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Tokyo Today 3

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:31:00 +0900

More slice of life in Tokyo. Eventful day today where I head to meet with many folks from Sanrio (the Hello Kitty peeps) and also learned loads about the licensing business in Japan which I will talk about when the timing is right.
Starting off at lunchtime - seeking food at the Musashikoyama palm shopping arcade.

Its a real life anime school boy character. And if you are wondering, Japanese schools are really just like anime as you can read from the photo posts below.

Have you seen one of these in anime or elsewhere? This little chap is called Teru Teru Bozu [照る照る坊主]. A Japanese custom where a doll made from white cloth or paper is strung up outside ones window - the gesture is said to ward away rain which is why its usually hung up before the day of an event. "Teru" means "Sunshine" while "Bozu" means "Monk."
There is also a Teru Teru Bozu song too.

This store still shows 7 digits for its telephone number. Telephone numbers became 8 digits in 1991 (not including the area code).

Bibimbap for lunch.

Have not been to Korea for ages. How many of you have been?

A bicycle park outside a train station. Bicycles parked illegally are usually taken away by a nice man and if you want it back then you need to pay a fine. You can just about see the yellow sticker on the frame of the bicycle on the right of the photo - it has a number which is issued when you register it with the police.
Most folk here register their two wheelers in the event that its stolen - and in the event that you leave it parked illegally - they can call or send you a message ^^;

Poster to promote fire safety. How many of you have a figure extinguisher at home?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Long snowboards are long. I've been skiing a few times in Japan but have *always* injured myself ><
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The best carriages on the Yamanote line are the back and front as you can get an insect-hit-by-speeding-train eye view.

Heading to next meeting.

Looks like Yugawara should go on my to-visit list this Spring.

Madoka Magica gets the Weiss Schwartz treatment.

Meeting up with folks from Ascii Media Works at Osaki station.

Its off to meet folks at Sanrio for the Sanrio Expo 2012.

The event today was for industry folks where they had an absolute ton of Hello Kitty merchandise and other tie ups on display. No photos were allowed though.

Then its off to the next destination for more meetings.

The next meeting is with G-MIX - a company that handles a load of licenses including ones for Sanrio. They look after the With Hello Kitty brand besides other stuff.

The With Hello Kitty project blends cute 2D girlies with Hello Kitty.

I've become a Hello Kitty fan over night ^^

Card game sleeves. The moekana cards will be compatible with all Weiss Schwartz sized card supplies.

AKB48 X Hello Kitty.

There is a poll embedded in this article.

Cosy sardine apartments.

Next meeting is with a company called Kitan who make and sell an absolute sheet load of gacha.

Lovely office - setup to look like a farm ^^

Taxi to the next destination - business over dindins. The first fare for getting on is about 700 yen. What do taxis in your neck of the woods charge as soon as you get on?

At Ribera in Meguro - apparently the most famous steak house in Japan.

Inside the restaurant there are photos all over the place of famous folk who have eaten here which include Japanese talents and wresters from around the world.

In this industry, everybody is connected with each other and once you have a network of people then you are pretty much set up with work for a lifetime. Just make sure you keep yourself useful and dont charge for every single little thing that you do.

Dinner is here! But the smoke is overwhelming so I retreat to a corner for a while and pretend to take photos.

The photo doesn't really capture just how smokey it was in there ^^;

Didn't know about Ribera but found out that it was just a 20 min walk from home. This is the building by night that I was talking about in Tokyo Today 2.

Some more snaps taken on the way home. Using the Sony NEX 5N as always.

What with the amount of folks with a mobile phone, it can be hard to find public phones at times.

The new laughing man logo.

Tis been rainy of late.

Back to base.

Some ginger flavored chocolates that the steakhouse Ribera gave us after dindins.

Mirai's shoes to go with her Summer uniform on sale at Lucy Pop.

Playing with some of the gatcha that I was given earlier on...

...you are free to come to my office and take all of it.

Perfect valentines day gift.

Some of the Sanrio folks who I met today from many different departments including licensing and rights. Met Gainax too who have a Hello Kitty x Evangelion collaboration going on.

A look at some of the goodies that landed in my lap.

