Culture Japan - Your portal to Japan

How To Make an Itachari

Fri, 25 May 2012 08:49:00 +0900

I skipped the Itachari and made two Itasha instead - the Nissan March and recently the Nissan Dualis - but! The circle had to be complete so I recently made my road bike into a Mirai Suenaga Itachari.

An Itachari [痛チャリ[いたちゃり]] is the word to describe a bike that is decorated with moe 2D girls. The kanji 痛 (ita) when prefixed to an object usually means that its covered in 2D girl stickers. Examples are Itasha and Ita-curtain.

The "Chari" [ちゃり] is a short form of "Chariot" [ちゃりおっと] which is a colloquial term to describe a bicycle. A bicycle used by a mother is called Mama-Chari [ママチャリ] for example.

My first road bike is a GIOS! Looking a bit too plain at the moment though...

The model is GIOS Leggero. I was told that the bike cost a bomb - the basic model alone retails for 388,500 yen at Rakuten @.@

Yes - it fell from the ceiling ^^;;

Anyway, today we look at road biking and how to make an Itachari. First up - turn bike upside down like so and remove wheels. I removed both because I thought I was going to do both wheels but it seems that most folks only do the back - apparently having the front one done too could cause the bike to blow over in strong winds.
But why go out biking in strong winds anyway? ^^

My wheel size is 622x15C Tubeless. I actually got my local bike shop to put tubes in them as they are easier to maintain. Without the inner tube, they go flat real quick.

Wheels are Shamal Ultra 2 Way - looks like they cost 123,500 yen alone on Amazon Japan ><

This is the back wheel with the gears removed.

As this is the first time we are making an Itachari, we take a sheet of plastic and cut it so that it rests on the wheel like so - this becomes a template and helps us make the real wheel cover later.

Preparing image data on the computer. I've asked POPBOX in Asakusa to help me with the printing - all I do is give them the data in Illustrator format and they make the wheel cover.

If you dont have folks handy who can do this for you, you can just try using your printer at home too. What you print should then be covered in a plastic film which you should be able to pick up from a stationers.

The template is ready and we can use it to make the real wheel cover from another sheet of plastic.

And here is one I prepared earlier. You should be able to pick up sheets like this from a DIY store. In Japan you could go to Tokyu Hands.

Dont forget to make a hole so that you can fill up the tyres! But dont cut them like this - cut a circle instead as we found that it was difficult to unscrew the cap ^^;

The folks at Popbox now proceed to print the data that I sent them. You need not worry about the markings of where the screws go as they do all that.
The Mirai on the left of this sheet in Summer uniform will be the sloped side of the wheel meaning that a small slice needs to be cut off.

I didn't know this but if I did then I would have designed the wheel in a way so that the slice that gets chopped off does not affect the illustration - will show you what I mean further down the post.

The other side of the wheel (the side with the gears) is completely flat so no slices need to be cut off.

The cutting machine starts to do its thing.

The Mirai stickers are stuck on the wheel covers - I have already put one cover on and replaced the gears.

These are small plastic spacers which allow me to screw on the wheel covers - you should be able to pick up something similar at a DIY store which you can just cut down to this size - or try using something like thick wire cabling?

This is how the wheel cover is held to the wheel.

And here are the small plastic clear screws that hold on the covers - if you dont have any handy - you can take the small screws out from your best friends computer which will be used to hold in the HDD's.

Snapped when making a prototype wheel cover.

Picked up this DS-30 BLT Minoura stand from Amazon - will need it to display the Itachari at events such as ItaG Festa.

Mirai Itachari complete!

Illustration is by Japanese illustrator Hagure Yuuki-sensei. If you look closely at Mirai's arm, you will see that a slice has been taken out. You should design your wheel cover so that the slice is taken out of the background instead.

My first time making an Itachari and have gained much learnings. It's much obvious later on but we were designing just the wheels in Photoshop and Illustrator - should have taken into account the position of the bars which hold the wheel - at the moment they cover up Mirai so we should have designed this side with her facing backwards.

This side of the wheel looks fine - the bars dont cover Mirai but her logo gets covered up a bit. If you are designing your own Itachari then take these points into account and dont make the same mistake that I made!

The person who gave me this bike replaced the parts with a load of highgrade bits n bobs - DURA-ACE 7900 series which seems to have cost a bomb ><

Goodsmile Racing logo - a hint as to who gave me the bike.

