Visit to Musashino Art University and Gaikaku Saien
Saturday
I went to Musashino Art University (a.k.a. "Musabi") for their open campus. It's one of the universities I plan to apply for next year so thought I would take a look at their place. The train ride took half an hour and the walk from the station to the campus took another half an hour. I have a map to the campus but I wasn't expecting it to be THAT far. XD; There's supposed to be a bus ride there but I didn't know of it.
The place looks great and it's a hell lot bigger than my old university. I bought some books that compiled the past extrance exam questions of the uni and there was one question that seems to be very... unique. It has something to do with DORAEMON. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to show the inside of the book in public, so I'll probably do it in a friends-only entry later. ^_^;
They also had a TV showing a preview of the live-action Hachimitsu to Clover movie. I just found out they used this university to record the university scenes in the movie!? D: I shall assume all the artworks used in the movie are of the students there, too? Anyway, the preview was nice. Hagu is now a painter and not a sculptor? (I'm not sure about Takemoto) I can see that the movie is visually impressive, though. The scene where Takemoto first met Hagu had cherry blossom petals flowing in. XD; But the most impressive scene in the trailer was when Takemoto(? or Morita? can't remember who) was staring at Hagu's painting alone and cherry blossom petals were coming out of the painting and then the scene faded to white. It felt like an American Beauty moment (but I haven't even watched that movie).
Sunday
The day I've been waiting for months! The Tales of the Abyss-only event GAIKAKU SAIEN @ HAMAMATSU! I spent 2-3 hours the night before listing down the circles I need to visit and which doujinshi to buy, even made tick boxes for who wants what because many of my friends requested me to buy some copies for them, too. But you know what's stupid? I FORGOT TO BRING THAT LIST TO THE EVENT. Such a waste of effort (hey, is this an Ansem quote?). It's a good thing I actually wrote down the list, though, because some things still stayed in my head so I still was able to get most of the books that were requested.
So, uh, I got lost reaching the building the event took place in but that's nothing new. :P It's a good thing I went out a lot earlier this time because I reached there just 5 minutes after the gate opening time. Or let me rephrase that: I reached the entry queue just 5 minutes after the gate opening time. This is what I saw once I reached the queue.
After 15-20 minutes of still queueing(sp), I saw this from afar.
I later realized how far I was where I took the picture.
And it doesn't end down there! Once we get into the building, we still had to queue up the stairs and all that. The result? Queueing for an hour to get to the real entrance of the event at the 3rd floor. So much for reaching there early. 8D (Next time I go to an event I need to be there an hour earlier than the gate opening time)
The place wasn't as big as, say, Tokyo Bigsite but it was still a huge hall. The popularity of some circles just simply AMAZE me, though. I had to line up for 45 minutes to buy doujinshi from one of my most favourite circles. The line got so long they had to have 2-3 staff members to organize the queue so that they won't block paths and other circles' spaces. XD;
Anyway, main highlight of the event?
I MET UP WITH KAJIMARO-SAN!!!!（サイト晒させていただきますよ！） Kajimaro-san and I have known each other for quite some time since last year (back in the Tales fandom days). She was planning to go to Gaikaku and she noticed I was too, so we exchanged e-mails the night before and decided to meet up there.
And at the event, I saw Kajimaro-san actually putting up a SIGN saying "MAIKI-SAN LOVE"!!! XDDDDD While being amused at her, I spoke up to her and she was like so excited to see me that I got an insta-glomp from her! XD She introduced me to her friend Ryuuya-san (リンク失礼します！) who is also a KH and Saleh fan and then all three of us went fangirling over Akuroku and we drew Akuroku in each other's sketchbooks (TAKARAMONO GETTOOOO!!). After that, we all (2-3 more of Kajimaro-san's friends joined in) went to have supper at a fast-food restaurant and we did MORE sketching there. So now I have some Saleh, Roxas, Asch and even Tales of the Tempest's Caius in my hands, whoohoo!
That was such a fun experience!! I never get to find anyone who has the same interest as me ever since I got here so FINALLY being able to fangirl over something in real life, and in Japanese even (good way to practise your speaking skills!) was... just... I dunno! FUN! AWESOME! AMAZING! I'm out of words! Seems like Kajimaro-san's going to Natsukomi and I'm definitely going there so we might meet up again in August, yay!イベントでもう言いましたが、本当に会ってくれてありがとう!!新しい方々にも出会えて、いろんな話をしてすごく楽しかったです！是非また会いたいものです!!
And in the end, result of my doujin-shopping?
.... Those who requested BETTER be buying back at least most of this stuff or I KILL. XD; (I think I spent around almost 30,000 yen on all of these)
Edit: Oh, Kajimaro-san just editted her blog with report of yesterday, too! XD HOLY SHIT, HIJIKATA-SAN WAS AT GAIKAKU!!!??? ちょっと、なんで誰も言わなかったの！？大ファンなのに・・・!!! 人違いかも！（゜∀゜）
I went to Musashino Art University (a.k.a. "Musabi") for their open campus. It's one of the universities I plan to apply for next year so thought I would take a look at their place. The train ride took half an hour and the walk from the station to the campus took another half an hour. I have a map to the campus but I wasn't expecting it to be THAT far. XD; There's supposed to be a bus ride there but I didn't know of it.