Cheese Risotto - sprinkle on rice with hot water.

Hello Kitty Coffee and Youkan sweets.

Cinnamoroll is another popular Sanrio license.

Ol Blighty X Hello Kitty.

One Piece X Hello Kitty.

A peek at the TV to see that the world is supposed to end (again) later this year.

More life in Tokyo through photos in the posts below.

Taiwan Anime Event

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:06:00 +0900

The anime, cosplay and doujin event Fancy Frontier takes place 4 times a year. The large events are called Fancy Frontier (FF) and the smaller events are Petit Fancy (PF). FF 19 took place last weekend and comrades at Aniarc went along to take some photos for us.

Looked like a load of fun! I could not make it this time but plan to attend the next FF in July where I will be setting up a booth too. Will also be having Culture Japan Night Taiwan Summer Edition too.

And here is some video footage of the event.

Are you or have you been attending any anime events this year? If so which ones?
There is a poll embedded in this article.
There is a poll embedded in this article.
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Eroge Collection

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:35:00 +0900

Rayun from Switzerland posts photos of his most awesome eroge room over at Figure.fm. Rayun is surrounded by a load of wall tapestries, wall scrolls, posters, dakimakura, pillows, games, T-shirts and other memorabilia.

Happy to see that he also likes the works of Yuzusoft - we make their website! I love the art work of Kobuichi-sensei who has doodled Mirai-chan for us.

How many of you play eroge and what are your fave titles? If I had eroge when I was learning Japanese many moons ago, I'd probably would have gotten more fluent quicker!
If you are interested in learning more about eroge then http://erogetrailers.com/ may be a good place to start.
There is a poll embedded in this article.
There is a poll embedded in this article.
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And here are some eroge goodies that Rayun picked up from Japan during his last trip to Japan earlier this year. A load of yummy goodies!

More otaku rooms from around the world listed below!

PS Vita USB Mod

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:54:00 +0900

Had my PS Vita since the launch in Japan and am starting to like it a lot! Lots of eye candy graphics and decent games are starting to come out. But, the PS Vita comes with a lousy feature that prevents you from charging the unit unless you use the adapter it came with. This means that you cant charge it from a Mac/PC USB port or even an iPhone/iPad USB mains adapter.

Being a portable games machine, it becomes particularly annoying that you cant use any USB battery packs to charge it either. Unacceptable! But rather than complain, lets do something about it because complaining never brings about results - only action leads to results and results happen even quicker if you take action yourself.

Today we will see how I made a simple mod that enables you to charge the PS Vita from any USB power source.

First up, you need one of these USB thingies - its a USB bridge adapter that allows a USB to be plugged into awkward places like the back of your left ear. They sell them at Amazon for 554 yen.

Once you got the USB adapter, pry it open using the Force or something like...a screw driver perhaps.

This will reveal 5 wires that are attached to the USB head.

Cut the green and white wire.

What may happen is this - the other wires come loose and fall off!

Now you need to whip out that pocket solder. Here I have soldered the red and black wires back onto the USB head. I have also soldered the middle two pins together. Not sure why this works because all I did was copy this guy ^^; Apparently this "shorts" it.
I tried to self study electronics for a wee bit but never really understood it. How many of you good at electronics and making stuff?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Now that the middle two pins are soldered together, its time to test it out.

Didn't want to test it out on the Vita so I dug up the old iPod Touch and used it as my test victim instead ^^; Tried to charge it from a mobile battery and it worked.

Next I tried it out on the Vita and you can see the electric bolt thingies in the battery - it works!

Once you have established that everything works, then you can glue everything back together.

Yuki is one happy gamer!

You can however buy a mobile battery with a higher output to charge the Vita but I still would not be able to charge it through my Mac.

And this is what the setup looks like - the Vita data cable goes into the USB bridge which is then attached to my mobile USB charger.

And I can even charge through an iPhone USB mains adapter too.

I'm rather pleased ^^;

You can now charge via your computer's USB port.

Want a thinner Vita data cable though.
Just thought I'd mention - do this mod at your own risk. If everything blows up then you may cry but you cant sue me to buy another one for you because I'm protected by the force and this disclaimer.

