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

Suenaga-ke

Fri, 09 May 2008 21:02:00 +0900

Progress shots of Mirai's sister that Azami sensei and I are working on.
She turned out looking a bit older than originally planned but we still want a younger looking sister. So it looks like I'm going to go minami-ke style and have 3 sisters. This would be the middle sister - the equivalent of Kana from Minami-ke.
Below is a progression rough of the first pose.

And the first draft that you saw before below.

By Danny Choo on 2008/05/09 20:02

Samurai Sanders

Thu, 08 May 2008 23:02:00 +0900

You've seen him dressed as a maid and now see Colonel Sanders dressed up as a Samurai during the Golden Week holidays here in Tokyo.

Just curious but do they dress up Sanders in your region too?

His sword looks rather limp though ^^; May be he needs some 2D girl pics to help him straighten it out.

Haruhi, Chicken burger and coleslaw - 1,000 yen.

The view from Kentucky. I take a pic and then realized after that I snapped the "Chinko" from "Pachinko" - "Chinko" means "mans dolphin" in Japanese ^^;;;;;;

The Kentucky menu. While we are on the subject of food, JapanProbe reports on a disturbing subject...

The main restaurant of scandal-hit upmarket chain Senba Kitcho, located in the city’s Chuo Ward, has been serving leftovers to customers almost on a daily basis for more than 20 years, sources close to the restaurant said.

The restaurant’s head chef admitted at a press conference on Friday that the restaurant had been using the leftovers of six dishes, such as sweetfish broiled with salt, since five or six years ago.

But the sources said the restaurant had actually been reusing a wider range of food items, including broiled fish and beef that had been left untouched by customers, by cooking them again and serving them sometimes in boxed meals.

The only bad experience that I remember is when I was at a Korean restaurant in Shin Okubo near Shinjuku. As I was rummaging around the dish, I found a lovely roasted cockroach...
have you been served something nasty or inedible before?

By Danny Choo on 2008/05/08 22:02

Greetings From Germany

Wed, 07 May 2008 21:26:00 +0900

Been up since 2AM. Body clock still on Japan time.
Brought some Melatonin to help with Jet lag but its not working this time round. I know some lucky folks who never get jet lagged. Do you get jet lagged and if so what do you do to cope with it?

A few pics taken up to my arrival in Hamburg. This was taken at Narita airport. The translation in English for this one is quite bad - "Please respect our chefs and refrain from bringing food or drink into the table." What they actually meant is "don't bring food from other shops." Their translation sounds like you are not allowed to eat at the dining table ^^;

BLT for B'fast.

The lovely Kaho spotted at the airport bookshop. Kaho showing us her lovely smile below.

The Lufthansa food is rather yummy.

Catching up on backlog of shows - Ninomiya-kun, Minamike-okawari, Mop Girl, Macross and Geass. Macross is just so awesome.
The scene where Ranka does "Watashi no kareshi was Pilot" was so nostalgic.
Original "Watashi no kareshi wa pilot" by Min Minmay below.

Ranka version below.

Original remix below.

Hamburg from the skies.

Current Hotel. Will be staying at a few places including overnight on a train after the conference.

Pee, poo and wash area.

Haruhi will be on stage with me ^^;
Still tweaking slides for tomorrows talk.

Out n about for a few hours during lunch.

Gorgeous weather.

Fries and frankfurter for lunch.

Going back to hotel.
Will check out the venue tonight to go over electrics, lighting etc and then dinner with the other presenters. Other updates in the News Items.

By Danny Choo on 2008/05/07 20:26

Nida Schuetlich

Tue, 06 May 2008 22:02:00 +0900

For some reason, I seem have in my possession Nida Schuetlich from the Shuraki series by Good Smile even though she's not officially released until the 12th of this month ^^;

For folks who don't know, each of the Shuraki figures comes with an illustration booklet and a drama CD. Have not been bothered to listen to the CDs that came with this and the previous Shuraki figure Char Rhouseman as I have been busy playing with the cast off abilities instead ^^;

Get a cop of that lovely face. Original illustration by Shunya Yamashita. What ever happened to his blog?!

They decided to rename her Nida instead of Needa for those who are wondering about the title of this article.

Just got her and have to leave her behind in Japan as I leave for Germany ToT orz.

No complaints about this figure whatsoever. Paintwork is excellent and the sculpting is perfect.

An absolutely amazing figure.

Can see pantsu.

Folks who want Nida can have a look on one of dannychoo.com's trusted partners below.

