Hatsune Miku Magical Mirai 2016 Part 1

This is my second Hatsune Miku concert since the Kansai one two years ago.

Going down escalator to exhibition session.

All the Magical Mirai posters.

What I wish my bedroom looked like.

Afternoon of first day and XL of the grey shirt already sold out.

Hello legs, I mean racing car.

Miku probably dead from the heat of being in a car too long.

A talking nendroid Miku is coming

Yasube-e in Shinjuku and back to Nakano, Tokyo

For the first time, I am staying in Nakano which is on the west side of Tokyo. I am near blind drunk so please forgive my more than usual mistakes. One of the main reasons for staying in Nakano which is far from my usua drinking holr in Shin Koiwa is so I can eat Butayarou everyday.

Butatariu's shut down days for September.

Omiage from Kokoro chan. She just quit Hotaru and moved to Nagoya. She came back to Tokyo on Thursday so I had to go Shin Koiwa to meet her.

Tried of tsukemen Yasube-e in Shinjuku because the line at Fuunji was at least 45 minutes.

I have to say Yasu-be is pretty good. It's not to tonkotsu but the noodles and soup are pretty good. I wouldn't mind going there again.

Spent Friday night at this anisong bar in Nakano. The impressive thing for me was the existence of cute anime fangirls. As in young females wearing cosplay like clothing coming to a karaoke bar to sing Idolmaster songs.

There's not much talking going on because the girls who work at the bar spend their time cheering, shaking the tambourine and making sure the karaoke queue runs smoothly. Like when you get to the refrain part of your song, they get down on their knees and do that upwards tambourine shake.

Everybody has to stand on the stage to sing. I started with Ryu ga Gotoku songs but they were short and only one other person knew them. Not as fun as singing Go My Way and the whole place doing the chants.

The one real minus for me is no smoking inside. I'd imagine its to make it appealing to female customers.

Saijo and Osaka

Met up with bframe for some yakitori and exchanging of gifts. Hope he's enjoying the 4TB of goodness I passed him.

The Yamanote Line is getting a new station. They haven't figured out a name yet.

After checking out in Saijo, I waited for an hour for Yoroshiku to open. Frame says it's the best ramen is Saijo. I got really excited to see that its thick tonkotsu fish tsukemen.

One of my favorite ramen places is Ittou in Shin Koiwa which specialises in the same exact ramen.

I am sorry Saijo, but Yoroshiku is very pedestrian. The soup and hand made noodles feel very lacking.

Took the Shinkansen back to Osaka and of course I had to get some horumon tempura!

Went to Kyobashi to meet up with Yukimi. Looks like Odaiba is not the only place with a statue of liberty.

Not my first time in Kyobashi but it's the first time I got to walk around. It reminds me of Kumamoto with how compact and dirty it is with plenty of night life activities to do including a nurse uniform girls' bar.

High grade mouth watering karubi.

Can't remember the name of this horumon but it didn't taste good. Made me appreciate how good Yakiniku Hiro in Kyoto was. The original plan was to Yakiniku in Fukushima and then go drinking At Hakushe. Oh well, there's always next time.

Kimi no Na wa / Your name

Went to Toho cinema in Umeda to watch Kimi no na wa. First off, this anime like all Shinkai Makoto anime is stunning to look at. It's worth watching just for the art and animation alone. However, it is also the first Shinkai anime with an actual exciting plot!

The story starts off as your typical body changing comedy between a city guy and country girl before the twist and the exciting ending.

Kimi no na wa reminds me very much of The Girl who Leapt through Time. I would rate it very good, almost must watch. For the love of all that is holy, please do not remake this into live action!

Hikone Castle

First off, typhoon No.12 has landed on Kyushu and it looks bad. I really feel for Kumamoto experiencing an earthquake and typhoon in the same year. All I can say is ganbarre Kumamoto!

Honestly, Hikone castle is pretty boring compared to Kumamoto castle.

Read the last line. I'm surprised I haven't notice people walking around staring at their phones in Japan.

I don't like his acting but I might give it a go.

Beer garden in Osaka but I went to my usual bar in Fukushima.

There's nothing like coming back after drinking with Family Mart chicken.

Yakiniku Hiro 焼肉 弘 in Kyoto

Short trip to Kyoto for yakiniku. The container in the top right contains the 'Dragon Karubi'. I kid you not about the name.

Yakiniku sushi. Unfortunately not as good as the one I had in Saitama though it might be because we took to long to eat them because they were too good to look at.

That's how the Dragon Karubi looks like out of its container.

The plate one the left contains the 'Greatest roast in History ,史上最強のロース'. I am not kidding about the name. I don't know about greatest but it was pretty good. Overall it was good except for the yakiniku sushi.

Stupid Typhoon No. 12

I got lucky and missed the typhoon by one day in Tokyo. Problem is, there is another typhoon working it's way up Kagoshima through Kyushu and I was planning to go Kumamoto and Sunday.

I have been advised to cancel my Kyushu trip because the trains will most likely not run which means I am stuck in Osaka as I have dinner plans here on Wednesday.

Lucky for me, I double booked for Osaka and Kumamoto because someone wasn't sure when she would be able to meet up. I count myself very lucky because last minute bookings are not easy.

The good news is I will be able to meet up with Shane tomorrow and then I'm having yakiniku with a friend in Kyoto.

Japan in the summer is crazy hot. I will never complain about Melbourne summer again. There is hardly any cool breeze blowing at night.

The above picture is from Mitsuboshi seimenjou near Fukushima station. Still my favorite ramen in Osaka. I'm pretty sure I've written about it before so use the search bar on top to find the tabelog link.

Back in Japan : Finally over 86 points and chicken gyoza!

Yes, me is back in Tokyo. Missed the typhoon by one day. Unfortunately, the typhoon went north of Tokyo and caused much death and destruction.

Anyways at Hotaru, if you clear 87 points in karaoke you get a bottle of crappy Jinro or a discount towards your next bottle of whiskey. On Wednesday the hurdle is lowered 85 and I finally got me freaking discount.

I still want to break 87 though. Thanks to Yusuke for reintroducing me to Saitou Kazuyoshi's Zutto suki dattanda.

I first ate chicken skin gyoza at a stall outside Himeji castle. It's not that common in Japan and I've been wanting to eat it since.

Did a google and found out that you could get chicken skin gyoza from Lawson at 60 yen a piece. Chicken skin on the outside, gyoza on the inside. Went to the Lawson at the south exit of Shin Koiwa station but they weren't selling any. Trekked a bit to the north station and luckily the Lawson there was selling. Unfortunately, it was not crispy enough.