Games which I'm playing now are Star Strike Delta and Valkyria Chronicles 3 E2.

Games out this week are Gravity Daze and Sumioni - the trial versions are just fantastic!

There is a poll embedded in this article.

Akemi Homura Nendoroid

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:39:00 +0900

Tis another giveaway time! This time round Akemi Homura Nendoroid is up for grabs which is being given away by the good folks at Hobby Search - a trusted online retailer of figures and hobby goods.

This time I'd like to thank all my Facebook comrades for their continued support - currently just under 150,000 comrades.
If you would like to take a stab at winning Homu homu all for yourself, all you have to do is like my Facebook page and then share this post on Facebook. I can see how many of you shared it (like this) - I will choose one person at random this time next week and announce the winner on Facebook. You have to share publicly for me to be able to see your shares.

While you are at it - would be great if you could share your Facebook url with us too!
Good luck!

Oh, the winner of the last giveaway was Jahn!

Tokyo Today 2

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 11:31:00 +0900

More life in Tokyo through photos. Photos taken throughout today on the Sony NEX-5N with Zeiss Sonnar f1.8 24mm lens. This snap taken at Gotanda [五反田] during lunch. The Rollerblades have been an incredible time saving tool. Have only fallen over once in my life on blades but when I did there was blood everywhere! I'll dig up the photo I took after the fall ^^;
How many of you are into blading?

Zooming back in time to the morning. Every time I hit "send", I see a new mails appear in the inbox ><
How many mails do you need to deal with every day?

Heading to lunch in Gotanda.

At most roadworks, there would either be a human, a picture or video of a human or one of these waving a mini light saber to alert folks of the work ahead.

At the best burger place in Tokyo - Kua'aina. They take a while to prep the food as its prepped on the spot but is worth the wait.

The fries are absolutely gorgeous.

Most food places in Japan dont have salt n pepper on the table. I remember when I first came to Japan - when I asked for salt, they would bring out a small plate of it ^^;

Gorgeous!

Lunch done and time to head back to base the scenic route.

Doutor - a chain of coffee shops over here. Smokers can puff away in the same area where food is prepared - apparently illegal in the UK but not here.
I remembering ordering a sandwich at Doutor once - could only taste the smoke and not the beef. I love Japan but my only gripe is that smoking is still allowed in restaurants - and most places dont have a non-smoking area.

If I'm eating out, I'd try to peek in the windows like a suspicious person looking for smokers or packs of cigarettes on the table ^^; Most of my Japanese friends and clients smoke but it does my asthma in ToT
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Gotanda is a business district with a load of offices which is also why there are a ton of restaurants in the area to feed everybody.

Cigarettes in Japan are apparently the cheapest in the world.

The river that runs though Gotanda.

There is not a great deal to do in Gotanda but if you want to see a slice of life in Japan then get off at Gotanda station on the JR Yamanote line and go exploring.
[gmap=35.62629, 139.72354]

Will let you know who this chap is in a later episode.

Meetings at Shiseido?! Mirai Makeup?!

Mr Postman.

Passing by the HQ of Disney Japan. I used to work here consulting when I left Microsoft many moons ago.

A very typical toy store would usually only stock stuff for the younger generation which is why you wouldn't really find figures.

In an event of a huge quake, this road is closed off. Not sure why this one in particular.

Rillakkuma sells donuts.

Love this shop - full of character and is all lit up at night.

A roadworker cleans up after himself. When I was back in the UK, roadworkers would leave their mess for others to clean up.

Back to base. Its so dark in the office that I call it the dungeon.

Sunlight hardly gets in down there but when it does it gives a nice n relaxing mood.

Tea time with Popura-chan.

Moekana is going to the printers this month and should be with distributors by March.

Ji〜

Chris is still alive and well in Saitama working hard on the PHP > Ruby on Rails migration of Mirai Gaia.

This is just a mockup printed in the office. There are many ways to play Moekana to help you learn Hiragana. Karuta, Shiritori, Concentration and Stack em Up. Will talk about them more later.

Yakisoba for dindins.

Papico for dessert.

