Tokyo Sky Tree

 

"Tokyo Sky Tree" will be seen in the Narihirabashi/Oshiage area of Sumida Ward, Tokyo in 2012. Boasting a height of 634m, the tower will be one of the world's tallest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos by Tristan Gomez

13th Domanaka Festival (Nagoya, Japan)

 

The Domanaka Matsuri is the largest dance festival in the Chuba region, with 210 dance teams and 23,000 performers taking part yearly. It will be held from August 26-28, 2011.

Here are some pictures taken by a friend of mine.

Japan Stuff: Aibon Eye Wash

Aibon is an eye wash used after removing contact lenses. I highly recommend this product to all contact lens users. It helps refresh your eyes after so many hours of wearing lenses.

Here is the one I use:

Japan Stuff: かき氷 (kakigoori)

Kakigoori is a famous Japanese dessert especially during summer. It is made of shaved ice and topped with flavored syrup. You can often see it at omatsuri (summer festivals) and even on convenient stores.

Today, on our way home, I saw a kakigoori stall. And since it was very hot, I decided to buy for me and my son. It costs ¥100 (about 50 php). Eventhough it was self-service, the staff was very nice to assist me on how to make it since I have no idea how to do it haha.

Here's the shaver:

Nintendo 3DS: Price down

After half a year of its release, Nintendo announced that they will be selling 3DS almost half the original price starting August 11, 2011. They call it the Ambassador Program. From ¥25,000 they will lower the price to ¥15,000. Isn't that great? I'm actually planning to buy it on the 11th hehe. And since the price dropped dramatically, gamers who bought 3DS in its original price will be able to download ten games for free. One game software ranges from (4,000-6,000¥).

Here's the original link of the announcement made by Nintendo (in japanese)
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/3ds/ambassador/index.html

K-ON Second Live Concert Out Now!

To all the K-On! fans out there, the DVD and Blu-ray of their second live concert, "Come with Me", was officially released in Japan last Friday.

I've watched some parts of the video and one thing I can easily say is that Aki Toyosaki can definitely sing live and emcee!

I'm also glad that they san both opening songs (as I find them both to be both fun and hard to sing), as well as their goodbye song, Tenshi ni Fureta Yo!

I won't write a comprehensive review, not until I've watched the entire concert and understood it anyway. But after scanning some parts of it, it was evident that they followed the same format as the successful first concert, combining voice acting showcase with lots (more than the first concert) singing.

All songs were sung live (looks like) but only some where played live, which is okay considering the seiyuus aren't musicians to begin with.

I'll post more about this concert and maybe include the setlist as they become available to me.

But I'll leave it like this for now, if you're a K-On! or an Aki Toyosaki fan, missing this video would be a sin.

Ciao!

World Cosplay Summit Parade 2011

I was browsing my news feed in facebook when I saw pictures of this event, World Cosplay Summit Parade 2011. The pictures were so nice and uhm, pretty? haha.I wanted to blog about it but I needed to ask the owner of the pictures if I could use it. And luckily, he agreed! Yay. I have asked 2 friend photographers if I could use their pictures, taken of course, here in Japan for our blog. They both said yes! That’s good news right?

To start of, I know nothing about this event. I had to look it up over the internet!

Here’s what I got from http://www.tv-aichi.co.jp/wcs/e/what/index.html

The "World Cosplay Summit" was created to promote international exchange through the Japanese youth culture of manga and anime.
The free and dynamic nature of manga was instrumental in the birth of cosplay. Nowadays youth from around the world find this as a common language and a dynamic new form of global interaction. The World Cosplay Summit began in Osu, Nagoya and has grown to include 15 countries from around the world. If you count audience and participants at each preliminary event, the number of people involved is now in the 100s of thousands.

For youth who have discovered Japan through manga and experienced Japanese culture through the medium of the World Cosplay Summit, we endeavor to continue the development of this new form of international exchange.

I won’t be writing much about the event. I just wanted to share the pictures. And oh, this year, it was held at Nagoya, Japan.

Food Trip #2: Costco Pizza

Aside from cheap wholesale/retail items, another thing that I love about Costco is the food court. We went to Costco Kawasaki last Sunday and I was able to grab my favortie pizza! I bought one slice and a whole combo pizza (16 or 18 inches, I'm not really sure hehe). The price? 1,500 yen! So cheap and yummy.

Better not miss the pizza if you visit Costco.

Japan Stuff #9: Obon Festival

Obon is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the departed (deceased) spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors' graves, and when the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the household altars. It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori.

This is similar to All Soul's day in the Philippines.

This year, 2011, Obon yasumi will fall on August 13-15. It is one of the major holidays in Japan. Vacation sometimes extends up to one week depending on the company.

(Credits: Wikipedia)

Food Trip #1: Arashi Ramen (らあめん花月嵐)

It is summer here in Japan but it has been raining for a week. That is why the weather is kinda good. Not so hot, not so cold especially at night. Today, I went out with my son to eat ramen for lunch. Ramen is a japanese word but I believe everyone is familiar with it.

The first time I ate at Arashi Ramen was at 白楽駅 (Hakuraku Station), two stations away from the nearest station in my place. But today, we ate at 大倉山駅 (Ookurayama Station), one station away. I am not sure how many branch they have but I believe they are kind of famous.

I wasn't able to take a picture of the store so I had to google it.

Cars 2 now showing in Japan

Cars 2 will be shown in cinemas starting today. We'll be watching it tomorrow though. Not only my son is excited about it but also me! It'll be my first time to watch a movie in a cinema here.

