dannychoo.com - Danny Choo : Anime, Figures, Idols, Gundam, Otaku and Events from Japan

Tokyo Stabbings

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 10:11:00 +0900

UPDATE: Other people are wanted in relation to the killings.
UPDATE: Looks like anime and otaku culture are going to get the blame...

"I came to Akihabara to kill. Anyone would have been fine (I dont care who I killed). I was tired of life" - the words of the person who killed 7 people in Akihabara yesterday.

UPDATE: The media have just found a post on the 2chan boards by somebody who said they were going to Akihabara to kill people with a truck and that they would use a knife if the truck got unusable - this post was made before the killings.
UPDATE: Photos of the killer at Japan Probe.

Its all over news in Japan and even across the world. The killer was Tomohiro Kato aged 25 who rented a 2 ton truck which he drove to Akihabara from Shizuoka which is situated 180 kilos from Tokyo.

He drove at about 70 Kph into the main crossing at Akihabara which is pedestrianized on a Sunday and hit 3 people. One of the victims was vomiting huge amounts of blood while another lay on the ground with a twisted body.

Kato stopped his truck and headed back to where the victims lay while stabbing 3 people on his way. When he got to the victims at the crossing, he got on top of one and stabbed them repeatedly. He also stabbed a police office her came to apprehend him.

Kato then ran into the crowds and stated to stab more people. A total of 7 people died and another 10 injured - most of these people were stabbed from behind and it looks like one was stabbed in the neck.

Witnesses said that Kato had a frenzy look on his face and that he looked like he was enjoying his killing spree.

An officer chased Kato down an alley and tried to apprehend Kato with a stick. Kato started to scream and shout until the police officer pulled out his gun and said "I'm going to shoot!" where upon Kato collapsed to the ground and gave himself in.

Killed in the incident was a woman aged 21, two men aged 19, 31, 47 and 74. The police are still questioning him as to why he drove many miles to just to kill at Akihabara.
The media have been digging into Kato's past to discover that he done well in school and was a sportsman. Apparently his father was a drunk who was violent to his mother. Kato also carried around a knife while at school.
Full news report below - news sources from todays TV, newspapers, 47News, Iza, JapanProbe etc. The person you see in the beige suit with glasses is the killer.

Am deeply saddened by the killings of innocent people who were out and about shopping and minding their own business - killings by a man who said "Anyone would have been fine." [誰でもよかった] But the thing thats beginning to get really scary is that the "Anyone would have been fine" quote which has been uttered by previous killers.

In January 2008, a boy aged 16 suddenly started to stab away at shoppers shouting "KOROSHITE YARU!" meaning "Im going to kill you!" Nobody died but had injuries to their arms and chest. The boy was arrested and later told police - "Anyone would have been fine - I just wanted to kill everybody."

In March 2008, a boy of 18 pushed a man in front of a train who died from the impact. The boy later said "If I killed somebody then I can go to jail - Anyone would have been fine."

Also in March 2008 a man went around stabbing people in a train station where one person died. When he was caught he said "Anyone would have been fine - I wanted to experience killing people."

The worst thing about these killings is the "just wanted to kill anybody" factor with no other particular motive and that they happen in broad daylight on innocent people going about their business.

I used to remember when living in Hackney London - I used to have to always look behind my back when walking around at night. And then I came to Japan - the land where the crime rate is so low that a man sticking icecream in a post box made prime time news.

Am starting to think a lot about what Japanese society is coming to. How do you feel living in your region? Do you feel safe? Can you walk around at night without constantly looking behind your back? Do these indiscriminate killings of late change your views of Japan in anyway?
By Danny Choo on 2008/06/09 09:23

Maid Dry Cleaning

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:44:00 +0900

The otaku business mind continues to show us more maid monetization opportunities. This time its Maid Dry Cleaning and Locker Service.

NTK System was just a bog standard dry cleaners and locker rental place in Akihabara until they decided to have maids serve their customers.

Prices for dry cleaning don't differ much from other places but you get a maid thrown in so it must be value for money - especially when they pose like this for customers.

