m0n5t3r's small collection...

[V2]

its a good thing you pushed through with your trip. i cancelled mine since it was just 2 weeks after the quake/tsunami/nuclear incident and it was still chaotic (plus if you're going there for vacation and everyone's suffering/depressed its just not right) so its a good thing they're doing better when you went there. i'm thinking of rescheduling it on november-december instead. isnt it the tokyo metro subway system insanely confusing at first?

nice to see you've managed to check out the good shops - and yeah... some of the things you cant find locally or in hk can be found there. pretty breathtaking isnt it? and the deals on the prices - some are just too good to be true - especially if its so expensive locally/online and its just that cheap in japan.

OH, AND CONGRATULATIONS ON GETTING THOSE VF MASTER FILES & TENJIN ARTBOOKS! they're really great "reference" stuff for valks! i always recommend them to VF fans since they also have some good "sci-fi explanations" and a good amount of english text!

how much did those t-shirts cost you? and how does their size compare with our local sizes?

[m0n5t3r]

thanks for the replies guys...

V2

Hey, man…

We almost canceled ours too... we were supposed to go to Japan probably the same time you were planning to go…

We just got the latest possible free re-booking that was available. sayang kasi yung plane fare coz we paid for it last year pa since we got a great deal - 2 adults and 2 children for the price of one adult ticket.

It was not as we planned but still a great experience. My wife liked it so much there she's already planning a return trip next year. Sana matuloy coz it’ll be the 30th anniversary of Macross... ;D

Yeah, Tokyo's train system is waaayyy more complicated than HK's. What was confusing was the big train-map at the stations only showed you the cost of the ticket and not the destination, and there were so many exits per station and very few maps to guide you to which exit you want to use to get to where you're going. But after acquiring an English language map of the railway system we were able to figure it out by our 2nd day there. I actually prefer the JR line to the subway line/s... my partiality stems from the fact that we were staying at Shinjuku, and Nakano was one station to my left and Akiba was a couple of stations to my right... less stops and cheaper fare. ;D

Akiba is one BIG BAD INFLUENCE! Breathtaking is an understatement, haha... Everywhere I looked there were toys, trinkets, gadgets and Evangelion pachinko machines!

If I weren't cutting down on my toy purchases I would've brought home 2 balikbayan boxes filled with toys and figures. It took a lot of willpower on my part not to buy any more than I did esp. the great deals that were there to be had. One thing though, there weren't a lot of Yamato valks and they weren't cheap. Also, I thought the Gundam Cafe would be huge...

I'm really glad I was able to find these VF Master File books and Tenjin artbooks. I was really looking for them from day 1 and there weren't any in Mandrake at Nakano... they did have tons of hentai manga, lol. But they did have a vintage artbook stall were I found my minty first issue Macross Perfect Memory book which I am loving to bits. Too bad I wasn't able to find the vol. 1 of the VF-1 Master File book... and the VF-25 Master File book was released a week after our stay there (pretty much the same story with the release of the Ipad 2)... I wish Kinokinuya would open a branch here.

Another "sayang" that I found out about was the Sunday when we were in Shinjuku, Shoji Kawamori and Tenjin Hidetaka were at Ikebukuro for a MacF magazine release... literally just a few minutes away (by train) from where I was! Sayang lang coz Kawamori-san decided to meet and greet the people lined up to get a copy of the magazine. Oh well...

The shirts I got from UNIQLO were only 1500JPY each. There were also a lot of One Piece shirts there. But I think these designs are just a limited promotional thing... maybe they'll have new Gundam designs in the future. As for the size, it's smaller than usual... their Large size is the same as the Medium size for the Cospa shirts.

Good luck with your upcoming trip there... I wish every anime fan here will have the chance to go to Tokyo and experience Japan's unique culture for themselves.

...oh, and if you do push through with your trip let me know if you find a vol.1 VF-1 Master File book in Tokyo

might as well post pics of some of my updated displays:

...never thought i'd find a reasonably priced, mint, untouched Figma Saber Lily without the game.










btw, if anybody is interested, i decided to sell my VF100 Armored Alto... just PM me.