dannychoo.com - Your portal to Japan

Wonder Festival Booths

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:00:00 +0900

Adding a ton of photos to this post which I originally uploaded from the iPhone while at the Wonfes yesterday morning.
A load of goodies here including Alter Azunyan, Strike Witches Lucchini and scale figure goodness from Resinya in the form of Aegis.

And a load of coverage at the following sites.
http://www.foobarbaz.jp/
http://www113.sakura.ne.jp/~kotatsuga/cgi-bin/anews/
http://www.pluto.dti.ne.jp/~rinou/
http://www.cutanews.com/rv/er_wf2010_01.html
http://hobbydog.sakura.ne.jp/event/WF2010winter/WF2010winter01.html
http://snowcolors.web.fc2.com/WF2010_Winter_MB_1.htm
http://snowcolors.web.fc2.com/WF2010_Winter_MB_2.htm
http://blog.livedoor.jp/geek/archives/50986961.html
http://blog.livedoor.jp/geek/archives/50986982.html
http://moemoedoll.blog95.fc2.com/blog-entry-1745.html
http://beyyang128.no-blog.jp/dairy/2010/02/wonderfestival_.html
http://akibahobby.net/2010/02/wf2010_live.html
http://www.moeyo.com/2010/02/wf2010w_bakemonogatari.html
http://www.moeyo.com/2010/02/wf2010w.html
http://blog.livedoor.jp/azure_toy_box/archives/1088925.html
http://www.hinatatiki.sakura.ne.jp/gangu/gangu14/hina_wf10w.html
http://caf-aholic.seesaa.net/article/140490065.html
http://caf-aholic.seesaa.net/article/140499986.html
http://caf-aholic.seesaa.net/article/140506610.html
http://hk.dmz-plus.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hkdmz/
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/mayura0309
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/asakuma776/
http://bit.ly/9fF5xI (GDR)
http://mimibukuro.ddo.jp/contents/WF2010-winter-01.html
http://mimibukuro.ddo.jp/contents/WF2010-winter-02.html
http://mimibukuro.ddo.jp/contents/WF2010-winter-03.html
http://mimibukuro.ddo.jp/contents/WF2010-winter-04.html
http://mimibukuro.ddo.jp/contents/WF2010-winter-05.html
http://mimibukuro.ddo.jp/contents/WF2010-winter-06.html
http://sygnas.jp/
http://photo.behindroom.net/index.php
http://plusalpha.org/report/wf2010winter/index.html
http://rms154.blog86.fc2.com/blog-entry-1603.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/punimoe/sets/72157623249345521/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/workshop/sets/72157623372733546/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/essoenia/sets/72157623246746887/
http://snowcolors.web.fc2.com/
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/caprin/20100207
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/asakuma776/20100207
http://mpzerocos.exblog.jp/12806362/
http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/vampirdzhija
http://www.earlbox.sakura.ne.jp/
http://nyss2.sakura.ne.jp/
http://kanaka007.blog83.fc2.com/
http://pub.ne.jp/pub_wakaba/
http://asumanga.sakura.ne.jp/wf/2010w/2010winter.html
http://karakuri-kissa.net/

All wonfes posts being tagged "wonfes" and live here.

Tokyo CGM Night 6

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:10:00 +0900

Tokyo CGM Night - an event that Andrew Shuttleworth and I have been hosting in Tokyo to bring together smart and interesting people who engage others online through the creation of content.
CGM stands for Consumer Generated Media and refers to social media, blog and video content that is generated by consumers. We also bring in the best from the industry to network with the media generators which results in new friendship and business opportunities.

The Tokyo CGM Night invite list includes folks from Disney Japan, Apple, Nike, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Rakutemn, Good Smile Company, Kotobukiya, Cospa, Bushi Road, Nitro Plus, AmiAmi and more.

Been meaning to write up this post on Tokyo CGM Night 6 which took place last December but didnt get round to it due to lack of time credits.
Am prompted to whip up this post as the next event is this Saturday ^^;

