A Week in Tokyo 66
Better late than never I guess ^^; Today we look at life in Tokyo leading up to when I left for Shanghai. Before I leave for France, hopefully I'll get time to post events have happened since I got back from Shanghai.
First photo - taken nearby our place at "mai second other office" or in other words - a flight of steps leading up to the roof of an office block. Difficult to make out in the photo but from here we can see Tokyo Tower, Roppongi Hills and Shinjuku in the far background.
Tomorrow will be exactly 3 months since the earthquake. Apart from being dark in a few places at night and on the metro, everything is pretty much back to normal. The North is on the recovery but many folks are still suffering. I didn't get the opportunity to head up there and help out but will do so as soon as I'm back from Anime Expo.
Anime Expo is just one of the things that I've been busy with of late. Have been organizing some of the guests, working on the Miku concert and I'll be displaying stuff in the Exhibitor halls too. Then there is the conference in France that I'm speaking at just before AX - details further down the post.
Tis rather busy fun incredibly fun! I just cant wait to wake up each and every morning ^^;
Our local shopping arcade "Palm" in Musashikoyama is longest indoor shopping arcade in Tokyo. Many gaijin folks come to visit over the weekends.
Lately there are dragons hanging from The ceiling with a "Ganbaro Nippon" or "Stay Strong Japan" sign.
Changing train drivers at Shinagawa which is performed in an instant. I remember the train-driver-changing process back in London to be painfully long as the driver would make himself comfy with a cuppa tea and newspaper.
At the front carriage of the Yamanote line. Many trains have a window like this so that you can have a drivers view too.
Getting off at Akihabara station greeted by some lovely 2D girlies.
Electric town exit at Akihabara.
Passing by the eroge store Messe Sanoh.
At the Radio Kaikan checking out the latest merchandise.
New Steins Gate and Vanguard posters at Gamers.
K-ON! Yui up for grabs. I'm lousy at these UFO Catcher thingies. Any of you a dab hand at these? Whats the nicest goodie that you've picked up in a UFO Catcher?
Checking out the latest games at Sofmap. My current gaming is still Valkyria Chronicles 3. Wish there was a way to install the whole UMD so that I don't need to keep swapping discs - or is there a way? I know that these games can be fully downloaded from the Playstation Store though.
Goodies for the young healthy strapping lad. Currently have a load of eroge artists illustrating Mirai-chan for us which I'm excited to share ^o^
Madoka Magica goodies.
200 yen gatcha to help you get rid of that spare change. If you only got 200 yen left, which machine would you go for?
Load of Tohou goodies.
My fave Pari Pari Chicken Soup Curry at Coco Ichibanya.
My new tea mug - although the shape of the glass means that the tea doesn't stay hot for long. Still saves me time from going to make tea 4 times ^^;
Hoovering up and dusting down the office.
Met up with a few readers for dindins at the local shopping arcade. I'd love to do this more often. How many of you are planning on visiting Tokyo this year and which month?
With comrades after dindins.
Dinner at the pasta place which we haven't been to for years.
Main course with Popura-chan.
Walkies at Palm.
Lunch at the Dentsu canteen - will post something later on how hi-tech everything is in there!
Together with Akira Kagami who I'll be speaking with at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity later this month.
Tis the rainy season in Japan right now - bring a brolley if you are visiting. Do you live in a region that has a rainy season? If so where you be living and what season is it wet?
Being plugged a lot right now on TV and on posters around Tokyo is Tezuka Osamu-sans Buddha.
Messy office.
Been busy with preparations for France and Anime Expo so not been able to do much for the Itamado project. Will start the ball rolling again when back from the US.
Desk does not get messier than this ^^
Panda heads for dindins.
With some of the Mikunopolis team over at our gaff for an evening of industry gossip and wot not.
All from Costco in Kawasaki!
Looks like some of the team has taken a liking to my girls wardrobe.
Playing around with the Olympus XZ-1 - excellent all-round camera with nice wide and macro lens that gives a lovely bokeh. I heard there maybe an upgraded model out this Autumn though - wifey wants one.
