As the new year comes along, fans await with bated breath for the yearly spring season single. Fans colloquially refer to it as the Sakura single; every single released at this time has had ‘sakura’ in its title. So imagine the surprise of many, when it turned out that 2012′s spring single had a title that wasn’t even in Japanese: Give Me Five!

Type A Limited Cover

On the last day of AKB48′s 2012 Request Hour event, Give Me Five! was unveiled with an interesting twist. For 6 months prior, the senbatsu members of the single had been given a task, to secretly learn, practice, and perform on an instrument assigned to them for the song.

The girls were mostly given instruments they were unfamiliar with and the newly formed band (christened Baby Blossom) performed Give Me Five! for the thousands in attendance at Tokyo Dome City, as well as the countless more watching on Google+. The performance started off really badly (think high school band, except without practice) but they soon found their groove and tightened it up toward the end for a memorable finish.

Type B Limited Cover

The song itself however, isn’t anything to write home about. While at first the brass instruments seem to be a superfluous addition to the song for the sake of including everyone, it does add some excitement to an otherwise lackluster guitar-driven melody. A safe assumption would be that they had to make the song simple enough for the girls to be able to play live; of course, the Baby Blossom version still has slight differences from the version that’s on the single itself.

Type A Cpver

Sweet and Bitter, the coupling song by Selection 6 (another new unit), is used as the insert song for Seven & I’s Valentine Fair campaign. Made up of the 6 members with the most exposure, it’s obvious Selection 6 was formed for the sole purpose of endorsement.

The rest of the girls are split into the Special Girls A, B and C for the Types A, B and Theater releases respectively. For some reason, AKB48 has managed to stumble upon an even worse name to call their lower-ranked members than ‘Undergirls’.

Give Me Five will have its promotional video directed by Shigemichi Sugita. It will be a whopping thirty-four minutes long, with a storyline explaining how the high-school band Baby Blossom comes together. Shigemichi is the perfect man for the job, his magnum opus, Kita no Kuni Kara, is a slice-of-life drama focusing on a family.

Type B Cover

Some may think that AKB48 crossing over into the land of live instruments would open them to even more criticism, with observers easily drawing comparisons to groups like ZONE or Scandal. Despite this however, many fans will be delighted to see their idols performing live, instrumental ability aside. It will be interesting to see the reactions to the single when the single finally drops, on the 15th of February.

While Tokyo Girls’ Style continue to sway indecisively between their serious and idol images, Fairies emerged just 4 months ago as avex’s true successors to SPEED. In the short time since they’ve debut, Avex has not been shy to proclaim Fairies as their answer to the K-pop wave sweeping the rest of the world.

While Avex has been slow to jump onboard both idol and gayo crazes, only catching onto the less than subtle trends in the music industry in recent months. They have since brought under their wing the likes of SKE48 and After School. While Avex continues to use the knowledge to steer their first traditional idol group SUPER☆GiRLS to further success, it is through Fairies that they hope to combine popular Korean pop elements, with a more Japanese production process.

Shimomura Miki.

Fairies is managed by Vision Factory and signed onto Avex’s SONIC GROOVE sub-label, which is responsible for similar acts like SPEED, MAX, DA PUMP and Amuro Namie (who has since left for avex tune). The label boasts years of experience in the industry that certainly shows in the quality of the group’s first two double A-side releases, More Kiss / Song for You and HERO / Sweet Jewel. Many of the same producers who have worked with SPEED the past now infuse the same edgy tones into Fairies and DA PUMP’s KENZO provides the girls with the necessary dance tutelage.

Hayashida Mahiro.

But does Fairies really stray that far from Avex’s comfort zone? The company has been successfully churning out the same hip-hop inspired pop tunes, even before such a style was adapted in Korea. With Korean artists taking center stage in the rest of Asia though, one cannot deny that Korea’s take on the concept proves much more popular.

Kiyomura Kawane.

The 7 young members of Fairies wear not costumes but fashionably coordinated looks. In perfect synchronization, they perform catchy R&B-pop songs that occasionally throw in the song’s English title, that may or may not have any relevance to the lyrics. There is a heightened focus on sharp, hip hop style dances.

But while most Korean groups debut only after years of training, Fairies follow the typical Japanese fashion of throwing the girls into the spotlight unprepared. And it doesn’t get quite as young as this. All members of Fairies are aged between 13 and 15 years old, with most leaning toward the former.

Ito Momoka.

The first two singles have established Ito Momoka as the group’s center. In fact, she’s the only one singing in their more prominent first A-side, More Kiss. HERO expands this vocal lineup to include Nomoto Sora, though the rest of the members contribute to the song’s spoken lines and K-pop styled dances.

Fujita Miria.

Oddly though, the accompanying songs for each double A-side (Song for You and Sweet Jewel), tend to lean more toward pop, rather than the more distinct sounds of More Kiss or HERO. Though I suspect this is in part a result of the incorporation of the other young members’ high pitched voices. I’m not sure if it is intentional, the songs are still great (Sweet Jewel is possibly the best Christmas themed pop song in years)  but it does stray a little from the group’s primary image.

Nomoto Sora.

During the recent travel articles, I mentioned about the plentiful amount of posters and banners, advertising Fairies’s new single. Avex has spared no expense in promoting the new group and along with large billboards everywhere, we found the entire Omotesando covered with banners. I learned that Fairies had been actively performing live at malls all around Tokyo in the weeks before and after the release of HERO / Sweet Jewel too.

Inoue Rikako.

An interesting thing to note, is that we were totally unable to find Fairies singles at any regular music store outlets in the vicinity of Akihabara like Softmap, or even general stores elsewhere in Tokyo that also happened to carry some idol CDs, such as Don Quijote. Something tells me that Avex is putting in extra effort to distance Fairies from the surplus of idol groups sweeping across Japan.

This might seem counterproductive to sales. And indeed Fairies aren’t selling as well as you’d think they’d be. More Kiss / Song for You sold only about 12,000 copies on its first week, with HERO / Sweet Jewel performing slightly below that. Though if true, Avex values the group’s image far more and not associating them with idol acts could well be part of a longer term plan.

Instead, Fairies seem to resonate well with a primarily young female audience much in the same way many other Korean groups do, a possible a sign that the group is headed on the right track.

Near the end of 2011, AKB48 staged its own singing contest prior to the perennial NHK Kouhaku Uta Gassen. Aside from being the first time such a singing competition was staged by the AKB48 family, it was also the first glimpse many Japanese (as well as the overseas fans through Google+) caught of the Jakarta-based AKB48 sister group, JKT48.

Akimoto Yasushi has constantly spoken of plans to expand the AKB48 family overseas. Given the presence of shops in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Singapore, these locations were the first guesses for any probable new sister group, given their cultural closeness to Japan, as well as already proven fanbases. Indonesia, for all intents and purposes, was not on anyone’s list of places.

This only added to the surprise many had, when auditions for JKT48 were announced on the Internet. The initial lack of any official announcement by AKS only served to exacerbate fans’ doubts. These doubts however, were erased by an eventual official announcement on the official AKB48 blog.

Not long after, flanked by the 28 first generation members of JKT48, Akimoto Yasushi introduced the first overseas sister group of AKB48.

Right out of the gate, the girls were placed in a prominent ad, endorsing drink brand Pocari Sweat. Many were quick to point out that the commercial featured the AKB48 hit Heavy Rotation – in Bahasa Indonesia. With that, many came to realize the portability of the AKB48 formula. Refined to the point of being culturally odourless, the AKB concept was exported to Indonesia for the Indonesians.

A country that’s no stranger to idols (local versions of La Academia and Popstars were huge hits), Jakarta presents the perfect place to start a sister group to AKB48. With the AKB brand giving it a jump-start in the beginning, JKT48 aims to be the ‘original Indonesian idols’. Of course, this is made easier when you have a huge library of existing pop hits to localize from.

The 1st generation of JKT48

The new group doesn’t fall too far from the AKB tree. With the initial selection of 28 members, girls from the age of 12 to 22 were selected, with as broad an archetype range as you could possibly have. Part of the 48 groups’ established formula, that has proven to attract fans – there is, after all, something for everyone.

Response to the group has been favourable in Japan as well; the cheers were as loud as ever when the group performed the Indonesian version of Aitakatta to a full capacity crowd at Tokyo Dome City for AKB Kouhaku Uta Gassen. The group also performed at the actual NHK Kouhaku Uta Gassen, and even made an appearance at this year’s Request Hour Set List Best 100 concert.

JKT48 performing Aitakatta at AKB Kouhaku

With a now solid fanbase of Indonesian fans, there is no doubt that JKT48 is bound for success, even if the extent of that success is still very much unknown. Even many who scoffed at the idea of an overseas 48 are now sitting up and listening.

What will be next in Akimoto Yasushi’s plans for world domination and where will JKT48 end up in the grand scheme of things? Only time can tell. And I, for one, am excited for the prospects.

JKT48 has an official website and YouTube account. Updates on events involving JKT48 are also frequently posted on their Facebook page.

Today was the last day of our new year’s trip to Tokyo. The last minute nature of things meant that we would neither plan nor think through on a lot of decisions.

As it turns out this second Monday of January was the annual Seijin no Hi or Coming of Age Day in Japan. A day typically marked by women turning 20 flocking to temples and shrines in elaborate furisode. We would also learn during our concert visits that SUPERGiRLS were holding a free live and high five session at Yoyogi Park in the afternoon.

Our flight was at 5.10 PM, which meant that we had ought to reach Narita Airport by at least around 4. Considering that the live event started only at 1 and that it would take us a combined 2 hours to get back to our hotel for our luggage and to travel to the airport, we knew we were cutting it close. Still, I was sufficiently intoxicated by their catchy tunes to give it a crazy try.

We checked out early in the morning, leaving our luggage at the hotel counter while we headed over to Harajuku Station. There we grabbed some onigiri for breakfast. Having not reached my quota for strange drinks, I had bought 3 different bottles of strawberry flavored drinks two nights ago from the supermarket. So my other concern was how I was ever going to finish them.

Strawberry Soda.

Managed to down the Strawberry Premium Calpis (which was awful) yesterday. While Calpis proper is great, I’ve now learnt to stay away from the Premium series.

This morning and afternoon had me drinking nothing but Sapporo’s Ichigo Soda, that tasted like carbonated sour candy strips (bad) and Bireley’s Adult Strawberry Milk, which turned out to be smashed strawberry pulp (good).

Adult Strawberry Milk.

The Meiji Shrine was filled with plenty of visitors this morning, but hardly anyone in kimonos. Maybe we were at the wrong temple, or perhaps too early or late. But we didn’t have time to find out.

Wasn’t thinking properly this morning so ended up making a wrong turn during an attempt to find a shortcut out to Yoyogi Park (we should have just back tracked to the entrance). This brought us to the wrong end of the park and to save time we had to take a train back one stop to Harajuku Station.

Seijin no Hi.

Northern park at Meiji Jingu Naien.

Today was indeed a frantic rush. And had I known about the event prior to the trip, would had surely had chosen to stay another day. I tried changing our return flight date after finding about the free SUPERGiRLS live, but unfortunately we weren’t allowed to with our non-refundable tickets.

Another miss, was not confirming which part of Yoyogi Park the live was set to take place at. We spent half an hour exploring the huge park, passing by a few out of place looking youths who were equally lost.

Eventually, we managed to find the venue by following a lost looking grade school girl, who seemed to had figured out where to go after checking her cell. Yes, we stalked a loli and it worked.

As it turned out, the live was to be held outside the park, at a clearing beside the Shibuya AX and NHK Halls. There was a flea market going on this morning too but we didn’t have time to waste, there was already a long queue ahead.

Long queue.

The queue was for wristbands. The staff had started distributing these half an hour ago at 11 AM. These were the same “gigabands” you get at AKB48 theater lives to prevent you from selling your ticket.

If you’re wondering what they were doing giving them our during a free event that was open to the public anyways, these were actually more for the hi-touch session later. To ensure everyone gets a fair chance to meet their idols face to face, the band is required for the hi-touch session and repossessed after your turn.

According to official sources, approximately 4,000 people were gathered here today, though Japanese and sensational online news aggregators claim the number to be at 4,800 and 5,000 respectively. But despite the number of people in line, we managed to get our wristbands within an hour. Since it was a free show, audience here today were a lot more varied. There were not only the typical rowdy wota youths but also office workers who had sneaked off from work, a lot more fashionable young women and an odd middle aged woman who had various pins and keychains of AKB48′s Ishida Haruka.

To get the wristbands.

After getting our bands, we spent the next half hour trying to find a suitable standing spot. Had little luck on the right side. Like before, it was pretty hard getting a decent view with all the tall young people. The stereotype where all Asians are supposed to be short stumpy folk, clearly does not take ethnic Japanese or Chinese into consideration.

We managed to find a clear spot at the center, but was soon obstructed by the ridiculous amount of media who joined and their camera crew. Each time another cameraman set up camp in front of us, the guy behind us would exclaim “うそでしょう”. Like in Singapore, some of them had pretty weak amateur equipment setups but they stood on high chairs which made it impossible to see past them.

The last straw before we looked for another place to stand was when one guy simply shoved Gage aside to get in front of him. Polite Japanese, also only a stereotype.

Had some difficulty finding a place to stand.

We eventually settled for looking from further afar at the absolute left side of the stage. There weren’t too many people here so we could get a view, provided we tiptoed our way through.

At some point during an announcement that Akita Eri would not be taking part in the live this afternoon, a pink unmarked coach pulled up unnoticed near us. No one paid it any attention for quite some time, until everyone realized that the only way up the small stage was through the front.

A whole bunch of people came running forth our side as the bus doors swung open. We took this chance to move further up. Decked out in their EveryBody JUMP!! outfits the SUPERGiRLS members, sans Eri emerged, making their way up to the stage.

Maidoru Keycode.

The girls performed a total of four songs this morning. Opening with EveryBody JUMP!!, they covered all of their singles in reverse order.

There was an interesting mix of audience this afternoon, many of whom were seeing a live for their first time. Some were pretty amused by the wotas (crazy idol fans) up front, who were brandishing light sticks in broad daylight. During the MC, the speaker/manager mentioned that fans from as far as Fukuoka had come down today to see the performance.

Two young adults in front of me were especially amusing. They were high from being able to see the SUPERGiRLS members in person. The one in front kept turning around and exclaiming excitedly to his friend the Japanese equivalent of “Kaepyon is so pretty” and “Amita is too cute”.

When Kano Kaede said her spoken line during Ganbatte Seishun, complied to respond but not quite sure how to, the guy in front shouted back “Thank You!”.

It was already nearing 2 PM by the time the live ended and it was time for us to leave, it didn’t seem like the event was to continue anytime soon either as the media took to the main stage to prepare for a photograph session and interviews. Would have done anything to stay on for the hi-touch session, anything but waste our flight back.

Somehow, we were the only ones who spotted the girls at the back window of the small room behind the stage. We waved at Tanaka Mirei a few times, while she stared motionlessly at us for a while. Eventually, another member shut the blinds, perhaps so they could change. I wonder if the members themselves would had noticed the window had we not waved out.

Stuck at the station.

Rushed back to our hotel to get our luggage. We were delayed for a few minutes when I realized that the strawberry drinks in my bag were leaking. Till now that bag still smells of artificial strawberries.

Only after entering the gantry at Nippori did we realize that we had missed the Keisei Skyliner by 10 minutes and we would have to wait another 30 minutes for the next one to arrive.

Even with the trip by Skyliner taking only 40 minutes, this would mean that we would only reach Narita Airport at about 4.30 PM. We would have probably missed our plane had we attempted taking the limited express.

Danish Cream Puff.

It would had been doubly stupid if we had missed both the plane and the hi-touch session. Took a break from panicking to get some snacks from the vending machine here. The only other thing we had to eat so far were the riceballs we had earlier.

The two buns tasted about just as good as anything you’d be able to get from a vending machine in a train station. Which is to say, pretty tasteless.

Sweetened red bean bun.

Ice cream from the vending machine.

Got off at the end of the line, at Narita Airport Terminal 1 and made our way to the ANA baggage counter. The tall slim ground staff here looked like one of those countryside types, pleasantly cute. Which was good, since it softened any possible annoyance at us. Which was our fault, of course.

She made sure that we returned to the self-check in terminals before giving any human assistance but as the time window had expired, we returned to the counter almost immediately.

Through sheer luck, or perhaps precisely because of us, the flight time had been delayed by 10 minutes. The staff assisted us in taking our luggage to the check-in area before escorting us customs and then to the boarding area, constantly urging us to hurry.

We thanked her profusely and apologetically, before running off to join the last people boarding the plane.

Zipping off to Narita Airport.