Gorgeous detail.

Sweet, sexy, cute and cool all at the same time.

Nida's secret weapon is not her huge gun but in fact her stun-eyes.

Notice cute pantsu ribbon ^^;

Nida also comes with battle damage clothes too. if you had Nida, how would you pose her on your desk/shelf? Fully clothed, Battle damage or Cast off? I'm going to keep her in Battle Damage for a while - her belly is too nice.

One of these in the Wallpeper Pool.

The Shunya girls - Mirei San on the left. Which do you prefer?

The bits n pieces that she comes with. This is the short gun and comes with bits for the long gun too.

Nida Rhouseman.

Two Shuraki girls. Which would you choose out of these two? Tough choice.

By Danny Choo on 2008/05/06 21:02

A Week in Tokyo 14

Mon, 05 May 2008 21:56:00 +0900

The gorgeous Mikatan from Good Smile Company. Was there this week again to go over the final production stages of...

Reading up on The Otaku market which is currently valued at 1.651 billion USD.

On the way home from the Hobby Stock BBQ.

Indy! Looking forward to this. Trailer below.

Waiting for train. Most underground stations have barriers that open only when the train arrives. Wonder when JR are going to invest some money to do the same for their platforms - they should at least try to stop people jumping.
JR train fares are generally higher than underground fares too - greedy gits.

Do you have barriers between the platform and train on your region? I know they do in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. Not sure what its like back in London as I have not been for ages.

Haruhi Wonton Ramen - 900 yen.

A stroll in the local neighborhood. Its Golden Week this week which is why Tokyo is half empty.

Haruhi n chips n burger - all for 800 yen.

Ordering some sushi - 240 yen for two pieces.

Haruhi n Yuki play in the lounge.

Study time in lounge.

Shopping for groceries.

Gets me the Sanyo eneloop mobile booster so that I will have an extra 4 hours when I run out of iPod and NDS juice on the plane - 5,480 yen.

Fauna and dinner at home - fish n veggies.

Lunch with the Good Smile crew again.

This restaurant is run by Max Factory - they do great nan.

A few figures fall over after an earthquake - Good Smile offices.

Behind Mikatans desk.

Hair cut for 1,000 yen. I used to cut my own hair when it was long but chopped it all off when I started loose hair.

A photo in a bookshop of old Tokyo.

Another retro pic.

Snapped in the Matsudo area in East Tokyo where the Good Smile offices are.
The rent here is dead cheap - two floors for 42,000 yen per month. No key money or deposit required and comes complete with furniture and a loft - very rare indeed.
The catch is that its a 19 min walk from the station.

Prices of rent drop drastically based on the distance form the nearest train station. Folks who are thinking of living in Tokyo, have a look at my Tokyo Apartments article - learn what Key money is etc.
What is rent like in your region? I think I asked before but I didn't ask exactly how much you are paying. You is be paying how much per month?

Relaxing for a change in the lounge with my SAFS - Suddenly Acquired FigureS for those who dont know ^^;

A closer look at these two later this week ^^;

Some new houses for sale. These are called Tateuri where you buy the house with the land - you are generally paying more if you buy property like this. I recommend that you buy land and then build the house yourself on top. if you are looking to buy property in Tokyo, you can read my previous experience of buying a house in my Tokyo Property Purchase article.

These new houses cost 73,000,000 yen - there are two houses here.

Mikuru and some Chinese lunch - 800 yen.

Grabbing the latest To Love Ru manga. I should probably start to pick up Claymore too - 390 yen.

Preparing my slides for Hamburg. I used to use Powerpoint all the time in Amazon and Microsoft and must say that Apple Keynote pees on Powerpoint from an extremely tall building. Never knew about Keynote until I saw a guy from Google presenting in Tokyo other other day.

The "Week in Tokyo" series will take a rest until I get back to Japan so next week will be "A week in Germany." Will still continue to post articles but most updates will probably be in the News Items in the left column which you can also RSS Subscribe too. Will post stuff from my iPod Touch when I sniff some Wifi. Dont forget to check the Member News Items too for some cool stuff being posted.

By Danny Choo on 2008/05/05 20:56

Trend Day

Sun, 04 May 2008 20:50:00 +0900

I've been invited to Germany to speak at the Trend Day conference next week - currently rehearsing and tweaking my slides as I write this ^^;

The organizers Trendburo are an agency who research and identify/suggest market opportunities and point out trends for businesses. This years conference theme is about identity management and I will be explaining what Otaku is and touch on the different identities of the Otaku. I will also talk about my companys product Mirai Gaia too - the web platform that this site runs on.

