Japan

Day1

Day 1 consisted of us traveling. Hanada Airport's a nice place. Can't say the same about who's coming along. Alright, I expected this, but I still don't enjoy the prospect of so many kids. I like kids. This group, on the other hand, is filled with ChaoticNeutrals. Two of them tried to open the emergency exit of the plane. At cruising altitude. Once I get back, I can do the appropriate calculations to see when I'd die should they succeed.

That said, it's still nice to be here. Single digit temperatures aren't that bad once you cover your ears. It feels like you're in a giant air conditioned room. That's the size of Japan. Fantastic. Some of the kids look like penguins.

I checked the rooming list. Nice. At least I'm not the odd one out. There's a 12 year old girl too.

Note to self: Find her. XD

So, the plane was decent. Sat next to some Japanese dude going home. Looks like he's in his early 40s. Didn't talk much, because his English isn't very good, and my spoken Japanese is atrocious. Understanding it is a different story. But I digress. Dinner was nice, being Singapore Airlines. I don't like soba noodles. Had a decent tailwind of around 100 to 200km/h, so we got here about an hour ahead of schedule.

There was Hatsune Miku on the airplane playlist. XD

Dunno what the guy sitting next to me thought of me, though I know that Japanese frown upon otakus. Another reason why I prefer it there in Singapore. God, this change in location really screws up the pronouns. It's no longer here in Singapore, it's "there", or "back".

That's it for Day 1 of 8.


Day2

Woke up one hour too early. Damn you, internal clock. It's only an one hour change.

I'm screwed if I travel any further.

I need to learn katakana. I can barely read what's on the schedule, mainly because of all the katakana (24, if I remember correctly), I only recognize 7 or so, and that's not very useful when reading signs. I can work out what each means given a proper transliteration, like a list of movies in Japanese and English, but it doesn't encompass everything. So, yeah. Gotta learn.

Gonna go for breakfast soon.

Breakfast was decent. Went to Mt. Fuji, and promptly learnt why people climb only in summer. It's cold. Very cold. And we were only at the fifth station. Alright, so it's more than halfway up, but it's still cold. Without the wind, it's like single digits above zero. Once the wind comes in, it drops to single digits below zero.

I certainly didn't enjoy the freezing fingers and ears. Other than that, it was fine.

BUT, I didn't go to Fuji-Q to see EVA-01. Damn. So, Akihabara's a must now. Or at least, get some merchandise, like figmas or CDs.

Went for lunch, checked out the ice caves. Some parts are terrible for anybody more than 1.2 meters tall. I'm part of that group.

Found the 12 year old. Let's put it this way. Her weight to age in years chart appears to be y=10x.

Checked into our new residence for now. It's not a hotel, per se, but it's not a brothel, so I'm fine with it. Tomorrow better be nicer. I came mainly to feed my... hobbies. And to feed the pockets of those smart enough to print an Ore no Imouto design on a shirt and sell it for a lot more than otherwise possible.

I settled it with some buddies. We get one Haruhi, K-ON, Index/Railgun, Durarara, Ore no Imouto, and a few more for future animes. And, we get rich. Splendid.

And, that's Day2 done.


Day3

Breakfast. Meh. We did fishing in the morning, followed by people slicing the fishes open from what I assume from the urethra to the gills. Then everything in there gets dug out, then they are impaled. Then they're salted, smoked and eaten.

Delicious. And interesting. Yes, I'm unstable. But my point about its tastiness still stands.

Went to a farm, cursed the freezing wind, milked a cow, cursed the freezing wind, rode horses named Arashi (Storm), cursed the freezing wind, went into the shop, cursed the freezing wind, ate ice cream, muttered comments about the inanity, and yes, cursed the freezing wind.

Have I mentioned how much I hate the wind?

Yes, yes I did. About half a dozen times.

Had a small campfire, where I got picked to light the fire. And that means I was happy. Very. Except for the part where I had to say something. Since I was told to say something about Singapore and Japan, and the first thing I thought of was the highly cliched "To friendship between Singapore and Japan", I gave it my best LargeHam impression. Damn right, I had fun. Dinner was decent. The fireworks were too. HANABI.

And yeah, we're packing stuff 'cause we're moving hotels tomorrow.

The 12 year old's sister, a 10 year old girl is way nicer. The easiest way to describe her looks is like Ritsu, with a white hairband. And yes, I do find Ritsu cute. A bit clingy, but I like her.