Like our flight here, the plane back home was mostly empty. I didn’t have time to take any books out from my luggage to read on the way here, so would spend the evening choosing from the limited inflight entertainment instead. Ending up watching the amusing Salaryman NEO movie and the predictably cliched Real Steel.

Last moments on Tokyo soil.

Hamburg steak.

Dinner options were between a Western hamburg set or Japanese rice meal this evening but since we were situated at the far back, there was only one of each left by the time it was our choice. Still, the in flight food this time was probably some of the most decent we had encountered so far.

Japanese seasoned rice and noodles.

If I were to continue recounting, I would describe how we landed at Singapore slightly late due to the bad weather and how I had to prepare to return to work on the same morning. But that would be quite a bore. So that’s it for this photo tour series of our winter trip to Tokyo.

Somehow, I don’t have nearly as many afterthoughts this time round as before. Perhaps because most of the trip was spent revisiting past places. Might be returning again sometime soon when the Tokyo Sky Tree finally opens and if there is sufficient funds to do so.

I still have intentions of visiting Nagoya and giving Kansai another chance. And while Tokyo loses some of its charm after repeated visits, it’s still the one place I feel most at home with.

Like in the past, you’ll continue to see the occasional article elaborating on some of the stuff featured in this trip (though most had already been covered before). But regular random scheduled posts will resume again tomorrow.

This morning we’d make one final attempt at Akihabara before making our way over to Odaiba. It’s been a while since my last visit to the man made island and was looking forward to returning to the peaceful, spacious shopping arcades there. We first returned to Ueno’s Ameyoko in the morning though, since I had promised Wilson a carton of Pocky from there. Only continuing on our day’s adventures after we had dropped off our purchases back at the hotel.

Kebab stand at Ameyoko.

We grabbed a couple for lunch here.

Yan wanted more AKB48 merchandise but just like last night, it was impossible to enter the shop at Akihabara without having to join a long queue. Couldn’t find the TRIO since the directions from Google turned out to be wrong, instead we found another shop that was selling more AKB48 and SUPERGiRLS stuff for cheap. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any cash on hand and there was no nearby convenience store to draw some.

Crazy queue outside of the Akihabara Cafe.

Thanks to a cute flyer girl that looked (and sounded like SCANDAL’s Sasazaki Mami), who checked it up on her cellphone, we eventually managed to find the elusive AKIBA ZONE (which was really AKIBA Culture ZONE) which we were looking for.

It was a pretty new building that I had yet to see before. A manga bookstore that sold first and second hand items occupied the first two levels. Upstairs, we found another newly opened capsule store that spanned the entire floor. Most of the boxes here were empty, even with the 500 yen/box promotion they were holding for this introductory month. I guess not many knew of this building either.

The floors above were home to a Good Smile Company cafe and the TRIO store that we were looking for. But after all that effort, we didn’t manage to find anything here worth spending on.

Grown adults could have lunch with their toys here.

Back outside, there was a miniatures fair happening at the Belle Salle building where Momoiro Clover performed last night. For some reason they had brought a pony here for display.

Pony outside a model fair.

Made our way down to Osaki to catch a Rinkai train for Tokyo Teleport Station. JR Lines don’t travel to Odaiba so you have to choose between the underground Rinkai Line or the more expensive Yurikamome Line that passes through the Rainbow Bridge. Others choose to come to by car, as Odaiba seems to be a favorite spot for wealthy families to spend the weekend.

Odaiba.

As compared to the city central, land here is abundant. Apart from office buildings, Odaiba is home to a few parks and family centric low rise shopping malls quite unlike those you’d find in the rest of Tokyo.

Fuji TV station.

Here we visited the unique looking Fuji TV building. Going up to the station’s circular observatory cost 500 yen but entry to the exhibit and live set viewing areas were free. Overall, there wasn’t much to see here as the souvenir stores were mostly stocked with One Piece items and merchandise from this season’s unfamiliar shows.

Paraphernalia from various television programs. There were live sets too, but we could only view them.

Next we visited the Palette Town and Venus Fort malls. The large open areas in Odaiba meant that it required quite a bit of walking while getting smacked around by the strong, freezing coastal winds to get anywhere and Venus Fort was quite a walk away.

Venus Fort Building.

The long mall you see above is split up to 3 floors, Venus Family, Venus Grand and Venus Outlet. There’s also a large car showroom and a separate car museum. The whole place seems to be built with the idea of allowing parents to leave their kids occupied at the amusement center while they pursue other activities. To keep with the whole family theme, pets (whom some treat indistinguishably from children) are allowed to roam around the mall freely. In fact, there might had been more pet related shops.

Car showroom.

Entry to viewing area was free. But you had to pay for the catalogs if you wanted any.

Had a couple of driving simulators here.

Palette Town.

Inside Venus Fort.

Spent most of the afternoon browsing through the many interesting shops at the Venus Family floor. The other two floors were mostly filled by high and middle end fashion boutiques and restaurants. The mall has a great ambiance that has you forget exactly what time of the day it is.

Mostly boutiques.

Hawaiian dancers advertising a restaurant here.

History Garage at Venus Family. Entry is free.

Quaint old vehicles on display.

An impressive collection.

You could test drive different vintage cars here for a fee.

The available cars rotate with each season.

By the time we had finished with Venus Fort it was starting to get dark. So we made our way over to the opposite end of Odaiba where the Decks and Aquacity malls were. This was the side of Odaiba facing the city side of Tokyo and the illuminated Rainbow Bridge. The raised “decks” here provided a suitable view of the two.

The Rainbow Bridge.

The Sega Joypolis was also located here, though we would have to wait another time for a visit. There seemed to be some sort of Momoiro Clover related promotion going on there from the banners and looping videos of them outside. Instead, we headed over to Aquacity to find something to eat. Remembered that there was a Kua Aina here that came highly recommended by both Wilson and MJ, which we decided to give a try.

Surviving Christmas decorations.

Came recommended.

The burgers at Kua Aina did not come cheap. I hear it’s an authentic Hawaiian franchise now with stores worldwide. Individual burgers start at almost 1,000 yen (SGD$16). You’ll have to add another 200 yen for drink and side set. But it was totally worth it.

Instructions.

Rather than fast food, Kua Aina serves rather gourmet made to order burgers. You could truly have it your way with an ample choice of sides and even different cheeses to choose from. Gage ordered a Cheese Burger while mine came with a generous slab of Avocado. It’s been a while since I had such an awesome burger with a genuine burger steak.

Kua Aina also offers the same generous burgers in sandwich form, which the two ladies beside us opted for. People always wonder how the Japanese manage to maintain their slim physiques with their heavy appetites. But it is clearly a result of all the walking.

Pretty awesome burgers.

All of the eateries at Aquacity offer a windowed view of the Rainbow Bridge and Kua Aina was no exception. This only served to make our meal more enjoyable. For those interested, you can visit the Kua Aina website for more details and menus.

A scenic view of the bridge and Tokyo Tower.

Explored Aquacity for a while, looking through the clothing stores and Toys R Us here. Was curious as to how it compared to those in Singapore, since there are so few toy stores in Japan. It turned out to be pretty small. There was some nice winter wear at a shop on the first floor, but as it was the end of our trip, we had little use for them anymore.

Had promised Suki some concert tickets which had to be purchased from 7-Eleven, but oddly had not chanced upon one the entire day. You’ll understand how rare this was if you’ve ever been to Japan. Went in search of a “convenience store” in the basement but it turned out to be just another Lawson. The effort wasn’t wasted though as we did find an official Glico store beside it, that sold tubes of giant Colon sticks Yan had requested for. As luck would have had it, it turned out that you could only find them at these stores and this happened to be the only outlet in Tokyo.

Street performer.

When we were done with Aquacity, we headed to the adjacent Decks building, stopping to take in the beautiful scenic view along the way. There was a space dedicated for street performers between the two buildings. The one here tonight was particularly annoying. After roping in a number of unfortunate volunteers from the audience, he refused to continue until he received some donations.

Period themed shopping mall.

Of interest was a floor in Decks called Odaiba Icchome Shotengai. It was made to look like a street out of olden Japan. The upper floors also apparently house a “Little Hong Kong”, a Chinese variant of this section. But was closed for renovation.

The stores here were all set up like old convenience shops and it was fun looking through the different trinkets for sale. One of the shops sold many old snacks and toys, some of which would resonate with my own childhood. There was even an old amusement center where one could play some really classic arcade games.

Strange shop selling random boxes.

This shop in the center of the street puzzled me though. For 500 yen or more, you could purchase random sealed boxes. These boxes would either contain random small toys, or tickets to redeem much more valuable prizes, such as home appliances, electronics or video game consoles.

It smelled like a scam, but this didn’t deter the dozens of customers inside, who spent all their time shaking the boxes, occasionally selecting one to throw into their basket. The sad thing is, these customers weren’t aging people either as the shop was filled with mostly young adults.

Having tread ever corner of the shopping malls here, we decided to leave Odaiba and take the Yurikamome back. Noticing that it stopped at Shiodome, we got off at the off chance that we might still be able to visit the Caretta Shiodome building at this hour.

Caretta Shiodome.

The Caretta Shiodome is also the Dentsu Headquarters Building, home to the largest advertising agency in the world. I was more interested in taking a look from the top of the building though. Was a bit worried when the entire area was pitch dark but fortunately found the ground levels still active as we approached closer.

Beautiful illumination show downstairs.

Took the lift up the 46th floor where there was a viewing area. Dentsu building’s elevators are apparently some of the fastest in the world. This and the open glass windows make the trip up slightly unnerving. From above, we were able to get a view of Odaiba. But only the elevators faced the Tokyo skyline.

See through elevators.

The way down wasn’t nearly as unsettling as the elevators descend much slower. We finally spotted a 7-Eleven here on the ground floor and proceeded to get Suki her ticket. It was for someone called Kajiura Yuki, who seems to be an anime music composer. With just about everything else closed by this hour, it was back to our hotel for our final night’s sleep in Japan.

Today we’d headed down to Ueno Park to visit the Ueno Zoo. Fortunately, for us our hotel Candeo Hote Ueno-koen was named precisely because it was located beside the park. So far we had only explored so far as the JR train station around the corner of our street, but the park was just behind that. This gave us an excuse to sleep in till rather late.

Never took this path before.

Taxis have amusing signage.

Going around the upper part of the park brought us to the middle entrance where the National Museum of Nature and Science was. There are at least 4 museums in Ueno Park including the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, which is unfortunately closed for renovations until later this year. Had we more time, would definitely love to visit the other museums here.

Life sized metal whale outside the National Museum of Nature and Science‎.

Lots of museums here. Would be nice to have the time to visit them leisurely.

Ueno Zoo takes up just the small western section of the park. Prior to today, I’ve never actually been here, or any menageries outside of Singapore. This is on account of all the warnings I get from family members overseas that their zoos are never as decent as the famous Singapore Zoological Gardens or Night Safari.

Ueno Park.

600 yen entry.

Entrance costs just 600 yen, exactly half the price for Singapore Zoo. Weren’t expecting a whole lot today. But perhaps for this reason, we ended up being eventually quite pleasantly surprised by both the size and variety of animals on display at Ueno Zoo.

Ueno Zoo.

Pieces of cardboard with a hole in the center which are supposed to occupy children.

The Giant Panda section was located just at the entrance, undeniably the most popular attraction here . We joined a long queue made almost entirely of families hoping to catch a glimpse at the pair of pandas too. The low entry cost and accessibility of the park made it an ideal spot to spend some family time together over the weekend.

Really long queue to see the pandas.

Gage translated this as the pandas having to reflect on what they did each day for half an hour.

Thankfully, despite the queue size, there was only about a 15 minute wait before we made it to the viewing area. As loved as they are, pandas don’t make the most interesting animals. Both were sleeping soundly this morning. Everyone flocked to this one that faced the windows. The panda occasionally stirred in its sleep. Apart from their stumpiness and ridiculous sense of fashion, pandas don’t look too different from regular bears.

The most popular attraction.

Both of the pandas were sleeping.

We found a map of the place, then learned that that was only a map of the current zone. Here’s the full map, though hardly in scale. The zoo isn’t nearly as large as Singapore Zoo but as the exhibits are smaller and more tightly packed, Ueno Zoo manages to fit a far greater variety of animals here. So as not to bore, I’ll only upload a fraction of pictures taken today and perhaps leave the rest for another article.

Zoo map.

Another thing to note was exactly how close one could get to the animals, with many enclosures being within arms reach. This was probably a result of space constraints and probably not the best for safety.

A few different varieties.

A number of other large birds kept here.

Of course, it wasn’t all rainbows at Ueno Zoo. Many of the small enclosures kept a single specimen of each species only andtThis lead to rather depressing situations. It might had been the intense cold, sheer loneliness or through training, but many of the animals here behaved rather strangely.

For example, despite having a larger pen to itself, this lion here paced around a fixed loop between the two viewing windows to combat the cold and perhaps for some companionship. I noticed a few other animals around the zoo exhibiting the same unusual behavior. If it was simply to keep warm, surely it would had chosen to stay in the sun.

In contrast, the animals who were kept in groups or together with other animals displayed more logical and social traits.

Lion kept patrolling back and forth between the windows.

Hidden peacock.

Small gorilla.

Much bigger one.

QR code to access each member of the family's profile.

Strange large bird.

Really huge seal.

Lone polar bear.

Many of the animals stuck close to the windows.

It was already noon by the time we had finished exploring half of the zoo. So we took a short walk to the other half, which surrounded the part of  Shinobazu Pond which isn’t used up by the Bentendo Temple. This might explain the assortment of birds encountered here.

There was also a small hanging monorail which covered the distance between the two parts of the zoo which cost 150 yen. But as the terminals were just 300 meters apart, this was more of a novelty meant for the zoo’s younger visitors.

Large pond at the other side of the zoo.

Somehow the porcupine here had climbed to the top of the tree.

The front most section of this half was dedicated to small critters and a petting zoo. We looked around a small pen labelled “porcupine” which seemed empty, finally noticing that it had somehow made its way up the top of a tree. A couple of red pandas were lazing around in the tree beside it. This one on a nearby branch was busy grooming its tail like a cat. Its rich bright fur made it looks like a mechanical plush toy.

Ridiculously adorable lesser panda.

Sad looking horses.

All of the animals here were harmless enough to touch. A part of the area was segmented off for domesticated animals to roam freely around. The barriers you see here were to prevent people from actually entering their habitats, there were gaps in them to allow the animals to venture out as they wished.

Farm animals.

Apart from a few sheep, ducks and people running after chickens in an attempt to carry them, most of the animals here preferred to chill out in a stone platform in the center of the area. Being in direct sunlight, this must had been the animal’s equivalent of the heated seats in trains.

While looking, we noticed that each of the goats here carried a tag with their name on it. Suspiciously, I found these two she-goat named “Ran” and “Lemon” side by side. There must be a wota on staff.

Basking in the sun.

The one on the left was called Ran, the one on the right Lemon.

Dustpans and grooming brushes were provided which children were encouraged to use. A couple of little kids followed the sheep around sweeping up their litter but eventually grew bored when it was apparent that they could never catch up with the amount the sheep were producing. You had to tread quite carefully around this area.

A little girl was following them around cleaning after their litter.

Read earlier that they had recently brought a couple of alpacas over to Ueno Zoo. I managed to spot the brown one but the white one was nowhere to be found. The shaggy “Moko” was like a walking mop. You could see all the hay and dirt it picked up on its dark fur whenever she laid down to rest.

Walking mop.

Being lunchtime, many of the visitors had started to head to the zoo’s canteen and food stalls. The food here was pretty pricey though, so we decided to delay lunch till after we got out.

A souvenir shop here sold the usual omiyage snacks, as well as plush toys of some of the more popular animals found in the zoo and many pandas.

Open environments in close proximity.

Lots of penguins.

You could see that in contrast to previous photos, this side of the zoo was home to a number of overcrowded enclosures.

Quite a few flamingos.

The meerkat kept staring at the ceiling window.

Not all of the animals here were friendly. There was also a vivarium and the “World of Darkness”, which was home to creatures like naked mole rats, kangeroo rats, flying foxes and bats.

Legit.

Creatures of the night.

Where all the amphibians and reptiles were kept.

Straight out of Monster Hunter.

Fat croc.

Mount.

A great variety of snakes, frogs and lizards.

But outside, we encountered more familiar animals here like hippos, zebras and giraffes. Again, the larger animals tended to be solitary. One unusual specimens was the okapi they had here, which looked like something straight out of a Ghibli movie.

Rhino.

Couple of giraffes.

Unreal looking okapi.

Realizing that we had finally seen every corner of the zoo, it was about time to head to our next destination. Realizing it would be easier to head to Ueno Station from the main exit, we backtracked to the other side. Along the way, we stopped by this pagoda which had a bunch of people crowded around it. From our view of it in the eatery, we later learned that it was some sort of fountain.

