Cosfest @ Downtown East

Okay, now that I've got a bit more time, I'll elaborate more on the day's events.

This cosplay event was at Downtown East, in Pasir Ris, which is just beside my town, Tampines. Because I love cycling so much, I decided to cycle all 6 kilometres just to get there. With me was my trusty Canon Powershot IS (actually, my mum's).

I got there in barely half an hour, and was greeted with this sign:



It seems the Tourism Board has prepared for Japanese visitors too. Very impressive.



This is how my bike looks like, by the way. It carried me all the way from there to here, so it deserves a little mention, at least. Urata's Numero Uno, coloured in what I'd like to call 'Caterham Yellow'.



Here's the main hall.



There's a smaller one to the side, mostly a waiting area for cosplayers during the cosplay exhibition in stage. I decided to check it out, anyway, and lo:



They were all on discount, but being the poor pitiful young man I was, I could only afford a $19 wooden kunai. In the end, I got myself a catalogue.



OMG only $39.90! Plus CD! I really wished I had at least $40 then. The stallholder was even willing to reserve it for me.





All sorts of posters and stuff at the Kare Kano no Mise (some Singaporean Otaku shop company or whatnot) booth. I couldn't snap any close-ups, sorry.







Losta fanart stuff too, on the benches at the corner of the hall.



BTW, it's actually Arisa Mizuhara. I'll remember that. ;)



I couldn't bring myself to buy this. Not only am I poor, I'm thrifty.

Moving on, let's have some cosplayer pics!





Believe it or not, this was the very same guy in the picture in previous post at the MRT station. Doing the same character, no less.



Back at the side hall, the cosplayers are getting ready to make their entrance on stage. I particularly like this picture here, cos they look so natural, and I've never had so many girls smile so adorably at me before (I'm deprived). I wished them 'ganbara!' after the shot, to which they gamely replied, 'arigato!'

Of course, you can't expect all cosplayers to be that friendly. found that most of them are quite aloof, or only close to their friends. Ah, well, it's natural. Either that or I'm being too extroverted.



Here they are, all on stage.



Pink Chii's the organiser of this event, or so I suppose. You can see black Chii in the row behind.



A close-up on the panel. We got some big names there, like the director of some Japanese Godzilla movie, a director of this thing, a manager of that company... And pink Chii.



At this point of time I got bored with the stage exhibition, so I only took one picture of Yuna (I saw her at Ngee Ann as well) before going around and shooting the non-performing cosplayers.



Pretty awesome, this Archer costume. I never thought one could pull it off so well. It's well enough for me.



Not sure where they came from, but the costumes are fantastic all the same. My camera lens wasn't wide enough to capture the Nodachi in full length, sorry.





I don't know who the character she's portraying is but I saw a mob of cameramen surrounding her, and just decided to join in. Nicely done, you don't get a lot of cosplayers who can do it so accurately.



Cloud demostrates to Shana and a Kimono-clad girl how to put his sword together.



I bit blurry, but you can clearly see Chikin Little and Shana snapping her cam at the Spidey behind him.









I love the costumes, even though I don't know where the outfits came from. Now I realize how much of a noob I am when it comes to knowledge about anime and manga. (BTW my favourite is the last one)









The Danny Choos (coincidentally, Darkmirage calls Stormtroopers Danny Choos as well) were present too. This scout trooper just got pwnt by a Star Trekkie.



There happens to be another Ichigo cosplayer, no surprise. The Rukia person didn't pull it off very well. My friend calls these people, who can't make it either because of their bodies or faces, 'cosfucks'.



There were reporters present as well. Can't wait to see this creepy face on TV.



I was drawn back to the stage when I heard the Hare Hare Yukai song playing. My cam didn't have enough memory to film the whole thing, sadly.



I stuck around long enough to watch a Kingdom HEarts skit, before moving on again.



The gang, and Guy Haruhi, the same one from Ngee Ann.



It seems that Yuki's a guy too. I think.







Back to the Grafitti wall. It's a bit more filled up now, and everybody was gathering round to watch this pro in a kimono in action.





Honestly, her drawing's really wonderful. Plus, she's a left-hander, a good sign of artistic quality.

One thing about conventions is that you soon runout of places to walk, and end up walking around the same place again and again. You also would happen to meet the same few noticeable people again and again, like somebody in an SOS-dan t-shirt, somebody with an ill-porportioned head, some fat dude in a Command & Conquer 3 shirt, etc. I never saw Darkmirage and his patented 'I am Darkmirage' shirt though.



