I AM BACK

After much delay, I can finally post (mainly due to unpacking and giving friends their stuff)..

So, my flight was scheduled for 4:24pm on Wed. Which means we had to leave at around 12. So we had an early lunch, hugged my grandma goodbye (a lot less emotional than I thought, which is a good thing), and went on our way. The motorway was full of crap. There was reports of cans, injured dog, DEAD dog (not the same dog), workers, and even a sofa on the road. I wanted to take a picture of the sofa since we'll pass it but it was already cleaned. Bummer.

Check in was pretty easy. I think I was a little overweight on luggage, but since there probably wasn't much people they let it slide. Haxed the airport wireless while I was waiting. Flight to Hong Kong was 1.5 hours, then a 3 hr wait for transfer. Torrented Munto while I was waiting at the HK airport... heh. I love free WLAN. Wish NZ had more of it.

11hr flight to NZ... slept for about 5-6 hours, spent about 2 listing to J-pop on the plane (they had BANIRA SORUTO and MOTTO HATE NI NE, awesome)... and the rest eating/using the PSP for music or anime, so wasn't all that bored. Touched down at Auckland at... 1:01pm. Customs was a bit faster than expected, although one officer asked me if its the first time I've come to NZ. I was using a NZ passport... oi. Bags was opened for food, so I got to skip the x-ray since all my bags was searched. Got out at like 1:45pm... then went home and cleaned up my room.

Some people came and collected their anime merchandise... and I set up some. ARIA company houses <3. Need to clear out old books for my light novels, so see ya. I dunno if I will keep blogging, but hey.

DAMN WEATHER

These few days have been damn HOT. On Friday, the max temp went to about 32C, while Auckland wasn't even 20. Yesterday, it was still about 28... today's a little bit better at 26. However, this is WINTER. So I've practically been hot all these days... why didn't I take a pair of shorts back. At least I will fit into Auckland weather really nicely. Wish it rains again here.

By the way, I will be going back to NZ on Wed. ETA 1:45pm on Thurs NZST or something. Then I will start asking for money for your goods. And sort out a lot of stuff. Oh, how fun.

I found some time lately, so I was playing the Clannad VN again. I just completed the Kyou arc. I can see why people raged at KyoAni for not animating the Kyou arc. Personally, I think the arc will lose some effectiveness if it is animated. It feels much more real when you read the text while looking from a first person point of view. Has also been watching Bamboo Blade. Lots of fun parodies. Dunno how they got Taniguchi Goro in this, but hey. Maria+Holic 6 had an AT-field.

PS: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm5974773 SO EPIC and youtube ver-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bli-uYfZ37w TORA 17 SPOILERS THO

International Book Exhibition

So yeah, went up again for the book exhibition. There was quite a lot of exhibitors selling manga and merchandise. I saw a whole collection for LoGH, but it was so expensive and I can't take any back... Waaaah. Bought the newest volumes of Toradora and Spicy Wolf from Kadokawa (vol 7's), with 3 volumes of Gundam-san. Also bought Nogizaka Haruka 2 cuz the online store was out of stock. Went to another stand, they were having a giant "buy 2 get 1 free" promotion, except models. Bought 3 ARIA posters. Ironically, they are waterproof. I know. Made myself broke... finished off all my red packet money. Turns out my friend got more than me, but he expected me to get more. He has richer relatives, lewl.

After we finished shopping, we went to Guan Hua to look at 3C stuff for fun. Picked up Wing's Hayate figma from their house also. Looks pretty neat imo. Dinner was Ru Wei (or however you spell it in english), it tasted quite good. All food in Taiwan are nice. Esp stinky tofu.

Next day, we went to this place near the station. It sold H games. Lol. We went in, looked around, went "Its a H game shop" then walked out. They did have some normal anime like TTGL though. >.>, but we did visit the GUNDAM BASE. So much gunpla. So big gundam models. So fun. Then I went back home. lol.

Pics

Stuff happened.

Well, the rest of my family went back to New Zealand, but i am staying behind for a little longer to tie up loose strings (and go to more anime stores to search for ARIA stuff). One thing I noticed when I got to the airport... THERE ARE ACTUALLY BURGER KINGS IN TAIWAN. Just not a lot. I am back at my grandmas house until I go back on the 18th (arrives 19th ~ 1:30pm?). Will be going up to Taipei tomorrow for the book exhibition. Probably won't buy too much though, can't take anymore D:

I'll try to take more photos though...