Got hold of my figma Mirai Suenaga sample! Noticed some folks saying that their pre-order hadn't arrived yet. Where did you order from?
Saber finds a new friend to play with.
The lounge of late with the sofa moved down to the first floor.
Beefun for lunch.
Love the effort that the Japanese put into creating gorgeous packaging. This is a paste-like topping to go with rice.
Out n about on the metro.
At Tokyo MX TV to discuss bits n pieces about the second season of Culture Japan.
Something for fact fans - 45,000 people pass through the Shibuya crossing every 30 mins. History of the crossing in the History of Shibuya post.
Heading to a meeting in Nakano.
Mmmmm. Looks good - will have late lunch here after next meeting.
Bit O exploring of the Higashi Nakano area.
Most houses in Japan (like ours) are made of wood and are easily torn down and constructed. Unfortunately, most Japanese houses are designed to be demolished and only to last an average of 25 years. Wrote about this in the Tokyo Property Purchase post but need to beef it up with more info soon.
Apart from our own Mirai Itasha, we hardly see any others around Tokyo - but there are times like this. Lovely Rin Itasha.
I think this is the only meal I eat at Mc Dees - the Salt n Lemon set.
Meetings with Bushiroad - more photos here of their offices.
Nice to see the trading card community worldwide building up at the Bushiroad English site.
Playing some AAW or Air Arm Wrestling with the big boss of Bushiroad Takaaki Kidani-san.
Back to that ramen place to nom on some milk tofu tan tan noodles.
Rollerblades have saved a ton of time up until now.
The T-shirt is of Mirai in her Solar Marine uniform geared up in a Retrograde Suit which you may have seen in the Mirai Millennium Design post.
The T-shirt is available from J-List for 19.95 USD where 25% is being donated to the Japanese Red Cross Society. I'm not accepting any royalties from sales and the remainder just enables J-List to cover production costs.
The text on the T-Shirt is "Ganbare Nippon!!" [頑張れ日本!!] which in this case means "Keep fighting, Japan!!" or "Don't give up, Japan!!"
There is also a sleeveless version for the ladies or Hideyoshi's out there.
The print on the silk screen T-shirt is not full color however and Mirai's face does look a wee bit white-ish so avoid if that would not be your cuppa tea.
Some horse lost its head and ended up flogging flowers instead of eating them.
I love Japanese "Kawaii" culture which you can see everywhere - posters like this for example teaching folks lining up manners. Most folks behave well and already practice this though.
Popura serves up a dish of sushi for us. Her face is sooo cute. I want Nendoroid Mirai to look like this.
Charging phones and batteries for the trip to Shanghai.
Ramen at Seiya. I think they stuck in another egg by accident ^^;
I never get bored of this view. This is what it looks like in Winter.
The Arakawa line gets its own mascot called Toaran [とあらん].
In Roppongi hills for more meetings with Konami.
With the Konami dev and content team going over some stuff. Hope to reveal all next month if all goes well ^o^
With some of my Konami Komrades.
Om nomming on wifeys curry.
Mirai-chan is ready for some dindins too.
Got a new smaller carry case - the Sunco Outzone Beta. Picked up up during sale time for 12,400 yen.
Can fit quite a bit inside but unfortunately not a whole Dollfie which means that....
...Saber has to do a Mami Tomoe ^^;
Nearly packed. When I first started to travel many moons ago, I used to carry around such a bunch of crap including the kitchen and its sink. It was only after a while that I realized that I didn't need more than half of what I brought with me. Travel much lighter these days.
Soba and Kakiage for lunch.
Haruhi's sleeping bag is now Mirai-chans carrying case.
Filling up the Mirai Mobile with some juice.
Today was the first time we parked our car at the Airport - Lucky we did as wifeys family gave us a ton of noms to bring back ^^;
Today we are departing from Haneda International Airport which I still need to write about.
Heading to the Peoples Republic.
This afternoons inflight meal.
Touch down at Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai ready for a week of business wheelings n dealings. You can see the journey back to Tokyo from Shanghai in the Tokyo Arrival 3 post.
Previous photo posts in the A Week In Tokyo series listed up below. Been writing this series since 2007. How long have you been reading since?