More dessert ^^;

I cant type Korean without looking at the Hangul keys. I usually stick Hangul stickers on my Japanese keyboard but they fall off after a while ><
Need a touchscreen keyboard which I hope Apple bring out. I know there is an app that allows me to use my iPad as a keyboard but not sure if that supports multiple language input.

The figure shelves get a tweak. Can you spot whats new?

Figures and plants go well with each other.

Nanoha says hi.

Very cold in Tokyo of late meaning that the aircon is on all day heating up the room. Tis very dry so the air moisturizer helps a lot - 2 liters of water lasts a day.

Looks like I'll be travelling a lot to Asia this year. Confirmed are Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. Hope to fit in the Philippines too.

FaceTime meeting with KenLee about the next mobile project that we are working on. He is the engineer for MiraiClock3.

Yui says hello.

Previous posts from Tokyo Today and A Week in Tokyo listed up below.

You and Good Smile Company

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:01:00 +0900

Calling all Good Smile Company fans! Got a few things for you to get involved with GSC if you are interested. First up is the Miku Art Mosaic Project. Good Smile would like you to submit your photos of your Vocaloid figures - can be any (Miku, Luka, Rin, Len etc) but would be one of the Crypton characters and the figure should be made by Good Smile Company.

Once you snapped your photos, get along and use this form to submit your art. The top field is your nick name, second field is your email addy, 3rd field is the title of the photo you are submitting and the 4th field is any comment.

All photos will be used to create a huge mosaic art of Hatsune Miku which will be published to the Good Smile site and also shown on the Nama Won Hobby broadcast on the night of the 12th. The Nama Won Hobby broadcast is a show that Good Smile Company does after every Wonder Festival that runs from night into the morning on Nico Nico.

For each photo submitted, GSC will donate 100 yen to the 2011/03 earthquake and tsunami relief efforts.

This photo taken at a Nama Won Hobby a few years ago with Aniki as guest. Up until now, Nama Won Hobby has only been in Japanese but for the first time ever, there will be an English version brought to you by Yoshimi and myself. We will be talking about what happend at the Wonder Festival that day and show you the decoration masters of figures announced that day - will have some in the studio to play with ^^; The broadcast will be at the same location as the Japanese Won Hobby.

I would also like to broadcast your Good Smile Company related figure collection too! All you need to do is post photos over at figure.fm or the community site with the tag "wonhobby."

Photos should be of your collection or single figure or anything as long as its related to GSC - scale figures or nendoroids or figma. For licensing reasons - dont swap the heads around of Nendoroids or Figma. Its a complicated thing that I'll talk about one day ^^;
Please include your website url and nick name so we can give you a shoutout during the broadcast. The broadcast URL will be announced on my Twitter and Facebook. Please submit everything by next Tuesday the 7th. You can submit photos that you took a while ago too.

So, even if you dont qualify to apply for the job, you can still be a part of Good Smile Company ^o^

Hiring Now - Anime Jobs

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:58:00 +0900

If you love anime and would rather work in a field which involves your hobby rather than working at a job where you are looking at anime related sites during work when your boss is not looking then read on.

In this photo I have with me the boss of Good Smile Company, the boss of anime studio Ufotable and the two top guys at Nitroplus. These are just some of the people I work with. Other anime related companies that I work with are Bushiroad, Kadokawa, Konami, Ascii Media Works, Dentsu, King Records, Nitroplus and Production IG. A longer list on my profile page together with a description of what we do.

My company is expanding and so are my clients who need your help to reach out to markets across the world. I have for immediate hire several roles for the position of "Translator" and "Content Manager" - some part and some fulltime. You will work for me but I need you to liase directly with my clients too.

The requirements for Translator is as follows:-

Be able to translate Japanese into native English, German, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, French or Korean.
Or be able to translate English to Korean, French, Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese. (no need for English to German at this time)
Be able to communicate directly with my clients in Japanese through mail. (for the Japanese speakers).
Be knowledgeable with anime (especially character names), anisong, seiyuu, figures and general anime news. Having knowledge of Japanese games is a plus but not required.
Loves anime and Japanese pop culture.
Has worked with social networking tools like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or blog tools like Wordpress, Tumblr. Most of my clients use Mirai Gaia and it will be your main tool. figure.fm runs Mirai Gaia too and if you are applying then it would be a good idea for you to post something and play around with the UI.
Currently has at least 2-4 hours available everyday day for work. (and occasionally on weekends too).
Is available long term.
Is available to video chat over Skype from time to time.
Has a paypal account.
Most suitable for students, fansubbers or any folk who can spare the hours.