Waiting for the fountain show.

Were both pretty hungry by now, having skipped breakfast, so we settled for lunch at the first sign of sustenance. Just outside the zoo, we encountered a small old school hut akin to Singapore’s classic mama shops, except that it also served as a small eatery.

Small hut outside the zoo.

Looks like it's been around for a while.

Ordered a couple of servings of their curry. It tasted like the instant home cooked kind. Nothing special but we were hungry enough to appreciate anything. The shopkeeper wasn’t too friendly though.

Tasted like instant curry. Probably was.

From Ueno, we took a direct train down to Omiya in Saitama Prefecture to visit the Railway Museum. Despite being another city, the limited express trains brought us there in roughly 20 minutes. From there you have to hop on board a rather expensive small light rail one stop to Tetsudohakubutsukan though.

Railway Museum at Saitama.

To enter, you had to purchase an IC card for 1,000 yen from the vending machines outside and use it to get past the gantry. A cheap gimmick, since you eventually had to return the card to the receptionist on the way out.

Tickets were an IC card.

Some 30 or so different trains and carriages were on display in the large warehouse here. Many of the newer trains could be boarded and explored. There were quite a few families who brought their children here. There were also a few couples and more oddly, museum or train buffs of either gender.

Lots of old classic trains.

You could board some of the carriages.

A crawlspace let you explore the underside of the train.

Lots of train related paraphernalia.

Model of the old Ueno Station.

Example of the old first class seats.

Sleeper carriages.

You can still find similar ones in Malaysia.

The old imperial train.

Steam locomotive. They had another disassembled one to show you how they work.

The controls.

Old paintings depicting the Western introduction of rail technology to Japan.

Upstairs, a detailed timeline of rail technology was presented together with supporting antique items on display. The museum also kept another room full of recovered items from more recent history. Another wing of the building featured 3 floors of learning activities for younger visitors. There were also mini-train rides downstairs for the same audience.

Mural upstairs.

Old mechanical station boards.

Antique signs.

Models of past engineering marvels.

Heard that you could try messing with some different train control panels in the museum. We found this area dedicated to that purpose. Sadly, they were less advanced that you’d expect. The controls would simply control the speed at which a video of the train’s route would play. You could also try your hand at more sophisticated simulators but those required an additional fee.

Train simulators.

Tried looking around the souvenir shop here but couldn’t find anything of interest. Just the usual themed stationary and snacks. After, we visited a small viewing room where the museum’s last show of the day was about to start.

The museum's show.

Here, an eloquent woman “conductor” controlled a rather elaborate model train set at the front of the room. Many current train types were depicted in toy form here. All of the trains started docked in their respective stations, she brought them to live one by one in order of how early they ran while describing the trains in detail.

The model track.

There wasn’t much left to see, since the museum was preparing to close by now. While it was something that I’d visit once, between the high ticket price and cost to get here from Tokyo, I honestly wouldn’t recommend the Railway Museum to any adult who isn’t a railfan. It’s a nice place to bring with little ones though.

On the way out, the staff took our IC cards and passed us some stubs. There was a dated stamp outside to remind you of the visited date. It would had been nice to be able to keep the card instead.

Souvenir stub.

We returned to Tokyo, stopping by on our way back to the hotel at Akihabara. Until now, we had yet to find the new TRIO store here and would forget to again this evening. We were distracted by a large crowd who had gathered both in and outside the Belle Salle building across the street.

The plentiful light sticks and familiar chants gave them away immediately. Moving closer, I barely made out 5 color coordinated youths at a stage at the far end, identifying them as the members from the pop idol group Momoiro Clover Z.

Crazy crowd in Akihabara.

Staying on was kind of futile, as we could barely make out anything above the sea of people. Many of the group’s die hard fans continued cheering on even from the outside though, their fervent chants audible from every part of Akihabara.

Momoiro Clover concert.

After making a round trip to the far side of Akiba to get a few boxes of waffles from Manneken, we spent the evening mostly grocery shopping at Donki and the supermarket adjacent to the station. Stocked up on quite a bit (but hardly enough) instant noodles and snacks. Would had certainly gotten more, were there more space in my luggage left.

Groceries.

Tried some instant cup noodle yakisoba for dinner, for the reason of getting more should they turn out decent. But common sense would tell you that it would hardly fare well. Both the texture and taste of the noodles ended up being quite similar to instant noodles you’d get in Singapore, which might be unique by Japanese standards. The only saving grace was that the servings were really large. Thankfully we still had waffles.

Instant Yakisoba.

Tasted like Singapore instant noodle brands.

More waffles.

This Friday would be our second and only other day this trip spent idoling or so we thought, as we made our return to Harajuku in the early morning to pick up the leftover tickets for this evening’s last SUPERGiRLS New Year concert. Thanks to Gorakudoh’s convenient website that was updated at multiple times each day, we learned that the two back row tickets we had seen from yesterday were still available. After yesterday’s amazing live, I was eager for another chance to enjoy their performances.

The two tickets cost us only 2,000 yen each. Which was a little sad for whoever was selling them since they cost 3,500 a pop. He would have made a considerable lost, even before deducting whatever Gorakudoh was charging for their services. Had our trip been less impromptu, we would had been able to get much better tickets (in the 300-400 seat range) online for less than their original price too.

Back to Harajuku.

Now that more of the shops had opened, we managed to look around the clothing stores at the actual Harajuku Street. This is where you’d find more of the interesting brands, indie labels and knick knack shops as opposed to the teen clothing at Takeshita dori. Spotted a pretty cool pair of limited edition Nike sneakers at one of the shops here. It was made out of yellow reflective material, the kind you find on safety vests.

Looked through some of the actual Harajuku streets.

Stopped by the Freshness Burger here for an early lunch. Somehow Gage hadn’t tried any of their burgers yet, not even in Singapore so it was time to fix that.

Freshness Burger.

Classic and classic burger with cheese.

After lunch, we revisited Nakano with hopes that more of the shops would be back from their holidays too. Thankfully, that was the case. But while it was fun looking around at all the different stuff people were attempting to sell (most of it being AKB48 related) our wallets were pretty stretched out already at this point of the trip.

Nakano odds and ends.

Some things of particular interest were that many shops selling American or rather American themed goods there that looked to be doing rather well. We would find more of these shops elsewhere too. These have found popularity with a segment of Japanese youths, some sort of reverse weaboo.

I have some friends at Ubisoft who would be proud to know that someone must had thought their games good enough to warrant a temporary Assassins Creed art gallery set up here. It featured fan interpretations by various artists known and unknown.

Some friends at Ubisoft would be glad to see this.

The late afternoon saw us heading back to Shinjuku and BLAZE for the last SUPERGiRLS concert. The JR station here displayed a series of large banners advertising AKB48′s second behind the scenes movie. It stretched across the entire walkway.

Shinjuku Station.

We were the second last batch of 20 to get called in so getting anything but a corner in the back was inevitable. Fortunately though, the audience area in BLAZE is a series of elevated steps so getting a view from the far end was still possible. Or at least it would be if not for the really tall youths and their frantic maneuvers. Decided to head to the left hand side this time so that Gage could get a peek of Shimura Rika and it didn’t hurt that it was Kano Kaede’s end of the stage too.

Shinjuku BLAZE.

The entire back row was jammed up by a rowdy group of 7 or 8 Japanese teens, who must had been 170cm or taller. In their defense, they had pretty good tickets in the 400 range but decided to head all the way to the back so as to continue their shenanigans. But it wouldn’t had be possible to see past them even if they weren’t jumping wildly. Fortunately, there were a couple of more grounded middle aged men on the left corner of the rail. This gave us a fairly limited but direct view of the left side of the stage.

Initially tried tiptoeing past the bunch of fans to at least see more of the other end. But realizing that it was in vain, settled on just appreciating what we could see. Had the many AKB48 shows in Singapore not trained me for this identical situation, I would had been pretty pissed. And the people behind us who didn’t make it to the back railing and had to stand behind that bunch of fans had it much worse. One of them unwrapped a stool and binoculars he had just bought from Tokyu Hands for this purpose.  Note to self, bring foldable stools to concerts in the future.

The first few songs in the show followed an identical structure to yesterday’s performance. Starting with iDOL Street members performing their only songs. The groups shuffled around a little today with 3 Kansai members selected to perform Zettai! Love Magic instead, which ridiculous dance had won me over instantly yesterday. The Kanto lineup did it better.

SUPERGiRLS emerged again in their EveryBody JUMP!! outfits to open with their new album songs and Joshiryoku Paradise. Perhaps it was the pressure of being the last show this series but the fans seemed especially rowdy today. Even yesterday, fan participation bordered on the insane with SUPERGiRLS fans combining many of the worst elements of both Hello! Project and AKB48 fan behavior.

The group of youths basically put on their own show throughout the evening, performing outrageous wotagei actions without actually paying attention much to the concert. The obstructed fans behind them laughed but were probably furious to have their entire vision obstructed. Yet, this particular group must had been well known for their antics. Katsuta Rino even saluted them in a familiar manner during one of the MCs.

Somehow managed to get even worse tickets today.

After their introductions, the girls changed into their MAX! Otome Kokoro costumes (the white and blue ones, not the bikinis). They wore their Ganbatte Seishun costumes for yesterday’s first show. Something told me I must had missed the Joshipara show.

Today, they performed a number of b-side, singles and group songs. They interrupted for breaks where they split up into two groups, with one staying on stage to play a game of charades. This would replace yesterday’s calligraphy session. The surprise was that the losing team would have to end up performing whatever unit songs from their album Chouzetsu Shoujo that they were in. This was pretty awesome, since I was looking forward to hearing some of those.

The losing team ended up being comprised of Tanaka Mirei, Miyazaki Rina, Katsuta Rino, Shimura Rika, Kano Kaede and Goto Aya (I think). Mirei did a short segment of The Rock You by herself repeatedly stopping while saying she couldn’t remember how to perform it. Miyazaki and Katsuta sang the entire Egao ga Porori with Katsuta taking over all of Maeshima’s parts. She humbly said after that it was impossible without Ami, to which the fans responded that she did great.

The remaining 3 girls jumped in as soon as the back music for Tokimeki Iro no Kaze to Kimi started remembering it quite well. The other members from the unit joined in midway too. Kano Kaede even pulled in Arai Reira (who wasn’t part of the unit) to fumble along. It was great fun.

They also held the same ballot where fans could win letters from the members. The concert moved on to more awesome group songs from their first album. It was eventually time for MAX! Otome, which was met with the loudest cheers. Gage was particularly won over by KIRA PURE POWER.

Casualty.

Somehow ended up dropping the pink battery operated pen light that I had bought last year for the sake of the AKB48 Singapore concerts and was surprised to find that it had snapped in half. This was especially unfortunate, since its made of the soft plastic material used to make drink bottles and thus pretty resistant to such falls. It had snapped off at the join too, which was probably stiff from being left in my bag while we roamed around Tokyo in the freezing temperatures. This would had been a pretty bad omen for AKB48, had it not also served as my Maeshima glow stick.

There was an encore today, which started immediately after the girls left and promoted others to ask them to slow down. Still, the members returned to the stage surprisingly fast. They did EveryBody JUMP!! for a second time before ending the high tension NIJIIRO STAR. Any remaining doubts about SUPERGiRLS from yesterday was easily vanquished. Made plans to attempt to join their free live and hi-touch event, which was scheduled just before our flight on Monday. Had I known about it earlier, would have stayed another day for this purpose but I hadn’t been quite in touch with idol related news for a while.

Dinner at Tengu.

Found a Tengu Izakaya nearby where we would get dinner. Ordered a couple servings of their nama (parma) ham pizza and more diced steak. Also some sashimi, yakitori and fried smelts.

Some sides. Bacon wrapped asparagus.

Fried fish.

While there were no concrete plans for the remaining days. There were a number of places we had considered visiting such as Ueno Zoo, Odaiba and a train museum in Saitama, which we had seen advertisements for en route to Disney Resort.

First up, I would like to apologize for today’s lack of quality and quantity of photos. Today we made our way down to Shinjuku BLAZE for the awaited SUPERGiRLS concert. Most of the day would be spent indoors and I didn’t want the trouble of carrying such heavy shooting equipment or figuring out how to store it away during the show. Before the concert though it was first to Harajuku, where we had an appointment with the AKB48 Official Shop Harajuku.

While it seems counterproductive to the whole purpose of selling stuff, for some reason, AKB48 shop at Harajuku requires you to book in advance to simply enter the store. This would make sense if the shop was crowded more often, but I’ve heard reports that it is rarely packed outside of the current holiday season.

Booked our visit a few days ago online at their website. Thankfully it’s goes by a purely first come first serve basis rather than at random. It used to be that the only way to do so was through a cellphone, but they have recently added a PC alternative, perhaps in response to complaints.

AKB48 Official Shop Harajuku.

The shop is located at the entrance to Takeshita dori, just beside the Lawson store here. The first floor of the shop is open to the public without a prior reservation, but the only thing for sale here were AKB48 branded biscuits. It’s not that the biscuits were actually in the shape of members or anything, that would had been interesting. Beyond that, there was also an abundance of unsold of Flying Get stationery for sale

The first floor is free to enter.

AKB48′s Harajuku store consists of 3 floors in total. The second floor and basement were the restricted areas blocked off by two young shop assistants. To get past, I had to present our confirmation email and we were given a couple of slips of paper as passes.

We were instructed to return the slips before leaving the store to another assistant. The shop was seriously overstaffed, there were at least 5 staff on this floor alone (and another 2-3 on each additional floor).

But you need a reservation to visit the basement and second floors.

While the walls were stocked full of various AKB48 merchandise, there wasn’t much worth buying. Mostly stationery items, which made sense since most of the customers here were young grade school level girls. The small B5 sized clear files with different AKB48 members plastered over them were a popular item among this audience.

Nice A4 sized mini-posters in a Christmas theme. Unfortunately they were all sold out.

Cute scribbles on the blackboard behind the counter.

Every inch of the shop was covered with autographs.

The shop had been decorated/vandalized by the combined seemingly combined efforts of various AKB48 members and shop staff. Almost every inch of the store was covered with autographs and doodles, giving it a nice personable touch.

Even the underside of shelves.

The other thing of interest would be actual member costumes displayed at the store. Despite the signs, some of the little girls here reached out for a feel. I’m sure AKB48 could had easily reproduced these costumes or even just the badges on them for sale and it’d make a more meaningful purchase.

Maeda Atsuko's actual costume from Ponytail to Shushu.

The basement was mostly just stationery, stickers, charms and key chains. Similar stuff was to be found upstairs with a greater assortment of key chains. Some of the agency made goods, like OgiPro’s t-shirts and clear folders were also available for sale.

More autographs upstairs.

Another board.

Oshima Yuko's Heavy Rotation outfit.

Kashiwagi Yuki's Everyday Kachuusha costume.

The only thing we managed to pick up that was remotely useful were a couple of new official yellow concert pens, which are basically battery operated glow sticks. They had the AKB48 and Team 4 words across the side. These were the only remaining ones left, with the other team versions long sold out.

We snatched up the last in stock, one for Yan and another which Gage would keep himself. Took some time to stash it away in my bag since I wouldn’t be caught dead walking around anywhere in Japan with a AKB48 plastic bag.

Also paid a quick visit to the Evangelion Store nearby, it had been closed the past few days. It only just opened a couple months ago. The first floor served as a retail outlet for Radio Eva, while the second floor sold more conventional goods for the classic anime.

Evangelion Store Harajuku.

Next was to Shinjuku for the first SUPERGiRLS concert of the new year. A crowd had formed outside the Shinjuku BLAZE building where the concert was to be held. Today’s concert was to hold 800 guests.

Shinjuku BLAZE.

The concert was to be one of the main highlights and chief motivations for my impulsive trip down to Tokyo.

While I initially paid little attention to SUPERGiRLS and first dissed them as yet another plaid clad AKB48 clone back when they debut at Tokyo Idol Festival in 2010, avex’s foray into the conventional idol market had put on a most impressive display this year.

So while 2011 was a series of disappointments as far as AKB48 was concerned, SUPERGiRLS simply pushes all my right buttons. In fact, between their rainbow and star motif, colored sorted members and aggressive use of SNS gaming into their concept, you’d think I was somehow responsible for SUPERGiRLS’s branding.

SUPERGiRLS tour bus parked outside.

People who turned up for the show (and those who didn’t) stopped to gaze at the bright pink bus parked outside the venue.

Getting inside the theater was an unusually smooth and easy process. Ticket numbers were number 1-800 (Gage and mine were 744 and 745 respective). Numbers were called in quick sequence, first individually for the first 50 or so people, then in groups of 10 and finally bunches of 20 when it didn’t matter as much anymore.