Suit - 840 yen (8 USD)
Coat - 910 yen (8.60 USD)
Skirt - 315 yen (2.98 USD)
Trousers - 315 yen

Apart from the Dry Cleaning, they also have a locker service where they lock you up for 3 days without food or clothes for a bargain price of 3,450 yen. They would occasionally show up and pour hot wax on your dolphin.

OK, I'm only jesting. They actually provide lockers for you to keep stuff in. Although there are coin lockers at Akihabara station, you may want to pay the same price for a locker and have the maid thrown in. They provide hourly lockers at 200 yen per hour and also monthly lockers for the otaku who has something to hide from the rest of the family.

The lockers range from 3,000 yen per month for a W：270 × D：310 × H：168 sized locker or 13,000 yen for a W：420 × D：475 × H：890 sized locker - may be able to fit a Candy Girl inside. Full price list at NT System.

If you are convinced that this service is for you then walk along Chuo Dori in Akihabara until you see this entrance. Photos and coverage by AkibaMap.

I know there are maid cafes in Shanghai, Canada and Thai but am interested to know if there are maid cafes or other maid related businesses in your region.

By Danny Choo on 2008/06/01 09:56

Akihabara Shopping

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:33:00 +0900

My first memories of Japan were sunny afternoons walking around in Akihabara drinking some Calpis water while shopping for hardware - just like yesterday.

A display for the eroge ToHeart2 Another Days left over from a few nights ago.
The game went on sale at midnight and there were a load of eager otaku lining up in the cold.

The CGs for this game are quite nice ^^;

Idol Master L4U Live for you goes on sale. Trailer below. Namco-san > please release on PS3!

Get this PS3 and DMC4 bundle and get 20,000 yen off when you apply for a Flets optic fiber internet connection.

Was playing DMC4 last night - am currently just starting to use Dante. Still prefer Nero. Catch me online with my PS3 id = dannychoodotcom. Below is just a taster of some of the action.

A load of figures up for pre-order.

A load of eroge up for pre-order.

A load of folk stare at the screen of the new Street Fighter being played upstairs.

Apart from all the otaku stuff, Akiba is a great place to go looking for PC parts, hardware etc. I originally started out my otaku career as a Pasokon Otaku.

Was out looking for some memory - this shop near At Home Cafe has the cheapest hard disks.

How about some Oden in a can? Oden is a mix of warm vegetables and other Japanese food items.

Yes they sell kit kat in cans too.

Folk looking up the price of hard disks and memory.

No littering, No walking-smoking, no stub littering. No.

The eva girls.

About 3PM. Akiba is a great place to be on a Sunday afternoon.

Something going on in the middle here outside Toranoana - photos tomorrow + ^^;

How about some Milf?

At the electrical department store Yodobashi Camera. You could probably spend all day in here - I think thats what Yodobashi wanted. They want you to spend time in the store rather than trek about Akihabara. The arrival of Yodobashi has indirectly cause many small shops to close down.

At the Mac corner. When in the Apple store, me usually set the screen to dannychoo.com and watch how people browse the site when they first see it - most click on "idols" in the header ^^;

Alas, the Macs at Yodobashi had filters so no userbility studies for me ^^;

A photo printing machine.

Stick in your memory cards, attach USB drives etc and print your idol photos. Stick in parts of your body in the machine and nothing will happen.

And this is what I brought back with me. Some ultra thin 1000 Base-tx LAN cables.

50 Mitsubishi DVD-R's for 1,468 yen - seems pretty cheap to me. I remember the time when *ONE* of these cost the same ^^;
Cheap in your region too?

An SATA 200GB 7200RPM drive at 18,400 yen for the MacBook. Forgot to buy an adapter that lets me copy from the MBP to an external 2.5" SATA drive. Going back Wednesday to Akiba for a GoodSmile figure event - will pick up that adapter when I'm there again.

The girl in this leaflet is Rui Kiriyama who you saw in yesterdays article - she was handing them out. Japan the only place where young girls hand out leaflets with pictures of themselves showing their nice eyes on them?

