Catch-up

Hey again everyone! O-hisashiburi desu ne? (It's been a while, ain't it?) I'm back from Osaka, I've had a nice, restful couple of days, and I'm getting ready to hit it hard for school again tomorrow. I'm going to be rapid-fire posting for a few day, I think, rather than try to fit everything into one post. These posts are intended to just be a brief recap of some of my adventures over the last couple of weeks, but mainly I want to get out some thoughts that I've had about Japan in general. You can see photos of Japan any-old-where, just check out some tourist sites, but the reason you come to my blog is to get my take on Japan. So I'm gonna provide just that.

But first, the recap, with highlights. Once again, forgive my lack of camera flash functionality.

Saturday the 24th - Brigg and I hit the Tokyo International Anime Fair at the Tokyo Big Sight convention center. It's the biggest convention in the world, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Yes, this makes me a colossal nerd, but that shouldn't be any real news to those of you who know me. It was everything I thought it would be.

An imposing venue



Booths galore






Fighting robots and pretty girls






Wall to wall collectables








And a few oddities. This is not made up, or photoshopped in any way. This is a poster for an upcoming anime series. Samuel L. Jackson provides the voice for the main character - AFRO SAMURAI. He's a hardass. Brigg and I laughed for five minutes straight.






Sunday the 25th - checking out sakura (cherry blossoms) in Ueno, and also seeing the Ueno Park Zoo. The sakura was not at its peak, and it was raining on and off, so it wasn't the BEST time to check out the sights, but we weren't about to let that discourage us.



Here is Minako, a friend I went with. Also some of the flock of people gathered around any tree that was decently in bloom.

The sakura itself. I believe that early in the season, the paler blossoms come out, and the more bright pink blossoms are a bit later on. Maybe this week, in fact.

In Ueno park zoo - mostly, the animals look as animals tend to do. This was noteworthy, though - the classic Japanese crane. Its head is about chest height on me.

This hornbill was also noteworthy. Most of the animals in the park were pretty shy and retiring, hard to get a photo of, but this guy was perched right up front, in full grandeur, staring people down. He's all like: "Be sure to get my good side."


Well, I'll call that a post, but I will definitely give a short recap of my Osaka trip in the next day or two. Watch this space.