Mirai-chan in her Winter uniform.

I've always loved Hagure Yuuki-sensei's artwork and was over the moon when he agreed to doodle Mirai-chan for us. You can see some of his work below in the eroge title Koikishi Purely Kiss.

Was thinking of placing stickers over the bars too but decided to leave it like this for now.

Tempted to do the front too ^^;
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Front light - if you dont turn it on during the night then be prepared to be stopped if a policeman sees you. The light was picked up from Amazon - really cheap at about 700 yen.

Dura-ace dual control levers. These alone cost 54,546 yen ><

MiraiClock3 to keep me company during a ride - free for you iOS users and Android coming soon. Android is so much more difficult to program for which is why its taking a long time.

Minoura phone grip - this thing is rock solid!

Picked up a mini pump too.

Retail price for this crankset cost 53,898 yen. Have no idea why they cost an arm and leg.

The pedals alone cost money too! 23,000 yen ^^

Picked up a handy little mirror too.

Still getting used to the levers which move sideways too.

The person who gave me the bike literally high-graded everything! Brakes cost 31,639 yen @.@

Fi'zi:k saddle costing 16,000 yen.

And got myself this lock to secure the bike to a pole while I nip into a restaurant for a bite.

I usually leave bicycles outside the house but everybody understandably recommended me to leave this one inside^^; Not much space to put it though so made use of the Minoura Bike Tower 10 - 10,830 yen.

Pretty simple to put together.

And she's up and away - bottom rack waiting for my wife's road bike to be shipped from the UK she's going for Wiggle.
What brand of roadbike do you recommend?
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A lock for the bike also from Amazon for 1,575 yen.

And here is that pump up close - Mini Morph from Amazon - 3,431 yen.

Mini Morph folks out like so ready for action.

Spending an evening maintaining the bike.

I'm still very new to road biking - dont even know what this bit is called. At first I didn't know it could be flipped around to make the handlebars higher.

Photos taken pre-Itachari - going for a spin in my neck of the woods.

Reached Tamagawa River a few kilos away from home. Photos taken in the same spot as the Cycling in Tokyo post.

On a wet day like this, a mud guard would come in handy - still trying to look for a decent one.

I initially wanted to respray the frame orange but was told that to strip the paint and respray would cost about 200,000 yen! I decided to convince myself that the blue matches Mirai's blue ribbon and that I should keep it as it is ^^;

I love these riversides which you often see in anime.

Stopping for a break on the way to Kawasaki.

The iPhone leads the way.

Needs a mount for the iPhone.

And here is the Minoura iH-100M Phone Grip which I picked up from Amazon.

Owned one of these phone mounts before which was terrible - this phone grip however is really rock solid. Make sure you get one that fits your handle bars as they come in 2 different sizes.

The iPhone can be mounted with its case still on - many other mounts require that you remove the case. The case I'm using is the Magpul.

A few companies have offered to make Mirai cases but I dont want to make anything that I would not use myself. The character cases I've seen offer no protection of the actual phone apart from scratch protection - I drop my phone all the time and need to make sure that it does not bite the dust. Will consider making some if the covers protect the phone from a drop.
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Back of the mount.

The ZEFAL 472SPY Mirror - 1,420 yen from Amazon.

The mirror is a wee bit small and you really need to adjust it each time you ride so that it points to where you want to be looking - it always ends up moving from its original position when you prop the bike against the wall.

Taking the Itachari out for a spin in the evening.

Certainly looks better after Itarization!

Going back in time to see where I got the bike from. Tonight we are at the Good Smile Company offices.

Gorgeous entrance!

Very cute Miku to greet us.

Reception phone guarded by Gumako.

And there it is!

As you have read, I have spinal hernia which means that my back is pretty much in constant pain. The Good Smile Company boss and comrade Aki Takanori was telling me about somebody who cured his spinal hernia after regularly exercising using a road bike. Then during dinner all of a sudden he said "Take my blue one - I dont use it" and I was like "WHAT?!"

And so reluctantly I took the GIOS of Aki-sans hands - loading it up into our old Itasha to head back to Meguro. How many of you into road biking?
There is a poll embedded in this article.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

This was back in February just after Wonder Festival. This was also the evening where we decided that we would work together to change the way Japanese language was taught - a few months later Moekana was released and due to the success it became the start of a series - the booster pack followed shortly and later on this year we have Moekanji.