Two sticks of 2GB memory for the MacBook Pro. Was using 2GB up until now but running Windows on the machine at the same time was a bit slow. Parallels enables one to run OSX and Windows at the same time. I run Windows to do QA on IE6/7 and Firefox.

Never used a machine with more than 2GB before ^^;

How much memory do you have in your machine and what do you use your machine mainly for? Is your memory enough for what you need to do?
I'm mainly programming and use the odd graphic package now and then.

By Danny Choo on 2008/03/04 13:45

Akihabara Girls

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:27:00 +0900

Just got back from a sunny afternoon in Akihabara and noticed more nice girls than usual. So what does one do when there are nice girls in Akiba? Do what everybody else does and take a load of photos ^^;

This is the sweet Rui Kiriyama who was out n about promoting Fist which seems like some sort of online mag.

A load of people crowd around Rui-chan. Somebody got a video of her a few weeks ago at Akiba below.

Took this at about 2PM and still saw a huge crowd around her at 4PM.

You are in Akiba and only have an hour before you need to leave for the airport. You can take pics of the Akiba girls or look for something to buy - what do you do?

The word to describe the side of a face is YokoGao [横顔].
Yoko [横] is "side."
Kao [顔] is "face."
The "K" in "Kao" is softened to a "G" and thus YokoGao and not YokoKao.

In this case you can say...
"Rui-chan wa kawaii YokoGao shiteimasu ne" [るいちゃんはかわいいな横顔していますね] meaning "Rui has a cute YokoGao."

More cute girlies at the entrance of Radio Kaikan handing out fliers.

ZOMG! A huge crowd around three school girls.

The muchi muchi girl on the left is cute (whats muchi muchi?)

A bunch of Otaku aim their piece.

Otaku aiming their piece in broad daylight.

More school girls on the march.

Double ZOMG! Billions (ok hundreds) swarming around Hatsune Miku!

A great way to do instant free promotion.

Most are equipped with a digital SLR.

Many live bands play in Akiba too. Not sure what the policy is but the police seem to shoo the performers or cosplayers away depending on their mood.
Sometimes they shoo everybody, sometimes they leave the performers be.

I notice more n more cosplayers in Akiba. Was going to go in armor today but its in maintenance mode right now.

More school girls.

The gorgeous kaho spotted at Yodobashi camera.
More from Akiba during the week.

By Danny Choo on 2008/03/03 13:39

Asobit City

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 05:42:00 +0900

Asobit City is a chain of hobby related stores owned by the Laox group.
There are three Asobit City stores in Akiba - one is Asobit Game, the Asobit Hobby is near Akihabara station and today we are going to spend some time in Asobit Chara City - the store that specializes in character goods.

I usually start off on the 2nd floor where all the Gundam stuff is.

Still have not picked Unicorn Gundam up and wont be until I finish my MG Wing Gundam which is only half finished ^^;

Did anybody get Lancelot? The quality seems a bit crappy.

Stack O Gundam goodies.

Mustn't forgot about the Seed girls.

Geass case for the DS.

HCM Pro stuff.

The Yoko scans...

Case O Gundams.

Wall O Gundams

Was just thinking that its been 4 years since the last PG (Strike Gundam) ...

On the 3rd floor of Asobit Chara you will find all the tokusatsu stuff - Kamen Rider, Ultraman, Sentai series etc.

Case O Ultraman.

Case O Kamen Rider.

Case O Dance Troopers.

The 4th floor is my fave - full O female figurines.

Theres a corner on the 4th floor full of Haruhi stuff - love Mikuru-chan on this jigsaw.

Nendoroid Haruhi.

Figumate Haruhi.

Haruhi dolls.

Looks like the rumor was true and that Tsuruya-san is the most unpopular out of the Haruhi bunch?

Potemayo - never watched. Recommended?

Tora Dora girls.

Shunya Yamashita Petra.

Figma case. Want that Haruhi but don't want the game.

Geass girls.

Dacapo girls.