Note that while tickets for the concert were cheap. One of the requirements upon entry to Shinjuku BLAZE, which was really a club (this is Kabukicho), was that we needed to purchase a 500 yen drink coupon upon entry. We were also given a slip of paper with a special “key code” to redeem a trophy to prove our participation of the concert in My Idol, SUPERGiRLS’s integrated social network game. Cruel.

As bad as our ticket numbers were, we had somehow managed to secure a standing spot in the absolute right corner of the 5th row. Which by the size of the small performing venue and the fact that everyone was compacted together, turned out to be the equivalent of a 3rd row view at a AKB48 Singapore “Live”. Which was fortunate, as most of the group’s young fans turned out to be an unruly bunch. I will postpone describing them till tomorrow.

(Almost) life sized decals.

Perhaps through sheer luck, the right corner happened to be where members Maeshima Ami and Tanaka Mirei would spend most of the concert at. Though we had to sacrifice being able to see much of Kano Kaede or Shimura Rika. Unfortunately, Maeshima wasn’t the most interactive of idols, who except for one or two glances, preferred to limit fan interaction to those in the center in favor of spending more of her time with the cameras. In comparison, Yasaka Saori greeted us the most despite being rather stiff in other situations.

The show started off with the Kanto and Kasai iDOL Street (the avex equivalent of AKB48′s kenkyuusei research students) teams performing what must had been their only 3 songs. While the performers were alien to us, the songs threw us off guard by being surprisingly good. This would mark the opening of a pretty awesome concert.

Before long, the main members took the stage, opening with the titular song of their upcoming album EveryBody JUMP!! and keeping up the high tension by moving directly to Joshiryoku Paradise.

While I wasn’t too keen on the new EveryBody JUMP!! from the preview clips so far, seeing it performed live changed my opinion for the better. Overall, the concert managed to blow away all my expectations. Between the actual live singing (in which Mizote Ruka shone) and sharp energetic dance moves (Miyazaki Rina performed a flurry of acrobatic somersaults mid song, none of that cartwheels nonsense), the only other things that crossed my mind was how adorable Maeshima was and how stunning Tanaka Mirei was in real life.

The concert was pretty short though, with something like a a total of 10 songs, lasting about an hour and a half. For better or for worst, there were no unit songs. Instead, the members would run off stage occasionally between MCs to catch their breath or grab a drink.

For today’s concerts, being the new year and all, the MCs revolved around the topic. The members were asked to do some shodo, a certain zen inspire Japanese calligraphy to write their new year’s resolutions. You can see all of them at the official SUPERGiRLS staff blog. These were hung outside the theater later. Arai Reira aka Rachel wrote hers in English, which prompted Maeshima to reminded her shodo was a form of Japanese culture.

The young attention seeking Maeshima felt the need to cut into lots of people’s conversations, occasionally causing the other members to simply ignore her. On the other hand, Tanaka Mirei barely spoke a word beyond her necessary singing lines.

There was also ballot during the concert where patrons who visit today could win prizes in the form of handwritten letters from the girls. They took a little time to tease about the industrial norm of idols being unable to date and this being the closest thing. Ironically, the person explaining this would be Shimura Rika. In turn each of the members drew a ticket stub from a box and the winner would get the respective member’s letter.

In a moment of anticipation the numbers 7 and 4 were called out (I can’t remember by who but it was probably Goto Aya) but it turned out to be for 742. Close but no コール. I remember Akita Eri standing out particularly during this part of the show. She mentioned writing a lot of jokes in her letter. She later remarked to the person receiving her letter that she hoped he enjoys humor.

Before we knew it, the concert was over. There wasn’t any encore or such. I guess they were expecting most fans to come for the second show in the evening, which we unfortunately did not have tickets for. Instead, we took the opportunity to get a midday lunch at Midori Sushi while excitedly going through what had happened. Gage concluded that SUPERGiRLS performance was better than anything he had witnessed from AKB48 thus far, though falling short of SKE48 levels. A meet and greet session might had changed that though.

After the concert, they continued selling a small selection of concert goods. Briefly considered buying one of their ema tablets but wondered what I would ever do with one. Not sure if I should had bought anything else other than the concert tees we grabbed on the way in but we didn’t.

Midori Sushi.

There wasn’t any queue at all on this Thursday, so we could simply walk in and grab the first sushi (and sadly only) sushi we would get this trip. Again, on hindsight, I wonder why we didn’t get more.

Ultimate Sushi Assortment. 2,100 yen.

The sushi at Midori was still the same slimy delicacies as before. Gage ordered their amusingly named ultimate platter while I went with the more humble special assortment. Both sets came with a side of soup and chawanmushi. The chef was nice enough to give Gage an extra cut as “service”, Japanese for on the house.

Special Sushi Assortment. 1,680 yen.

Over brunch, decided that we should probably return tomorrow for another concert. There was still two terrible tickets for sale at Gorakudoh but feeling lazy, we took the chance to delay getting them until tomorrow morning. Instead, we headed toward Akihabara which was more in the direction of our hotel. What a wota day this was turning out to be.

Akihabara.

Didn’t get a chance to look around Akihabara in much detail this trip yet, in fact hadn’t been around the shops here in quite a while since I’m neither into anime or manga.

Most of Akiba had been further taken over by AKB48 since before though, if that we even possible. There wasn’t any queue for the shop section of the AKB48 Cafe here (the cafe always has a queue and you have to make reservations), so we took a brief moment to look inside. Pretty much the exact same stuff as in Harajuku.

AKB48 had taken over.

Apart from all of the AKB48 related advertisements and promotions sprawled across all the shops, many had now taken to selling AKB48 related stuff too. Even the stores better known for their anime sculptures now have sections dedicated to selling second hand merchandise for the idol group. New capsule boxes have popped up here too, again with many being taken up by fans selling their photos at exorbitant prices.

It was the adults goods store Lammtara that sold the idol merchandise at the most affordable prices. The humor was not lost on me. They had a more varied range of photographs for just about every 48 group available here at standard prices. There were a couple of folders worth of SUPERGiRLS stuff too. Was lucky enough to find the Mirei set I was looking for here.

Paid the shop a visit.

Also picked up the iDOL Street Official Book from Animate so as to put some names to the training members. Pictured with the tees that we got from the concert earlier. All of SUPERGiRLS tees come with an outline of their trademark insignia in front. If you’re feeling generous, you could always socket the respective favorite member’s colored emblem (sold separately) for added bonuses.

Today's loot.

Since the rest of our weekdays would probably be taken up, today was to be the last remaining advisable day to visit DisneySea. While technically really in Chiba, the Tokyo Disney Resort was close enough by train (just 15 minutes away) to not nitpick. All the walking in past days gave us trouble when waking up, so we ended up reaching Maihama Station later than planned.

DisneySea was apparently accessible by foot, something that we decided to put to the test today. But while Disneyland was just a short 300 meters away, it took us as long as the train ride to Maihama to walk there. The alternative would had been to catch a ride on the monorail, which costs a hefty 250 yen.

Maihama Station.

Had forgotten to purchase tickets ahead of time, so we ended up having to join the queue in front of DisneySea together with the rest of the families, couples and students who had skipped school in favor of the amusement park. It was another half an hour before we saw the entrance to DisneySea, which was adorned with various decorations promoting the park’s 10th anniversary. The theme based off Disney’s Fantasia.

Celebrating DisneySea's 10 year anniversary.

Entrance.

Mediterranean Harbor.

Took a brief moment to marvel at the entrance of the park again before hurrying to FastPass our first ride as soon as possible. Between waking up late and the delays, it was already nearing 11 AM by the time we got in.

Around the park, the Disney mascots went about greeting visitors. They were clad in their 10 year anniversary costumes as well. Perhaps it was the awful costumes or that there just weren’t that many people in the park this freezing winter morning but there wasn’t a queue to have your shot taken with them for once.

For some reason the battery hatch on my camera popped out at some point here and the battery came flying out. I wouldn’t had noticed it if not for the lady behind who quickly caught up to us to return it. So we all have this anonymous lady to thank for if not, there wouldn’t be any photos of this day.

Anniversary costumes made Minnie look like Mickey in drag.

Made a pass through the Jules Verne-esque Mysterious Island zone to grab some FastPasses for the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride here before running off to the Lost River Delta to queue up for the Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull one.

Indiana Jones ride.

Estimated queue time was about 2 hours. At some point, regretted not going for the Single Riders scheme as that would had sped things up. Still, the queues weren’t nearly as long as when I last visited. A Japanese speaking Filipino guy behind us ran off to the toilet, overheard him mention to his partner upon returning that the estimated wait time had been reduced to an hour and half. We were already midway in queue, so thankfully wasn’t long off…at least in Disney queue terms.

Elaborate waiting areas.

Temple of the Crystal Skull was one of the park’s must-sit rides and is notorious for its really long queues. Like other popular rides, the waiting area encompasses the area outside and further coils through corridors and a large themed area below. This intricate set coupled with the long wait adds tremendously to the anticipation for first time riders like Gage and I today. The Filipino guy behind us was kind of panicking when we reached the last quarter of the queue but was relieved when he saw little kids joining in from the FastPass side. Experience told me that wasn’t a good indication.

Much attention to detail.

As it turns out, the Indiana Jones ride was less of a coaster and really more of a thrill ride. And a fun one it was. There were no steep drops but instead the vehicles zoomed through tunnels, making sharp turns and sudden jerks instead. The area inside was pretty large and well made enough that the props did not distract from the fun. A must try ride indeed, though when comparing, Disneyland’s Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain win out in pure speed or nausea inducing turns.

Lunch.

The ride dropped us off just beside the Yucatan Base Camp Grill, which was fortunate since it was about time for lunch. Had a couple of their smoked chicken lunches which were affordable and pretty good.

After, it was time to FastPass our next ride and catch the afternoon Legend of Mythica show at the Mediterranean Harbor. Passed by the board at the Lost River Delta that conveniently kept track of all the queue timings around the park. It wasn’t that late yet but most of the thrill rides already had their FastPasses booked out for the rest of the day.

The remaining option we had was between the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride and Storm Chasers rides now. Decided to go with the former in hopes of queuing for Storm Chasers’s shorter queue later.

The Legend of Mythica show at the harbor.

The Legend of Mythica is DisneySea’s regular daytime show that unfolds above the lake at the front of the park. Couldn’t quite understand what the gist of it was. Not because it’s in Japanese but more because of how trippy it was.

A castle-like structure housed a number of dragon merpeople on jet skis that would disengage and zip around the lake as soon as the show started. At a certain point, 5 floats slowly made their way down upstream to the lake too each one a different color and featuring a different deformed creature carrying an egg on its back.

I’d take some time to mention the creepy-cute woman in her possible early 20s beside us who was here alone. She was excitedly filming down the spectacle with her DSLR and occasionally smiling to herself. It was a little sad. But well not as sad as in Singapore where you don’t even have the option of being a Disney Resort otaku.

Merpeople on jet skis circle the mechanical floats.

So the show got even stranger as Mickey Mouse emerged from the center of the castle through a certain phallic device. The castle turned out to be a fountain of sorts shooting streams of water and while the tower shot a few small fireworks into the air.

At this point the grunts attached kites to their jet skis and attempted to glide them around the lake. Thanks to the strong winds this afternoon, all but a couple of them failed. One of the skis broke down halfway leaving him stranded even. Another came to slowly pull him back to shore, while the others recovered the fallen kites.

The show would get stranger when the eggs hatched to reveal singing fairies. After a while, more floats were brought in, this time featuring evolved mechanical versions of the creatures and carrying a bunch of dancers as well as the other popular Disney characters. There was a creepy pegasus-unicorn hybrid, hydra, dragon, phoenix and a satanic look ram beast. The most impressive was definitely the hydra, with its three mechanical heads and the phoenix that shot a brief streak of fire.

A second upgraded set of floats.

There was still quite a bit of time to spare before our FastPasses came up at about 5 PM. Gage had originally wanted to try out the Tower of Terror but after seeing the queue there decided to pass. Instead, we took some time to walk around the park and to visit the Mermaid Lagoon for the Under the Sea musical.

Mermaid Lagoon.

Arabian Coast.

Aladdin themed area.

One of the newly opened rides.

Genie was popular.

The ship could be boarded.

Before long it was starting to get dark and time for us to start using the two FastPasses we had. First off was for the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride. With the knowledge of what to expect this time, the drop didn’t come as such a shock. But it still remains one of the most fun rides in the park. This and the Tower of Terror are the only two rides in the park where you can constantly here screams of glee and/or terror.

Journey to the Center of the Earth ride.

Dark by then.

There was still more time to kill before the next FastPass came up. Here we passed by the American Waterfront just as the A Table is Waiting live performance was going on. The whole thing was basically a marketing tool for extravagant dining on board the S.S Columbia ship parked here.

The show Beauty and the Beast’s Lumiere accompanied by rather scantily clad performers (something for the whole family indeed) in enjoyable song and dance. Lumiere had a pretty cool costume, the lower half was made out of small thin stretchy bands that allowed him to dance and sing while still recreating the character in a realistic manner. The actors do their job so well that you often forget that there are actual human people inside those costumes.

Found the costumes for the other candlestick performers amusing. They were pretty much people in yellow pajamas with red flame gloves but well it worked.

A Table is Waiting show at the Dockside Stage.

All of the Disney faves came out to perform too.

After the show, it was time to catch the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride. It’s mostly a children’s ride, but contains enough atmosphere and special effects to be enjoyed by all ages.

All lit up.

The rest of the evening was spent scouring the shops for Disney merchandise as we waited for the much anticipated evening program. As I had mentioned before, there’s a pretty extensive array of toys, souvenirs, household good and clothing here to Disneyfy any child or adult’s life. Sadly, all of items themed after DisneySea’s zones had been done away with this season to make room for ugly 10 anniversary collectibles.

Customized crystalware.

The only thing that caught my eye was a commemorative 10 anniversary DisneySea book but flipping through, there wasn’t much content inside to warrant a purchase. Instead, I settled on picking up a Duffy The Disney Bear.

Most of the locals were more content with grabbing boxes and boxes of the park’s biscuits and snacks. They are always a popular item at the Tokyo Disney parks for some reason. It could be that the Japanese find it necessary to purchase omiyage whenever they visit or perhaps the Mickey crackers really do taste better than regular ones. All of the snacks this round featured a new year theme.

Sadly, the night shows were cancelled due to bad weather.

Leaving the warmth of the shops turned out to be a bad idea, the freezing temperature (would learn later it was 1 Celsius at Chiba that evening) coupled with the coastal winds weren’t welcoming at all. Returning to the shops, I found it suspicious that many people had already begun to leave the park.

Checked with one of the park staff and sure enough, the evening shows had been cancelled due to bad weather. I was looking forward to seeing for the first time the new Fantasmic! show that replaced BraviSEAmo! this year. It was a real shame too, as it tends to be the main highlight of the park. Disappointed, we returned back to our hotel in Tokyo.

A little souvenir.

Realized later that my camera battery had been dented from the drop earlier and would not pop out on it’s own. After prying it open, I managed to “fix” it by filing down one of the edges.

Instant pasta.

Dinner was instant pasta, since we were too tired and hungry to care more. These are particularly interesting as they feature an extra hole to drain the water out of after boiling your noodles. It’s as easy as adding the sauce mix after.

Definitely not as good as properly cooked pasta but better than most other cup noodles you can find. The only drawback is that the servings are too small to be substantial despite being priced similarly (about 160 yen) to larger cup noodles available in Japan.

Servings were too small.

Well that’s it for DisneySea. I must admit, some of the magic seemed to had diminished with repeated visits but overall, it will always be a worthwhile visit. Tomorrow, SUPERGiRLS!

We had initially wanted to visit the Disney Resort this Tuesday but couldn’t find the energy to wake up early enough this morning. Instead, another day was spent within the city, this time visiting more of Tokyo’s must see sights. The first destination would be Asakusa, for the famous Sensoji Temple.

In an attempt to avoid some of the crowds, we had delayed our temple visit to the third day of the new year. It was still pretty packed here this morning though, akin to a busy day at Harajuku. Hadn’t seen this many people in Asakusa before, who knows what crowds we would had faced if we had came earlier. Had quite a bit of trouble making our way to the temple (and even more trying to make our way back to the entrance later).

Really large crowd here today.

For their first visit of the new year perhaps.

For some odd reason, the crowds seemed to disperse as we approached the temple area. The main temple building was accessible and we didn’t have any trouble getting inside. In fact there were more people huddled outside and at the cleansing areas.

Fortunately the main temple wasn't closed off.

Most of the people belong to a Chinese tour group, who were especially fascinated with the incense burner in the forecourt and the cleansing basin beside it. The locals were more busy buying their “evil dispelling arrows” and omikuji, the slips of paper with random fortunes printed on them.