The place looks great and it's a hell lot bigger than my old university. I bought some books that compiled the past extrance exam questions of the uni and there was one question that seems to be very... unique. It has something to do with DORAEMON. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to show the inside of the book in public, so I'll probably do it in a friends-only entry later. ^_^;
They also had a TV showing a preview of the live-action Hachimitsu to Clover movie. I just found out they used this university to record the university scenes in the movie!? D: I shall assume all the artworks used in the movie are of the students there, too? Anyway, the preview was nice. Hagu is now a painter and not a sculptor? (I'm not sure about Takemoto) I can see that the movie is visually impressive, though. The scene where Takemoto first met Hagu had cherry blossom petals flowing in. XD; But the most impressive scene in the trailer was when Takemoto(? or Morita? can't remember who) was staring at Hagu's painting alone and cherry blossom petals were coming out of the painting and then the scene faded to white. It felt like an American Beauty moment (but I haven't even watched that movie).
Sunday
The day I've been waiting for months! The Tales of the Abyss-only event GAIKAKU SAIEN @ HAMAMATSU! I spent 2-3 hours the night before listing down the circles I need to visit and which doujinshi to buy, even made tick boxes for who wants what because many of my friends requested me to buy some copies for them, too. But you know what's stupid? I FORGOT TO BRING THAT LIST TO THE EVENT. Such a waste of effort (hey, is this an Ansem quote?). It's a good thing I actually wrote down the list, though, because some things still stayed in my head so I still was able to get most of the books that were requested.
So, uh, I got lost reaching the building the event took place in but that's nothing new. :P It's a good thing I went out a lot earlier this time because I reached there just 5 minutes after the gate opening time. Or let me rephrase that: I reached the entry queue just 5 minutes after the gate opening time. This is what I saw once I reached the queue.
After 15-20 minutes of still queueing(sp), I saw this from afar.
I later realized how far I was where I took the picture.
And it doesn't end down there! Once we get into the building, we still had to queue up the stairs and all that. The result? Queueing for an hour to get to the real entrance of the event at the 3rd floor. So much for reaching there early. 8D (Next time I go to an event I need to be there an hour earlier than the gate opening time)
The place wasn't as big as, say, Tokyo Bigsite but it was still a huge hall. The popularity of some circles just simply AMAZE me, though. I had to line up for 45 minutes to buy doujinshi from one of my most favourite circles. The line got so long they had to have 2-3 staff members to organize the queue so that they won't block paths and other circles' spaces. XD;
Anyway, main highlight of the event?
I MET UP WITH KAJIMARO-SAN!!!!（サイト晒させていただきますよ！） Kajimaro-san and I have known each other for quite some time since last year (back in the Tales fandom days). She was planning to go to Gaikaku and she noticed I was too, so we exchanged e-mails the night before and decided to meet up there.
And at the event, I saw Kajimaro-san actually putting up a SIGN saying "MAIKI-SAN LOVE"!!! XDDDDD While being amused at her, I spoke up to her and she was like so excited to see me that I got an insta-glomp from her! XD She introduced me to her friend Ryuuya-san (リンク失礼します！) who is also a KH and Saleh fan and then all three of us went fangirling over Akuroku and we drew Akuroku in each other's sketchbooks (TAKARAMONO GETTOOOO!!). After that, we all (2-3 more of Kajimaro-san's friends joined in) went to have supper at a fast-food restaurant and we did MORE sketching there. So now I have some Saleh, Roxas, Asch and even Tales of the Tempest's Caius in my hands, whoohoo!
That was such a fun experience!! I never get to find anyone who has the same interest as me ever since I got here so FINALLY being able to fangirl over something in real life, and in Japanese even (good way to practise your speaking skills!) was... just... I dunno! FUN! AWESOME! AMAZING! I'm out of words! Seems like Kajimaro-san's going to Natsukomi and I'm definitely going there so we might meet up again in August, yay!イベントでもう言いましたが、本当に会ってくれてありがとう!!新しい方々にも出会えて、いろんな話をしてすごく楽しかったです！是非また会いたいものです!!
And in the end, result of my doujin-shopping?
.... Those who requested BETTER be buying back at least most of this stuff or I KILL. XD; (I think I spent around almost 30,000 yen on all of these)
Edit: Oh, Kajimaro-san just editted her blog with report of yesterday, too! XD HOLY SHIT, HIJIKATA-SAN WAS AT GAIKAKU!!!??? ちょっと、なんで誰も言わなかったの！？大ファンなのに・・・!!! 人違いかも！（゜∀゜）