ToHeart girls.

More ToHeart girlies.

Shining Wind Girlies and Belldandy in the Kotobukiya case.

More stacks of figures.

Case O Nendoroid.

More more stacks O figures.

On the 5th floor of Asobit Chara you will find all the doll related stuff. This Saber is so sweet. Oh and they have cosplay stuff too.

They also have quite a few eroge too.

Eroge mags - thicker than a MacBook Air.

Evening wear.

If you need something scary to put in front of your house to scare cats, pigeons and small children then you can find lots of stuff on the 5th floor.

For folks who want to dress up as a maid/kitten hybrid.

Papermoon dolls.

Would look great in the office.

Google has beanbags and wax lamps in their office - Mirai Inc will have dolls and figures ^^;

Oh what large eyes you have.

Fancy some pantsu?

Or how about a set of eyes?

Present for your little nephew?

You know, I bet some folks buy these to stick in their underwear.

Boots. You know I bet some people buy these to stick on their.....

....fingers.

Back on the first floor where you will find games related to character series and some other accessories.

Case O Moetans.

Case O good (right) and bad (that Q-Joy stuff on the left).

By Danny Choo on 2008/02/17 04:54

Valentines Day in Japan

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 05:27:00 +0900

Have heard of chocolates being given to idols but never expected to receive chocolates *from* an idol ^^;
This is Ayumi Hotta from the Primaries giving me some valentines chocolates last Monday - to the folks who asked what was in the orange bag in the 4 hours in Akihabara article - now you know ^^;

So whats Valentines day like in Japan?
Just like Christmas in Japan, Valentines day is all about the monies.
The beginnings of Valentines day in Japan started in 1936. A chocolate maker called Morozoff Limited put an ad in a magazine for "Valentine Chocolate." Valentines day then traditionally became a day where women would give chocolate to men. 25% of Japans annual chocolate consumption is consumed around Valentines day.

To make more monies from Valentines day, the Japanese invented "White Day" as an excuse for men to buy candy to give to women in return for the chocolate that they received - theres even an official White Day site.

The reason its called "White Day" is because the color of sugar (white) is the main ingredient for candy which was traditionally given on White Day - source from Wikipedia. These days however, one does not have to give candy and can be white chocolate or marshmallows but not bukkake.

The term "Giri Choco" is used to describe chocolate that is given as an obligation - like to ones superiors or boss. If you are managing ladies in Japan and receive chocolate from them then its probably not because she likes you but because she expects a pay rise come next evaluation season.

White Day takes place one month after Valentines day on the 14th of March.

And this is what I got from Ayumi. Tasted lovely! Hope Ayumi doesn't mind that I shared these with my wife ^^;
Going to let White Day take advantage of me and get Ayumi-chan some chocolate.

Whats valentines day like in your region? Did you give or receive anything for valentines day? Are you spending it with somebody or plan on spending it being ronery with yourself in Mc Donalds?
If you are going to be ronery, don't forget that there are plenty of gorgeous girls who are willing and waiting for you here.

By Danny Choo on 2008/02/15 04:39

Primaries

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:09:00 +0900

At the begging of yesterdays 4 hours in Akihabara, I bumped into two of my idol comrades Ayumi Hotta [堀田あゆみ] (girl in blue) and Shiki Mochizuki [望月紫葵] - together they are known as the "Primaries" [プライマリーズ]. We decided to go do a bit of dancing in Akiba.

Was meeting up with some of the blog dinner mob at the same time - Lisa from Wired Magazine and Tokyo Mango, Aoki from Drikin, Nobi from Nobilog2 and Aoyama from Buru.jp. Decided to do the group-photo thingy.

You may recognize Ayumi from the YouTube Neta Battle.
Folks who are interested can get Shiki-chans gravure DVD from Amazon and you can see them both regularly on Dance Shuffle which is broadcasted on Kanagawa TV.

The girls tell me that they are still deciding what their uniform should look like and that todays gear is experimental - do you have any suggestions that I can pass onto the girls? Or do you like it as it is?
I'm personally quite fond of it ^^;

One more pic before we hit the streets.

