Keripo's Corner Figures, Dollfies, Projects, Gaming, and TYPE-MOON
So right after finishing university, my friends and I decided to go to Japan for our graduation trip (May-June 2012). Japan was a high in our choice of destination for a vacation. For my friends, it was of cultural interest and a new place to see. For me, it was the Holy Land of anime, and also the place where my figure collecting hobby would emerge. But the loots and food blog entries will come at the end.
The following series of “Japan Trip 2012” blog posts will simply be pictorial guides of my adventure through Japan. I’ll try to caption most of the pictures and include as many anime-related pictures as possible. Sets of photos are roughly in chronological order, though some places (aka Akihabara) will have multiple sets since we went back there multiple times. There’s 30 or so albums of photos from my Japan trip, and each blog post will contain 2-4 albums worth, so prepare your mouse for a lot of scrolling. So without further ado, enjoy the tour!
Nara ParkStreets of Nara, filled with merchant stalls
Japanese signs <3
Map
We actually got a bit lost trying to find the park
Deer spotted!
Buy these cookies…
…and the deer will swarm you
They also drooled all over my T-shirt
Wrong place xD
Station exit
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
Copies of the letters sent by scientist Albert Einstein to US President Franklin D. Roosevolt. Full text can be found here.
The devastation ; (
Model of Hiroshima, before and after the dropping of the Little Boy atomic bomb
Outside, flowers are always laid
A peace monument in the area
This.
I was trying to take a picture of the bird but this photo turned out pretty nice
The iconic building that withstood the blast
Some nice amateur photography
I did not expect to see a Taito Station in town…
ASDFGHASDFGH! Carnival Phantasm Arcueid Beach Queen! Suddenly my interest in figure collecting skyrocketted. I think I spent over 3k yen (30 tries) trying to win one before my friends dragged me away (keep in mind I’ve never played a crane machine before up til then). Quite a contrast from the quiet, calm and peaceful mood from earlier, kinda feel ashamed now that I look back at it >_>
Reminded me of a scene from my favourite movie, “Byousoku 5 Centimeter” (“5 Centimeters Per Second – a chain of short stories about their distance”)
The country side flying by
Wait what?
The Miyajima torii is a large torii that was erect near the shore – at high tide, it looks like it is floating on water and is quite a large tourist attraction + cultural heritage site (or so they tell me)
We board a ferry to cross the river to see the torii
It kinda looks like its floating on water from this angle… more on this later
This is a tourist area
Yup, more deer. Don’t drop paper because they WILL try to eat it
Shops and tourists along the side
Chopper x Hello Kitty
Interesting walnut machine
My spoon is too big!
Miyajima’s local mascot
Rich people probably fan themselves with this
Walking toward the torii
Local lady shows me how to dig for live mussels
I find the little critters more interesting
Did not lead to Caster’s secret hideout ; (
Torii closer up.
So we visited this at a pretty bad time unfortunately. Not only was it low tide, but the torii itself was under construction/restoration. In the ideal visit, you would see water up to the dock and a large torii supposedly floating in the water.
There’s some shrine buildings that you can walk through
There were many, many classes of school kids taking class photos. Had to restrain ourselves from photobombing. Funny thing is that since I usually wear a white dress shirt and black dress pants (my normal attire in North America), I would have easily blended in.
The deer were ignored, doing their own business
MyFigureCollection: http://myfigurecollection.net/blog/6064
Flickr Nara: https://www.flickr.com/photos/keripo/sets/72157641643886655/
Flickr Hiroshima: https://www.flickr.com/photos/keripo/sets/72157641643886625/
Flickr Miyajima: https://www.flickr.com/photos/keripo/sets/72157641646155623/
