Toy shopping in Den Den Town

As my 50th post I thought I’d show off a bit of my Otaku side….

So on Monday it was a bit rainy here in Nara and I decided to take a train out to Nippombashi, Osaka and do a little shopping.  Due to my friends back home talking about Gundam alot lately I decided I wanted to go out to one of the biggest Gundam stores in Den Den Town and pick up one of my old favorites.  So this is going to be a picture chronicle of shopping in Den Den Town and what you might see when you go there.

Nippombashi station entrance

About a 1KM walk from the station is Den Den Town.  But I forgot to get a picture of one of the signs…

The beginning of Den Den Town, you can already see the Zaku

From here I decided it would be best to head right into the Joshin and get to business.

The big Gundam Display, can’t miss the building.

If you are coming here for Gundam specifically then you can just skip the first floor.  Best to take the escalator up to the second floor, and you’ll be greeted by this

A giant fist!?

From there the fun really begins

Do you want to look like Char at your next Halloween party?

Here is a display case with LOADS of Gundams doing battle.  Its like a case of collectors dreams. “NO PICTURES!” Don’t worry I’m not taking any pictures, I’m just looking around…

And we haven’t even really walked into the Gundam portion of the store yet…

And you are still missing another isle on the left side here

As we come in I’ll kind of show you around.   Here is a good bit of the HG Universal Century stuff

PG Gundam Astray Red Frame anyone?

Or how about this guy?  Master Grade Destiny

Extreme “BEAST?” Mode…LOL

On the way back down to the first floor this is in the stairwell…

A nice description of the different levels of Gundam, or at least most of them.

In case you didn’t know ZOIDs are big again, and have been for quite some time.

Of course I couldn’t leave the store without snapping a picture of some of the statues.  I do love me some Mio from K-On!

And as you leave the store this guy is almost 5’6″ tall.  Kinda hard to miss.  Some kid had just got done putting the fingers into the rock n’ roll posture so I had to get a picture of that.

SO METAL!!!

After leaving I headed over to the Other Joshin.  Thats about 5 or 6 stories tall and snapped photos of the model cars and planes.  And also some of the RC stuff.  When I was a kid I always dreamed of visiting the Tamiya store.  So a store like this is a dream come true for me.  Almost every Tamiya everything was on display here.  It was amazing.

There was a row for Tamiya Bodies, there was a row for wheels and tires, there was a row for paints, there was a row for electronics.  There was a row of RC kits.  There was a row of suspension and drivetrain goodies.  It was like heaven on earth.

There was a racetrack in the back corner setup making alot of noise and quite a few people gathered around it.  Interesting to watch.  But good for me so I could snap a few pictures of the custom drift cars in the glass cabinet that said “no pictures” once again…mwahahha

Custom drift skyline

custom drift Z

Trouble finding wheels for your oldschool ride?  What do you fancy?  Maybe some SSR FM?  What about some Techno Shadows?  That’s right everything is here…  From Watanabes to Volks, widened steels to Work Equips.

If you have a chassis, and the perfect wheels what about a perfect body to cover it all with?  Everything from Civics to Zs.

Moving to the next floor….
Maybe the famous Mazda 787B is more you speed?

Maybe you prefer 2 wheels instead of 4…

Maybe flight is more your thing?

Or if you really wanna blow some stuff up…

Of course I had to visit the car racing floor…

Thats right a floor dedicated to racing and diecasts, as a collector of hotwheels and scale car models in childhood this is like a heavenly floor…

This would have been my fathers flavorite floor I believe.  When I was a child he had lots of train sets.  And we played with them.  And here is a floor dedicated to model trains.  Its kind of a big deal here…

One more floor left, the model floor.  And things glue together models (mostly cars).  Now on the racing floor I was a bit disappointed by the lack of Toyota chasers/crestas/soarers.  But here they more than made up for it.

SOO BEAUTIFUL!!! All the Shakotan you could ever want!

And the best wheel selection I’ve ever seen.  Whats your favorite?

So finally left probably spent a couple of hours in here. then headed to my next favorite spot that’s last on the way out of Den Den Town.

I’ve only got a few but Bear Bricks are SUPER popular here.

So awesome…here’s just one wall.

My favorite, I do love me some graffiti.

And if you like Daft Punk….

This place is full of old used stuff…you like Dragon Ball Z?

And to end this all I ended up with HGFC G-Gundam 1/144th

Still my favorite series.