Here's Shana. I think she's okay enough (the shoes are a bit too much), much better than a plump Sakura (from Tsubasa Chronicle) I was watching on stage, or another plump Sakura (from Fate) whom I saw at one of the bench-booths. There was a tubby Yomi, Chiyo and Osaka trio too.



Another personal fave of mine. The poor girl, she had no pockets to keep her Siemens phone, and I had to hold on to it while I snapped this shot. The guitar looks suspiciously like my Fender Strat, but it turned out to be a Suzuki immitation.









My spoils! Here they are, arranged on my table. A Haruhi necklace, a Haruhi postcard, a Death Note postcard, three Ouran High postcards (I'm practically a beggar, evidently), and the catalogue.

The event in whole was fun, and it was a real shame for me when I left at 5pm and rushed home (the run over Pasir Ris flyover was much harder than when I rode it from home as it's going uphill and there were lots of bumps and sudden turns) to catch my weekly screening of Rec on Animax (I sincerely think they should give it more air-time, it seems like an entertaining show to watch), only to realize that the 5.30pm slot was for a repeat telecast of Music Station, which I've already seen on Friday. What a friggin' waste.

Lucky Triple Seven

I need to find a way to get more hits on me blog... -_-;;

The day started with me completing yet another Physics chapter on the ten years series. Waves Properties is pretty easy stuff.

Later I spent the afternoon at Changi Beach Club with the family to attend a Wedding Solemnization Ceremony. I heard from somewhere that the Singapore Registry of Marriages has registered exactly 777 marriages today. Wonder what they did to the 778th registerer, though.

I was in green camo pants on that day, too. Only cos I didn't have a green shirt. Happy Green Day, y'all. Or rather, Al Gore Day.

The solemnization was quite short, nothing interesting, no pictures taken. I interested myself in mixing orange squash with Coke and wolfing down custard puffs and Otah.

It was over as soon as it started. After a satisfying lunch with Custard Puffs and Otah, I heard for the Karaoke lounge for a couple of songs. I found Romaji lyrics for two certain classic Japanese songs, つぐない and 愛人, and accompanied my mother in a duet as she was more familiar with these songs. It felt really cool, as I found myself training my Hiragana reading skills while watching the subtitles roll.



I headed down to Ngee Ann City (the largest Japanese-people hangout in Singapore) afterwards, where this Cosplay Event was taking place. I was planning to document this event a bit, so that I have something to put up on my blog. ^_^ I'm noticing a lot of Cosplay events springing up lately. There's slated to be another one happening at Downtown East. This time I'm planning to dress up like L. >.<

Anyway, they had police officers and metal detectors there. And no wonder, good ol' LKY's making an appearance there too.




This group was performing when I got there, dancing to that irritating Seifuku theme from らき★すた. Later I realized that the Haruhi cosplayer was a guy. -_-"






Quite a lot of interesting stuff in display there too. I still have yet to find out who that Heterochromia Iridium-desu-desu Maid in Green is.





There were quite a lot of Danny Choos present too.



Just had to take this one. It's very rare to see Orchard Road free of cars.

Later on, as things got a bit drearier I decided to hit The Heeren Mall nearby to cool off. I found a really huge HMV store there which took up three levels. It was pretty much the Kinokuniya-at-Ngee-Ann-City equivalent of a record store. Nearly all CDs I could think of, I could find. There were even imported (expensive) albums from Japan, like those of Angela Aki and Gazette. It was then that I realized just how much of a Swaa-koo (one who is uneducated about the world) I was.





Grammar error...







A few more pictures later and I was ready to take the MRT back home. (The last picture was taken at the station itself) Back at Tampines, I decided to drop by Tampines Mall to check out the Isetan Hokkaido fair. It was frighteningly crowded, as everything was crammed into a moderately small area in the middle of the mall. I did manage to snatch some shots, though.








Multitasking at its best.

I think I should go back there again some time. I didn't manage to see all the stalls, let alone identify the things I've taken pictures of. Also, I want more Gelato. Suzuki-san makes some great Gelato.