I always look up to Aki-san - an inspiration of mine. Thank you for everything Aki-san!

Tokyo Today 4

Thu, 24 May 2012 10:07:00 +0900

Attempting to try to bring you more life from Tokyo as it happens using Instagram. All these are posted live from my iPhone to my Facebook, Twitter and now Tumblr. This batch of photos actually taken over 2 days.

I *usually* try to post Instagram photos with English and Japanese text so will leave it as is - I dont always say the same thing in Japanese as it may not be relevant for my Japanese followers - but most of the time it is a direct translation of what I'm saying in English which may be useful for those studying Japanese.

Starting with this evenings office - this is what's behind me. 今晩のオフィス。僕の後ろ。

Very warm yesterday in Tokyo. Freezing today - gas heater turn on desu. 今日は寒いな。ガス暖房つけよう。

Sending some stuff to Malaysia. What address shall I put? みらいちゃんグッズをマレーシア宛て。

This is why Japanese brollys are cooler. ビニール傘は好き！

Which lunch set will you choose? あなたはどんなランチセットォ？

Bubbles when you pour tea looks like somebody's spit. Can't unsee.

Today's lunch is chuuka. 今日のランチは中華。

Gorgeous girls on the streets of Tokyo. Mahjong Monogatari.

You can get you glasses cleaned for free in Japan. There is usually a small table outside an opticians where you can clean your glasses yourself if nobody is around.

I love traditional Japanese clothing. Do you own any Japanese garments?

More gorgeous girlies on the streets of Tokyo. 街で撮った可愛い女の子の写真。

If you can't read this then you need moekana. これ読めなければもえかなが必要だ。

A shop with a lot of character on the streets of Tokyo.

Retro coin laundry in Tokyo. I love the smell of launderettes - I remember spending a lot of time in one when I was younger washing my clothes. When I moved back to my mums place, we didn't have a working washing machine ;-;

Nice bike.

Another "if you can't read this then you need moekana." As for the kanji however - I have a product for that coming soon.

Fill in the gap - if you can't read this then you need -------

Tiny house is tiny.

Am working this year to grow the Mirai brand and her goodies.

Which of these figures tickle your fancy?

Wifeys cooking - Singapore Laksa for dindins ^o^ 妻が作ったシンガポールラクサをディナーで！

The Singaporean sitting next to me says "this is not spicy by Singaporean standards"

The Singaporean sitting next to me now says that I should not drink water when eating spicy foods because it makes it taste even more spicy ?

Joined by a cute girl for dinner. She's only wearing pantsu though. 可愛い女の子が一緒にディナー。しかし下半身にはパンツ？ズボン？

Been working with Iizuki Tasuku sensei lately - really nice person! 唯々月たすく先生はとっても優しい方です o(^▽^)o

Skype meeting in evening with the AFA Malaysia folks going over stage schedule and my booth setup.

Here are just some of the guests you can expect to meet at Anime Festival Asia Malaysia in 2 weeks time. What? 2 weeks time?!!!

Sony MDR-CD009ST and Blue Snowball. Mai daily tools.

Black Rock Shooter White Edition looking like a baws.

This evenings office - what's in front of me. 今晩のオフィス。僕の前で見えるもの。

Sneek peek at my... これまだ見せていないんでしたっけ？

Today's wear. I love that T-shirt. Am working on securing a production line for the T-shirts. Gimme a wee bit more time! 今日着たもの。あのTシャツ好き。

What I wear to beddy byes. Nighty! 寝るときに着る服。おやすみ！

Following day - brekkie in Tokyo - cinnamon powder sprinkled over frosties. We dont have Cinnamon Toast over here so this is the next best thing. 朝食です！

Saying good morning to our car. 痛車に朝の挨拶。

Blue skies this morning in Tokyo. 清々しい朝だな。わはははははははっ。

Every time I hit send, 5 new mails appear. How many email do you get through each day? When I was at Amazon, it was usually about 100 - 120 mails sent each day.
「送信」をクリックするたびに、新着メール5件増える。

About to start an apparel brand - for dolls?! ドール用の服ブランドもスタート?!