Nervous as hell even though I've presented a few times at Amazon, Microsoft and at the Imprint Conference in Los Angeles last year. Each time was only a couple of hundred but this time its over 600 attendees. Need to think about something else to to keep me relaxed - some 2D girls? Maybe you can help by posting some cutesome 2D girls in the Member News section for me?

These are photos from last years Trend Day which include Muhammad Yunus who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize - presenting on the same stage make me even more nervous ^^; More pics at the Trend Day Flickr Stream.

Was looking up info on presentations and came across something that said out of dying, heights, water, flying and speaking in front of people, most were most afraid of the speaking ^^;
What are you most afraid of - does not have to be any of the above.

For me its "speaking in front of others" as I'm not good at it. Not particularly scared of dying as we all have to go sooner or later - I just make sure I make the most of it while I'm alive and focus on reaching my destinations while I'm at it.

The conference is held in Hamburg and you can see my profile page at the Trendburo site. Will be taking time out in Germany for a while too.

By Danny Choo on 2008/05/04 19:50

Japanese Deodorant

Sat, 03 May 2008 21:55:00 +0900

An ad for deodorant featuring an old lady who suddenly appears out of nowhere to sniff girls armpits. She then holds up a sign with her circle of approval and says "good!"

When I first came to Japan, I was extremely surprised that men didn't have a custom of using deodorant. All I saw on TV or in posters were deodorant for women. The pharmacy's were filled with deodorant packaged and marketed for women only and were in the womens section. Did feel kinda odd picking up a can of pink deodorant but soon got used to it ^^;

As men didn't use deodorant over here, getting on a train filled with sweaty smelly school boys and salary men was not a particularly nice experience. Maybe they were brought up to think that they didnt smell or that using deodorant was embarrassing?

Back in the UK, men using deodorant was normal and there were plenty of brands marketed and packaged for men.

These days in Japan however, some cosmetics companies have started to make deodorant targeted at men but only a few meaning that smelly train carriages will be around for a bit longer.

When you was in Tokyo, did you encounter the surrounded-by-smelly-men-on-train situation? Are men in general smelly in your region?

As for the CM, there are loads of the CM but could only find the one below which I posted before.

By Danny Choo on 2008/05/03 20:55

Hobby Stock

Fri, 02 May 2008 21:51:00 +0900

So far we have taken a look at the offices of Good Smile Company, Max Factory, Kotobukya and brief look at Nitro Plus. Today we have a look at the offices of figure and related merchandise seller Hobby Stock.

This is where they take all the figure pics.

A closer look reveals maid Komaki.

Before I forget, you can see the rest of the office tours in the Japan Office Tour category.

The recently released Yuki by Alter.

Stacks O figures.

Hobby Stock exclusive dakimakura covers modeled by Hector.

Another Hobby Stock exclusive dakimakura cover - Masane from Witchblade. Killer eyes and killer toe - check her right foot.

More figures in the other corner.

Good Smile Moetan.

Too cute?

Some mecha pandas - forgot what series they are from - name that series.

And this is the main area of their office. As you can see they have an open layout which is the typical office layout in Japan.
The first company I was at in Japan was the same. I had my own office in Amazon and Microsoft had partitions between the desks that were high enough so that you couldn't see others when you sat down.

Back in Seattle Amazon headquarters, we had a room for two developers and where there was an open hall, there were partitions high enough so that you cant see anybody when standing up.

Some people say that open partitions create good teamwork - some people say that folks need some privacy when working.

Some bosses like open office layouts so that they can watch the employees which is totally wrong in my opinion. Employees should be trusted and not presumed to be wanting to do no work.

What sort of office layout do you have? If you had your own company, would you have your office open layout (employees screens visible) or partitioned (employee screen not visible)?

The most most cutesome Good Smile Haruhi Nendo Puchi.

Mikuru lurve.

The frog outfit is most cutesome. Is there anybody here who has not watched Haruhi?

We had barbecues in their old warehouse - Miku joins in.

Oppai mouse pad - Chu Chu Idol.

Comrade Shimazo-sans desk full O goodies.

Name that girl with the big eyes.

Name those mechas.

Hobby Stocks mascot character - forgets name.

This is Nard Tan right?

Hobby Stock have been doing quite well and have moved their warehouse to a bigger one. We had a celebration BBQ at their old warehouse.

