Japan 2009 – the Loot

After months of living the life as a hikkikomori, I decided to take a somewhat impromptu month long trip to Asia. Hitting up Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, and China my body went through the ringer as I ended up getting sick in some shape or form in every country I was in. I won’t go into the details but much to say, it felt good when I eventually returned back to the States.

I’ll probably have a separate post about my misadventures in Japan if anything else, but for now I figure I may as well start with the most important aspect of the trip: all the loot I bought ^^;; Surprisingly, I didn’t end up spending too much if only given the fact I wanted everything to be carry on so I could only buy certain things. Thank god for my wallet I guess? Oh, before I forget the figures (i.e. Fate in Sonic Form and Nendoroid Mio) were preordered online and not something I actually picked up while in Japan; god forbid how I would have fit Fate’s box in a suitcase, let alone a carry on!

First off CDs, which didn’t take too much out of my wallet, I think only about 100USD or so with about 2/3rd of them being picked up only for the various tokutens. Thus why I now have like five copies of Nana Mizuki’s “Mugen” single ^^;; Also in the pile (from top left going clockwise) sphere’s “Kaze wo Atsumete / Brave My Heart” (LE but no extras), May’n’s “Styles” with promo poster, AKB48’s “River” (used for like 8USD), 2x Yukari Tamura’s “You & Me” with 2 different photocards (Gamers and Animate I think), Nana Mizuki’s “Theme of Lan Fan by THE ALCHEMISTS” (wtf no one BT it yet?), 2x Nana Mizuki’s “Mugen” with 2 different photocards, Minori Chihara’s “Kimi ga Kureta Ano Hi” with photocard, Minori Chihara’s “Junpaku Sanctuary” with photocard, and Sugawara Sayuri’s “Kimi ga Iru Kara” (LE with DVD).

Overall I’m pretty happy with the random CD purchases although if I had to do it again, probably would have skipped sphere’s and May’n’s. While May’n’s album is alright it really didn’t attract me that much, but I think since I saw Macross F ~Itsuwari no Utahime~ the night before, I was more “willing” than normal. Sphere’s I was kind of hoping it had some type of tokuten but the stores I went to didn’t seem to have any, but figured I would support them anyway… and to make myself feel a little better that I could not pick up their first album that was going to be released a week later.

On the others, well Minorin is Minorin so my only factor was which photocards looked good since I already have all her major singles and albums ^^;; Same with Nana Mizuki’s although now that I think about it, should have looked at Shin’ai as well (then again danie did post scans of all of them). Yukarin was actually a real random purchase but after seeing the PV and hearing the main song “You & Me” blasting at various stores, I eventually gave in; also helped the tokutens given out she actually looks pretty good in ^^ AKB48 was simply because I figured I may as well support them considering how deep in the fandom I’m getting into and “River” is actually a decent song… once you forward fast past the stomp-like intro. As for Sugawara Sayuri, that’s simply because we’ve been hearing the song with any FFXIII related videos for MONTHS but thankfully, even without the FF tie-in, her single stands well on its own.

Before I leave my thoughts about the various CD purchases, should mention I believe at Gamers they had a nice section for sphere related goods. This included their various concert goods (i.e. towels and t-shirts), various CDs (WTF never knew there were that many if you include each girl’s monologue CD), as well as their costumes from their “Super Noisy Nova” PV. There were also some nice random Haruka Tomatsu goods that I wanted to get (shows some great legs!) but wasn’t 100% they were on sale (plus a bit pricey).

And crap, as I write more the memories slowly start to come back… one other thing I thought was pretty cool while buying CDs was seeing a random Japanese dude pick up Nana Mizuki’s “Mugen” out of the blue. Always makes a Nana Mizuki fan like myself proud when you see random folks buy related goods of the idol you like ^^

I guess all my random anime related goods for a better lack of grouping. Honestly didn’t buy much straight anime ANIME OMG-he’s-a-freaking-OTAKU goods since I’ve been cutting back on the stuff for months. Heck 75% of the anime merchandise I bought was when I was watching movies with the real only purchase being Tony Taka’s “Tony’s ART Works”. Other than that, picked up the Macross F ~Itsuwari no Utahime~ brochure (more like an artbook), clear file, and four postcard collection while I got the One Piece Strong World Vol 0 manga free for watching the movie along with a random trading card(?).

Really nothing else to say since I didn’t get much other than that the Suzumiya Haruhi flyer I picked up at the theater as it has Nagato on it(!) and the random Moyashimon toy thingie I got from a capsule machine while in Akiba, I think.

Oh, with the random mentions of the Macross F movie, do expect a review of Macross F ~Itsuwari no Utahime~ soon-ish depending on how lazy I get ^^;;

Random hm3 and Seiyuu Animedia featuring Nana Mizuki. I will say this, compared to Seiyuu Animedia now, back in the day they sure knew how to please the fans by giving them more images of the cover girl plus more pull out posters to boot!

Random AKB48 goods, mostly photo books and the like. All I can say is months ago I figured I would never fall for the group but 100+ GIGs later of various concerts, variety shows, PVs, images, and songs I guess I’ve proven myself wrong @_@

I may do a separate post trying to explain the fandom that is AKB48 and their various sister groups but for now, all I can say is they look cute, sing pretty decent, and if you have any mind to save money DO NOT get involved with them at all cost!

Weekly 2010 calendar and while I don’t know like 3/4th of the girls in it, it was a good purchase considering I got it for like 5USD used while it goes for 25USD new. Got to love the Japanese and the fact their “used” is like still brand-fricking-new XD

2010 B2 calendar of one of the “front” girls, Atsuko Maeda. Actually picked it up at their theater in Akiba, which was kind of cool since I got to check out the place real quick. I’ll probably pick one or two to frame but got to figure where to display them since I’m running out of wall space ^^;;

Another 2010 B2 calendar of one of the girls of AKB48, Haruna Kojima. Don’t feel so bad about picking this one up since she’s closer to my age (vaguely) versus Maeda but yea, probably pick one or two months to frame once I move around stuff to do so ^^;;

Before I forget, I was actually tempted to pick up a few more of the AKB48 B2 sized calendars but due to the fact some of the girls are like under-aged, didn’t want to explain why I would have posters of said girls framed, and didn’t want to go broke, I somehow stopped myself. AKB48 is very scary for one’s wallet, without an doubt.

AKB48 ranting done, this thus ends my Japan loot post. Minus some random stuff I forgot to mention like the Nana Mizuki 3rd anniversary Smile Gang DVD and Macross F concert in Bluray, both awesome buys with the former being 1/2 priced and the later simply cause it’s Bluray, overall purchases weren’t as horrible as I thought. With plans to go to back to Japan in March for hopefully Nana Mizuki’s LIVE ACADEMY concert, I think my first run in with Japan was successful in getting me used to the place and letting some spending urges go. I can only hope when/if I do go back, spending (at least related to AKB48 if anything else) will be a bit better (i.e. controlled) but good to know I now know the major places to go to be broke if needed.

I’ll most likely write more of my impressions on Japan in my Japan trip post (whenever that happens) but I can definitely say I had one hell of a time there, even with all the spending, and honestly can’t wait to go back again!