If you don’t know how to say “shop curtain” in Japanese then you need moekana.

Gorgeous day on the back streets of Tokyo.

Lunch with Azunyan. あずにゃんとランチ。

The Sony NEX-5N with the Zeiss lens. Sony NEX-5NにZeissレンズ。

Peaceful Japan! 平和な日本！

Forbidden dessert after lunch. ランチ後の禁物のデザート。

Parking here costs 200 yen for every 30 mins. How does that compare to your neck of the woods? 最も安いパーキングはどのぐらいだろう?

Abandoned bikes. 放棄自転車。

Mai new secretary drinking on the job. 娘が勤務中にビール？

Business card follow up. 名刺処理中。

There are a pair of eyes on my keyboard. キーボードの上にドールアイが。

Working on the official Facebook page for the anime “K”. アニメタイトル「K」の公式Facebookページ作業中。

Figma’s are so cool. フィグマって本当にクールだな。

Singlish Language Proficiency Test

Wed, 23 May 2012 23:56:00 +0900

All this Singlish study is driving me siao but need to continue so that folks can actually understand what I'm saying when MC'ing at AFA Singapore later this year.
I heard that if I pass the SLPT (Singlish Language Proficiency Test), I can get jobs in Malaysia too - is this true?

Fist of the North Star Commercial

Wed, 23 May 2012 09:27:00 +0900

Looks like this commercial has been out for a while but only just saw it on TV the other day - and one of the first anime titles that I saw too!
Fist of the North Star x Black Black Gum - depending on how much you put in your mouth, it will bring tears to your eyes and guaranteed to wake anybody up from falling asleep at the wheel.

And some of the nostalgia below - original Fist of the North Star.

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And here is the catch phrase - "You are already refreshed."

Yuki-chan enjoys her Black Black too which are also available as candy.

Tokyogram

Tue, 22 May 2012 09:59:00 +0900

Been playing around with Instagram of late - the mobile app that allows you to easily snap and share to multiple social networks. I currently use it to update my Facebook and Twitter.

It really is hard finding time these days to just sit down and write. Most of what I do these days is give instructions and manage projects. Been thinking of ways to make generating content easier and thought that I'd give Instragram a whirl.
The plan is to post updates to Instagram (my user name is dannychoo) which will then feed into my FaceBook and Twitter account. Then I would have an automated task that runs daily to aggregate all my photos and post them here on dannychoo.com - well thats the plan anyway ^^;

If you prefer updates by RSS, you can subscribe to my Facebook RSS Feed, Twitter RSS Feed and the feed for this site too.

First snap - our local shopping arcade Palm in Musashikoyama.

Italian for dindins at Musashikoyama.

Name of the restaurant is Toscana.

Spent a whole year eating Mr Donut - the Pon De Ring is dangerously addictive.

Kaldi is the place to go to get all your international food stuffs. You can find everything here from Thai Chai Tea, Korean Ramyun to European jams and wot not.

Real Steel was a goodie - Japanese trailer below. You may like Real Steel Ambush too distributed by Good Smile Company.

Working in the evening surrounded by Mirai.

Looking to upgrade my custom built watch to something orange. Been wearing this one for about 10 years now. If you want to do the same then just get two watches that would look good together. All you need to do then is shorten the strap and stick them together with a camera strap - I think I posted a photo of the back before somewhere?

Nyan.

Out n about in Akihabara.

Mai daughter Yuki-chan. I took this photo from the iMac screen.

Mai secretary Aoi-chan.

I'm eclipse ready - this is my visor.

How many of you have marks left in your eyes from looking at the eclipse with your naked eye for too long?

Travel plans for this year are Malaysia > Los Angeles > Hawaii > Indonesia > Singapore.

Plants look better with figures.

Ramen shops are better in Japan - because they got figures on display.

Some ramen places serve rice on the side too and is usually free. The idea is that you pour soup over it that is left over from the bowl of ramen.

You should know by now why many Japanese homes have bottles of water outside them right?

Yes - this is part of my job too. Preparing for displays in Malaysia.

Wifey's cooking!

Our next door neighbor comes along to join us for dindins - she is literally the girl next door and currently part of the K-ON after school activities.

Time for some Kinect with Fitness Evolved - tis about the only exercise I get these days!

More neighbors come to join in on the fun and games.