Tourists bathing in the incense.

Elaborate basin in front of the temple.

Omikuji were especially popular.

Like at the shrines, the usual donation box had been made away and folks could simply throw their money within a barricaded area inside the temple. The temple was fully operational today though and you could even enter the main prayer chambers if you wanted to.

Festival stands.

All around, food stands had been set up around the temple courtyard. As with most festivals, the food here tend to be overpriced and subpar at best but many come anyways for the novelty or nostalgia.

Shop along the main street.

Instead, we returned to the main street to look for other ways to spend our shillings. We didn’t have to go far, for the first stall on the return journey caught our sight. It was selling ageman, a kind of fried bun with different fillings. Many people were gathered around here. Bought one to try, it was quite nice. Freshly made and still warm, the ageman was pretty light snack, almost resembling a puff with its thin crispy shell. Inside was a deliberately sweet red bean filling.

Filled with red bean.

Figured we’d might as well get an early lunch for once at Asakusa. There seems to be a universal rule that sleazy neighborhoods always tend to be filled with no shortage temples and great gastronomical delights. As luck would have it, we chanced upon this hole in the wall eatery called Asakusa Nobu.

Asakusa Nobu.

The small shop took pride in its homely setting. Somehow a family of 4 managed to fit behind the narrow counter, an elderly couple, their son and his wife. The walls were covered with recommendations from television stations and autographs of famous guests, many from an older time.

Asakusa Nobu’s specialties were their daily steak, which were limited to the first 20 customers of the day, hamburgs and omurice. Seeing that just about everyone who entered had ordered a serving of the omurice we decided to go with that. We weren’t wrong.

Best omurice ever.

Needless to say, what we were served today was quite possibly the best omurice I’d had ever. The picture falls short of conveying the taste of the demi glace sauce or the softness of the rice. Now, I’m not an omurice connoisseur by any means but Asakusa Nobu had to take the cake for the best culinary discovery this trip.

Ginza junction.

After lunch it was off to Ginza for more window shopping. Some of the department stores were still closed for the holidays. The others had begun their fukubukuro sales already. Continued to weigh between getting the pair of Adidas shoes. The Adidas store at Ginza sold their lucky bags as metal paint cans filled with clothes. Maybe it was the weight or the fact that people tend to be pretty picky about their sports clothing, but no one was purchasing any.

Spotted some interesting amps at the Yamaha building and a really cool model test track at the Hakuhinkan Toy Park here. People could fit a special chassis to their model kits which would allow them to control the speed of the model on the track with a remote. Take a corner too fast and your car would flip over.

The chassis were customized to various popular configurations so you could fit them onto Tamiya Mini 4WD kits for example. There were also cars you could rent for free (but the remotes were coin operated. The track digitally kept score of your number of laps, time taken and best laps automatically. A little boy played with a rented car while a couple of enthusiasts in their 30s joined in to test their customized rigs.

Some sort of zen art display in Ginza.

One of the two Manneken stores in Tokyo.

Saw a bunch of people eating waffles, which reminded me of the existence of the Manneken shop here. After poking around, we found it at the corner of the junction.

Not sure if this Manneken is ever without a queue. But that’s because it serves some of the best Belgian Waffles you could find. A couple of American guys in front of us had a tough time deciding what flavors to buy. Ended up getting some of the safe favorites as well as their seasonal special a fromage one. It was quite indistinguishable from the plain ones though.

Belgian Waffles.

The old Kabuki theater had been taken down a couple years ago.

We were to head to the Tokyo Tower next for the evening but with it still being early, decided to take a short walk over to Tsukiji to see if anything was open there. We passed by the site of the former Kabuki theater, construction of a new office building was underway.

Along the way to Tsukiji, we passed by someone who looked awfully like Uchida Mayumi but with long hair. Didn’t pay any notice at first, but the tiny lady caught our attention when she began tapping at her friend and saying something while passing by us.

Nope.

But between the holidays and it being the afternoon, most of the shops at Tsukiji were closed. There were a few still opened though but we weren’t particularly hungry at this point so ahead to Tokyo Tower it was.

Zojoji Temple.

Tokyo Tower.

Along the way we passed by Zojoji Temple, a Japanese Buddhist temple famous for its giant 390 year old gate. The neighborhood here had been named Daimon (literally Big Gate) after the temple gate. The temple had a picture perfect location just beside the tower. A small number of festival stands had been set up and there was a performance monkey doing some tricks.

The main temple here sold some interesting Japanese Charms. This was the first time I had seen a black one so decided to add it to my already sizable collection. It was for victory.

Could always use more win.

From Zojoji, it was just a short walk uphill through an area lined with rows of depressing Jizo statues and tall trees to the tower. The numbers 2012 were prominently displayed on the windows of the Tokyo Tower.

2012 display.

The tower wasn’t particularly more crowded than usual so getting up didn’t take too long. Above, we were greeted to the beautiful panorama of Tokyo and its endless sea of city lights. It’s a magnificent view that can only be found in truly metropolitan cities like those found in Japan and something I’ve come to love dearly.

Lighted buildings as far as the eye can see.

It’s not limited to just one area either with the lighted buildings stretching in all directions. Above, we could see the streets of Shibuya and Shinjuku with their telltale skyscrapers. Below, the glowing Azabu-juban highway with the famous Rainbow Bridge in the distance.

The rainbow bridge in the distance.

A small window on the floor allowed you to take a look down below, but as Gage pointed out was too smudged with footprints to be of much use.

Long ways down.

How the numbers were displayed.

Couple of special seasonal things here. A miniature tower studded with 10,000 Swarovski crystals was on display at the information counter. It was here to promote Tokyo Tower as a “Love Power Spot”, which is just Made In Japan English for a place that is supposed to infuse you with gimmicky cosmic energies or something.

You could also buy commemorative ema to write your (probably relationship related) new year wishes at the counter too but there was only space to display a selected few. Instead, you were supposed to hang them up at Tokyo Daijingu. The shrine is located at the opposite side of Tokyo.

Bling tower.

Tokyo Tower ema.

You’ll find this standard brand of commemorative medal coins at just about ever major tourist destination around Japan. They’ve apparently been dispensing them for decades. Surely there are commendable people out there who collect absolutely every design for each place they’ve been to.

I had previous bought this Hello Kitty one from Tokyo Tower and another from Osaka Shinsekai’s Tsutenkaku. The red one here caught my eye but decided not to get another as I already had little use for the previous two.

Didn’t remember seeing it before and that’s because (as I would later find out) that some of designs rotate with each season. The new one in the signature Tokyo Tower red was a lot more attractive than the previous holographic design.

Realized later that the nice red one was a limited new design.

Little has changed much at the official souvenir store downstairs. Just your usual assortment of typical Japanese omiyage, like snacks made in the remote likeness of a tower, bottled water and clear folders. You must always have clear folders.

Small section explaining the history of Tokyo Tower.

Fair share of useless souvenirs.

After witnessing so many such shops selling the same uninspired themed goods, I have realized that the problem with Japanese intellectual properties being unable to monetize their brands properly (AKB48 I’m looking at you) stems far deeper than expected.

While we need to look no further than Disney for effective merchandising examples and Radio Eva is an excellent recent success story, being able to take a 17 year old franchise and make it relevant again, most seem content with slapping the direct likeness of their properties straight onto useless items. I’m sure somewhere in history, Hello Kitty is to blame for this phenomenon.

Bottled water.

Further downstairs, you’ll find all the tower’s dining options as well as a collection of 3rd party souvenir shops. Nothing much here but you can get popular souvenir snacks like those from the Tokyo Banana series for far cheaper than at Narita Airport. A young Caucasian lady was busy snapping up unofficial Johnny’s goods.

Buzz names in entertainment from the last year.

We stopped for a snack at one of Baskin Robbins’ branches here. The local stores had recently begun serving crepes since last week. For the same price as their sundae cones (430 yen / SGD$7), Baskin Robbins served premium crepes with two small scoops of ice cream.

Baskin Robbins.

Gage had their advertised Choco Banana crepes with scoops of chopped chocolate ice cream, at the suggestion of the cute shop assistant. I went with their Strawberry Cheesecake Sundae with a scoop of surprise, strawberry cheesecake. The servings for their crepes were pretty puny. Not recommended.

Their Japanese stores now serve crepes.

Strawberry Cheesecake Sundae.

Flee!

Back outside, a bunch of kids were fleeing from Tokyo Tower’s horrific mascot. People were still queuing up to get tickets up the tower. Without any clouds to reflect light off, the clear blue skies turn to pitch black nights at a switch of a button. It’s easy to forget that it was barely 7 PM. Night tends to fall around 5 PM here and that’s during the longer months.

Pitch black sky.

On our way back, we dropped by Ueno to take a look around again. Most of the shops were already closed or starting to. Gage was wondering if he should get a pair of unique modular Timberland boots that also turned into sneakers. They appropriately featured a SKE48-ish yellow tartan accent. He ended up passing. I returned to the Yamashiroya Toy Shop to pick up a little something before heading back to our hotel.

What's in the bag?

Not pictured here but dinner was just a couple of Nissin’s BIG Cup Noodles.

For dessert, a box of colorful confectioneries from Asakusa that we were reminded to consume by today. These were purchased at Funawa, a famous sweets shop at Asakusa. I had passed it quite many times before and these had caught my eye before, but it wasn’t until today that decided to grab a box.

The Ankodama are balls of sweet bean paste, coated in a shiny layer of transparent jelly to give it its shine. Traditionally filled with azuki red bean, this box of 9 (546 yen) also came with ones featuring milk (white), coffee (brown), strawberry (maroon), orange and matcha flavored bean paste. Taste wise, some of them were too delicate to tell apart.

Confectioneries from Asakusa.

We would alternate between sightseeing and shopping for most of the trip and having already visited Hakone yesterday, decided to stay in Tokyo with hopes that the shops would begin to reopen today. Woke up fairly late before making our way down to the nearby Ueno station for Ameyoko Market.

Not too many pictures today as we would mostly be running from one shopping area after another. In fact, I ended up taking far less photos this trip and especially on the days spent shopping or at concerts.

Ueno.

Ueno Station was just one stop off. Though our hotel was technically in walking distance, with the knowledge that we were going to be bouncing back and forth we purchased Tokunai Passes (that for 730 yen gave us unlimited travel on JR lines for a day).

Really sad toy.

Had fun browsing through the new toys and novelty goods for sale at the Yamashiroya Toy Shop, located at the entrance to the shopping streets. There were lots of new amusing stuff, while some like this electronic ping pong paddle that made the sound of a ball being hit when swung, was plain sad.

Was pretty tight with my wallet this trip but still spotted something that I would possibly want to buy. Noted it down first as was still uncertain and there was a need to return to the market at a later point anyways to grab some snacks I had promised Wilson.

Emoticon cellphone straps.

It was our third day here and we had yet to get any doughnuts, so it was time to fix that. Breakfast at Mister Donut it was.

Breakfast.

As we would later learn, the market was a lot more functional than elsewhere in Tokyo. Oddly, most of the shops were open here this morning so we spent quite some time window shopping. Was rather tempted to grab a pair of Adidas shoes that were exclusive to Japaneses stores but couldn’t decide what color to get them in or if I really needed another pair of shoes.

Tokyo Sky Tree in the distance.

The main Tokyo Sky Tree tower was completed just a couple of weeks after my visit last year. For a while now, it has been towering over Tokyo and can be spotted from any point that isn’t obstructed by buildings. At about twice the height of the already impressive Tokyo Tower, I’m sure our distance from it obscures how impressive it must be up close. Can’t wait to take a trip up the tree when it publicly opens later this year.

Spotted this outside the okamachi station.

Next up was to Nakano Broadway which is well known for its otaku-centric second hand shops the most famous being Mandarake which sells various anime, manga and video game related items and TRIO which dabbles with idol goods. In recent years, Mandarake seems to have run most of the other smaller shops here out of business and now owns a great many stores at Nakano each specializing in a different vice.

Nakano.

It’s always fun to look around Nakano Broadway and the capsule shops here. Unlike in Singapore, capsule boxes are available for rent each month for as low as $50 and shops do not charge a commission on items. This gives individuals the chance to fill up their boxes with all sorts of interesting collectibles as opposed to the more retail centric (and yet unprofitable) capsule shops in Singapore.

There’s also the heavy traffic of people who flock to Nakano for the dedicated reason of quenching their favorite obsessions. The capsule boxes cut out the middleman, so if you look hard enough, great deals are always to be found.

Sadly though, few capsule shops were open today at Nakano. From notices pasted outside, most shops would remain closed until the 5th.

Quite a bit of crowds here today, but most of the shops were closed.

Even at the TRIOs, not much of interest could be found. It seems the success of AKB48 resale merchandise had prompted a new TRIO to open up somewhere in Akihabara at the end of last year. As such, whatever goods they carried were distributed between the two stores, with the Akiba branch taking priority to Nakano’s TRIO2.

But goods certainly weren’t spread thin, in fact there were an abundance of items such as the AKB48 bonus photographs for sale, more so than last year. There was little variety in the items sold though, as most of it consisted of unwanted and plentiful photos from last year’s flood of AKB48.

This was further worsened by the fact that the prices of items had been inflated to ridiculous levels. Would had grabbed some posters myself if they hadn’t doubled in price. You could get one shipped to you and still have it cost less. No one else was buying anything either.

Except the bigger chains like Mandarake and Trio.

My suspicions were mirrored with the capsule boxes too. While finding AKB48 stuff for display was previously quite rare, a great many were filled to the brim with goods for sale. All at ridiculous prices of course, thanks to most fan’s skewed sense of value.

Whether this meant a sudden “me too” approach at capitalizing in AKB48′s success, or that simple fans had grown cynical of the group’s cashing in remains unknown. But neither meant anything good for the future of the idol group.

Nothing much else to see at Nakano this afternoon, so we made a mental note to return again when more of the stores reopened later in the week. Did have fun looking around the Mandarakes though, one of which sold goods manufactured to look like they antique toys (complete with damaged boxes and all) but if you looked carefully featured more recent pop culture icons.

Another Mandarake sold classic console systems and used video game cartridges. Rare games cost a premium but there were a ton of NES and SNES games missing their packing available for as low as $5 a pop. This would had been like a candy store for 1990s me and was still something really cool but it’s funny how things don’t seem as appealing when plentiful.

Dinner at Tengu.

Rest of afternoon was spent at Shinjuku. We visited the Tokyu Hands at the Takashimaya Times Square building to pick up some glow sticks for the SUPERGiRLS concert. Gage got a battery operated pen light in white (they didn’t have many colors left) while I snagged a couple of high intensity OmniGlow Ultra Pinks, always wanted to see how well those worked.

Gage was also interesting in stopping by Takashimaya’s basement to see what sort of snacks and pastries were available here. When we realized that we had yet to have lunch and how cruel looking through the food here on an empty stomach was we headed off to get something to eat.

Old faves and a few new items.

So dinner was at Tengu Izakaya, which is a place worth visiting. I hit it up at least once each visit for its inexpensive and delectable treats. Had the usual diced steak and parma ham pizza but also tried their triple cheese this time. It was pretty good and helped soften the incredibly salty ham one.

We also ordered some sort of takikomi rice with the intention of sharing one serving but since I neglected to specify the number, the waitress ended up giving us two. It was left to cook with a weak fuel flame at our table, which needless to say in this cold weather, did not turn out very well even after waiting it out.

Electric Town.

Then it was off to Akihabara where most of the stores were closing for the evening. Went to Donki building here to stock up on supplies for the next few days. A few people were collecting their AKB48 Fukubukuros tickets at the shop on the 5th floor but apart from that it was empty as there was a ban on people trading or hanging around the shop (which I am told was for the holiday season only). The theater was also closed.

On every other night there was a large congregation of people outside.

We passed by the AKB48 Cafe and Shop Akihabara on the way back to the station but decided to give it a miss today on account of all the stuff that we were carrying and the crazy cold winds blowing outside. Couldn’t wait to get back to the comfort of our hotel room.

Stocking up.

Just some of the stuff picked up today. Neglected to mention that I had somehow lost my camera’s viewfinder cap even before leaving Changi Airport. While I did feel a strange tug when my camera got stuck in something, by the time I had noticed the cap missing we were already getting ready to board the plane. For some strange reason, each trip overseas always begins or ends with some sort of gadget accident and this time was no exception (in fact another would occur later).

Thankfully it was minor this time. But I did have trouble finding a replacement cap for the old model. After having visited half a dozen electronic shops over the past 3 days, a small Yodobashi Camera outlet in Shinjuku had it in stock. Also a USB cable, since I had forgotten to bring one.

Some things for the camera.