Requirements for Content Manager includes all of the above and the following.

Fluent Japanese is a requirement for the Content Manager.
Can use Photoshop or Fireworks - not looking for a ninja but somebody who can manipulate layers, masks, text and export for web use.
Again, not looking for a guru but somebody who can use Illustrator to manipulate vector graphics.
Can write simple CSS and HTML - which also means that you can easily learn more advanced markup from Google Sensei.

Things to note
#My profile lists most of my clients - look for their English sites to get a better idea of the type of work that you will be doing. You will be translating and also scheduling content too.

#A few of my clients are launching sites which initially require some intensive work and thus need your extended availability. Japanese > Chinese Simplified, Japanese > Chinese Traditional, Japanese > German, English > Korean, English > French translations are needed asap.
I'm hiring several of each position so even if you cant commit the time right now then you should still apply if you are interested.

#Compensation will be discussed with the candidates who pass the tests. I'll be paying you directly but in some cases you may be working directly for my clients who will pay you directly.

#You do not have to be of a particular age and dont need any qualifications either - the most important thing is that you can deliver which is in my opinion much more important that qualifications on paper. During my time at Amazon, I've seen managers hire folks with an MBA who performed terribly on the job.

#You do not need to be in Japan for either of these positions but based on your performance and if you wish to live and work in Japan, I or my clients may bring you over and sponsor your Visa. One of my clients has already agreed to hire a reader from overseas. The reader in question loves anime and now gets to work in Japan with an anime related company ^o^

#I'm only showing you the door - it really is up to you to step though it. We need people who are serious and focused on wanting to work in this field. Folks should care about the work they submit and always be on the ball regarding translation accuracy, grammar and punctuation - my grammar and punctuation is terrible which is why i'm getting you to do it ^^;

#I always go on about it but all my computing, programming and graphic skills were picked up from Google sensei - if an idiot like me can do it then so can you! Its never to late to start but it is too late when the chance pops up - you need to make sure that you are prepared for future opportunities. An opportunity like this presented itself to me many moons ago and fortunately I had prepared myself.

I'm using Google Forms to collect the info - application form below.

Application form

One more thing

Although Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner Hiroshi Mizohata confirmed his plans to invite 10000 foreigners to Japan and pay for their tickets, the budget didn't go through - which means no more free tickets. Fortunately - I have some free tickets because I'll be paying your fare to Japan if I hire you. I'll obviously be sponsoring your visa too. Welfare and health insurance will be taken care of too.

I managed to get a few Ruby part timers but am still looking for full time Ruby developers. I'm looking for folks who have a high level of ruby on rails, html, css, javascript, coffeescript, jquery, rspec, postgresql, github, loves anime, loves Japan and can speak enough Japanese to get about daily life.

Developers will be working to migrate our Mirai Gaia platform to rails and continue to add features which improve usability and increase conversion. All clients are either anime or game related.
Candidates should send mail to [jobs at mirai dot fm] with a link to their GitHub account and links to previous projects that they have worked on.
Same applies to any Content Managers that I hire - I'll pay for your fare over to Japan too and sponsor your visa.

Folks who join me in Japan will be working with all my clients and be working in figure and anime merchandise production together with TV and web production. You will learn the tools required for the job as well as learn the ropes of the anime business in Japan. I dont have any illusions about you working for me forever and I'll mentor and train you as much as I can so that you can make the decisions that you need to make in your career.

If this sounds like your cuppa tea and you have the skills then I'll be waiting to hear from you. But please bear in mind - while this is a hobby, its also a business too and am looking for folks who are serious about pursuing a career in the Japanese anime business.