The word for "burnable rubbish" is "moeru gomi." The "moe" in "moeru" beans "to burn."
The "moe" used here however means "moe" as in "moe girl" - a play on words. I guess folks who understand a little bit of Japanese will get this one ^^;

Most of the food gone.

Nabbed this from Hobby Stock - a pair of pantsu that they gave away with Nard Tan ^^;

Could not be bothered to cast off Fauna so stuck it on her leg in "pantsu-falling-down-leg" style.

Konomi ecchi.

By Danny Choo on 2008/05/02 20:51

Figure News

Thu, 01 May 2008 19:55:00 +0900

Hmmmmm. Needa is not out yet but I seem to have her for some reason ^^; (whats Needa)
In other figure news today, Good Smile announce the pre-order release of the final two members which complete the Figma SOS Dan - Mikuru and Itsuki. Both retail for 2,500 yen and are out this June. Itsuki comes with a board for folks wanting to re-enact the Haruhi dance.
Love all three faces of Mikuru so think I'm going to need three of her ^^;
The only figures I have two if the same are GFF Guncannon and the Nendoroid Puchi. Do you have more than two of the same figure in your collection?

All images via Hobby Stock and if you are looking to pre-order any of these two, have a lookie at one of dannychoo.com's partners.

By Danny Choo on 2008/05/01 18:55

WHF Final

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:28:00 +0900

As some of you may already know, the WHF (World Hobby Festival) is going to be no more - the last show in Kobe was yesterday and the last one in Tokyo at Big Sight will be next Monday on the 5th.

While I usually attend every Wonder Festival, the WHF is a show that I attend when I have a load of spare time - most of the stuff displayed are kits and while makers like Good Smile do show up, most of the stuff has been previously seen at the Wonfes (previous coverage here.)

The folks who organize the WHF have not mentioned why they are throwing the hat in but I don't think its because people are getting bored of figures. I love my figures and dont think I could ever get bored with them - especially as many of them are cuties. Do you think you could ever get bored of your figures? Are you a person who has already got bored? If so, what have you done with your figures?

Maybe the WHF has come to an end because the amount of people buying kits are dwindling? Why pay 12,000 yen for a kit when you can pay 6,000 yen-ish for the PVC version when it comes out.

A comrade figure sculptor was having one of his figures being made into a PVC but had permission to sell kits of the same figure at a show. He said that it was imperative to keep the PVC figure under wraps and that if people knew that a PVC version was coming out, nobody would buy the more expensive kit version.

The reason why kits cost an arm and a leg is because they are not mass produced - the unit cost just to mould one kit can cost up to 5,000 yen. Many sculptors outsource the casting of their kits as they dont have the equipment at home.

Anyway, back to the coverage of the event - picked out the best of the bunch from the following sites where you can see more - I think there is one NSFW one so keep an eye out for it ^^;

By Danny Choo on 2008/04/30 17:28

Adultery in Japan

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:23:00 +0900

You are in Japan and have a feeling that your partner is being unfaithful to you and having hanky panky with your best friend. If this fits your description then you are in luck as there are detective services available to help you discover the truth.

Having hanky spanky with a person other than ones partner (married or otherwise) is known as Uwaki [浮気[うわき]] and seems to be a popular past time in Japan. The word Furin [不倫[ふりん]] means adultery.
Searches on Google bring up topics like "Is there such thing as a faithful man?" and "What percentage of married men are unfaithful" and "the probability of men having an affair before they die is 100%" and "Its in the nature of a Japanese man to have an affair."

A survey shows the following results of married men and women who want to have hanky panky with somebody other than their partner.

Married men who want to be unfaithful - 58%
Unmarried men who want to be unfaithful - 41%
Married women who want to be unfaithful - 23%
Unmarried women who want to be unfaithful - 19%

And as for those who actually went ahead...

Married men who have been unfaithful to their partner - 27%
Unmarried men who have been unfaithful to their partner- 21%
Married women have been unfaithful to their partner - 13%
Unmarried women who have been unfaithful to their partner - 18%

But there is a savior for the ones who are cheated on in the form of "Tantei" [探偵[たんてい]] or "Private Detectives."

After living in Japan for a while, you will realize how many of these posters are up on the walls here n there - its for folks who need to hire detective services.

Choose from hundreds of detective services and pay up to 85,000 yen for 5 hours of detective work.

