March and fun times in Kyoto.
It's March now which I have mixed feelings about. On one hand the weather is going to start getting better, and on the other hand...well you know, I can't stay here forever.
This past weekend I went to Kyoto with my friends Brian and Chris to view some plum trees which are just starting to fully blossom. We went somewhere in Kyoto (a temple I believe) which had a plum tree orchard and supposedly its not even in a lot of tourist guides, and travel books on Japan even though you would expect such a place to be in there. This is a plus; means less 外人(Gaijin). Also on this day it was supposed to be the most popular day to go and view the plum blossoms there, so that was a another plus. I keep forgetting what the name of the place is called, I'll have to get back to you on that.
We had a lot of fun, the scenery and the trees were beautiful and watching all the other people taking pictures was another interesting thing to observe if you payed attention enough, hence the picture above. I ended up taking lots more pictures of people taking pictures of plum trees than taking pictures of plum trees myself(also because I forgot to bring my macro lens). You can see a few more images from there at my Flickr page.
After that we meet up with Midori and went to a place called UrBANGUILD to see a band called グルグル祭り (GuruGuru Matsuri). The guitarist is from a more well known group/band..thing..(not sure how to label this, kind of strange, follow the link) by the name of Acid Mothers Temple. I'm not good at writing up reviews on bands or live shows (in fact, I'm not really good at writing anything as far as describing things go), but it was a really great show. Pretty rockin', good jams and plenty loud. UrBANGUILD was a nice venue as well. Nice atmosphere, small but not too small, just right. They had tables for sitting at to eat your food and watch the show, which was nice, as well as a nice little bar. From the looks of it, the food looked pretty damn good and the beer was also a pleasant surprise, delicious and slightly different than most common beers you get in Japan. Definitely check it out if you come to Kyoto and are looking to see a show.
From there we went back to Hirakata did some bowling, drank some beers and did someプリクラ(Purikura).
Great weekend. Lost my phone like I said, but I got a new one for relatively cheap and my bike is fixed, I can go pick it up tomorrow. So things are pretty good, other than school kicking my ass.
NERD SECTION(again)
More Eva stuffs. I swear I don't buy just Eva merch, but Eva just happens to be my favorite so I have a fair amount more Eva figures, etc. than other stuff.
Anyway, new 'Portraits' and 'Cards' came out. At most convenient stores you can find these Evangelion chocolate waffers that come with a card. They cost about a buck. Every time I go to the store I usually pick up one or two. I usually don't eat the waffer(although they are good), I just give it to someone else. After a period of time they come out with a new set of them, this past week or so, they came out with a new set:
I was even more excited to find out that the next series of 'Portraits' came out. It's up to four now, I've been here while 3 was in stores. But I could still go and pick up the older ones from the second hand shop (really want to do a post about this place soon)or figure stores in Osaka or something
(でんでん rocks, otakus would jizz their pants here). They're sold at most convenient stores just like the cards are; Lawson, Mini-Stop, Family Mart, with the exception that I never really see them at very many 7-11's. Each series usually has about 5 figures and costs around 5 dollars. With only 5 figures you're bound to get plenty of doubles and it can take a while to get the one you want. I think some are more rare then others, so it can get pretty expensive. This is another perk to the second hand stores and anime collectible type stores; give it a week or so and go to a couple different places and look for the one you're looking for rather than continually trying to gamble by buying them at the convenient store. They are slightly more expensive this way, but some times you can find them for damn near the same price.
So far I have Rei, Shinji, and Mari. Shinji is not pictured because I forgot him at my friends house. It looks like the two Asuka's are the harder ones to get. Same thing happened to me with the last set.
綾波レイ
真希波・マリ・イラストリアス
I think that about does it. S'all I got for now. Until next time.