Wifey Warp.

Working with Ikkyuu-sensei on more Moekana goodies!

The workplace is more fun when surrounded by cuties.

Been warm of late so the fan comes out to play.

Sample packaging for dakimakura that I'm developing. I want to change the way dakimakura are sold.

Been meaning to put this together for a couple of years now - Kotobukiya X-Wing Fighter.

Name this character.

Throwing out the recyclable stuff - tins, glass and plastics.

About to send this Mirai Suenaga Summer uniform off to Malaysia. Boys and girls can get theirs from Lucy Pop.
If you are using Instagram then you can find me by my username which is "dannychoo."

Japan Eclipse

Mon, 21 May 2012 08:54:00 +0900

This morning, the annular solar eclipse was visible from Japan and millions took to the streets to glare up at the "ring of fire" - called Kinkan Nisshoku [金環日食[きんかんにっしょく]]。
I only had my Sony NEX 5N with no zoom lens so these were the best I could do >< I should have taken photos of the folks in the streets looking up instead - I'll remember to do it next time which is in about 300 years time.

To take these photos, I dropped the shutter speed to 1/4000 and used the digital zoom.

Kyubeys eyes have gone all red from looking at the sun.

Shinshu Ueda

Sun, 20 May 2012 11:19:00 +0900

Located towards the North of Tokyo in the Nagano Prefecture is Shinshu Ueda [信州上田[しんしゅううえだ]] - the home of Summer Wars and Sengoku Basara. After leaving Tateshina, wifey and I drove up to Shinshu Ueda to explore.

Yuki-chan in the back eating her 9th Melon-pan.

If you are driving up North, you will need chains on the tyres depending on the season - we went in April and got by without.

Love the Japanese countryside.

Approaching Shinshu Ueda.

Yuki-chan is always very quiet when sitting in the back.

Arrival at the Ueda Castle [上田城[うえだじょう]] - or what remains of it. What was once a grand castle many moons ago has now been made into a public park.

We visited on a Monday so the place was quiet. The park is packed however during the hanami season as the place is covered with sakura trees.
To get to the castle, get off at Ueda station [上田駅] in Nagano and pick up a tourist map from the station - or just follow the maps dotted around. The castle is located in the map below.
[gmap=36.40280, 138.24486]

Parking and entrance to the castle is free.

Huge helmet!
The 6 circles is an emblem that represents Sanadashi [真田氏] - a family of Shinanonokuni [信濃国[しなののくに]]. It would take be ages to explain the history so I'll save it for a rainy day. Understanding some of Japan's history, will help you further enjoy historical themes in anime and games. How many of you are history buffs?

Sanada Shrine in the park precinct.

Not sure what these were but one could go inside them.

A slice of the past over looking the modern.

Water at the entrance of a shrine or temple is for purification purposes - use it to wash your hands before entering.

Unfortunately, there is not much of the castle left over from the years.

Heading down the castle hill - very steep stairs.

Map of the Shinshu Ueda town region.

Yuki comes out of the car for some fresh air.

A quick snack before moving on to the next location - this stuff tastes gorgeous! Its called Copan - its like crisp bread dipped in honey and orange.

Near the castle is Yanagimachi [柳町] - a short street filled with traditional shops, restaurants and lodging.
[gmap=36.40879, 138.25277]

I just love traditional Japanese architecture.

I think I was laughing at my June - December schedule. Am certainly biting off more than I can chew but its make or break this year.

Exploring another shrine in the area. These rolled up bits of paper are fortunes which say something like "you shall be haunted by a one eyed farting baboon for the rest of your life" - understandably, most folks dont want this to come true so they tie them up like this.

I often get shrines and temples mixed up. If you see a pair of guardian komainu dogs then it *usually* means that its a shrine although lately there are places which have a mix shrine and temple.

One Komainu will have its mouth open and is said to bring in good fortune. The other Komainu will have its mouth closed and is said to ward off calamity. Komainu are very similar to Shisa which can be found in Okinawa.

This probably sounds scary but since I was a kid, I can see faces at whatever natural pattern I look at - rocks, road, sky. I can see at least 7 faces here which mostly look like beasts. Am I the only one? ^^;;;

Another sign of a shrine is the torii gate.

Back at Yanagimachi heading to the car.