It’s been a long while, but I never actually got around to trying Kagome’s Yasai Ichi Nichi Kore Ippon that was advertised by AKB48 both this year and last. Hadn’t had nearly as much veges as I’d like in the past two nights so bought a pack from the supermarket downstairs to try too. It tasted like ketchup.

Ketchup.

Woke up early this new years morning feeling unusually refreshed. There was something about a warm room in this cold climate that was rather comforting, that and a peace and quiet that we had come to miss.

In an attempt to miss the city crowds today, we decided to head somewhere outside the city but still within a day’s trip. It was a choice between Hakone or the nearby Kamakura and Enoshima island. But being a clear winter day we opted for the former, with hopes of viewing the elusive Mount Fuji.

We headed down to Shinjuku Station to hitch our train there, after grabbing some breakfast at the SunRus convenience store to go. The Sightseeing Service Center at the Odakyu Station here offers a subsidized round ticket for foreigners. Our passports weren’t checked, so I reckon locals might be able to get away by speaking a little English.

Forked over our 5,000 yen each but not before double checking with the counter staff, a domesticated Korean Lady and young Chinese man that all of the transport points were indeed operational this holiday.

Idealistic countryside.

The Limited Express down to Odawara lasted about an hour and half. After the first half hour or so the train leaves the city center for a suburban sprawl before reaching the peaceful countryside in the last leg of the journey. At this point, we zoomed by barren farmland with the stretch of mountains constantly in sight. For a short while, Mount Fuji could be spotted between in a break in the span.

Despite being quite energetic, we dozed off for the first hour or so of the trip. I’d take some time to mention the lovely heated seats in most train cabins and some buses that contribute to my appreciation of Japanese transport. These have the magical effect of making you lose consciousness in a matter of moments of embracing its warmth. They’re responsible for the rampant Japanese sleepy train photos that grace in the internet.

Lots of people headed there today.

Hakone-Yumoto.

It wasn’t before long that we reached Hakone-Yumoto with its touristy shops and crowds of lost looking people. Most of the travelers today were of local origin though with few tour buses in sight.

Some tourists getting lost on a straight road.

The train was pretty full so we didn’t get the chance to have our breakfast on board as planned. Instead we settled for an early lunch at one of the shops at Hakone-Yumoto. Mountain areas tend to be famous for their noodles for some reason. Unfortunately, many of the more attractive eateries had closed for the holidays.

We entered one of the few remaining options for some warm udon. The temperature back at Tokyo was a refreshing 1 degrees last I checked and the high elevation here didn’t help.

Humble udon restaurant.

We weren’t sure at first since the shop was pretty empty when we first entered but more customers began to take refuge inside as it approached lunch time. Gage had a serving of their kitsune udon, while I went with the tempura udon. It was decent.

Pretty empty when we entered so weren't quite sure.

Tempura udon.

Kitsune udon.

After lunch, we backtracked a little back to the station to catch a bus to Moto-Hakone which would normally be the last point in a complete loop around the area. Was hoping to do a reverse of my previous trip with MJ and Wilson back in 2010 where we learned how early the sightseeing lake cruise suspended each day. Also, the famous Hakone Shrine was located there that we had previous missed.

A traffic jam in the mountains.

But with the new year crowds, entering the shrine proper was an impossible task. A telltale sign was the traffic jam that we had to endure en route to Moto-Hakone. Many locals were coming by car to pay their first visit to the shrine known for being especially close to nature.

Hill up to the shrine.

Food stands had been set up on the road up to the shrine, selling various typical fair foods. Some looked attractive if not for the prices and us having just had lunch. The queue to enter the shrine stretched all the way down here and almost to the car park.

Festival stands.

Would had taken hours to reach the shrine.

Sure that we wouldn’t be able to reach the shrine in time to see the rest of Hakone, or even make the last transport back we decided to press on on our trip around the mountains. It was back towards the dwarfing Lake Ashinoko and Moto-Hakone Port to catch the Sightseeing Cruise, the gaudy pirate ship themed ferry that would take us to Togendai.

Short walk to the terminal to catch our ferry.

Clear skies today.

While I was worried at the clouds had started to form this afternoon, the sky remained clear enough that Mount Fuji would remain in constant view throughout the rest of our day here in Hakone. This reverse loop also meant that the ferry would pass by much closer to Hakone Shrine’s floating torii.

Mount Fuji from Ashinoko.

From Togendai, we swapped to the rope way up to Owakudani, which at 1044 meters high, was the highest point on the itinerary.

Ropeway station.

Fuji was visible from the tram too.

Spotted this cat wandering below.

Owakudani.

Ropeway play sets.

The entire Hakone area is actually one large active volcano and Owakudani was the nearest point to the tip as one could go. Here you’ll find an operational sulfur mine and vents steaming out of the mountain. It’s also where the brunt of the tourist shops are and where you’ll find the famous kuro-tamago black spring eggs.

Large sulfur mine.

Overview of the mine.

The eggs are carried down to the shops at Owakudani station but for the full experience, hiking up the short route to the main stall is a must. Here you’ll be able to get up close with the steaming sulfur springs and witness a clear view of Mount Fuji, something that I had missed on the previous trip. The tip was now obscured by clouds though.

Sulfur springs and where they cook the famous black eggs.

Gondola that ferried the eggs to the shops below.

Clearest view of Fuji from this high point.

Regardless of the warnings plastered all over about long term exposure to the springs, two cats here were sleeping peacefully beside the vents where the eggs are cooked. As customary, we bought a pack of kurotamago for 500 yen, which in Singapore’s deflating economy works out to be about $1.70 an egg. Still, a small price to pay for the fabled 7 years each egg adds to your lifespan, though I can’t be sure how much of this is actual myth or tourist scam.

Super cats.

Bought a pack.

The said tales also advise against eating more than two and a half eggs, though no repercussions are mentioned except perhaps the wrath of whoever you’re sharing the pack of 5 with. Between Gage and myself, we must have had 3 and 4 already respectively.

Despite having more available dustbins here than an entire neighborhood in Tokyo, the area around the shop was coated with discarded egg shells. I would put the blame on tourists but the Japanese aren’t the most courteous either when there is no need to be.

Entire area was coated with shells.

Spent the rest of our time leisurely looking through the souvenir shops back near the station. There were lots of kurotamago and Evangelion themed omiyage for sale. The popular anime was set in a realistic depiction of the Hakone area. Since nothing caught our attention, we ended up walking away empty handed.

Cable car back down.

In case you had the sudden urge to own your own miniature version.

It was another ropeway to Souzan, where we made it in time to catch one of the last few cable cars down to Gora. Here we switched to the old Hakone Tozan train that looped around the mountains, finally boarding our Limited Express to return to Shinjuku.

Back at Shinjuku.

Had not seen Shinjuku quite as dark before. Save the pachinko parlors and shady nighttime entertainment, most of everything was closed for the holiday. It seemed unusual that Lammtara (which now carries a large selection of AKB48, SUPERGiRLS and KARA goods) was open, but soon remembered that it fell under the category of shady nighttime entertainment too.

Since it looked like it wouldn’t be easy to find something to eat anywhere nearby, we decided to head back to our hotel and get something by way of the convenience store. A guy had brought his drum kit outside Shinjuku station and since there seemed to be no coherent tune, must had been demonstrating how fast he could hit his drums. Wonder how he got his drums there.

Street performer outside the station.

A lone fan recording the performance.

We picked up a couple of pastas from the SunRus at something like 400 yen each, there weren’t a whole many options to choose from at this time either.

The white sauce one came with a separate container of sauce and condiments but the tomato one that Gage had was much more filling. Fortunately, still had my bread from the morning, while was now a solid tasteless loaf. That and some pudding. This brand was pretty good.

Packed pasta from SunRus.

This one looked better.

And some pudding.

Hopefully, the stores would open tomorrow.

To explain the lack of updates in quite a while, I had been away in Tokyo again the past couple of weeks for an impulsive getaway. As with all the previous years, I’ll be uploading a day by day walkthrough of the journey over here.

While I have had the intention to return to Japan again soon for quite some time, a combination of work and weekend events have kept me in Singapore for longer than expected. Warning, possible long chunk of text below.

The decision to fly was only made a couple of days before leaving this time, having basically been forced by my director to utilize my remaining annual leave during the holiday season. Had I known about it sooner, I would had definitely left the week before to spend the Christmas there too.

Sunrise on the plane.

Despite being against it, construction had been going on at my place in Singapore for the beloved “HDB upgrading”. While I had opted out of the plan, a construction blunder downstairs on a neighbor’s apartment resulted in them having to destroy our bathrooms as well to reach the pipes to repair the neighbors’ pipes.

I would be taking this trip together with my brother. We were both eager to get away from the past month (and still ongoing) drilling, having to put up with no elevators, everything being coated with a layer of soot and the dozens of other inconveniences like having random people loitering and peeking in from outside of your house.

Flying above the clouds.

Due to the lack of planning, getting ready for the trip itself was a frantic endeavor. One of the main reasons why we even considered flying at such a last minute was the availability of cheap $533 tickets on a specific Delta flight.

Eager to get things settled on the evening when we decided to fly (two days before the flight), I returned home from work to book a pair of tickets for Narita Airport and immediately after reaching the “flight booked” confirmation page, a stay at Candeo Ueno-koen.

For a while, I attempted to see if I could use my previous Skymiles to subsidize the trip, having accumulated quite an amount from past travels. When there wasn’t any clear means to do so, I even opened one of those “real-time” consoles to assist in your booking to inquire about it. But getting no immediate response, I found out through fine print on the site itself that only AMEX card holders could claim the miles.

At some point, the console got lost in the clutter of other opened windows (you know how it is with Macs). I found it again later only after booking the tickets, to find a chat log filled by a customer service assistant annoyed by my lack of replies. I paid no notice to this then.

Less claustrophobic plane.

But this is where trouble struck. Early, the next morning, while looking through my online credit statements I realized that my card had not been charged for the tickets. Sure enough, there was no e-mail from Delta either.

Called up Delta to ask, apologizing ahead for any tone on account that I was quite panicking at this point. The hotel booking wasn’t refundable either so changing our itinerary was out of the question.

Sure enough, they could not find any reservation under my name. This was despite me clearly having gotten a confirmation from the site the day prior. On hindsight, I really should had checked for the email first before booking the hotel.

Most of the seats were free.

The person on the other end asked if I would like to re-book the tickets. Delta raises their ticket prices the day prior to flights, so despite the plane being pretty much empty (no one flies on New Year’s Eve itself) I would have to pay double for each ticket now.

I saw no reason why I should have to bear this cost because of a system error on their part. The lady asked what I wanted and I replied well I wanted the tickets at the price that I originally paid. After being put on hold for a long wait so that she could check with, read, customer service, I was told that that was not possible. At this point “You realize I’ll probably never fly Delta ever again” were my exact words and the reply to this valued customers was “That’s too bad”. Needless to say, the conversation ended there.

So as things go, we ended up booking two tickets with ANA the day before our flight. Unlike Delta, their ticket prices do not escalate prior to the flight. While more expensive than what we had intended to pay, it was still less than what we would need to pay to fly with Delta. Even if Delta had not left such a bad taste in my mouth, ANA was the better choice at this point of time.

Omelet for breakfast.

Looking back, even my previous experiences with Delta had been tolerable at best. Having had to put up with stringent body checks for the US bound flight, in-flight dining and flight times for the savings.

Packed up quickly and briefly considered some places we could cover during this short trip. It would mostly be a sightseeing opportunity and would mirror the 2010 trip quite closely. However, we would be spending the New Year’s in Japan, a time traditionally famous for closed shops and overcrowded temples.

This will come in useful when you coincidentally find yourself on the same flight as idols.

On the other hand, the flight by ANA was far more pleasant. Despite being a smaller 767 plane, the seats were spaced further apart and the luggage compartments smartly folded upwards for a lot more room in the cabins. Instead of leaning backward, the seats popped out a curved backrest so you don’t bother the person behind you.

Not that it mattered much on this flight as there were hardly anyone on board. Pretty much everyone else had the seat beside them empty and some entire rows were devoid of passengers.

Reaching soon.

I have heard various horror stories of those flying ANA of the terrible on flight meals and was pleasantly surprise to learn that that wasn’t the case. In fact, as far as airplane food goes, today’s breakfast was good. I guess it also helped that we were being served by a lovely cabin attendant that looked like a slimmer, more pleasing Yonezawa Rumi.

In-flight entertainment was limited though to just a small selection of recent shows. And as it is the case with most flights, didn’t manage to get more than a couple hours of sleep.

There!

ANA’s midnight flight timing meant that we would have the entire first day free. The plane dropped us off at Narita Airport at about 8 AM. From which we took the local Keisei train down to Nippori for 1,000 yen and switched over to our hotel just one stop away at Uguisudani.

Narita Airport Terminal 1.

Jumping on board the Keisei Limited Express.

After dropping off our luggage at the hotel it was off to Harajuku this morning. Due to the spontaneous nature of the trip, we had to rely on visiting Gorakudoh to snag some second hand tickets for next week’s SUPERGiRLS concert. There weren’t any other pair tickets save a couple for the back row at 4,000 yen each, we snapped them up immediately.

Harajuku, with remnants of Christmas.

Still the same familiar place but with many stores closed for the holidays.

After some exploring of Harajuku, we took a short detour to Omotesando, where the entire area was lined up with Fairies posters on every lamp post.

Omotesando.

Close up of the poster banners.

Lots of ladies here taking photos of an Arashi poster outside of the Hills.

Figured might as well pay a visit to the Meiji Jingu too. Decorations had been put up in preparation of the new year’s celebration. It would be pretty crowded in the next few days when it is customary for locals to visit for the first time in the year. For this reason the main shrine building was closed off.

Entrance to the Meiji Jingu.

Names of those who were contributing to the shrine celebrations.

The previous history boards of the Meiji Emperor were blown up to a large scale.

Decorations.

Instead, a large area in front of the shrine had been sectioned off so that people could throw their money at the shrine instead. The temple staff must had cleared the donations on a daily basis or the pool of money would be quite a sight during this season.

Threw our donations at the shrine.

Long queues at all shrines to buy hamaya arrows over the new year.

Next, we took a walk over to Shibuya, passing by the Yoyogi Stadium on the way. Though it was still early, many had already turned up in anticipation of tonight’s Kouhaku Uta Gassen new year program.

Yoyogi National Stadium.

There were a few troublesome looking school girls standing on the overhead bridge here holding up notebooks with something written on it. No they weren’t here for enjou kosai. On closer inspection it turns out that they were begging for tickets to see Hamasaki Ayumi.

Decked out Team Ayu vehicles.

Just below the bridge and next to the stadium, were a dozen or so crazy blinged out Ayumi fan cars and vans laid out on both sides of the street. These were owned by late 20 or 30 something ora ora kei and yoruhime kei looking Ayumi fans. They were definitely on a whole different level of wota.

Autographed vehicles put BLTs to shame.

Almost all of the vehicles had a 10-02 vanity number plate. To match Hamasaki's birthday.

We followed this street down to Shibuya since it passed by the SKE48 Shibuya store. For some reason, there was a comic book strung on one of the trees here. A van advertising no3b’s latest single drove by, we would encounter these no3b vans a good many times more over the next few days.

Down toward Shibuya proper.

Hung around one of the trees.

SKE48 Shibuya Shop.

Save the cute shop assistant, there wasn't anything of notice inside.

Nothing notable at the SKE48 shop. They did have the KII unit song photos in plentiful stock here though despite being sold out online. But we ended up walking out empty handed.

Outside Marui Jam.

Many of the buildings in Shibuya were advertising AKB48′s newly released Seibu Dome Concert DVD. But buildings that weren’t plastered with AKB48 had large banners advertising Fairies’s Hero/Sweet Jewel instead. Others were in preparation for the fukubukuro that they would be selling in the coming days.

Tower Records.

It wasn’t getting any earlier and having realized that we had missed lunch so far, decided to seek out something that could possibly satisfy two meals this late afternoon.

While I was hoping to hit up either Midori Sushi at Mark City or the adjacent Tengu Izakaya, there was a long brunch queue at Midori’s this Saturday afternoon. We didn’t fare any better with Tengu as the entire Renga Building that housed the izakaya was closed for the holiday.

Instead, we decided to look toward the main streets of Shibuya for other options. After weighing upon a few choices, we settled on a random yakiniku place that we saw at the entrance of the street.

Small yakiniku restaurant at the entrance of Shibuya.

Hadn't had a good dose of barbeque in a while.

The shop offered a course set for 2,500 yen with a clause that we only had a couple of hours to eat. We went ahead and ordered two sets without clarifying the contents or amounts first. Higher end establishments and similar joints in Singapore tend to have meager servings.

Classic coal grill.

Rather lavish servings.