End Day3.


Day4

No complaints. I played Hare Hare Yukai on taiko drums, I won a Kagamine Len figma at the arcade, I saw a ton of Grade B and A zettai ryouiki, and I got myself winter clothing. XD

There were Rebuilt!Evangelion iPhone covers, but they were iPhone 4s, so none for me. I wanted Asuka or Mari's covers. Maki, mainly, because I still prefer Asuka to have Soryu as her surname, not Shikinami. My NaNoWriMo character is named Soryu, after her, not Shikinami. It just doesn't have the same effect.

Imagine this. There's a man about to be interrogated/tortured. He's in a dark room, and there's no light. A door opens, and light shines in. A male silhouette appears, and a man speaks in a creepy and threatening tone, "Hello, there. Call me Mister Soryu."

Or would you rather he say "Hello, there. Call me Mister Shikinami." Not as threatening, if you ask me.

I've got what I came here for, so, I'm ready to leave. But, there's Disneyland and Disneysea. So, that's for the next two days, followed by a free day. Then back to Singapore on an overnight flight, and I'll catch up on Ore no Imouto.

So... My (new) hotel has a public bath. A public onsen.

What.

And of course, a more private shower room for guests not inclined to flaunting their bodies in front of strangers.

Right...

I won't be in the public baths then. It's called child pornography. Well, I'm technically a teenager, having crossed puberty, but the point's that I'm under 18 and/or 16. I'm 14. The age of consent is higher in most countries and under international law.

Dinner was pretty good. We went to a nearby shopping center, where almost everybody decided to choose the same shop. Quite amusing. Said 12 year old also appears to be an otaku. Gotta ask her tomorrow about her anime and preferred ships.

I get the feeling that her sister, the 10 year old has a crush on me. Odd, but I don't mind. She's a nice girl. And on the idealistic end of the sliding scale. She can't get into GEP, and she's aiming for 290.

All I can say is, get more cynical, or more of your dreams will be crushed by the world. I need to get more idealistic, so that I'll stop crushing my dreams before I get to throw them out to the world. NaNo was a great start.

Battleship Yamato is finally releasing their live action movie.

For those of you who don't know, let me spare you the trouble of Googling. It's the future. Mankind's in deep trouble, as you might have guessed. An alien civilization contacts Man and says, "If you can get people to our planet, we will give you tech that will fix your current issues."

So, Mankind digs out Battleship Yamato, retrofits it into a space battleship, arms it to the teeth as per its original design, and sets off. 30 episodes, 30 days. Three guesses whether mankind succeeds. The roadshow's tomorrow, though I don't think I can catch it. My dad downloaded the whole series already, since it was in his era.

I just realized. If we both like K-ON, and she asks what character I like most, I'll say Ritsu. And it'll be quite awkward, since her sister isn't exactly subtle with her attraction.

Day4 ends here.

Day5

Disneyland.

Boring. Third time here, second in slightly more than two years. Nothing much that I haven't seen. Thunder Mountain fits in that small category. It's a high speed roller coaster with sharp turns and short drops. Boring. I saw someone that looked, sounded and had the same name as Sugita, Kyon's seiyuu selling smoked turkey wings. Knowing my luck, it is him, and I hadn't got an autograph.

Lots of Yui-esque stockings. Of the remainder, many Grade Cs, and many schoolgirls.

I'm waiting for the 1.30 parade now. Boring~

The parade, however, isn't. Took quite a few pictures. Slightly more than fifty, as a matter of fact.

Same for the next parade. And somehow, the day ended.

It's 5.30pm, and I'm at the Tomorrowland restaurant. In front of my dinner. Quite a few people sleeping on the tables, which are actually quite nice. I'm not, because I've got my music and this entry to type up.

I haven't met, or even seen a single family, apart from mine. My mum wanted me to go for LASIK once I'm old enough. I rather keep my meganekko appeal, thank you very much.

Come to think of it, should I cosplay? My parents, although supporting, are just poseurs. They try their best, but yeah. When the only things you've watched is Battleship Yamato, you tend to be terrible at imitating in the first place.

So, cosplaying will be kinda difficult. And I can only go for characters with glasses, since I don't wanna use contacts.

So, who wants me to try Gendo Ikari, manipulative bastard extraordinaire?

I can already do the tented hands, complete with the white gloves, and the two-fingered glasses lift.