We decide that the front of Radio Kaikan is a good spot.

The girls start to dance to a track that is still in production.
I then join in after looking like a prat ^^;
Footage of me dancing with the girls will appear on YouTube soon but all I have for now is the short clip that I took below on the Xacti.

By Danny Choo on 2008/02/14 03:21

4 Hours in Akihabara

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 06:54:00 +0900

Today is another variation on the "A Week in Tokyo" where we take a look at what I got up to this time yesterday.
I just love Akihabara when the road is closed off to traffic. Yesterday was a public holiday when the main road becomes a Hokousha Tengoku (whats a Hokousha Tengoku?) A ton of cosplayers come out to play and some of them are really cute like this Shana.

This girl is cutie Rino-chan from the Pinkish Trick cosplay circle.

Girls from Office Miharu.

The maid to my right has a gorgeous smile.

Meeting up with members from the Blog Dinner (whats Blog Dinner?)

For some reason, Japans top bloggers (blogs that generate the most page views) are Mac users and gadget otaku. When we get together, the table soon transforms into a display of gadgets.
Two Macbook Airs, a few iPod Touches, a few mobiles and other wireless devices. And as you saw from the previous photo - one of the guys keeps his Macbook Air in a manila envelope ^^;

Then its back out to the main road which is Chuo Dori.
I thought I would do something a bit different this time and take photos of people taking photos of me ^^;
Here you can see the moment I step into Chuo Dori.

A crowd of people start to move in.

You may need to enlarge this pic to see that he has a rabbit (?) on his shoulder.

An interesting combination of neko mimi (cats ears), a bandanna and a light saber.

At this moment there is a circle of people gathered around.

Then they all take turns to have a pic with the armor.

A large percentage of the crowd are fellow gaijin.

The crowd of people starts to grow...

And grow...

Out of the many dannychoo.com readers that I've met so far, many are spending a few days at Akiba and seems like 40% of their time is spent here ^^;
How much time do you plan to spend in Akiba on your next trip to Japan?

And then I move on when I see the boys in blue looking over at the huge crowd of people.

MacBook Air pre-ordered for the CTO thats joining Mirai Inc next month. Will make an official announcement soon.

If you recognize the shops in Akiba you will notice through these pics that theres is a constant crowd that follows me towards the station^^;

Love this guy - a Phantom of the Opera Panda.

Then I spend an hour in Asobit Hobby meeting with the store manager and taking pics of figures and Gundams - will post later this week.

Evening approaches Akiba.

The afternoon actually started like this. I seem to be making quite a few friends of late who just happen to be Idols - more of this later this week.

By Danny Choo on 2008/02/13 06:06

Japanese Souvenirs

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:49:00 +0900

When you visit Tokyo Tower, you will see miniature versions of the tower that can be purchased as a souvenir. If you visit Asakusa Shrine, you will find miniature versions of the main gates with that huge red lantern. So what is the typical souvenir that you should pick up when in Akihabara?

Well according to Asobit Game, the souvenir that you should be picking up for your friends are these different varieties of Tengas.

The table is labeled as "Akihabara Souvenirs" and has some eroge on the side which you may want to pick up at the same time.

And while deciding what you should buy for your boss/teacher, you can also grope the bottom of this "attraction."

I remember when I first started to visit Japan - I wanted to spend all my money on idol DVDs and photo books meaning that the only souvenirs I picked up for friends were from 100 yen shops ^^;

For folks that have visited Japan - what sort of souvenirs did you pick up for friends/family.
And for folks who are going to visit Japan - what sort of stuff do you think you will pick up for the folks back home?

By Danny Choo on 2008/02/06 00:01

School Mizugi

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 04:31:00 +0900

Could School Mizugi combined with shotguns be the latest craze to sweep the otakusphere?