The cuts turned out to be pretty good and plentiful. Too plentiful in fact as we would soon learn. It didn’t seem like much at first but additional plates of stuff were brought to us at intervals. A Chinese couple sitting opposite us (who must had been regular customers as they shared a serving) mocked our madness.

Fatty slices of pork.

The meats dripped so much oil that the grill would periodically burst into flames.

After about halfway, we were getting more full than needed. With this knowledge, we now know that we would had been better off sharing a single course and getting a couple of ala carte options. Just going with a selected few plates would had sufficed too as the most delicious pieces were the ribs, tongue and steak cuts.

Liver and innards. More sides not shown here.

Barely any room left for even the small serving of dessert.

After dinner, we looked around to find that many other shops around Shibuya were already closing early today. Still suffering from the lack of sleep on the flight, we decided to head back to the hotel to retire ourselves.

Shibuya Crossing.

As mentioned earlier, this trip’s stay was at Ueno’s Candeo Hotel again. My experience here can only be described as pleasant. Candeo isn’t the cheapest or most luxurious place by far, but it does fit the bill for all of our requirements.

While not exactly swimming in options for hotels when I had booked our room here at the last minute, we still managed to get a twin room here for a pretty decent price of about SGD$140 a night.

Twin Room at Candeo Hotel Ueno.

Those who want the full rundown can visit this previous writeup on Candeo Hotel Ueno-koen. There isn’t much going on outside here save for some necessities like a SunRus convenience store and a budget supermarket downstairs (the streets are mostly lined with love hotels). But the three star business hotel has a great location for tourists, overlooking Ueno Park and being literally right next to a station on the most utilized Yamanote Line.

View from the window.

Turning on the tube, it seemed that we reached back in time to catch the annual Kouhaku Uta Gassen. Ayumi was up when I switched on the TV, which I can only presume was one of the opening acts.

The tickets that we got from Gorakudoh.

AKB48 popped up soon after in full force. The presence of what must had been all 48 groups at this year’s show seemed a tad obsessive. But not even the combined forces of all of AKB48, SKE48, NMB48 and whatnot could keep us awake in our exhaustion as we were both unconscious at some point before 9.

Overdoing it.

Sony’s latest portable gaming system, the Vita was publicly launched last Saturday in Japan. As luck would have it, I had the chance to get a hands on on this new piece of technology. Impressions within.

For certain reasons, I won’t be showing any actual photographs of the Vita today. And with all the time spent dreaming of the Vita, enthusiasts should have a fairly clear mental image of Sony’s new toy by now. You’ll be able to find dozens, if not hundreds of unboxing and gameplay videos online too. Know that neither do any justice to the clarity and vibrancy of the Vita’s display though.

Truly a PlayStation.

Hardware
Appearance wise the Vita shares many similarities to its predecessor product, the PlayStation Portable (PSP). It may not be as apparent from photos but everything from button layout to the actual plastic built feels familiar of the PlayStation branding. From the moment you lay your hands on one of these, you will acknowledge that this is a PlayStation, in your hands.

The only thing possibly more awesome would be to have a milky grey version in the future with the classic PSX branding, though I’m sure some modders out there could make that happen.

Apart from all of the internal workings, the biggest differences between the Vita and PSP are the 5″ OLED touch screen, rear touch pad and the much requested inclusion of a secondary analog stick.

The first and (to a less obvious extent) last changes make the biggest contributions to gameplay. The large OLED screen is gorgeous to say the least and nothing like we’ve ever experienced with portable consoles. The sheer richness of color is something that cannot be described or understood without having seen it for yourself.

While I find my vision getting blurry from just half an hour of gaming on the Nintendo 3DS or even iPhone’s displays, I was able to comfortably enjoy the Vita for extended durations without any discomfort.

In terms of hardware, both the front and rear touch pads are sufficiently accurate. Multi-touch gestures that we have become spoiled by on other mobile devices are executed smoothly and with surprising precision, at least in the Vita’s menus.

Being launch titles, many of the games on the device attempt to showcase these features to varying (but often negative) degrees of success. While the front touch gestures on one of the most anticipated games, Uncharted: Golden Abyss helped to simplify commands, the rear touch and tilt features felt forced.

Thankfully, they were mostly optional. As with other lauded hardware features like the Wii and Nintendo DS’s motion controls, hopefully the reliance on this novelty will die down in time. Ultimately, it would be up to developers to weight in on the suitability.

Alas, all of these pluses have got to come with some pitfalls. Though not a deal breaker, the Vita feels much more cramped for the fingers, even for someone with not particularly large hands. All of the buttons are about 20-30% smaller than the PSP counterparts.

This can be especially difficult for games that utilize the rear touch panel and you are forced to avoid all but the edges of the console. Sony seems to suggest that the console is meant to be held this way, that is daintily or barely along the sides. But this can be sort of counterproductive as it makes using both the front and rear touch pads difficult to reach.

The Vita is also marginally heavier than the newer incarnations of the PSP system, though this a small tradeoff for the amount of technology you’re getting.

Inside Out.

Performance
Sony has touted the Vita as having nearly the power of the PlayStation 3 home console. I’m pleased to say that this is no lie. While the Vita will never live up to the PlayStation 3 in terms of pure processing power (e.g. the Vita only has 4 processor cores as opposed to the PlayStation 3′s 8), one shouldn’t underestimate the new shader technologies implemented into the new CPU. When coupled with the Vita’s smaller resolution output, it does lead to amazing results.

The Vita also has a lot of other things over the home console, which would be tedious to mention in detail. But many are forgetting the significance of portability and having an all-in-one system. Needless to say, in some situations, the Vita might turn out to be an even better gaming system than the PlayStation 3.

One thing I would like to mention though, which other sources have yet to discover is how good the Vita sounds. Audio-wise, the original PlayStation Portable was horrible, which meant that I had to continue carrying an MP3 Player around. But I recently plugged some earphones into the Vita to discover how amazing tunes here sound. In fact, overall sound quality was much better than that of an iPhone’s. If Sony decides to add call support at some point, we’d have a very clear winner.

If by some reason you manage to get a Vita right now (like through online importers) though, you would realize that there is no reason to wait. With the Vita system being region free, you won’t have to wait until an official release in your country. In fact, multiple language support is built into each system so as it is there is no difference beyond 3G being tied to certain carries. Thanks to the ease of internet tethering in this mobile age though, I bet most would go for the Wi-Fi model anyways.

Games
Normally, you’d have a hard time choosing a title that you’re forced to want to have with compulsory launch bundles but with the Vita, there are actually multiple worth purchasing on day one. With 24 games immediately at launch the PlayStation Vita has some of the most amazing launch titles of any console in recent history, if not ever.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss shipped on launch, possibly the most awaited Vita game in the West. Production values for this game were downright astonishing. You’ve seen the demos, with graphics seemingly taken out of the PlayStation 3. But up close, the amazing pixel density and generous use of specular lighting makes this title a real treat.

Vita versions of ModNation Racers and LittleBigPlanet make their way as launch titles too. Their presence on the system a inspiring example to other developers of the ability to effectively port titles to the Vita (more on this later). Only the most addicted of existing players will feel the need to re-purchase the new incarnations of these games but the ability to tap into existing DLC is certainly a very tempting feature.

Many launch titles tend to skim on content. But the sheer amount of stuff in ModNation Racers and LittleBigPlanet combined with the infinite customizability make them some of the most replayable launch titles ever seen.

When talking about replayability, you can’t forget Wipeout 2048 and Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 either. These were easily the two titles I was most excited about. Needless to say both games look amazing. Wipeout 2048′s psychedelic visuals show off the Vita’s display quite nicely. Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 on the other hand is just something quite awe inspiring for this editor.

While fighting games have been ported over and over to other systems, most of them have been watered down renditions of their original counterparts. Sure 3D character models would entertain your kids of some time but when it comes to playing Street Fighter 4, the tiny Nintendo 3DS just didn’t cut it. But Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3, is for the first time, a true port.

The entire game (and then some) is here in all of its glory running at a full 60FPS on the Vita’s wide crystal clear screen. A tear would come to any aspiring young game developer in the past, if you had told them they’d be running a full arcade game in their hand sometime in the future. And with Street Fighter X Tekken well underway for the Vita, fighting game fans have much to look forward to.

It used to be that consoles were leading the competition in terms of graphics and processing. Developers would get a certain piece of console technology and would spend years fiddling and understanding the inner workings of the system. As time went by, the familiarity with the system lead to more impressive titles further along the lifespan of the console.

It would be nice to believe that this is still the case, and many would still have you believe it to be true. While consoles do still lead the pack in terms of certain areas (the PlayStation 3′s processing capability to cost ratio and scalability give them use in research facilities), I believe with have better understanding of how computers, software and middleware in general work these days.

So while my common sense tells me that the limits of the Vita can only be pushed so much in terms of pure power, I would love to be amazed. That being said, many of the launch titles had less than a year to take their games from the drawing board to the final released product and I think that says quite a bit. Prepare for a lot more great things to come.

Price
When it comes downs to things, perhaps one of the biggest factors for most would be the actual price of the system. Everyone scorned at Sony when the Vita was first revealed to the public, only to be shocked by the low price point.

The PlayStation Vita is not cheap by any means. But it certainly is affordable. Retail prices put the system at 24,980 yen for the Wi-Fi version and 29,980 yen for the 3G+Wi-Fi version of the system. The systems will retail at USD$249 and USD$299 respectively when it official launches in American on February 22nd 2012.

Expect to pay at least SGD$399 for the Wi-Fi version in the typical one game retailer bundles when it hits Singapore at the same time next year. This is quite a bit when you consider how much the PlayStation 3 is selling for these days but note that it was the same price as the Nintendo 3DS at launch, a comparatively weaker piece of technology. As with past Sony consoles, the company is actually making a lost on each system.

The biggest complain seems to be with the internal memory (or rather lack of any) in the Vita system. Like the PlayStation Portable, the new system will require memory sticks to save most game’s progress as well as any of the games downloaded from the PlayStation store.

Each system comes bundled with a 4gb card already, which would be adequate for saves. But with the Vita’s emphasis on downloadable titles and DLC content, a measly 4gb would surely not suffice. Prices for additional cards would range from USD$19.99 (4gb) up to $99.99 (32gb, the current maximum). This is cheaper than Sony’s previous proprietary Memory Stick format but still a costly upfront investment that adds to the overall price of the bundle.

Future
There is only so much I am allowed to say about this new system but I would like to express the hopes I have for it. As someone who has worked in the industry for quite a number of years already, the future of gaming begins to look rather bleak.

But with the PlayStation Vita, I found myself experiencing a level of excitement that I had missed in a long time. Not just as a gamer but as a developer too. It seems the intercompatibility of the PlayStation 3 with the new Vita will open many new doors that were once closed. Game companies will be able to make use of the infrastructure that they have built up in recent years to speed up and more efficiently produce games.

Porting games are now devoid of many of the previous barriers. And in this way, the PlayStation 3 is bound to see renewed life and an extended life expectancy.

Sony has worked closely with game developers and fans to deliver a system that everyone can be satisfied with. If I were so bold to say, if things play out well and the Vita lives long enough to fulfill its promises, this might very well be the eventual winner in this generation’s console wars.

The next installment of the popular Diablo franchise will be returning soon to wreck havoc on our social lives. We were fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to get a sneak peak of this most anticipated game. Within you’ll find a detailed but spoiler free run through of what Diablo III has to offer.

Again, it’s quite rare of me to be writing about video games on this site but I do recognize that there must be a certain crossover of video game fans with our site’s audience. In truth though, the first two Diablo games stood as testaments to certain points of my own life. So engrossed over them that I spent countless hours each day re-exploring the dungeons and (later on) locales that the games had to offer.

World of Warcraft inspired login screen.

As a rough guideline to my obsession for those familiar with the series, in time I had accumulated two accounts full worth of high level characters on Battle.net servers while introducing various feasible and novelty skill builds to the Diablo community. Note that I am not bragging, for the release of both games coincided accurately with both my grade and high school examinations. Regrettably, as a teen I lacked the foresight not to return home from examinations each day and continue my battles against the minions of hell.

Alas, after a long absence, Diablo III will return again early next year to finally claim its stake on my social life. Somehow I suspect that the technological limitations of the first two games, prevented the lords of hell from fully destroying my life. Regrettably, between the new internet speeds and pre-emptive network principals that were introduced in Warcraft 3 and later refined in World of Warcraft, there is nothing holding Diablo III back now.

All of the basic archtypes are present. The monk will please Naruto fans.

Asiasoft Corporation has teamed up with Blizzard Entertainment to distribute the Diablo III experience throughout Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. With their servers set up here, Asian players will no longer need to endure the 200ms odd pings that plagued the previous title.

Thanks to Asiasoft, the folk at Supermerlion were given access to Diablo III’s beta some time ago and had the opportunity to play through the first parts of the game. The beta boasts most of the full features, but limits the access to just the initial story arc of the first campaign. Character growth is also capped at level 13.

A constant connection is now necessary. But the interface and infrastructure makes joining games pain free.

I can foresee the game being quite the life engulfing force that the first two games were. For despite the limitations, I have witnessed hundreds of other testers playing through the short scenario repeatedly, if only for a taste of some of the character’s later skills, or the driving force of the game, loot.

Players familiar with past games will find many familiar concepts that they will enjoy. While I was initially worried about the sparsity of monsters in gameplay videos, that fear is now gone. At its core, Diablo III is still the same hack and slash adventure game that fans have come to love, and there are indeed ample monsters to fall.

A rich but suitable presentation.

While not something that I took issue to, others complained about the new art direction that threatened the gothic style of the series. I can attest that the graphics in the game, while not groundbreaking, are beautiful.

In this built, dungeons in the game are sufficiently dark, while outdoor areas shine with the impressive amount of polish that fans have come to expect of the company. Perhaps everyone was simply overreacting based on nostalgic false memories, since Diablo 2 boasted its fair share of bright outdoor areas, though I suspect that Blizzard did indeed take into consideration fan feedback.

You can see how the atmosphere varies with each area.

Diablo III draws more than just artistic parallels to recent Blizzard ventures. Many usability breakthroughs that had been tried and proven by World of Warcraft find their way into this new product. You can see the similarities between their user interfaces and players are now eased comfortably into game mechanics. Though veterans shouldn’t have much of a problem jumping in.

Achievements and crafting systems find their way into the new product. Forming a party and jumping into the heat of battle becomes instantaneous, with the ability to “port” over to any other player in the game from town. Players tend to work a lot more cooperatively as a result.

But the single biggest gameplay change comes from the way skills are handled now. Gone are skill trees, as are talent are stat points. Instead, Diablo III opts for a more forgiving means of customizing the characters. Players learn all skills now and at the base, all players hold identical characters. A limited number of skills can be “equipped” at any point, players can change these freely from special pillars located in towns and at the start of prominent dungeons.

ew skills and slots to equip these skills are automatically unlocked as you level.

However, this wouldn’t be Diablo without abundant opportunities to personalize one’s characters. Skills are now customized by players acquiring one of 5 types of Runestones that can be “inserted” into skills. The effects of these runes add special properties to the player’s skills or in many cases, completely alter the skill itself. So while each character learns only 20 odd skills, the actual variety is far more.

Also interesting to note, is that all skills scale better and much more transparently now. Even for casters, skills are now all based off a percentage of the character’s weapon damage. To counter a glaring problem, almost all classes now get “free” skills that basically replace their normal attacks, with caster skills scaling better with weapon damage.

The much improved stash.

Because individual character classes no longer fit a particular mold, it seems players are having a hard time choosing one to play. My suspicion is that many players will rotate between playing all of the characters. Though this is only is supported by the behavior of the beta players. The low level cap does help this model and as does the inclusion of a global stash that is shared among all characters across a player’s account.

This stash can be upgraded repeatedly through the game to expand to become quite the virtual warehouse. Players can now easily pass that shiny new weapon they found to another classed character and experience the short novelty that it brings, rinse and repeat for maximum addictability.

Diablo is a series that is already heavily dependent on equipment but it’s apparent that the third game places even greater emphasis. It’s no surprise with Blizzard’s decision to provide players an online auction system where they can trade and deal with items that they have found in game.

Players can merchant their findings through the auction house in the main menu.

As you would have no doubt heard by now, players will be able to sell their spoils in all of their randomly generated forms, for not just in-game currency but real money as well thanks to Blizzard’s partnership with internet banking giant PayPal.

While completely skippable, hidden behind the game is still the rich lore of the Diablo universe. Storytelling has generally been improved, with an impressive amount of meta events scattered throughout the short beta experience, which I am told is less than 1/16th of the overall plot. Based on this, it would seem that the overall length of Diablo III will outdo that of the previous game and its expansion combined. Though I suspect we will be seeing more than one add on to the series this time.