Opening of a movie here is called ロードショー (roadshow).

Sprite

First time I've seen Sprite here in Japan! The bottle is like old-fashion though.

Just an update, sprite is being sold in it's original early 80's retro packaging.

Ikemen #1: Tamura Atsushi (田村淳)

Ikemen (イケメン) is a japanese term which means good-looking man.

I would probably write reviews about Japanese ikemen but for now, I'm just going to introduce talents which I think falls in this category.

Atsushi is one of my favorites! He is cute and funny. (ﾟ∇^*) ﾃﾍ♪
Can you believe he's already 38?

Japan Stuff #8: Japanese Flower - Ajisai

紫陽花 (Ajisai) is a Japanese flower which blooms during the rainy season. This is around July, where spring is about to end and summer's about to begin. My japanese teacher introduced this flower. She told me that it likes rain (雨が大好きだって).

Here are some pictures I took last month.

Japan Stuff #7: Gokiburi!

ゴキブリ (gokiburi) means cockroach. It's summer once again and they are starting to invade apartments and houses. This is one of the reasons why I hate summer in Japan! You don't get to see much insects especially cockroaches during the cold seasons.

Last night, I was surprised when my husband came back in the room after getting a glass of water. He was like feeling mad and uneasy. When I asked why, he said "ゴキブリがいっぱいじゃん" (There are cockroaches!). I told him to not mind them. But he couldn't haha! He went to a convenient store and bought this cockroach trap thingy. I prefer this one rather than those spray cans. You'd probably be able to figure out how this thing works based on the pictures!

This box contains 5 pieces.

Japan Stuff #5: Mcdonald's Mobile Application

I'm not sure how I could edit my previous blog about this topic using blogsy that's why I'm making a new one.

I am not really a fan of Mcdonald's Japan probably because they don't have rice meals. Anyway, most Japanese people knows about Mcdonald's app and unfortunately, my husband was not of them which means I know nothing about it as well. So, i was browsing the app store and Mcdonald's application was on the top 25 free apps. Because of curiousity, I downloaded it. What the heck, it's free anyways. The next day, I used the coupons. Haha.

The application:

Let's explore the app!

otaku dot ph is re-launching!

It has been a while since our last post (not including the Anime Review I just posted a few hours ago), and obviously this is due to uncontrollable instances. I had to transfer jobs, chokoreitou had a life-changing earthquake and tsunami to deal with. But now that we’re back, we’re going to be so much better.

With the help of our newest member, otaku dot ph will be re-launching soon!

Yes you’ll see new designs and probably a new logo to go with it, but that’s not all.

We’ll be covering more topics (yey!) coming from more writers (yey!).

I won’t give away everything right now, though, just to keep you guys thinking. But here’s a teaser:

Based on a personal survey I conducted (with a sample size of three people :P) I found out that people who like Anime also like, wait for it, Gaming! Boom! So yeah, we’ll be reviewing games and gadgets, and trust me, we’ll be as updated as we can with the latest gadgets and games out in the market.

In fact, I couldn’t wait to get started that I’ve written my first Game Review before I wrote this announcement. I won’t be posting it today, though, so please check back very soon. :)

The official re-launching is scheduled on August 1st, but you won’t have to wait that long to enjoy the new goodies we will have to offer.

In the next few days (that’s tomorrow or the next day), the new segments will start showing up.

By mid-July, the new site layout should be up. A couple of weeks after that the site should look completely refreshed and by August 1, otaku dot ph 2.0 will be up and running.

So tell your friends and keep coming back, cause, you know, WE’RE BAAACK!

(wow, that ‘rhyme’ sucks)

Road destroyed by Japan quake fixed in six days

I was watching the morning news, I think a week ago and I was amazed by what I saw.

At first, the host showed a picture of Kanto Highway which was destroyed by the massive earthquake that struck Japan on March 11, 2011.

Here’s a picture of the road:

After seeing the picture, I said to myself that it might take weeks or probably months to fix this road.

And so the conversation of the hosts continued. After a couple of minutes, they showed another picture of the road taken six days after the reconstruction of the road began.

I was very surprised upon seeing this picture. I believe you would too.

Amazing isn’t it? Who would have thought that, that road could be fixed in six days?

After all, Japan is Japan. Ganbare Japan!

Japan Stuff #4: White Day in Japan

White day in Japan is celebrated on March 14. It is like the Valentine's day for girls! Guys who received chocolates from girls whether chocolate of love or obligation chocolate on Valentine's day are expected to return the favor by giving gifts which are more expensive. So, if I give a 100-yen chocolate to my special someone, should I expect to receive like a 1,000 yen worth of gift? Sounds great! :) I've heard that the chocolates men buy are in white boxes. After all, it's "white day" right?

That's all I can share for now. I will probably post more about this topic after March 14th!

Japan Stuff #3: Valentines Day in Japan

In Japan, it is the women who give presents to men on Valentine's day. They usually give chocolates. Valentine's day is a great opportunity for women to express their feelings to the man they like. Darn, I don't want to spend valentine's here! I want to receive chocolates! Oh well! :)

Received chocolates? Don't be too excited! They might be obligation chocolate ("giri-choko" in japanese). Women usually gives this to their co-workers, bosses and male friends. This chocolates is for showing gratitude and no romantic interest.

Also, sending of Valentine's card and greeting of "Happy Valentine's Day" is not common in Japan.