Next stop is Tokyo - 156km South. Estimated time of arrival 2 hrs 20 mins from now.

When all cars suddenly move from the fast lane over to the slow lane, it usually means that the boys in blue (or in Japan's case black and white) are nearby.
Many folks have some sort of radar detector - something which I've always wondered about but when in shops, I would see packaging for what seems to be a radar detector with very vague wording - presumably so that the device can be sold legally?

As for speeding - I was caught once when driving from Vancouver to Seattle - I was influenced by the evening sunset, clear roads and Ridge Racer music ^^;

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There is a poll embedded in this article.

Below - probably still the best game music I've clapped my ears on - Ridge Racer R4 released back in 1988. I was still living in London at the time.

Yuki having some Black Black to keep her awake.

Japanese highways are just so well maintained and smooth.

Stopping off at a service area for some food. Service areas in Japan are beconing big business. One recently opened where they have a Gundam shop that sells goodies exclusive to that service area.

Still quite cold at night at this time of the year so we go to see whats inside to eat.

Vege ramen - looks good to me!

Tastes good too! Recently found out there was the same ramen branch in my neck of the woods.

Nom nom.

Kinako Mochi for dessert.

Picking up some renkon to take back home.

Who is your fave IS girl?
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When ordering coffee - ask for it to be extra hot or you will get something thats kinda luke warm.

Filling up on gas. Regular costs 153 yen per litre here but if you is being wanting to save more then a site called GoGo.gs will help you locate the cheapest gas for your car.
Whats the average cost of gas per litre in your neck of the woods?

Arrival back in Tokyo.

Unpacking from the trip ready to catch up on work.

And earlier that day we were up at Tateshina - photos here.

More places to visit in Japan listed up below.

Karuizawa

Sat, 19 May 2012 16:39:00 +0900

Managed to take a day off to get out of Tokyo and went to a town called Karuizawa [軽井沢] in the Nagao prefecture. Karuizawa has a population of 17,833 and is recognized particularly as a summer retreat spot.

Could have gone by train but we like to go out n about in the car which also enables us to get around freely without waiting for public transport at the destination.

Here we are passing through the ETC which is the Electronic Toll Collection system which lets us pass through without stopping the car and manually handing over cash. We get billed at the end of the month for using the highways.

For the past 10 months or so, the government has been making it dead cheap to use the highways on certain days. Trips that would normally cost 10,000 yen now cost a mere 1,000 yen. When there is a public holiday on a Friday or Monday, many citizens would make use of the 1000 yen deal and get out n about for the long weekend which would cause longer tailbacks on the highway...

While the 1000 yen deal gets more people out n about which stimulates economic growth especially at tourist spots, the coach and shinkansen bullet trains have taken a hard hit as more people want to travel by car instead - understandable as folks only pay 1000 yen for a car filled with people.

Running ones own company does have some perks - being able to get away when one chooses - even though its not that often ^^;
Left on a Friday morning which was a normal weekday for most folks meaning that we avoided any tailbacks on the highway. Tailbacks in Japan are horrible!

Surrounded by mountains after a few hours drive.

Arrived at the Prince Hotel Karuizawa which is a ski resort and outlet mall all rolled into one. Arrived just in time for lunch.
If you are going by train, you would need to get off at Karuizawa Station.

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After lunch its a stroll around the area. T'was biting cold!

Karuizawa is more recognized as more of a Summer retreat spot - thanks to a Canadian missionary called Alexander Croft Shaw who said that Karuizawa felt like back home in Toronto.
In 1888, Shaw set up a cottage house which then paved the way for Karuizawa to become an area filled with cottages for the Summer retreat.

Our daily bicycles are foldable which we usually bung in the boot when we head out somewhere far by car.

Beware of bears or people who look like bears.

This lake is basked in golden brown leaves in the Autumn and becomes a popular photo spot. At this time of year however, there is only being a few ducks.

I love Japan - most likely to be one of the few places on earth where I can forget my iPhone on the bike and come back to find that its still there ^^;

Karuizawa is filled with roads like this which are lined with tall trees that go on forever.

I think this was Naka Karuizawa which is filled with the touristy souvenir shops and restaurants.

A few snacks can be picked up for those who like to nibble on something while taking a stroll.

And this is what I was nibbling on. Kinda looks like poo but also tasted a bit like poo too.