Tried out my new beanie today too. Awesome. I look like Danny Choo also. As a bonus, it kept me warm, and my earphones fit inside quite nicely too.

Tomorrow's Disneysea. Once that's done, I'm settled for the trip. I'm trying to get to NaNo's TGIO party, but my flight arrives at 7am, so it might be a bit dicey.

Here lies the end of Day5.

Day6

Disneysea. Smaller, but the rides are more interesting. Still, I went for them already, so it becomes small and boring. My wound from excessive taiko drums is healing. There's a nice scab I want to remove, but it's still a bit sore. Once I return to Singapore, it should be fine.

We kinda finished all the interesting rides (relatively speaking) before lunch, then met up with the large family to go on rides together. Yes, I'm pairing myself with the obvious choice, just for fun, and just to drive up the UST.

The trumpet/military band was awesome. Everybody went to take pictures with the saxophonists and trumpeters. Only one person went to take one with the bass drummer. A rather cute bass drummer, as a matter of fact.

There isn't enough love for drummers. They keep the band running to the correct beat. They become even more important in a military band or parade, because they're in charge of keeping everybody moving to the correct beat, no matter how loud they are. Some are painfully loud, others quiet enough so that others can remain in the spotlight while loud enough to be audible by everybody in the formations, if they're paying attention.

The last kind of drummers get the least recognition, but they're the best. In a military band, you're there to listen to the bagpipes (who only seem to play the same few tunes), trumpets and other wind-based instruments. The drums, not so much.

Enough ranting.

We left at 5pm, then went for dinner. Arcade was next on our stops, and I saw a Maid!Mio at a shooting game. 30 shots for 500 yen. It appeared that we only needed three accurate shots.

First shot netted me a block. So, two more to go. How hard can this get?

Twenty nine shots later, the two blocks were still up, despite at least a dozen hits to each. Damn you, arcade.

My dad and I gave up.

We went to the bookshop next, and I, like Yuki at the library, floated to my favorite section. In my case, the manga. There were the first 45 books in the Bleach manga, countless Naruto books, all 12 Death Notes, first two Durarara mangas, the first 10 Evangelions, two Disappearance of Nagato Yuki, first five Haruhi-chan, first two Ore no Imouto, first 7 KissXSis, and quite a few yaoi manga I didn't recognize.

I got the 5 Haruhi-chan manga, and promptly remembered that I needed to brush up on my katakana. Took quite a few pics, which along with everything else, will go on FB.

Costed me about 2000+ yen. I wanted the KissXSis, until I remembered that it'll be very awkward reading them on the MRT. Evangelion's incomplete, and I already finished Death Note.

So, that's gonna be hand luggage. Along with my Kagamine Len figma. Yes, we can skip Akihabara, 'cause I'm more than happy with what I've got. Still, I'd like to have a Maid!Mio. There was also a Maid!Tsumugi.

Nah, Mio > Mugi.

So, I've got a list of stuff to do once I get back. First, Haruhi series wallpapers from Danbooru (all hail the absurdres tag). Second, instrumental versions of Lucky Star songs (and change the artiste on Kagami's to Hiiragi Kagami). Third, revise katakana (or make small katakana table for wallet).

And NaNo's TGIO party. Can't forget that. I shouldn't bring Tupperware, because my parents think I'm going for tuition. I can just tell the teacher I was too tired from my holiday.

Which will most probably be true. Right, off for a shower, then packing.

Tomorrow's free, so let's see what we end up doing. Personally, I'd like to sleep in, but we're checking out at 8.30. There's a program about AKB48 at 1am, but I ain't staying up to watch. Sleep is still important.

Day6 has ended.

Day7

I just realized how much I want Nagato's headphones. You know, the white bunny earphones?

They're awesome!

Anyway, got to a bookshop just before the flight. It's quite interesting. No mangas for me this time, because there's nothing I'm interested in. I went to get a magazine, mainly for the Kirino nendoroid. There was an Evangelion clock too, but nah... I don't need a clock, and you can never have too many figmas/nendoroids.

As far as all of you are concerned, I went to Akihabara.

I got a Chibi!Mari from Rebuilt!Evangelion. Yay. That's going on my bag. She looks so cute!

Also, a set of 5 bookmarks. There's Ore no Imouto, Toradora, Haruhi-chan and two more I don't recognize.

And of course, I uh... convinced my father to buy me the seventh KissXSis manga. It's blackmail material.