If you visit the flickr photoset here http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigtoepfer/sets/72157632530654975/with/8385749986/ there are alot more photos.  This is just the ones I thought most interesting.  Hope you enjoyed.  Let me know if you want to see more stuff like this.  Thanks for reading.

Cajun Night Before Christmas

Cajun Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas an’ all t’ru de house, Dey don’t a ting pass Not even a mouse. De chirren been nezzle good snug on de flo’, An’ Mama pass de pepper t’ru de crack on de do’.

De Mama in de fireplace done roas’ up de ham, Sit up de gumbo an’ make de bake yam. Den out on de by-you dey got such a clatter, Make soun’ like old Boudreau done fall off his ladder.

I run like a rabbit to got to de do’, Trip over de dorg an’ fall on de flo’. As I look out de do’in de light o’ de moon, I t’ink, “Mahn, you crazy or got ol’ too soon.”

Cux dere on de by-you w’en I stretch ma’neck stiff, Dere’s eight alligator a pullin’ de skiff. An’ a little fat drover wit’ a long pole-ing stick, I know r’at away got to be ole St.Nick.

Mo’ fas’er an’ fas’er de’ gator dey came He whistle an’ holler an’ call dem by name: “Ha, Gaston! Ha, Tiboy! Ha, Pierre an’ Alcee’! Gee, Ninette! Gee, Suzette! Celeste an’Renee’!

To de top o’ de porch to de top o’ de wall, Make crawl, alligator, an’ be sho’ you don’ fall.” Like Tante Flo’s cat t’ru de treetop he fly, W’en de big ole houn’ dorg come a run hisse’s by.

Like dat up de porch dem ole ‘gator clim! Wit’ de skiff full o’ toy an’ St. Nicklus behin’. Den on top de porch roof it soun’ like de hail, W’en all dem big gator, done sot down dey tail.

Den down de chimney I yell wit’ a bam, An’ St.Nicklus fall an’ sit on de yam. “Sacre!” he axclaim, “Ma pant got a hole I done sot ma’se’f on dem red hot coal.”

He got on his foots an’ jump like de cat Out to de flo’ where he lan’ wit’ a SPLAT! He was dress in musk-rat from his head to his foot, An’ his clothes is all dirty wit’ ashes an’ soot.

A sack full o’ playt’ing he t’row on his back, He look like a burglar an’ dass fo’ a fack. His eyes how dey shine his dimple, how merry! Maybe he been drink de wine from de blackberry.

His cheek was like a rose his nose a cherry, On secon’ t’ought maybe he lap up de sherry. Wit’ snow-white chin whisker an’ quiverin’ belly, He shook w’en he laugh like de stromberry jelly!

But a wink in his eye an’ a shook o’ his head, Make my confi-dence dat I don’t got to be scared. He don’ do no talkin’ gone strit to hi work, Put a playt’ing in sock an’ den turn wit’ a jerk.

He put bot’ his han’ dere on top o’ his head, Cas’ an eye on de chimney an’ den he done said: “Wit’ all o’ dat fire an’ dem burnin’ hot flame, Me I ain’ goin’ back by de way dat I came.”

So he run out de do’ an, he clim’ to de roof, He ain’ no fool, him for to make one more goof. He jump in his skiff an’ crack his big whip, De’ gator move down, An don’ make one slip.

An’ I hear him shout loud as a splashin’ he go, “Merry Christmas to all ’til I saw you some mo’!”

Author: J. B. Kling, Jr., 1973

As read by me:

Trip to Kyoto

I’m not sure why I never posted this.  I think I tried to and got side tracked or maybe I just never got around to it.  Not sure.

So what happened was I got all packed up one morning on a day off in the second week of October.  Charged up the battery on my camera.  Charged up my phone.  Started packed for the trip.  Getting the bike ready.

When I rode across Kyoto and got to the first attraction and realized I had left the battery for my camera at home. (-___-)
At that point I had pretty much lost the motivation for the day.  But I did take a few photos with my phone and tried to save as much battery life as possible because I also wanted to do a video while I was there.   So after riding all the way across town again I stopped at the river and made a video.  And then went on to see one more attraction.  After that I learned that Kyoto is BIG.  And I’d never do that again.

Not to just run around the city in one day.  I’d do better with the train or bus.  Its just not worth the time.  The city is simply too big and way too mountainous.  I do want to go back to Kyoto however once it warms up a bit and see the sights that I didn’t see.