Coverage of Tokyo CGM Night 6 at the following blogs. You will also see an exclusive Tokyo CGM Night T-shirt with Mirai-chan on it ^^;

http://bit.ly/7F0l5R (GDR)
http://asallin.blog109.fc2.com/blog-entry-1144.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pamhp/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hkdmz/tags/cgmnight/
http://hk.dmz-plus.com/a-news.cgi?date=2009.12.02
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=cgmnight&ss=2&s=rec
http://kesenaitsumi89.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/my-second-tokyo-cgm-night/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tkysocialevents/sets/72157622924365482/
http://thumbnail-of-life.blogspot.com/2009/12/tokyo-cgm-night-x-cospa.html
http://akibahobby.net/2009/12/cgmnihght6_photo.html
http://www.moeyo.com/2009/12/tokyo-cgm-night6_nendo-petit_bakemonogatari.html
http://www.moeyo.com/2009/12/tokyo-cgm-night6_world-is-mine.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robots-dreams/sets/72157622926716178/
http://gakuranman.com/cgm-night-6-otaku-version/
http://www.cutanews.com/rv/er_CGM6.html
http://www.toybu.net/EVENT/TFS/091204CGMnight6.html
http://akibahobby.net/2009/12/cgmnight6_wim.html
http://akibahobby.net/2009/12/cgmnihght6_photo.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/toybu/sets/72157622933342776/detail/
http://ameblo.jp/gsc-asanon/entry-10403156544.html

Highlights of Tokyo CGM Night 6 include:-

Special guest was KANAME-san
Good Smile Company held a Puchi Tokyo Figure Show
Held at the HQ of COSPA
First time we had such a huge collection of Dollfie daughters
Lots of Cosplay
The Max Factory curry restaurant Indotei took care of catering

Tokyo CGM Night is an event with international attendees but the main language is Japanese. Over 80% of the attendee list are comprised of Japanese locals who are all active media generators on blogs and other social media.
If all the attendees were to write about a certain subject, that message would be instantly disseminated to millions of people worldwide.

Previous CGM coverage below

Tokyo CGM Night Episode 5

Tokyo CGM Night Episode 4

Tokyo CGM Night Episode 3

Tokyo CGM Night Episode 2

Tokyo CGM Night Episode 1

http://www.dannychoo.com/adp/eng/1657/Tokyo+CGM+Night.html

Tokyo CGM Night is an invite only event which enables us to keep a focus on the theme. We decided to run it this way based on the Gotanda Blog Dinner that's also held once a month - that event has been running strong for well over 5 years.

Got a ton of stuff to get through today for clients, arranging the next CGM Night with the British Council and get up more Wonfes coverage.
back in a mo.

Tokyo Tour Package

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:09:00 +0900

Mentioned just over a year ago in this post that I would like to put together some sort of package tour where I would bring you round to some of my fave spots in Tokyo.
I've recently teamed up with CTC Tours and Yoshimi to put together a tour package called the CTC Tokyo AniTour.

The first tour package we have put together is the 6D4N – CTC Tokyo AniTour: TAF2010 Package - 6 days and 4 nights in Tokyo with the highlight of the tour being the Tokyo Anime Fair 2010.

The tour lasts for 6 days for folks traveling from Singapore but there is a Land Tour package too for folks who wish to make their own way to Tokyo from any part of the world - you would meet the rest of the tour folks at Narita airport.

You will be taken to the Ghibli Museum, Nakano Broadway, Lucky Star Shrine, Pokemon Center, Harajuku, Akihabara, and the Tokyo Anime Fair.

I will be looking after you in Akihabara while Yoshimi looks after you for the rest of the tour.

Tour Details and Booking

Details are available at the official tour site and you can book using this form or contact enquiry@ctc.com.sg.
You can also call them at +65 6536 3995 or +65 6533 8535

Package Prices

The tour package which includes flight tickets to and from Singapore cost 1999 SGD (1406 USD). The Land Tour price costs 1499 SGD (1054 USD).
I'm looking after you in Akihabara but CTC have details about the rest of the tour and will be able to answer any questions you have - mail them at enquiry@ctc.com.sg - remember that anybody from any part of the universe can join in by going for the Land Tour package.

Look forward to seeing you in Tokyo where we can also get some 1x1 time to go over any questions you may have about living and working in Tokyo too - anything from looking for a job, taxes, looking for apartments or property and so on - and we can do that while looking for goodies in Akihabara ^o^.

Good Smile Company

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:21:00 +0900

At the Wonfes this morning with Big Boss Aki Takanori and Meiri who I used to work with during my days at Amazon. Guess who Meiri works for now ^^;
As usual, the Good Smile Company dominated the enterprise booth area and it looks like it was the biggest booth to date.

We set up a screen to show tweets from folks adding the #wf2010w hash tag - thanks to Steve Nagata for suggesting the software.

A load of up n coming new figures to help burn a deep hole in your wallet.
Going to let you enjoy the rest of the photos as I prepare moar.

All wonfes posts being tagged "wonfes" and live here.