Since becoming a Dollfie parent, I find myself always thinking about my daughters and whether something would fit them when I see miniature clothing.
I saw some pet clothes and immediately thought if they would fit on a Dollfie ^^;;;

Donguri Kyowakoku - the Ghibli store.

I love Ghibli stuff and owe a lot to the various Ghibli animations which I studied a lot of Japanese from.

Remember when I first watched Laputa - could only understand bits of it. Laputa is such an awesome movie that you can watch again and again without getting bored.

Totoro was great too.

A large percentage of interior bedroom lights in Japan come with a cord that one pulls to turn it on n off. These Totoro goodies are designed to be hung off the end of those cords

Rabbit thingies with no mouths.

Majo no Takkyubin (Kiki's Delivery Service) is another fave of mine. I love Kiki! I guess shes my fave loli.
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Looking back at these photos - I regret not picking up one of these - would have looked good on the desk.

Passing through a shrine. The statues with the red hats and bibs are Ojizousama. Ojizousama is a god who is said to look after the young. I bought a small one from a souvenir shop in Hiroshima when I was a visitor to Japan many moons ago. I put it on my window sill when I got back to London and used to put a small cup of water in front of Ojizousama which I changed every day.
I clearly remember rushing for school one day but I forgot to change the water in his cup - dropped everything at the door and ran up to my room to change the water for him. Could it be that he helped me get to Japan?

People write their wishes on some enma which are hung up at the shrine.

Karuizawa seems to be popular for the jams produced locally - the shops are filled with them!
Most of the jams are displayed next to some crackers for you to check out the taste.

One of our life goals is to get another house somewhere outside of Tokyo. Many of our friends in Tokyo have been buying land and houses in the Karuizawa area.

Land area is usually measured in a unit called tsubo [坪] which is about 3.31 square meters. You can use Japanese Google to do a search like 2坪 which will then convert that into square meters for you.

Here we see that a patch of 85 tsubo (280 square meters) is going for 4,800,000 yen, while the most land one can get from this bunch is 940 tsubo (3107 square meters!) for 54,000,000 yen - less than what our house cost ^^; Our current house in central Tokyo is about 20 tsubo which is 66 square meters - good thing we have three floors.

Here we have some land that come with houses. 18,000,000 yen for a second hand place with 285 tsubo (942 square meters).

Land in Karuizawa is very cheap - and you get lots of it when compared to land prices and space in Tokyo.

Cycling back to the hotel after a day out n about Karuizawa.

Time for some buffet dindins at the hotel.

Omrice please. Omrice [オムライス] is a rice dish which is covered with an omelette.

Omelette about to be devoured.

Mio-chan joins us for dindins.

Main dish is a sea animal.

Mio-chan kawaii!

Dinner done and its time for our after dindins walk.

The hotel grounds are well lit and there is a nice pond outside with other folks taking an evening stroll.

We stayed at the Karuizawa West Prince Hotel. I would only recommend this place if you are here to do some skiing - you can walk to the slopes which are nearby.
If you are not indulging in any snow activities however, the Prince Hotel would probably bore you - quite a bog standard hotel with no hot springs. They do have hot springs nearby but charge something in the region of 2,000 yen just to use them - and you need to take a shuttle bus to get there.

No Internet connectivity in the hotel either so had to get one of those pre-paid cards to use wifi which was only available in the lounge. There was no phone receptions in the room either so iPhones are about as useful as a nail in the forehead.

To compensate for not having onsen at the hotel, some Babu is provided - plonk it in the bath tub which will transform into a fizzy bubbling bath without having to fart as hard as you can.

Time to pack up the bikes and head out by car.

After driving for a bit, we encounter a load of lovely snow.

Its standard practice to place chains around the tyres when it snows but we didn't have any meaning that some toll gates didn't let us through. We did go through some very icy patches though with a load of skidding around ^^;

We are now in the Gunma prefecture at Onioshidashi which is a popular tourist spot. There are large areas of lava which was erupted from Mount Asama back in 1783.

I love the name of the park - if you translate the kanji of the park into English you get "A Devil which has pushed (it) out" [鬼押出し] which I presume refers to the lava.

The place was actually closed at this time of year - not a soul in sight. Was surreal being up there without a single sound - no wind, no birds, nothing. "Solitude" is the word that comes to mind to describe the experience.

