I managed to make it out to Ikkicon VI this past weekend for a few hours, mostly at the behest of the ATX Lolitas, who wanted me to take photos of their fashion show. I thought I had a press pass arranged for the event, but unfortunately that fell through. Still, I got some decent shots.

For those of you who don’t know, there are roughly 3 anime conventions in Austin, Texas every year:

1. Ikkicon - generally on or around New Years every year.
2. Ushicon - generally takes place in the late Winter or early Spring and is held in Round Rock.
3. Anime Overload – generally occurs in July or August

Other nearby conventions include Project A-Kon and San Japan.

Now for the photos:

If you want more of a fix for your con addiction, here are some excellent videos from MLS Studios:

We’ll see you at the next con!

Yesterday, the Asian American Cultural Center of Austin held its Harvest Moon Festival and 11th Anniversary Celebration. So I grabbed my Nikon and headed over to their Jollyville Road campus for some photos. I didn’t arrive until 11:00, so I missed the performance by Austin Taiko as well as the Hawaii and Polynesian Dance. And I left just before the Chinese Dance, Thai Music, and Lion Dance by the Summit Dragon Dance Team. But I still got some great photos. Check them out in the slideshow below.

For more information about the Asian American Cultural Center, check out their website or drop by their campus at 11713 Jollyville Road, Austin, TX 78759.

For those of you who love manga and/or aspire to be manga artists, Ustream.tv is a surprisingly good source for live channels of manga and doujinshi artists drawing at their desktops. 

Unfortunately, you kind of have to search for them to find them, as they often will change channels that they’re broadcasting on. I think I’ve seen “yoshikadu” change channels 3 or 4 times in the past 2 years in fact. You could do a very general keyword search for “Japan” and sift through those. Needless to say the artists generally don’t tag their channels consistently, so it takes some time to find them. But it’s worth it to see the creation of such magnificent artwork.

Here are some channels I follow:

• Gon Artbox
• Yoshikadu2010
• Ogata
• Akiba Nagito

Again, these links are subject to change. Check them out when you get a chance. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to watch them live on the air.

I just returned from downtown where Enzo Restaurant and Lounge was hosting Waterstone Aesthetics’ presentation of MODE-KEI, a Japan-inspired fashion show and a charity fundraiser for the Japan-America Society of Greater Austin’s Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Effort. Designers pulled their influence from traditional Japanese design, origami, and Harajuku style.

This is the first JASGA event where I’ve been able to use my new Nikon D5100, and it paid off. Having my professional-looking camera with me got the attention of one of the designers, who pulled me up to front of the stage where seats were reserved for press and photographers. Additionally, he took me backstage for some shots of the models prior to the event.

Here’s the slideshow:

As a side note, I have a $50 WaterStone Aesthetics gift certificates. If there’s enough interest, I’ll have a contest for it on my Facebook page. Be sure you like the page, as it’s highly likely that I’ll just do a random drawing using the list of names there.

As you may remember, I visited the Isamu Taniguchi Japanese Garden at Zilker Botanical Garden a couple of years ago and produced a simple Animoto video of my visit. Well, today I returned with an HD camera and ample time to explore the whole garden. I hope I’ve done Taniguchi-san’s work justice with this new video. Enjoy!

Information about Isamu Taniguchi and His Garden

After a life of farming, Isamu Taniguchi moved to Austin, Texas at the behest of his son Alan. Something within him inspired him to convert a rocky and rugged 3-acre hillside of caliche into a beautiful ornamental garden, and at age 70, he undertook this monumental task, which took him 18 months. Complete with water features and a koi pond, this immense gift to the city of Austin has served the public with its serene beauty since 1969.

If you want to visit the Taniguchi Garden, you can find it here:

2220 Barton Springs Road
Austin, Texas 78746
(512) 477-8672

Be sure to show your support!

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Jazz and … Tsugaru Shamisen? Here’s video footage of Oyama X Nitta jamming with some of Austin’s finest jazz musicians, including saxophonist Paul Klemperer and drummer Masumi Jones. 

Below is the slideshow from the Oyama X Nitta Tsugaru Shamisen concert at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church on Monday, April 11, 2011. According to the Japan-America Society of Greater Austin, they were able to raise $3,200 for the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund that evening. The total amount raised as of publication of this post is $8333.35. This is a great accomplishment, but there’s still more work to be done. If you were unable to attend this concert but would still like to help, please go to JASGA’s relief fund page and donate what you can.

Unfortunately, even though I filmed the concert with my HD camera, the footage was pretty worthless because the microphone wasn’t working. So, I essentially have 90 minutes of silent footage. I could kick myself. Oh well, I managed to attend a jam session featuring Oyama X Nitta at the Elephant Room later that night. It was a Tsugaru shamisen & jazz mashup.

It really is an interesting thing to hear the collaboration of the classic Tsugaru shamisen with American jazz musicians. Check out the video:

Later, after the jam session, another attendee and I gave Oyama-san and Nitta-san a tour of Austin’s own 6th Street, which was pretty tame due to it being a Monday night. If only those guys had seen it on a Friday or Saturday night.

I drove them and their producer and director to a restaurant for a late-night meal, and they were shocked by the portion sizes here in America. “If you bring a girl here, can she eat all of this?” they asked, indicating the large amount of food on their plate.

“Well, first of all, I would never bring a girl to Denny’s on a date,” I responded. “But I have met some girls who could polish that off and still be hungry.”

“Whoa!!”

They were a real treat to hang out with, and they hope to make a return trip to the States later this year. If you get a chance to see them, by all means, check them out. In the meantime, be sure to friend them on Facebook.