The detective services will get one of their undercover agents to follow your partners every move - collecting data, taking pictures and video clips - the aim is to catch the culprit with their trousers down and a dolphin in somebody's....hand.
The agent captures the moment in a photo or video and hands the evidence to you with a report. This detective agency outlines the process and has a few thumbnails for you to gander at too.
By Danny Choo on 2008/04/29 22:23

Image Uploader

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:59:00 +0900

Took me ages to get round to it but its finally up - the image uploader. Members can finally upload images and soon videos too.

The screenshot below shows the new member widget on the top page. Each thumbnail represents the last post made and displays the category for that post.
Each post is known as a News Item. So that you dont get confused with News Items that I post, my News Item thumbnails are labeled "DC News" while member item thumbnails are labeled "Member News."
You can find all Member News in the tab that I also highlighted in the screenshot. Have a lookie at what members have been posting so far.

Below: And when you click through to see all posts you can see a new carousel menu - use the arrows at either side of the menu to scroll left or right to reveal more categories. The thumbnails in each category are automatically taken from the last post made in that category.

You will notice that the second thumbnail is "figurefm" and that when you click through you will see all posts tagged with "figurefm."
This is the new home for the figure.fm community. Due to the unexpected amount of clients requesting services of Mirai Inc, I have not had much time to participate or look after figure.fm. Now thats its on the dannychoo.com platform, I can spend more time with you talking about your figure shoots and Gunpla making.

Being on the dannychoo.com platform means faster uploads, continuous improvement of the user experience and interaction with more people seeing your Gunpla work or figure shoots. This will also mean more exposure for your blog too - just make sure you contribute to the community by posting the occasional figure news instead of just "more pics at my blog" ^^;

To deter trolls from doing what they do best in life, only members who have commented on dannychoo.com more than 25 times and have been registered for more than 2 weeks can use the uploader.
One thing that Trolls are not good at are posting comments which look genuine so are easily spotted 2.5 miles away - especially with features like the comment tracker. This is why I lowered the comment hurdle down from 50 to 25 - but members still need to be registered for more than 2 weeks to use the uploader.

An up n coming feature called "Nuke" will enable trusted members to zap a troll - this should hopefully convince trolls that wasting time building up trust and then be nuked within seconds after posting evil pictures is not good use of ones life.
Senior trusted members on the site will have a red button to push and when a few of these members push their buttons, trolls get nuked on the spot and the site goes in self defense mode for that troll.

If you are a member at figure.fm and do not meet these requirements, mail [support at dannychoo dot com] with your figure.fm *and* dannychoo.com username. To enable me to confirm that you are really who you say you are, stick something in the "Amazon assoc. tag" field in your edit profile page at figure.fm and let me know what the tag is - it can be anything and you don't need a real amazon tag.

Once I have confirmed that you are who you say you are, I will enable the uploader for you.

Below: When you click through to your profile page, you will see a few changes. In your profile box you will see a new menu with links to your News Items, Puchi Blurbs, Comments and Videos. If you click on "News Item", you will see a sub menu below that enabling you to view your News Items by category.

As with the last figure giveaway, future giveaways and prizes of figures, gundams and other goodies will be limited to members who actively participate in the community by using the uploader.

The new uploader tool means that we can not only share information via comments but by images too and will open up the "show us your room" pool soon.
I think I asked before but cant remember - do you want an eroge (hentai) CG category?
By Danny Choo on 2008/04/28 23:59

Japanese Snacks

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:26:00 +0900

A quick look at the sort of snacks we consume in the office during work ^^;
First up is Choco Mochi - glutinous rice cake with almond and chocolate - yum.

Lotte is a popular sweets manufacturer in Japan. I had no idea that it was Korean comany until I stayed at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul - there is even a Lotte World amusement park too.
Lottle CM below with the lovely Aya Ueto.

McVities was a brand I used to have since I was a kid - glad they came to Japan.

Bourbon Vanilla Roanne - it's like wafer with cream inside.

Macadamia by Lotte.

Chocholate n nut snacks - 29 yen each.

You will find that many of the snacks here have English written on them - even though it may not mean much. These strawberry snacks are sweet n yummy.

Corn Potage crisps.

Pote-Long meaning "Long Potatoes" ^^;

Love the name of this snack - "Ottotto" - small bags of crisps.

Thank you Nabisco for bringing Ritz to Japan.

Nabisco also brings is a kinda lemon version of Ritz. BTW, I love the way you can pose Haruhi like this - the legs are so cute.

"Choice" biscuits by Morinaga. Vintage Morinaga CM below.

Nabisco Oreo.

Snacks for dolphins.
Whats the quality of snacks like in your region?

By Danny Choo on 2008/04/27 20:26