Reporting... The 2007 J-rock Matsuri

I just recently changed my blog URL, for two main reasons:

1. I decided to come up for a theme for my blog. My theme is 'Tokyo in Singapore', and reflects my mild obsession over Japan and all things Japanese. While I don't live in Tokyo, the least I could do is find things similar to Tokyo here in Singapore, while is surprisingly numerous and prominent. All this encompasses 'Our World'

I woke up at 8am this morning after a good 6 hours of sleep (returned from karaoke with my parents at 2am last night), well prepared for today's big activity. Before that, I had to get today's worth of revision done; the new Integration topic in A. Math. I had to get up to speed with all I missed during the times in class I whiled away doing planning work on my upcoming series of short stories (more about that later).

2. While I was signing up an account for dannychoo.com, I realized my old URL was too long to fit in the 'Website' box. :P

Today was the day of the 2007 J-rock Matsuri, held outside Orchard Cineliesure mall. I contacted my buddy for the day, Shaun, only to find that he had been up to something all early morning and was ready to hit the sack by the time I called. Boo him. Looks like I'm on my own.

I contacted Darkmirage too, but he never replied. :P

With the help of Google Earth I drew up a route to get to the venue. Google Earth is a really wonderful thing, it is.

My journey begins like most journeys to the train station, through the park on my bicycle. Nothing out of the ordinary, and I was blasting Muse on my mp3 player as I cycled. Risky, but entertaining. I get the feeling that I'm going to do a lot of cycling if I do reside in Tokyo, relying on my bicycle to get to certain places (work, public baths) as fast as possible while evading the heavy traffic in Shibuya or Akihabara. As I've said on my KH blog so many times before, I enjoy cycling a lot. I'm very intimate with my bicycle, and with so many years of experience I can maneuver it expertly with only my left hand, leaving my right hand free to sratch my back, tinker with my mp3 player, or even hi-five a random person down the street.

From Tampines station I ride the densha to Somerset, of course transferring at City Hall station. A bit of walking later and I've reached Orchard Cineliesure.



Not exactly what I'd expected. It was pretty small, and the band playing when I got there wasn't exactly the best J-rock thing I've heard. That's alright, I've already long since accepted typical Singaporeans as being substandard in all areas, and covering J-rock songs, and even composing original J-rock songs, are no exception.



The actual place is tiny, and hot, even in the shade. Most of the audience was outside the barricade.



(Left)Aiiiii can give you Gatsbyiiiii Gatsbyiiiii Gatsbyiiiii...



The tape is too narrow.



Shaun told me that majority of the Goth Lolita cosplaying community puff cigs. The sign was quite clear to see, and the cosplayers weren't sucking sticks, but the other plain-clad spectators were.



One of the better performances I caught, only because they were doing a song I knew (Dir En Grey's Red Em). They covered it pretty well, and the singer remarkably sounded a lot like Kyo. I couldn't hear the guitar solo though, as the drums were too loud. That's the same problem I always encounter when jamming with my band at Paradise Jamming Studios.



The emcee's got the moe voice down, but not the language itself. She says 'Matsuri' like 'Mat-su-ri'.



They don't do J-rock. Wait a minute, I found something more interesting. Let's take a look...



Ah. Sweet.



Most of the cosplayers there tend to crowd around Orchard Cineliesure's main entrance, mostly for the air-con, a cooling relief from the sweltering heat outside. I really pity them. One of them had even donned a pink snowcoat for the event. Silly girl.

I decided to check out Orchard Cineliesure too, as I never never been in there before. By this time my lousy Amconics camera had run out of batteries, so no more pictures. I checked out this tiny Otaku shop called Rapid Culture at the third floor and found a neat 5-piece SuzuHaru figurine set at $22. If I had that much money on me then I'd have bought it straight away. Oh, the poor boy I am.

I did have $7 though, but I didn't have enough brains, so I decided to dine in the Kobayashi stall at the basement level instead of the Yoshinoya at the first. The Gyuudon they served there had miso soup all over the tray, gravy spilling over the rice bowl, a tasteless piece of cauliflower, and tough chunks of beef.

I removed the chopsticks from the paper cover bottom tips first, then realized, much to my dismay, the top ends were joined together, like they always used to with the older wooden hawker centre chopsticks (I've gotten used to the newer 'two seperate sticks in plastic pockets' version). But, it's all part of Japanese tradition, so I embraced it with pride and love.

What I really did was focus all my energies into break the bond into two equally flat pieces. For the longest time I had never managed to get it right, and one end would always be bigger than the other. Watching Azumanga Daioh has taught me that this is a sign that I'm clumsy. Quite true, now that I realize it.

It came off perfectly, by the way. I celebrated my newfound skill by wolfing down the pathetic $7 Gyuudon.