This blue swimming suit is known as "School Mizugi" [スクール水着] and is commonly abbreviated as SukuMizu [スク水]. Basically means "School Swim Wear."
Its worn as part of physical education by girls (and some boys after hours) from primary to high school. The SukuMizu can be seen throughout the otaku subculture in manga, anime and eroge.
I'm not sure why there is a fixation on the SukuMizu in the otaku subculture - but rethinking a bit, I realize there is a fixation on anything worn by a girl ^^;

I remember swimming in physical education classes back in the UK. Pools were mixed but didn't remember seeing the girls wearing something this cute.

Is swimming part of physical education in your region? Did you get to mingle in swim wear with the opposite sex?

Get some pics of 2D girls wearing SukuMizu at Moe Imouto. Pic taken sometime last week in Akiba.

By Danny Choo on 2008/02/03 03:43

Japanese Girls Bedroom

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 06:30:00 +0900

Are you 99.9% devoted to 2D girls where the other 0.1% is casually curious about 3D girls? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be in a 3D girls bedroom playing with her in pajamas? Well wonder no more thanks to the entrepreneurial otaku business mind.

AkibaMap brings us coverage of Akiba Girls Dormitory [[Akiba Jyoshi Ryo]あきば女子寮] - a bit like the maid cafes without the food. Well you can bring your own food but they charge you an extra 500 yen - for bringing *your own food*! Not much different than a slap in the face with a wet dog.

Below: The dormitory is an office done up to look like a dorm filled with girls bedrooms.

Below: The girl next doors bedroom. Cute and cosy eh?

Below: A not so cute n cosy bedroom with a view of Akiba out the window ^^;

Below: Some of the bed rooms have a Wii. The girl will grab your Wiimote and yank it around the room.

Below: And this is what it all costs.

1,680 yen - "Normal" course (Sit with girl in her room and talk)
2,000 yen - "Lil Massage" course (Girl massages your shoulders on your way out)
2,300 yen - "Deluxe" course (Girl massages your shoulders and hands - make sure to wipe your hands clean of soldiers before)
1,000 yen - "Normal" course for girls (for girls who are "girls-love" types)
1,500 yen - Girls photo course - you can wear the girls costumes and take photos.

All the courses above last 30 mins where they then chuck you out.
If you want to play games like "paper scissors stone" with the girl then they charge you a measly 200 yen extra. Thats not all folks, they have more extras to add to the bill which should hopefully bleed the otaku dry of their money as follows.

1,000 yen - "Koromo Gae" - pay this to get the girl to change into a costume.
1,000 yen - Chekki - "Chekki" is a product (by fuji film I think) - a bit like an instant poloroid camera. Pay this to have a pic with the girl. Then take the pic and show your friends who your new girlfriend is.
1,000 yen - "Renai Manga" - "Renai" means "Romance." The girl will read you a romantic manga - you are not allowed to have your hands in your pocket while she reads.
1,000 yen - "Binta" - a "Binta" is a slap to the face. Yes! pay to be slapped in the face by a girl in pajamas!
1,000 yen - Pay extra to have your shoulders massaged for longer.

Below: Another typical girls bedroom. What you wont find are beds because this is not the place to go for hanky panky. If you are looking for hanky panky then there are plenty of places in Kabukicho in Shinjuku. Just watch out for the Yakuza.

Below: And here are some pics of cutie Sola-chan who "lives" at the dorm. You can see her asking you to visit her in the video on the official site.

The dorm has its rules that are listed on this page which are...

Dont take your own photos - or the dorm manager will 'confiscate' your camera (they can try).
Dont touch the girls - especially their eyes.
Dont tease the girls - especially the size of their eyes.
Dont ask the girl for private mail address or phone number.
Dont ask the girls personal questions (what color are your pantsu etc).
Dont run amok (what sort of rule is that?)
Dont bring glass bottles (which you may break and hold the dorm girls hostage)
Drunk or members belonging to violent groups are not allowed. Violent group members are easily spotted because they have "I am a violent group member" written on their foreheads.
Depending on how busy they are, they may chuck you out after 1 - 2 hours.

Convinced? If so then a map of the dorms is here.

By Danny Choo on 2008/02/02 05:42