So without further ad-due here is the video

And a few pictures

 

And that is but a small selection.  If you follow me on instagram you got the full taste of it.  Sorry I wish there was more, but I didn’t have my camera battery. (T-T)

JVLOG Meet: Kansai 2012

So myself and RoninJapan91 put together a little JVLOG meet here in Kansai.  In Osaka to be precise.  We were unable to make it to the big meet in Tokyo for a few different reasons and so we decided that since there are probably a lot of people like us in the area who didn’t get to go that it would be fun to put together a little something in our neck of the woods.

So we did.  On December 8th we had a meet up at Tin’s Hall.  Which is right near Tennoji Station in Osaka.  This place is pretty happening and has been for about 15 years from what I’ve heard.  And its a great little place to get a drink and meet people.  They also have a really good burger selection and make a nice pizza.

SO enough about that you came for the video and pictures right?  Well I took out the GoPro to the meet.  This was my first time trying to use it for something like this. (I still have a bike video I need to post about here (T-T) sorry) And I think it came out pretty well.  As you’ll see I turned it one as we strolled to the station, and then used to do a little videoing at the actual meet.  All in all I think it came out pretty well.

Thanks to everyone to came out and I hope we can do it again.  BIGGER and BETTER!

**BONUS POINTS** if you are a video game nerd like me and can figure out the music that was used in the video.

And here are a small selection of pictures.  If you follow the Cajun Gaijin facebook page they are all there.  And also on my Flickr.

JVLOG KANSAI 2012 poster I made for everyone to sign then later give away.

Unrested and Nanairomiso

ChillinKansai

LaurenNihon and Myself(with awesome Christmas shirt from my grandmother)

RoninJapan91 and MCJangles

And last but not least RobotKoi

Now this is probably a good time to mention (as you see the nice girl standing there)that there was a gōkon (合コン) going on at the same time as our party.  So there were some people who came over to see us and have a chat.  Now a gokon is a mixer or a type of group dating that happens alot in Japan.  Another word for it is Konpa (コンパ).  But these are interesting in that they aren’t generally meant for one night stands.  They are meant with the intention of people forming friendships and possibly long-term relationships.

Interesting stuff. And I suppose your Japanese lesson for today.  Thanks for reading.

Snowing in Nara!

So Saturday when I was on my way home from Osaka I got to my station at about 12:20 AM.  After I was walking for a bit I noticed it was really lonely out.  There wasn’t anyone doing anything.  But it was also really cold…Now normally I only work about 2 Saturdays a month.  And when I do work I com home alot earlier than this.  So even for me it was a bit odd to be out so late.

So I took out the iPhone and started recording a bit.  You can’t really make out the snow in the video so well but I suppose you can a little

And then I took out my camera and snapped some photos around my apartment.

It snowed pretty heavily like that for about 3 hours I suppose.  Or at least that I know of.  I might have snowed through most of the night.  On my instagram I have a picture of a car that has a bunch of snow on it about 45 minutes after the snow started.

It must have been about 2*C it was pretty cold.  And its even colder tonight and for the rest of the week.  All week the low is -1*C.

And they tell me it gets colder in January.  OH MY!

HALLOWEEN

Happy Halloween everyone!

While I didn’t technically go to any parties or anything this week there were quite a few big ones in the Osaka area.  All of my schools had Halloween parties.  Many students said they would dress up.  I even got a 11 letters from one of my classes talking about the party.  Made me happy.

I did go to a party 2 weeks ago.  It wasn’t really a Halloween party it was on the 20th and I did dress up.  I was the only one who was wearing any sort of outfit and alot of people loved it.  It was actually the anniversary party for my friends juice shop.  But it turned out to be a gōkon (合コン) or mixer.  I didn’t know that until I got there.  Was my first experience for that sort of thing.  There were 200 people there.  Normally for these things you pay to get in.  Guys pay more than girls because there will usually be more guys.  This particular party the cost was 3500¥/guys 3000¥/girls.  And it was from 7PM to 5AM.  Because in Japan trains quit running at 12:30AM and it was in a town that is about 40mins away by train from my home station.

Now I got a discount to get in because of my friend so I only payed 3000¥.  But this was Nomihodai (飲み放題) is an “all-you-can-drink” party.  So you pay to meet people, and drink all night.  Now I’m not saying I was drinking all night.  But I did drink a few.  Might as well if you payed to go right.

But I did see a few people I knew and met alot of new people.  Got a phone # and some new LINE contacts.  All in all it was a good night.  Here are a few photos that were taken by one of the guys I met and later forwarded to me from one of the girls.

All were on my instagram but I know alot people don’t follow me there.