This observation deck reminded me somehow of the Playstation 1 Metal Gear Solid.

I remember buying the game on a trip to Japan and then buying a huge TV when I got back to London to play the game.
Ended up selling the TV only a few weeks after I got it as I got the job in Japan...

As the main park was closed, there wasn't a lot to see up here.

Something for your kanji learning. How much of this can you read?

Map of the local area.

The place was like a ghost town. There were tractors, snow rakes, vending machines and wot not but just no people.

If you do decide to come to onioshidashi during the winter, be careful as some of the snow is very deep - about leg deep as we found out the hard way ^^;

Something very odd happened to my iPhone while I was up at Onioshidashi - the time reset to 1970/1/1 and the compass started to spin around at an alarming rate. Has this happened to any of you?

Mio is also leg deep in snow but shes wearing thermal shimapan which keeps her warm.

Back in central Karuizawa to relax with some grub.

Kara-age is a fave dish of mine. Deep fried chicken.

Picking up some cakes for afternoon tea.

Mmmmmm.

Mio-chan - one of my most fave nendos ever.

Attack of the kewpie clones. All of them are showing their dolphins - do I need to censor?

A look at some of the outlet shops. Picked up a new beanie.

Use the chopsticks to place some pickles in your hand before trying. After munching and licking the pickles from the palm of your hand, use the cloth provided to wipe your mouth. Then wipe your hand on another customers coat.

More jam delights for you to take back home.

Wifey picks up some socks. Saw this in the sock shop and thought that my Dollfies would look good in something like this *calls chun*

Evidence that "Loli" did not originate from Japan.

Time to head back home. 183km back to base.

Sunny evening driving through the roads which weave back n forth through the mountains.

If "Eyes" is the first thing that pops in your mind when you see this photo then you have been watching waaaay to much oppai anime.

Listening to Ridge Racer while driving on the highways of Japan is a most refreshing experience ^^;

Little did I know what was going to be in store for me for the first few weeks of Jan after getting back to Tokyo...

Ita Curtain

Sat, 19 May 2012 14:55:00 +0900

Mentioned it in the previous Desk Diary when we moved office but wasn't too keen on the curtains - so I went and made my own ^^;

For a wee bit, we were using Yuzusoft tapestries as curtains ^^

I considered line drapes and roll blinds but then took inspiration from the Yuzusoft tapestries and made some long Mirai Millennium tapestries instead. The art work is done by Kazunori Iwakura who is also responsible for titles like Railgun, Toradora, Sky Girls, Kimikiss, Daphne in the Brilliant Blue, Shakugan no Shana, Hidan no Aria and more.

Lately I've been doing a lot of my printing at a company in Asakusa called Pop Box who can practically print and make anything - they even done the work on our new Mirai Itasha Ver 2. If you want something done - just contact them through their site and tell them that Danny sent you for a discount ^^

Data of the artwork is prepared by myself - I measure how big I want each side to be and make a canvas of the same size in Photoshop. I then resize up the artwork to fill up the space. The artwork may look blurry on screen but looks fine when printed on cloth.

I left the previous curtain rails where they were so that I could roll up each side of the curtain.

And this is what it looks like during the day. Was considering making the background white but it turned out just fine the way it is.

Need to stand on a chair to roll up the curtain but takes only a few seconds.

This is the hook that I used - the instructions should be self explanatory but you dont need anything else to attach this to the ceiling and will hold up to 2kgs. You can get a pack of 5 from Amazon for only 380 yen.

All I need to do now is to cut the string of the tapestries short and hang them up like so - done! If you got long tapestries then you may want to use this idea for your windows.

Would you consider using anime/2D style tapestries for your windows?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Medicom Madoka

Fri, 18 May 2012 19:12:00 +0900

Recently we saw a review of Real Action Heroes Black Rock Shooter White Edition and today we take a lookie at an up n coming release - "REAL ACTION HEROES MGM : Madoka Kaname."
She is about 30cm tall and is a blend between figure and doll just like all the RAH figures. The head is designed by Max Factory and is based on the figma version of Madoka and Good Smile Company helped with the figure production all round.

Pre-order info should be up at the Medicom Toy site soon.

Is this something you would be putting on your to-get list? Photos from the English Mikatan Blog.
There is a poll embedded in this article.