I believe that arms installation is complete - Good Luck! I'll be answering questions in the comments - you may want to skim for answers before asking the same questions ^^

Tokyo Today

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:32:00 +0900

I thought I couldn't get any busier during the last quarter of 2011 when I was in the middle of producing Culture Japan Season 2. Was hoping to make it to January alive where I could take a couple of days break.

Now that its January however, its been even busier! I've been approached to make 3 new TV shows (not including Culture Japan), a publishing company wants to run Mirai Millennium as a manga series, am currently working on the Moekana hiragana learning series, a new Culture Japan album with Vividblaze, a new book with Ascii Media Works, and I need to produce a live broadcast for Good Smile Company in within 9 days @.@

To top that off I'm also in the middle of organizing up n coning events in Taiwan and Malaysia, preparing data and subs for the Asia broadcast of Culture Japan, and looking for more hands on deck (full and part time) to help me.
I've also received the release date of this ^o^

Anyway, I've missed writing 3 installments of A Week in Tokyo but I will catch up. In the meantime however, I'm going to see how long I can keep going with a new series called Tokyo Today where at the end of the day I dump all photos that I've taken on my Sony NEX-5N - I say dump because I'm not going to get time to write in detail due to everything else thats going on but I want you to see what life is like in Tokyo right now.

At Togoshi Ginza [戸越銀座] for lunch. This poor dog has a headache, constipation and trouble sleeping.

The road in Togoshi Ginza used to be nice n flat but they've been really digging it up of late.

The banner at the top says "Togoshi Ginza croquette" - a delicacy for this neck of the woods.

The mascot for Togoshi Ginza.

Togoshi Ginza is a long shopping street and is featured on TV from time to time - filled with more of the daily necessities and restaurants.

To get to Togoshi Ginza, get off at Togoshi Ginza station on the Ikegami line.

At Coco Ichibanya - I've only seen this character at this branch - presuming the person running this branch is an otaku?

Came in for the Winter special soup curry but they are not doing it this year ToT

Today's lunch - salmon katsu with greeneries n corn n curry.

Coco's now had a shelf of manga for customers to read while they wait, eat or watch others eat.

This girl is so cute. Pi Pi Pi. I'll have her cameo in Mirai Millennium.

Its Setsubun tomorrow.

Equipment check for next weeks Good Smile Company live broadcast.

I'll talk about my new intern from Singapore soon ^o^

Taking intern for dindins at our local shopping arcade in Musashikoyama.

Playing with my new toy - Samsung Galaxy Note that I picked up from Taiwan. Please forgive me for ignoring you Android users - I've now seen the light ^^
The Android is so customizable that it makes the iPhone feel like a bricked phone.

Yakiniku for dindins.

Wifey and niece join us for noms.

5,651 yen for dinner for 4 which includes beer for wifey and intern. How does the cost compare to a meal for 4 in your neck of the woods?

The furnace where they heat the coal for the yakiniku.

Back at the office. 10:30PM is now considered early evening ^^;

Looks like Saber wants some attention. I'm off to bed now before I collapse ^^;

Taipei Otaku Shops

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:36:00 +0900

If you are traveling in Taiwan, dont limit yourself to exploring what you see overground because they got a ton of goodies underground too! The area around Taipei Station has a huge underground shopping mall called Taiwan City Mall. One of the sections is absolutely filled to the brim with Japanese pop culture - anime and otaku goodness.
If you are heading there, get out the station at exit Y17. The address would be 台北市市民大道一段100號
[gmap=25.04894, 121.51507]

After Culture Japan Night held at the Good Smile Cafe, I went along with a few readers to check out what can be considered as a small scale Akihabara - figures, gundams, gacha, books, magazines, games, dolls and more.

Taipei City Mall is so cool that they even have their own moe character called Rion (莉洋) voiced by Seiyuu Hanazawa kana!

Gears of War looks awesome.

Familiar figure is familiar.

With the store manager of Oh!Taku who just happened to be a reader ^o^
You cant miss the shop when you are down there but here is the address anyway.
台北市市民大道一段100號／66號店(台北地下街內Y17出口附近)

The mascot character for Oh!Taku.

Then its some nom noms before heading off to a maid cafe!

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