Peter's Japan blog

Flights and hotels are booked for Japan 2010 trip. I'll be flying with SAS this time with connecting flight in Copenhagen. There was a cheaper flight, but that was with Alitalia through Rome, but for an hour shorter flight to Tokyo, I'd pay 20eur ;p.

Will be going from April 6th until April 23rd. My friend Matt who is now coming along for 2 weeks, will only stay until the 19th.
General schedule is 4 days Tokyo, 7 days in the south and then the rest back in Tokyo.

Ayumi Hamasaki concert will be the first concert of the Arena Tour 2010 in Saitama Arena on April 10th, so the whole concert will be a surprise ^^. And we're going to try (but I'm very confident as I may have found some reseller shops in Osaka) to go see Koda Kumi in Osaka-Jo Hall on April 11th.

So, here's my list of loot I got back from my New Year Tokyo trip, should be pretty complete:

Books/magazines:
Perfume Livefolio
Hirano Aya Brand New Day photo book
ViVi magazine (Feb 2010)
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu Vol. 9 (manga)
Megami (Feb 2010)
Newtype 01/2010 (with small Suzumiya Haruhi figure)
K-On! Official Fan Book
Macross Frontier The Movie Official Fan Book
Saki Official Fan Book
Pick-up Voice 26 (2010)
Tetsudou Journal 6 (special Yamanote Line)

CDs:
Yellow Magic Orchestra - Ultimate Collection

Other:
Ayumi Hamasaki CDL Desktop Calendar (with ayupan)
Ayumi Hamasaki CDL Light stick
Ayumi Hamasaki CDL towel
Ayumi Hamasaki CDL Ayupan postcards set
Idoling #7 Yazawa Erika scarf
Idoling #7 Yazawa Erika T-Shirt
Akiyama Mio bag (Comiket 77 exclusive with: phone strap, pencil board, fiber cushion case and poster
K-On! paper fan
K-On! clear file
Fate/Stay night: unlimited blade works bag (Comiket 77 exclusive with: t-shirt)
Black Lagoon clear file (4x)
Black Lagoon book
Black Lagoon phone strap
Black Lagoon small towel
Akihabara station sign big towel
Reimu Hakurei doll (just had to have something from Touhou project at Comiket, might not be C77 exclusive though)
random K-On! nendoroid petit (I got Azunyan)
Hamaya from Asakusa Shrine (bought there at New Year)
Large Ayumi Hamasaki photo (unofficial though)

After Comiket, we went to some of the big shopping malls and the Fuji TV building on Odaiba. I was looking for some "Idoling!!!" merchandise so I went to the Fuji TV shop on the 5th floor but found nothing. Thought it was very strange, but when I got down outside again, I saw an arrow to the Variety Shop on the ground floor near the food court. The word "variety" gave me a good feeling about it as "Variety Programs" in Japan are comedy and popular shows. And I was right, there was a Idoling section! Still with 2 T-shirt and a scarf of every Idoling member and even some fans and other small stuff. Bought myself a t-shirt and scarf of Idoling member #7, Yazawa Erika, so my mission was a success ^^ Apart from many other goodies in the shop (of shows unknown to me), there were also some t-shirts from Hey!Hey!Hey! ;p

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(I'm not going to post my diary in order, so you'll get my Comiket report first ;p)

Today, I went to Comiket 77 winter edition, the second day (December 30th 2009). When I was on the Yurikamome train to Odaiba around 9h30, it wasn't very busy. But since many people start lining up very early, as Comiket opens at 10h. I came out of the station and was already redirected far away from Tokyo Big Sight. When I reached the bridge, I wasn't shocked, more like impressed of the amount of people lining up. Imagine a line of 20-30 people wide (see the pictures ;p), and that goes for about half a mile maybe ;p. There were people from all ages and still lots of girls too. I'm guessing the third (hentai) day has more guys ;p. This queue was nothing like the queue of Tokyo Anime Fair last year, which was just 4 people wide and a bit less long. I arrived at the end of the queue at 9h55. Then at 10h, the queue started moving piece by piece. I arrived at the industry booths hall at exactly 11h! I think Comiket is very well organised.

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Done some testing for drawing on cloth of my Countdown Live banner. Works great. Next up is putting the design on the big cloth in pencil, and after that the actual drawing with the thick markers.

Yeay, my Comiket 77 catalog has arrived today (using JapanToDoor proxy). If you're going to Comiket, you just HAVE to have this, even though the CD-ROM Catalog has more information. But the CD catalog comes out later, and probably would not make it in time here. And I'm gonna be very busy with work until a few days before I leave, so I'll have to do my research for interesting circles quickly and maybe a little bit in my hotel.