Black Rock Shooter Figures

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:20:00 +0900

Replacing photos with ones taken on the GF1. BRS is going to be bigger than initially thought - on a global scale...
Damn, I've already said too much ^^;

All wonfes posts being tagged "wonfes" and live here.

Bakemonogatari

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:46:00 +0900

From the Good Smile Company booth - Bakemonogatari stuff including this gorgeous figure of Senjogahara Hitagi. Do you fancy having your dolphin stapled by her?

All wonfes posts being tagged "wonfes" and live here.

All photos snapped on the Lumix GF1.

Thanks to your Twitter recommendations, I whipped up Bakemonogatari in a jiffy. I love it! Very different from mainstream anime although it does have the occasional bouncy oppai and pantsu - should be safe enough to watch at work and recommend to your boss or teacher.

Was Bakemonogatari on your watch list?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Ah and there will be a figma Senjogahara too.

Megahouse Azusa

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:45:00 +0900

Replacing photos uploaded from the iPhone this morning with ones from the GF1.
Megahouse Azusa looking rather lovely.

All wonfes posts being tagged "wonfes" and live here.

K-ON! Figma

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:40:00 +0900

Hijacking my own posts from what I posted earlier on at the Wonder Festival 2010 Winter this morning - adding photos taken on the GF1 - love that camera!
Azunyan want. Want em all!

All wonfes posts being tagged "wonfes" and live here.

And these are the photos posted earlier this morning from the iPhone.

K-ON! Dollfie

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:13:00 +0900

This certainly came out of nowhere - big surprise. No release dates yet. Prefer Mio head over Yui.

Shouldn't that be L bust for Mio?

Which of the two do you prefer?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

I know that many readers have been resisting the Dollfie charm - has your resistance level depleted to zero with the announcement of these two?

BTW, all the Wonfes 2010W posts are tagged wonfes.

Wonfes mugi

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 10:32:00 +0900

Want

Figma Michael Jackson

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:59:00 +0900

Transformers Animation

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:53:00 +0900

Transformers goodies snapped at todays Wonder Festival.
All wonfes posts being tagged "wonfes" and live here.

100th Nendoroid

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:50:00 +0900

Alter Sanya

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:04:00 +0900

#wf2010w

Akihabara Photo Walk

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:49:00 +0900

Was in Akiba last night for a few appointments which I'll talk about later this week. Also managed to take some photos between meetings. I should visit Akihabara more often as its only 30 mins away from base.

When one asks "where are all the nice girls in Tokyo?" some folks may answer "Shibuya" or "Harajuku" but I always recommend Akihabara - absolutely packed with gorgeous 2D girls all over the place.

For example here...

...and here...

...and here.
How about your neck of the woods? Where are all the cute boys n girls?

You can even buy some of the girls to take home with you. These cushions going for cheap. Didnt have too much time to stay and look though.

Oppai mousepads for only 980 yen!

Retail stores need to pay to throw away rubbish and they do so buy buying a ticket from the convenience store that they stick on the rubbish bag.
Some folks however just throw their rubbish out which annoys the rubbish collectors.

Here the rubbish collectors have left a polite message:-

Dont dump rubbish here that does not have a ticket or you will be killed

"Korosu" means to kill. The term used here however is "Buchi Korosu" which means to "pound to death" ^^;

They also give out free girls too!
Was given a flier and a trial version of the eroge Saimin Seikatsu which features a lot of ecchi girls who you can see in action at the official page for the game. PV below.

Dinner with Bandai at one of my fave places - Negishi.

The next Ichiban Kuji are the Evangelion girls. Anything tickle your fancy?

Some capsule Ojyou Drossel. Give them a lick of Top Coat and they'll look quite decent. This blog has a review up of them.

Instant cosplay sets.

OK, Akihabara station is just across this bridge. I'm going to have to leave you in the lurch again as I need to get back and prepare for the Wonder Festival taking place tomorrow.

All photos here taken with the Lumix GF1 and pancake lens.

My Tokyo Now 2010/02/06 12:46

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:49:00 +0900

Out grabbing lunch before heading back to the office to work on
the Japan Times site. Tis freezing cold out here!

Wonder Festival 2010 Preview

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:10:00 +0900

Are you ready for the worlds biggest Garage Kit and Figure convention? Ryomo certainly looks ready. And this years dealer pass is a great color too ^^;

The Wonder Festival takes place tomorrow at the Makuhari Messe. Was traditionally held at Tokyo Big Sight for many years until the Wonfes committee fell out with the owners of Big Sight as nobody wanted to take responsibility for the escalator accident that happened a while ago. Video report below shows exactly what happened.