This is my friend Maico-chan I met awhile back at NaraStarMix.  I was passing out Glowsticks and GlowBracelets it was a big hit.

Now for the random pictures taken of me threw the night.  I’m probably in over 50 pictures in random phones all over now…
These are just a few of the ones that were forwarded to me by one of the girls I met.

And the sunrise when I finally got back to my station around 6:10AM

Sunset in Nara

About 2 weeks ago I went up to Nigatsudo Hall and took about an hour of video.  I’ve been wanting to capture the sunset or sunrise for awhile now.  Its not perfect by any means and I forgot to even bring a tripod.  So I’ll have to do this again when I’m more prepared.  This was more last minute than anything I just happened to be there with my camera.

Please enjoy and let me know what you think.

New Show?!

Check this out!

 

Me and Anthony(MCJangles) are starting a live show in YouTube.  We are gonna try to broadcast on Sunday nights.  Possibly 10PM JST so thats 7AM CST in America.

Tonight was the first show.  It was planned very far in advance it started at 9:05PM JST and was planned about 15 minutes before that.  They go for about and hour or so but only about 30-45 minutes is the content at hand and the rest is chat time.  If you are there for the live show you get the full experience.  The content is then trimmed and posted up to the channel.

Last nights show was CameraTalk: JVLOG.  Whats in our arsenals and what do we recommend for JVLOGGING.

If you have about 35 minutes there is some good info in there for camera stuff.  But we’ll be working out the bugs and getting this down to a real show hopefully later.  I’ve got some more ideas for guests.  I want to bring in more not so publicized JVLOGGERS lots of guys and gals who aren’t well known and help them grow their channels.  Get them out there.

If you have ideas or tips then please feel free to drop them in the comments here or on the video.  If there is someone you want to see let us know.

JVLOG 003

So I finally got a new one posted up.  Thanks to SuperScheu for the help.

So there it I’ve got another couple of blog posts I need to do.  I just stay busy sorry guys.

Check out Matts Blog here.
http://supershy.wordpress.com/

Its been awhile…

OK.  So I don’t know whats going on.  I apologize at the lack of content.  I say that I’m going to make posts and it doesn’t happen.  But right now I have no excuse.  So here it is a bit of an update.  In approximately 10 days I will have been here for 3 months.

I got my bike and it drastically widened my perspective of my area.  I’ve found 2 new supermarkets.  One is about a kilometer or so down the road and its called Trial.  Its fantastic because its open 24 hours a day.  So that means even when I come home late from work I can hop on the bike and go shopping.

So after I’d been in town for a couple of weeks I went out to Kofuku-ji with a friend on a day off and snapped some photos…for the sake of saving my time and yours I’m only going to post a few…

The day my bike came in was when Typhoon Guchol came through, maybe you heard about it.  I got a good picture of it coming over the mountains from Osaka because work was cancelled that day.

 

 

Then I got my bike and on a day off rode up to Todai-ji and up the mountain.

 

OK so as far as real travels go thats really about it.  I go into Osaka City almost once a week.  For the last 2 weeks I’ve been there everyday.  I’ll try my best to do most updates for the blog as I can.  I also want to update the YouTube channel more but i’ve got some ideas as what I can do with it because I don’t know if I like the direction its going.  We’ll see.

Anyway I am alive and well.  I turned on my Air Conditioner for the first time yesterday.  I was hoping to make it to August but it just didn’t happen.  Its been so hot I figured that if i had the windows open then I would get some kind of cross breeze but it just doesn’t happen.  I need some kind of box fan in the window I suppose if I really want that to happen.

So I’ll do my best to come here with little updates from time to time.  My Japanese skills are not really improving at the rate I hoped.  I still haven’t mastered Hiragana OR Katakana.

Mostly its my own fault because I’m more interested in riding the bike out to meet people and spend time talking to people and picking up little bits here and there instead of studying in my room where I get nothing accomplished.

Here is a link to my photostream on flikr http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigtoepfer/

Also I have instagram now and you can find me there at “thecajungaijin”
I post pictures to instagram almost everyday.  Lots of quirky little Japan stuff.  Including the Matsuri I went to Saturday night.

I have a short video and some pictures I took from that I’ll try to get to YouTube soon.

I’ll be in Osaka on August 1st.  There is a HUGE Hanabi festival in Tondabayashi.  I will be there.  And its touted to be the biggest fireworks display in Japan.  So I’ll try to get some pictures or video footage.

Take it easy everyone.  Thanks for reading and putting up with the lack of updates.  I’ll do my best update at least once a week if not every 2 weeks in the future.