I look like Danny Choo. An odder version, but a resemblance nonetheless.

So. Hanada Airport. I'm at the gate. There's an hour to go before the plane arrives at the gate. Should I watch a movie before sleeping, or should I even sleep at all?

Sleep, it is. I'll make a playlist first, of course.

And there we go. Day 7. Day 8 technically begins in the airport too, but I'm not writing about my dreams. They're getting weirder and weirder. One dream I had was about a movie that (obviously) doesn't exist, but I had innate knowledge of. I was a nameless bystander who stopped following the plot, and I could see the direct consequences to every action I made. The movie ended with me killing the antangonists with a stimulant-induced heart attack, and the protagonist getting tortured to death by a mook he attacked.

It was very interesting, to say the least.

I bought an EVA-01 from the airport. It's about 15cm tall, just big enough for my shelf.

I don't think I'll go to TGIO. I need to catch up on a lot more sleep than expected. Next year, next year. I should write an interquel/prequel for my novel and the 2011 novel.

For interquels, I can write it from the point of an enemy Major, Major Andrew, from his role as a security head racing to find the intruder, to him dealing with the Dominion Carpark Explosion, to leading an unplanned attack on the protagonists' base with two men of the same rank, and discovering friends in unlikely places. Then he gets backstabbed, and Andrew weighs his options, as his former comrades declare him a traitor, and set his men on him.

Wonderful. Lots to write about.

For a prequel, we could explore just how the whole thing began, with all the blackmailing, threats and more. Just for once in my life, I'd like to write something with more layers and gambits than Death Note. This'll be the perfect time. Every character could try to further their goals by second-guessing each other, and we could have more than one scene where a character boasts, only for someone to quote Death Note and say/mutter, "Just as planned!"

And of course, a ton of shoutouts, accurate statistics and awesomeness. I promise each novel would have more CrazyAwesome. My first NaNovel had two dueling giant mecha, and a character killing a giant crab via explosive decompression. In the span of a few thousand words. No MarySues were created in the production of my 2010 NaNovel, though quite a few MarySue tropes were played straight, deconstructed, or discussed to varying degrees.

Look. MarySues aren't superpowered characters. They're characters without equivalent challenges. Almost all of my named characters, if dumped into most stories, would be GenreSavvy enough to find the BigBad in a day or two, hunt him down, and invoke ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill.

My characters stay normal, because they're facing each other. Some of them have exoskeletons to complement their intellect and strength in unarmed and armed combat. Some have an army or a fleet at their command. Some are just ManipulativeBastards/MagnificentBastards. Whatever they are, they know about the Second Law of Plot Dynamics - ConservationOfNinjitsu, and they seem to be tropers, or at least, they're GenreSavvy enough to know if they're entertaining/interesting, they won't die.

God, I write a lot when I'm bored.

Still, this trip has been really useful, and not just for the merchandise and the winter clothing. Bump of Chicken has a new single.

And for my bases. The protagonists' base should be more angular, and gothic. I'm basing it of the night Tokyo skyline, since it's the closest the world has to a technological city. At night, lights will blink along to satellite arrays, all pointing at various constellations, geostationary satellites, or towards places beyond the horizon. Weapon systems will be concealed in the trees, bushes and along the beaches. Not on the beaches, since I glassed one of them with a 43MT explosion from a kilogram charge of antimatter, spread out over fifty canisters of twenty grams each. It's actually 42.96MT, but I'm putting it as 43MT, because people don't care about the exact size when the explosion destroys two giant robots before they can even attack.

The antagonists' base will be more rounded in comparison, and more hidden in the natural vegetation, so that from a cursory inspection from sea, it's only an uninhabited island. From a different angle, it's an naval base. It'll be based mainly on rural Japan, with picturesque hills, small turrets disguised as bushes, rocks and small wooden huts. The main base would be mainly underground, with two large parking lots guarded by machine gun nests, with an electrified fence surrounding it. One now, after I blew up one of them with several tons of smuggled military explosives and some other stuff to form an ingeniously rigged small-scale implosion type fusion charge. Anybody who does their research knows it's bullshit, and I make no attempt to hide it. I lampshade how they and everybody somehow don't get killed by the heat, radiation or overpressure. The guy who created this in-story shrugged, agreed, and continued as though nothing happened.

Watched Hanamizuki on the plane. It's an awesome movie.

God, I'm tired. Right. I'm finally home though.

Whee.