And this is the floor plan for halls 7 and 8 where the enterprise booths are. Good Smile Company will be where all the girls are gathered.

Folks like Kotobukiya, Alter, Megahouse, Orchid Seed, Revoltech, Alter and Volks will be there showing their stuff and selling a few bits n pieces too.

I will be at the GSC booth from about 9:30 taking pics before the crowds get in meaning that you should be able to see goodies in real time as I upload em using the new Upload by Email functionality ^o^
We have also enabled this feature for Good Smile and they will be posting stuff into the GSCPIC category.

And as for the GSC goodies on sale? Check em out below. Anything you after?
http://whl4u.jp/products.html

There is one figure that I've always wanted from the Wonfes and its this Erika Sendo by Alphamax - absolutely gorgeous. Shes a kit but I cant paint ToT.

The Wonfes starts from 10am and lasts to only 5pm. Get off at Kaihin Makuhari station. Map below. See you tomorrow!
http://www.m-messe.co.jp/en/access/index.html
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Update - photos posted from Makuhari just now by the GSC Team.
http://www.goodsmile.info/page/ja/post/all/gscpic/all/all/all/all/1.html

All wonfes posts being tagged "wonfes" and live here.

My Tokyo Now 2010/02/06

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:27:00 +0900

Going to start this "My Tokyo Now" series where I post 5 photos where
ever I am. Been a busy week and a packed day today. Busy is good for the
business in particular which I've been working hard at building over the
past few years. Things are really taking off. Does mean less blogging time
in front of the computer but luckily I can now post and type up stuff up
with the new post-by-mail feature while on the move or having a poo.

Shinjuku Photo Walk

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:55:00 +0900

At Shinjuku for meetings in the evening followed by a quick photo walk. Shinjuku used to be my hub when we first moved to Tokyo - we lived in Higashi Fushimi on the Seibu Shinjuku line which came into Shinjuku.
Hardly visit Shinjuku these days but when I do it always brings back nostalgic memories of the early days which you may have read in the Tokyo 1999 - 2001 and Tokyo 2001 - 2004 post.

Since 2002, my hub has been Shibuya - moved to Higashi Matsubara on the Inokashira line after joining Amazon. A "Hub" is used to refer to a station which has many lines branching out from it. Main hubs in Tokyo include Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ikebukuro and Tokyo station.

Established back in 1963, the electronics chain store Sakuraya will close all of its stores by March 2010.

There were a load of Sakuraya stores in Shinjuku and I regularly got my bits n pieces from them when I first settled here. Folks who have visited Sakuraya will remember this tune which plays in the background over and over and over and over and over again.

And many are going to miss the Sakuraya CM's too ^^;

Sakuraya are now trying to get rid of as much as they can and are having huge discounts on the stock that's left.
There used to be a load of laptops here which all got whipped up - apart from the VAIO's it seems ^^;
I used to be such a huuuuge and VAIO fanboy until I discovered that all my VAIOs had the Sony Timer built in. I think that maybe Apple is using the same technology in its products too ^^;

This is where all the digital cameras were.

The place looked kinda sad with the empty shelves.

Its Friday evening anime time. Is there a decent dose of anime on your local TV stations?

The huge 46 inch screens going for 280,000 yen. If you offered cash, they would probably sell it for cheaper - but only during a closing down sale.

It also means that the Sakuraya Hobby Kan closes down too. This store is filled with hobby stuff from games to figures to plastic models.

Revoltechs up for grabs for only 580 yen.

Star Wars figures for only 50 yen.

Sakuraya was doing 20% off the display price of everything.

More Star Wars goodies.

Quite a few rare figures too.

While the other Sakuraya stores in shinjuku were half empty due to all the good stuff being sold out, Hobby Kan had a load of shoppers all after goodies in the clearance sale.

Gundam Galore. I have a feeling that you will be seeing much more Gundam around dannychoo.com ^^;;;;

End Of Eternity - reminds me of how the older I get, the more I talk about games and the less I play them ToT. Don't know much about this game but liked the demo of the girls running about with guns n pantsu.

I'm going to drop you off right here. Shinjuku station is just opposite where you can get the Yamanote and a load of other lines. Me need to go back to base to prepare another article. See you later.

K-ON! Live Action

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:40:00 +0900

Well kind of - the school that the K-ON! girls attend is said to be based on the Toyosato Elementary School in the Shiga Prefecture.
The new report below shows how the school has become a sacred place for K-ON! fans from all over the world. Have a look at the schools home page too for more photos.