Aiska's Adventure in Little Tokyo, LA
OMG I was in heaven throughout the whole trip. Never had I felt like I wasn't a weirdo for liking Japanese things. Well except to my young cousin who was kinda bored with the trip but kinda had to bring her along (Also had to keep her away from the hentai and steered towards the cute erasers).
But anyways let's start out with the cute. These were bought at the shop across the way from the Hello Kitty megapaloozza .
I got a ducky keychain and a kawaii notepad which so I can have cute notes posted around my dorm room.
Next on the stop was Anime Jungle the 1st. I was a blissful otaku. Never had I seen so much anime merchandise. It was insane the selection they had. And there was even gashapon! They were only sold in sets though and too high-priced but it did make me feel more confident about the merchandise I had bought online that will hopefully arrive at college after I get there. They'll be little pick-me-ups for the first week of college.
Here we have the keychains/phone charms I picked up at Anime Jungle. Squalo and Xanxus from Katekyo Hitman Reborn! as well as France from Hetalia. Fran is also from KHR! and I got him at the big book store Kinokuniya which I will talk about later. (And also found out that someone is way overcharging for items at garagesalejapan *coughcough* sasuke2itachi3 *coughcough* I mean I understand trying to earn a buck but you do that through the shipping & handling; that's way easier to exploit when shipping overseas)
I also got cloudy here at anime jungle. And no I didn't get the dissidia version because he was cheapest >.< I couldn't find an AC version for some reason and I wasn't getting CC Cloud with Cadet uniform because...just not cool...though I could've gotten Kadaj instead tho....ah well.
I did go to Anime Jungle the 2nd but they just didn't have what I needed. The only GazettE cd they have was the new Shiver single which I already bought and a pretty beaten up magazine from probably a couple years ago. It was funny having to do the whole "I know they look like girls but they're really guys...yes I'm sure...no really they're guys...I swear they're guys...how do I know? Lots of experience" to my aunt and cousin. I actually think I got my aunt into Gackt which I'm unsure is a good or bad thing.
So after Anime the 2nd we went to the Kinokuniya. It was like someone had taken a bookstore straight from Japan and deposited it in the middle of downtown Los Angeles. I was in awe as I scanned the shelves seeing things I had only seen in blurry online scans. And this is what I bought there:
KHR! vol 15 (cuz it has Xanxus) in english and Fullmetal Alchemist vol.5 in japanese (I have it in English so it's to practice translations). It was interesting to see the size difference between the mangas. Also it was interesting to see the price differences as well. The english manga cost $10 while the japanese manga cost $5.50. Anyone else feeling jipped by the english publishers here?
Finally from Kinokuniya I got one of the promotion materials for the new Kuroshitsuji season the Black Tabloid with Alois and Claude on the cover. It seems to have large art images though I haven taken off the shrink wrap to check yet. It's larger than your average piece of 8x11 paper.
And yes Chibi I did get your origami star paper.
But anyways let's start out with the cute. These were bought at the shop across the way from the Hello Kitty megapaloozza .
I got a ducky keychain and a kawaii notepad which so I can have cute notes posted around my dorm room.
Next on the stop was Anime Jungle the 1st. I was a blissful otaku. Never had I seen so much anime merchandise. It was insane the selection they had. And there was even gashapon! They were only sold in sets though and too high-priced but it did make me feel more confident about the merchandise I had bought online that will hopefully arrive at college after I get there. They'll be little pick-me-ups for the first week of college.
Here we have the keychains/phone charms I picked up at Anime Jungle. Squalo and Xanxus from Katekyo Hitman Reborn! as well as France from Hetalia. Fran is also from KHR! and I got him at the big book store Kinokuniya which I will talk about later. (And also found out that someone is way overcharging for items at garagesalejapan *coughcough* sasuke2itachi3 *coughcough* I mean I understand trying to earn a buck but you do that through the shipping & handling; that's way easier to exploit when shipping overseas)
I also got cloudy here at anime jungle. And no I didn't get the dissidia version because he was cheapest >.< I couldn't find an AC version for some reason and I wasn't getting CC Cloud with Cadet uniform because...just not cool...though I could've gotten Kadaj instead tho....ah well.
I did go to Anime Jungle the 2nd but they just didn't have what I needed. The only GazettE cd they have was the new Shiver single which I already bought and a pretty beaten up magazine from probably a couple years ago. It was funny having to do the whole "I know they look like girls but they're really guys...yes I'm sure...no really they're guys...I swear they're guys...how do I know? Lots of experience" to my aunt and cousin. I actually think I got my aunt into Gackt which I'm unsure is a good or bad thing.
So after Anime the 2nd we went to the Kinokuniya. It was like someone had taken a bookstore straight from Japan and deposited it in the middle of downtown Los Angeles. I was in awe as I scanned the shelves seeing things I had only seen in blurry online scans. And this is what I bought there:
KHR! vol 15 (cuz it has Xanxus) in english and Fullmetal Alchemist vol.5 in japanese (I have it in English so it's to practice translations). It was interesting to see the size difference between the mangas. Also it was interesting to see the price differences as well. The english manga cost $10 while the japanese manga cost $5.50. Anyone else feeling jipped by the english publishers here?
Finally from Kinokuniya I got one of the promotion materials for the new Kuroshitsuji season the Black Tabloid with Alois and Claude on the cover. It seems to have large art images though I haven taken off the shrink wrap to check yet. It's larger than your average piece of 8x11 paper.
And yes Chibi I did get your origami star paper.