Diablo III is currently schedule for a first quarter launch in 2012. Before you take on the end of days though, you’ll want to prepare yourself, hardware-wise that is. So far my attempts to run the game have showed that you will probably need a computer that was made within the past two years in the least.

For now, I’ve never been quite as eager to go to hell.

6%DOKIDOKI is a famous Harajuku fashion boutique responsible for much of the “kawaii” fashion looks that you see in magazines like Fruits. The creation of fashion designer Sebastian Masuda, 6%DOKIDOKI basically provides (barely) toned down decora-styled clothing and accessories to the masses.

If it looks remotely familiar, that’s because Sebastian Masuda was also responsible for the set in Kyary Pamyu Payu’s PONPONPON video. Apart from designing for his brand, Masuda is also a visual artist for a number of exhibition and installations, all in his trademark explosion of colors.

6%DOKIDOKI founder Sebastian Masuda.

Rather than have multiple outlets, Masuda often has temporary popup stores for the brand. They have only recently finished an exhibit in Shibuya that featured non-other than Kyary herself. Earlier this year 6%DOKIDOKI also collaborated with the MIGHTY HARAJUKU Project 2011 World Tour to bring its catalog of fashions to the Western world.

6%DOKIDOKI Shop.

Masuda’s attention to detail and psychedelic imagination lends itself beautifully to the 6%DOKIDOKI brand. Fans of the brand are attracted to the promise of a whole cute new lifestyle, rather than a simple change of wardrobe.

Wonderfully detailed exhibits.

Click here to visit the official 6%DOKIDOKI website and webstore.

The 6%DOKIDOKI style.

While we probably won’t see 6%DOKIDOKI’s eccentric fashions coming to Singapore anytime soon you can find their store peering out of the second floor of Meji-jingumae Harajuku here.

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6%DOKIDOKI Sensational Lovely Shop
2F TX101 Building
Jingumae 4-28-16
Shibuya Ward, Tokyo

Images by 6%DOKIDOKI.

Not too long ago, I spent a few nights over at Bandung for business and ended up staying at the Banana Inn Hotel & Spa. It took a while to follow up but here are some more shots of the hotel and some details of the accommodation for those looking to visit Bandung any time soon.

Entrance.

The Banana Inn is located to the northern edge of Bandung, which was convenient to our place of business but probably not the best location for those visiting the city central. Bandung is small enough that this wouldn’t usually be any concern but transportation here is difficult for the uninitiated (like us).

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The normal “Deluxe” rooms here start from about $60 a night and apparently aren’t too shabby. They tend to book out quickly though so last minute reservations may be difficult. The slightly larger executive rooms that we settled for cost around $100. All are inclusive of a buffet breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant downstairs.

Spacious lobby and lounge.

Breakfast here was about as good as you’d expect from your usual complementary breakfast. Not amazing, but certainly not the worst I’ve had. They also do room service at night for affordable prices.

Hotel restaurant.

The biggest plus point definitely were the clean and spacious rooms. Personally, not too concerned on the later but not having your sheets smell like mold or cigarette smoke always gets the thumbs up.

Equally spacious rooms.

Amenities wise, you’re going to get all the basic stuff that you’d expect and need out of a hotel. Toiletries and internet connection are a given. Still, despite some meeting rooms and a bar downstairs, many of the other facilities seem to be out of service. And on a global level, probably not the 4 stars that the hotel advertises.

Basic expected amenities.

Proper baths.

That being said, I had a pleasant stay at the Banana Inn Hotel & Spa, especially considering the amount of time spent inside. You can find more information at the Banana Inn Hotel official website or their Agoda listing for booking information.

Comfortable.

As a culturally rich nation that has brought us some of the most intriguing arts, culinary and technological innovations, over the years Japan has had plenty of other cultural exports that have had to take a backseat in recent years to more penetrable media creations. This side of Asia, fashion often takes on a secondary importance to practicality but I’m going to take a chance anyway and make it a point to take some time to write about another matter of interest, Japanese fashion.

To ease viewers in, many of the following articles will reference other pop-culture topics that you should be more familiar with. This first one skims on lolita fashion, something that has lent itself well into otaku culture, especially in the West. And when mentioning lolita fashion, the first brand that comes to mind would be the illustrious Baby, The Stars Shine Bright.

Baby, The Stars Shine Bright.

Lolita fashion was really ロリータファッション a wasei-eigo word made up in Japan to describe the emerging trend sweeping Harajuku back in the 80s. Enamored by the romantic nuances of the Victorian clothing, young Japanese women began adorning fashions inspired by the era.

Baby (as it is most often referred to) certainly wasn’t the first to introduce lolita fashion, but it did help to popularize the sweet lolita style. Compared to the rest, Baby’s clothing and accessories are frillier, they also tend to feature more pastel and light colors, making it popular among those prefer to portray a more lovelier image.

The sweet lolita style can be considered the final refinement of the first generation of lolita fashion and perhaps the principal style, it still retains many of the original Victorian influences that attracted the first enthusiasts. This might explain why Baby, The Stars Shine Bright enjoys a certain level of prestige among labels.

Kamikaze Girls.

There’s also the rampart use (or placement) of Baby’s lolita fashion whenever there is a need in popular media. The brand got its big break overseas in the cult movie Shimotsuma Monogatari (Kamikaze Girls) in which Fukada Kyoko was seen spotting different Baby dresses through the entirety the movie. Also as a little tidbit for certain readers, Baby appears to be the brand of choice for at least a couple notable AKB48 members.

Thanks to their leading designs, Baby, The Stars Shine Bright also tends to be the brand of choice when it comes to other uses, such as in gravure shoots, at least when they can afford the dresses. The high quality of Baby dresses comes with a price. A single Baby dress will set you back somewhere between 40,000 to 50,000 yen (approximately SGD$750) and that is not including the compulsory accessories, coat and shoes to complete the look.

A simple set will set you back quite a bit.

Expect to pay at least three times more to deck yourself from head to toe in Baby, The Stars Shine Bright clothing, as many lolita fashion lovers do, thus the allusion to Chanel and the fully decked out シャネラー (Chanelers). For this reason, lolita fashionistas aren’t always the youthful Harajuku teens that you would picture.

It’s no surprise that instead of Harajuku, the original Baby store operates out of Daikanyama, the most uptown part of Shibuya if only in a rather small basement there. Since then though, Baby, The Stars Shine bright have expanded to 28 stores spread throughout Japan, France and most recently, USA. The brand sees particular popularity in France, which boasts one of the most active otaku populations outside of Japan.

Baby, The Stars Shine Bright at Daikayama.

But to the rest of the world, lolita fashion is most often associated with ゴスロリ or gothic lolita fashion. This darker fusion of gothic and lolita styles emerged in the 90s and gained fans through visual-kei artists such as (or rather namely) Malice Mizer’s Mana who founded the brand Moi-meme-Moitie. Thanks to widespread media coverage in the following years, visual-kei and gothic lolita fashion gained much notoriety overseas.

In 2004, Baby, The Stars Shine Bright created Alice and the Pirates (A&P), a new sub-brand focused on pirated theme lolita dresses drawing some influence from the gothic and punk lolita styles. Operating from Harajuku, Alice and the Pirates is Baby’s attempt to invigorate their brand with the style’s younger audience, as suggested by the spinoff’s more competitive prices. To seal their popularity, A&P teamed up with up with Versailles Philharmonic Quintet and provided the popular visual-kei band their current look.

A&P features more graphic, contemporary designs as compared to its source, marketed as the new sub-genre of pirate lolita. Also unlike Baby, A&P features a “prince” line of clothing which is adapted to male wearers looking to complement their partners, or more often, female fans who prefer a more boyish look.

Baby still remains as popular as ever though. In the past couple of years though, the brand’s biggest advocate has been Aoki Misako, one of three (and the most active) “Cute Ambassadors” who were appointed by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Back in 2009.

Aoki Misako.

Tasked with improving Japan’s image by promoting all things “kawaii”, the former lolita fashion model turn state sanctioned high priestess of cute has been traveling the world promoting the Japanese creation. Namely through Kawaii Girl Japan, a company set up for this purpose.

We’ve seen Kawaii Girl Japan launch last year and grow tremendously thanks to its high quality exclusive content and many idol endorsements. Here’s one of the videos with Aoki taking a look through one of the newer Baby, The Stars Shine Bright stores. The original store is comparatively a lot more humble.

Along with the staging of Anime Festival Asia, an event named the Cool Japan Forum was held as well. Cited as an event that brings the top minds from various industries under one roof, we visited the Forum to hear them speak.

Ever since ‘Gross National Cool’ was brought into the fray by Douglas McGray, many have looked at Japan’s culture products and how they affect Japan’s standing and influence in the world. Cool Japan Forum, with its presentation format, represented an opportunity to rub shoulders and speak with people who head the businesses and make these products possible.

The first to appear was Danny Choo. He spoke of the various companies he worked with, along with his site Culture Japan. Danny also introduced his mascot Suenaga Mirai, and the upcoming anime, Mirai Millenium. As his presentation came to a close, he called on the festival manager from Dentsu, Haruhiko Miyano.

Haruhiko Miyano introducing the invited speakers

Mr Miyano introduced the theme of this year’s Cool Japan Forum: Examining Japanese content and its creation. While speaking, there was more than one occasion where the noise from the bands rehearsing for the I Love Anisong concerts (held in the hall next door) bled into the hall and no one could hear anything. After a while though, the problems were sorted out and he went on introducing the guests, who would go on to present in order:

Yoshihiko Hasegawa is a Chief Consultant for Dentsu. With a presentation on the application of contents, he spoke of the ways Dentsu shapes its advertising, and the growth of new social advertising platforms. He introduced the visitors to the Freedom project, Dentsu’s animated advertising campaign for Nissin’s famous cup noodles. The Dokusha Model (readers who are also models) was another concept he touched on, referring to indicators that suggested celebrities do not entice people to a product as much as one would think.

Yoshihiko Hasegawa with charts from Dentsu's research team

Dr. Nissim Otmazgin from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was up next. A professor in the Department of East Asian Studies, he has published several papers on Japanese soft power. He has done fieldwork in various parts of Asia (including China, Thailand and Korea), to examine whether soft power (formerly only used in the context of the United States) really does exist in Japanese cultural products.

Dr. Nissim shows photos from his research fieldwork

Tow Ubukata is a light novelist turned anime and manga creator. The man behind the anime Soukyuu no Fafner and Mardock Scramble amongst others, the author offered his views on creating the perfect storyline. Given his background as a novelist, his approach differs from those in the business, with much of the timeline of creation devoted to a script and continually revising its continuity.

A short intermission followed, as Takaaki Kidani, Yoshiyuki Matsunaga, Takanori Aki stepped on stage. The heads of Bushiroad, COSPA and Good Smile respectively, the 3 along with Danny Choo as moderator had a panel discussion on the monetization of anime content. All 3 companies were in attendance in Anime Festival Asia itself, and the men spoke of content expansion to the rest of Asia. One interesting point brought up was that of piracy; while all agreed it was deplorable, Takanori also said it signaled discontentment in consumers and a lack on the part of the company, as well.

Panel with COSPA, Bushiroad and Good Smile Company

This was followed by another discussion, this time with Sony Music’s Ken Isayama and Aniplex’s Masaharu Yamanouchi. With a short history of Japanese music in other countries by Isayama, he examined the trends in Japanese pop music, and noted how anisong (music specifically for anime) has overtaken other Japanese pop music overseas. They also discussed the increasing ties between anime and music in Japan.

Ken Isayama and Masaharu Yamanouchi

Haruhiko Mikimoto and Hideaki Kobayashi then took over the stage for a presentation on manga production and character design. Haruhiko Mikimoto is a name not unfamiliar to many who follow anime. A character designer, he built his name doing designs for a number of anime including Macross and Gunbuster. The pair spoke of the role of a character designer, as well as the many obstacles someone working as a character designer faces. Hideaki, from Kadokawa Publishing, also shed some light on the contributions of a publisher and editor in the manga industry.

Hideaki Kobayashi speaks about his experiences publishing manga in Kadokawa

Keiichiro Hirano, the last speaker of the day, is an Akutagawa Prize winner. He introduced his philosophy of what he terms the ‘dividual’, the many facets of one individual that they show to different people in different situations. He employs this philosophy in all his writing as well, having written 2 novels since his first in 1998.

The event ended with Danny Choo thanking the guests for their attendance and rounding the whole affair up. At that point, some guests were anxious to leave; they were given only 10 minutes intermission over a span of 5 hours. While the start of the event was plagued with problems with the rehearsals going on, it was nevertheless an eye-opening experience.  Those who are put off by the language barrier need not worry, as receivers would be provided for on-the-fly translation as well.

While the entry price of SGD$85 might put some people off, in the opinion of this writer, it is a small price to pay to be able to associate with some of the big names in Japanese popular culture. The event comes highly recommended for anyone who has an academic or business interest in Japan.

Thousands braved the strong rains and made their way down to the Marina Promenade last Saturday for what was perhaps the largest outdoor concert in Singapore this year, Sundown Festival 2011. Despite the rain, approximately 10,000 turned up (3,000 more than expected) with many arriving hours in advance.

The heavy downpour this afternoon came as little surprise, what with the recent weather. Visitors came decked out in ponchos, while others readied their umbrellas as the storm clouds continued to loam above. The impressive queue stretched across the entire F1 track but lines moved surprisingly quickly. Such that we found ourselves inside in just a matter of moments after the gates opened.

Longest queue I've seen in a while.

A security check at the entrance hinted towards what would become perhaps my only qualm this afternoon. There’s an increasingly prevalent trend among such events to confiscate any water bottles upon entry. The security were really nice about it though and apologized for having to follow orders, likely from the sponsors Pepsi and 7-Up.

Again, this wouldn’t be so much of a problem though if they actually sold plain water inside. However, the only drinks available inside were either alcoholic or sugared. Probably not the best options to stay hydrated during high energy concerts. If the Pepsi company had sponsored the event with the intention of promoting their image, they have obviously failed.

Between heavy downpours.

Rain aside, the Marina Promenade made for an excellent concert venue reminiscent of the Odaiba Gashuukoku concerts held each year. Even with the throngs of people gathered here today, moving around was not a problem with the ample space.

Concert goods shop.

A string of tents selling merchandise and snacks were lined up at the back along the coast, while the stage was positioned up front. You could see it from just about any part of the venue though and the stage was high enough that you needn’t worry about getting a clear view.

Autographed posters for $20.

Concert goods and merchandise were generally sold at affordable prices. For example, ViViD fans were able to grab autographed posters of the group at just $20 a piece. The only other tent, sold Show Luo goods such as a collaborative Manhattan Portage bags by Stage Hyaline of World. The other artists were unrepresented though, marking a missed profit opportunity.

Taiyaki stand.

In line with the performing artists, Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean themed street snacks were represented by different tents here. There was also one selling Doner Kebabs.

Korean snacks.

As advertised, the stores resisted the urge to mark up their prices as typical of other festival, instead opting to sell their snacks at normal affordable prices.

Bubble tea.

The Taiwanese and Korean ones sold meat snacks that were especially well received among the locals, drawing huge crowds. Share Tea were also here serving up some bubble tea and instantly became the drink of choice for most. Unsurprisingly, the Doner Kebab and Japanese stand that sold taiyaki and edame did not fare as well.

More street food.

We arrived early, with ample time to spare and decided to grab some snacks ourselves. I wouldn’t recommend the strawberry tea from Share Tea. It resembled neither tea nor strawberry and instead tasted like the diluted, yet terribly sweet fruit punch that comes with catered food.

Strawberry tea.

Chicken doner kebab.

In a stroke of good luck, the skies cleared up just in time for the concerts later that evening which was great, since many were starting to get tired between the rain and sugar crash. With the change of weather lifting up everyone’s spirits, the concert opened up with ViViD, a visual-kei group from Japan with many anime links. They were dressed surprisingly un-visual-like though, perhaps toned down for today’s audience.

Rained disappeared in time for the concerts.

This was broken up by an appearance by Zhang Yun Jing. Appropriately, it was the Mandopop stars that met the most fanfare from the local visitors this evening. But this didn’t mean that the other two acts weren’t appreciated.

Fans for all artists turned up and many supported the interesting mix of artists too. Those in the VIP pit brandished glowsticks and boards with the performers names decorated on it. It would had been nice if the MCs were in more than just Mandarin though.

Killer lighting.

The evening continued with performances by relatively new K-pop group Teen Top as well as Hebe and Show Luo, who were undeniably the main stars of the show. Their appearances got even the older audiences excited.

Spirits of the fans in the VIP sections were high.

Overall, Sundown Festival 2011 was a tiring but interesting experience that deserves major props for being able to function even with the weather. With each Sundown Festival absorbing new Asian influences, we look forward to seeing what next year’s event brings.