So, the other day, I had nothing to do, so I decided to use my commuter pass and wander around one of the stations between home and work.

I ended up at Hon-Chiba, and found myself at a castle…with cosplayers all around. In addition to that, the castle isn’t really a real one, just a cultural museum made in the shape of a castle for tourism purposes. There was a castle around this site long ago, but not of this scale, and a different design.

Nonetheless, why the cosplayers? Coincidentally, I showed up on a day where cosplayers decided to hold an event to just showcase their costumes and to just have fun.

So, this is Square-Enix’s 25th anniversary of their long-running game, Dragon Quest. So, what do they plan to do to celebrate this event? Collaborate with the Japanese convience store chain Family Mart and release for a limited (and I mean limited) time, slime shaped steamed pork buns.

These were incredibly hard to come by (or at least for me they were). These went on sale for five days (11/29-12/3), and when they were hot and ready for sale, they were sold out in hours, if not minutes.

I heard that they sold so much so quickly, that they sold the buns for two days (which days depended on the store), and limited to two per person.

I went to four Family Marts only to find sold out signs at all of them. Luckily, one of my co-workers went to the store early enough to spot them, and got one for me. Taste is the same as a regular pork bun, but the looks were all what it was about.

After a long delay of neglecting the blog and just wandering around Japan (and now back in America to finish school, to immediately go back to Japan in August), these are some pictures from Kanazawa （金沢）in Ishikawa Prefecture （石川県）. These pictures were taken around the Higashi Chayamachi （東茶屋町）area, with buildings representative of feudal Japan. I went back in October, so it was still rainy, and taking pictures while holding an umbrella proved to be a bit of a challenge. I’ll go back someday when the autumn colors are in full effect.

I’m sure we’ve seen those documentaries on Dateline or some other prime-time/late-night news show, about taking a cell phone, computer, or some device away from someone for a while, observing their reactions, and getting the subject’s opinions and thoughts. I feel like I’m in one of those experiments.

Your eyes are your best camera, but my memory card (brain, har har) doesn’t have the capacity to hold all of those pictures. That’s why my camera is my lifeline to remembering everything I do, every place I go, and everyone I meet.

Sure, I live in Japan, the country that somehow is able to throw in a high-megapixel, decent-lens camera into their phones, but I still like to have my Pentax in my hand with the sound of the shutter. Also, I’m pretty sure DSLR > Cell-phone camera, anyday.

But life goes on. Not smoothly without the camera, but it goes on, nonetheless.

There are tons of fireworks festivals coming up soon, and repair time will be about 3 weeks, so I may have to either 1. keep the camera and use manual focus for the fireworks and turn it in later, or 2. turn it in and pick up a cheap dslr or toy camera (maybe the Blackbird Fly Twin-reflex camera or D40/D60) for the time being.

If anyone has any suggestions (I have a pentax k-x), feel free to comment.

These pictures come from the roof of the Ghibli Art Museum in Mitaka. Tickets are somewhat difficult to obtain because you have to reserve in advance, but luckily I recently befriended someone who lived in the city, and residents can get tickets anytime. At this point, I’ve got a grin on my face, and excitement running through my veins, knowing I’m getting into the museum of my favorite animation studio.

If you don’t know about this robot, it comes from the movie “Castle in the Sky” (天空の城ラピュタ). For anyone who hasn’t seen the movie and wants to, I won’t go into the details about the robot, but to see this 1:1 statue of it, the scenes of the movie just go through your mind. Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli know how to animate and convey a good message at the same time. So does Pixar, but I can’t compare both since they have different animation styles. I love both animation studios anyways.

There’s usually some kind of concert like this twice a week, so it’s a cheap alternative. You sacrifice the atmosphere, but you get to save 10000yen or so. I say it’s a good trade-off, seeing that I”m still a college student.

Today’s picture is again from my treks into Mt. Takao. This picture was taken on the Inariyama Trail (稲荷山), which is probably the advanced course on the mountain. This part of the trail has you hop across stones to go upstream to reach the next part of the path. The only pinch occurs when people come from the opposite directions, and everyone has to hop onto different stones to avoid jumping into someone…resulting in both people getting wet and sliding down the brook, lol.

The next few posts will have pictures from my various climbs up Mt. Takao (高尾山). It’s a mountain easily accessible from Shinjuku station, and there are various trails to take and tons of wildlife to see. Popular with both tourists and Japanese. This picture is from the course most people take; although it’s paved, there are some steep spots.