I'm never eating there again.

I decided not the stick around any longer. After exploring the rest of Orchard Cineliesure and aweing at how grand it all was, especially as I ascended the top few escalators, I headed back home. On the way back from the station I took a detour to the nearby Community Centre to buy a top-up card for my phone and the check out the Japanese Language classes there which would be commencing in August. I plan to take up lessons as I find I'm not going to go very far any time soon at the rate of how my self-learning is going, and I need something that I can unwind from my hectic revision every Sunday.

Then it's back to home. I have never yearned for my own bed so much, apart from those other times when I'd stay outdoors for over 12 hours at a time, which is rare.

That's all for now. I'll update on the Short Story thing later on.

My last publish was March 20th. As I happen to be quite free right now, what the heck. Time to revive this old thing. Gonna get me a new skin too.

Just recently I caught word of this webcomic that's been around for quite some time now. Being a former fan of the Bonus Stage webtoon series, a lover of all things Japanese, and an avid manga fanatic, I decided to check it out myself. This webcomic is called 'MegaTokyo', it is done by a slightly-obese 20-something white (presumably Wapanese) guy called Fred Galla- Ah, whatever. The last name's hard to spell. For a white guy, his knowledge of Japan and its people is quite impressive. He draws really well too. The story was a bit boring in the first hundred or so strips, mainly revolving around two American guys and their random adventures in a fictitious Tokyo, especially with the character called Largo (who is a representation of Fred's co-producer for this comic, Tony Caston. The guy with red hair up there) running around blowing people up, guzzling b33r all day, and modding computers n3kk1d.

My hopes weren't completely let down, though. The protagonist, Piro (with the glasses), is a really interesting character, especially since he was modeled after this Fred guy himself. He enjoys Visual Novels, speaks incredibly fluent Japanese for a White guy, is easily smitten by 15 year-old Japanese schoolgirls, and plays as a female character in a certain fictitious MMORPG. Later on, he even gets to find love in this other equally likable character. I can really relate to him. If I happen to be able to meet him in person, I think we'd be good friends. He's good to be friends with.

Sometime down the road as I'm progressing with each page I realize that Tony Caston had left the crew. I only realized that when I noticed Largo's silliness and annoying attitude died down, and he got funnier. I did read a Wikipedia article about Megatokyo, and it did mention Tony abandoning the project, but I wasn't really sure when that happened. Think it was sometime a year ago, judging from my estimations (I don't read the blog entries underneath each strip. It takes too much time, and Fred/Piro likes to rant a lot). Boo to you, Caston. Piro's version of Largo is way better.

I don't want to spill too much information, so I suggest you go read it yourself*. Mind you, this webcomic started in 2000, and seven years later it's still going strong with just over 1000 strips (of course, the Shirt Guy Dom* and Dead Piro Day* strips did contribute). There are plenty of extras in it too, like side stories, mini drama-series featuring the cast of Megatokyo, even comic artist rants (though not a lot). It touches on the not-so-comfortable lives of Japanese idols, a fantasy-like Tokyo city where potential bad guys sign permits commissioned by the local Police Force so they can destroy the city, |/VCR3D|B13 13375P34K, cute cosplay, the 3vils of Otaku, and anime rip-offs (which pulled off really well).

(Speaking of rants, I found that Piro (the character and the actual person) seems to be quite t3h Emo. He has very little self-confidence in himself, thinks too lowly of himself, and this tends to hinder his admirable ability to support a trice-a-week webcomic series. It took the biggest toll in the beginning, where there'd be several days when he couldn't work out a proper script for the next strip and would just leave us with a message saying, 'can't do anything, sorry, am taking a break, will continue next week...' It's really good for him that his fans are (as quoted by him) "the most patient fans in the world". And I think he really deserves it. Keep up the good work, man. It's worth the wait.)

Back on topic, the thing I liked most about MegaTokyo was that Fred did it with a strong sense of bearing and a clear awareness of what he had to do. He effectively touched on certain sensitive issues, like how one's low-self confidence could ruin the life of the person closest to him, and how the 'Otaku effect' affects the idols they worship to the point of insanity and ruthlessness. Besides that, the storyline itself is compelling. Compelling and complex. So complex I don't know how to summarize it for you.

That's all for this 'revival'. Just a little extra info, I took 3 days to cover all 1000+ strips from day one-2000 to the one done some time this afternoon. In total I spanned not more than 8 or so hours. Even I never knew I had such m4d5ki11z.