay in Japan when I was in the hotel. I used it to update my blog to just talking to my family and friends back home. I used my MP3 during long train rides and during the flight to Japan.

Planning

Plan a head. It’s something I point out to people when going to Japan. When going to Japan, you would need to know where and how to get to the place you want to go to. Planning also helps on how much you want to spend day to day. Planning helps decide where you go on which day, instead of deciding where to go during your trip which waste time on exploring the area you want to go. Knowing how to get to point A to point B is also part of planning. By knowing how to get there to the place you want to go and back is important. You do not want to go to Japan and not know how to get to the place you want or get lost. Japan is one of the worst places to get lost in as cities in Japan are like mazes and you can get lost easily.  Just in case, bring a guidebook with maps of train routes and the places you plan on visiting. Guidebooks are a must when going to Japan. It helps for first timers to the country figure out how to get to the place they want to go.

Learn Japanese

Most people in Japan speaks Japanese. Some speaks English but not many. I suggest learn simple words that you would need to use. Such as “Ikura desuka?” which means “How much?” in Japanese or “Sumimasen” which means “Excuse me”. Learning simple phrases and words you think you would use in Japan will come in handy. Just in case, bring a Japanese phrase book that would help you learn or to use during your trip to Japan. If all else fails, you can just point your way through Japan (which I did but I do not advise it ).

Others

You might need to bring a small bag or backpack. This helps hold whatever you buy to a water bottle to camera. It helps a lot when walking around and when you do not want to hold anything in your hand. Another item you can bring is a camera. Take pictures of places you’ve been for memory sake or if you have a blog, you can go take pictures for it. Bring your toothbrush or any other cleaning items such as shampoo or toothpaste. Some hotels don’t provide them but most of them do. I feel more comfortable when using my own toothbrush from home then using a hotel toothbrush. Also using home toothpaste, I like more due to the fact I’m used to it. A plane ticket to Japan and back. When going to Japan, you can’t forget to go get a plane ticket to get to Japan and one ticket to go back home.

Well, this ends the first in which I hope of many Easy Guide To Japan. I hope you enjoyed this and would use some of these tips for your trip to Japan.

More loot this month. I did say I’m going to calm down with the spending, but with all this good stuff coming out, I can resist. With plans of going to Japan again, I should really save up for the trip in August again. Anyways, it’s not about my trip that is still in the planning stage, but about the loot I received so far this month. I received quite a bit now new stuff. Later, I’m going to make a series of posts about how to survive in Japan with little to no Japanese. That post will come out later this week. Also about the contest, I’ll be posting up the answer and winners between this week and next week as I’m currently busy at the moment.

Well, I got Alter Nanoha Takamachi, Alter’s Mio Akiyama, K-On Wonfes 2010 Nendoroid which contains Ritsu and Mio, and Kotobukiya Marisa. This is quite a few figures and I plan to do a photo shoot of them soon.

Here is the other part of my loot. I got a few other things this month. This includes the newly released games BioShock 2 and Star Ocean The Last Hope International Edition. I also got 2 new dakimakuras from the H2O series. This includes Hamaji Yakumo (The middle one and he’s a trap) and Hotaru Kagura. I recently got a To Aru Kagaku no Railgun Misaka Mikoto t-shirt. I’m currently waiting on my Shirai Kuroko t-shirt. Lastly, today I got plushies of Dead Master and Black Rock Shooter. I have to thank Andrew who is a local anime good seller who sells anything anime like figures and plushies and sells at conventions. I love these plushies…so awesome and kawaii!!!

I think the total of this loot is around $800 including shipping. I clearly paid a lot for a shipping…

Also, I have a lot of backed up posts that I’m currently working on and I plan on releasing them soon. Some are photo shoots I still need to fix and have yet posted. I have a around a good 3 shoots that I have yet posted but plan on posting at least 1 of them this week.

Below are some shoots I’m working on at the moment…

These are some upcoming figure shoots I plan to do soon. Currently I’m fixing the photos and doing some retakes as well. I’ll be releasing these shoots soon.

Be sure to turn back in this week for the photo shoots…

With only a few days left till the deadline for Otacool 2, Yuki and I have decided to post our cosplay photos. We recently did a photo shoot and have finished touching up on them. We have to thank our friend Cody and his roommate Adrian on helping us take out pictures and helping us in general, also letting us use their apartment for the shoots. Many thanks to you guys. Also thanks to Koko for helping me with a touch up with the photo above. Well, for now I’m going to just post my entry as Yuki plans on uploading her own later. As you know, I barely put photos of myself online as it is. Maybe this is a way to show more of myself on this blog of mine.

I’ve been cosplaying for 3 years but less than a year cosplaying seriously meaning Yuki has been doing the make up (which is something she enjoys doing to me…) and I’ve been using color contacts. Also being my first official photo shoot, we moved the lights and stuff around a lot. So some of the background is darker than others…

For my entry, I cosplay as Kagamine Len from Vocaloid. I should also say this is only the first time that I did this and had no idea on what pose to do. I was dumb enough and I forgot to use my guitar as well for my Len shoot. I think my red Fender Mustang would had looked great for this the Kagamine Len shoot. As from these photos, I’m pretty new to this. Well, here are the photos…Enjoy…=D

First Cosplay is Kagamine Len from Vocaloid.

This is one of my favorite pictures out of the bunch…

Ack, dirty socks…

This shot here was awesome too. Gives the feeling that feeling I’m staring in the sky…

Half the time I feel I should do more cosplays then just Len all the time. Well, Len Kagamine is one of my favorite male characters…

Second Cosplay is Kagamine Len, Servant of Evil Version.

This one makes me look evil…

This one turned out all weird…

Yuki cosplayed as Rin Kagamine and we just did a photo shoot together…

Well, this is my entry to Danny Choo’s Otacool 2 contest. Yuki will be entering too but she’ll be posting tomorrow. I posted my Otacool Entry on DC as well. I hope I get in the book and somewhat represent Canada cosplays. I hope you all enjoy these pictures =D