Updates and small ranting

Was gonna post this yesterday, but forgot, orz.

Small rant about mosquitoes here. They are annoying. 3 nights before, I was attacked by a mosquito. It's about 4am, and you're having a nice dream, then you hear a bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz sound. You spend the next hour trying to sleep with that loud buzzing. You finally manage, but wake up with a bad itch. Gawd. I got annoyed, and splatted one for messing with my sleep when I woke up. That night, I went back to bed, and after 5 minutes I heard another buzzing. Luckily I wasn't half asleep ywt so I turned the lights on and threw it out of the window. I think theres another one hidnig somewhere though...

Seriously, this is winter, with a mild temperature of 20C in Taichung. It's a bit hotter these 2 days (24C), so more mosquite action. Imagine summer (37C). I think I'll get sucked dry if mosquitoes didn't buzz.

Rant aside, a few updates. Spent yesterday morning packing. The rest of my family is about 95% good to go. I need to buy a few more new releases of light novels and such, then I'll be pretty good. Just hope I don't get TOO overweight. We went to lunch at this restaurant that was on the newspaper, and it tasted awesome. Spent the afternoon walking around the flower market. Sew much flowers. I was sweating IN A T-SHIRT. This is winter, ffs. Got home, cooled down and went to a old friends of my dads for dinner. Talked a long time. Got home at like 11pm, so was too tired to blog. Yeah, pretty simple.

Taipei, futatabi

tl;dr

Yes... so we went back up to Taipei again. My plan was to stay till today, so we could go to "Fancy Frontier", it's a bit like Comiket, for Taiwan. They also invited Nonaka Ai (known for her "I HAVE CONTROL" and "Hitode~~~"... also "pink supervisor"). However, parents said stuff like "There will be a traffic jam cuz its the last day of the 9 day holiday" and "You'll cause too much bother for our relatives, so you can only stay one night"... so I had to hope that Nonaka Ai came on the 31st instead of the 1st.

Friday the 30th: Left Taichung via long-distance bus at about 8:50am. Roads were clear, so we arrived at about 11am. Original plan was to go straight to Ximen and have lunch there, but a few signs caugt my eyes, so we ended up going down the Taipei Station Metro Street. Would have more photos but my sister had the camera in her bag and never took it out. That noob. I made the right choice. The street is like a treasure chest. Only one that takes money away from you, lol. There is 3 main sections to the place, clothes+shoes, games and hobbies, and food. Emphasis on the games amd hobbies bit.

THERE WAS AT LEAST 20 STORES. Selling games, anime stuff, and one or 2 doujin specialists. There was stuff like limited edition games and goods, TOUHOU GAMES AND DOUJIN (The doujin store had hald a shelf of Touhou + Yukkuri head dolls) and gazillions of Gachapons and figures. Found quite a bit of Aria stuff~ and bought a few. Pics will be on photobucket. Spent like 3 hours (including lunch, which was yummy Ramen) goign around all the stores. I wish I had a REALLY REALLY large budget. So I can get Sayonara Cirno Sensei or something.

Went to Ximen in the afternoon. Still couldn't find the "moe-moe" anime store, but went to Animate, KT and Wan nen. Found 1/6 Athena PVCs at KT but I decided to save my money for the monthly Undines I saw at the Metro street. Walked our feet to death. I found one of the Fancy Fonrtier booklets, and saw that Nonaka doesn't come till the 1st, and Zetsubou'd. Sister decided she doesnt want to go so I had to give up on going. Turns out we should have. Stoopid siblings. Spent the night at one of our relatives living in Mu Zha.

Went back to Ximen the next day. Saw a bunch of people with doujin shopping bags and felt the urge to kill my sister for saying she doesnt want to go. Oh well, found Moe-moe this time, along with the maid cafe. It was full... I see what they meant by making reservations, XD... found Vols 5+6 of Monthly Undine at animate, so instabuy. Went back to the Metro Street and bought vols 1+3. Still missing 2, and it will be a miracle for me to find them, and an even bigger miracle to hav them at a reasonable price. Sigh. Got Back to Taichung at abuot 8pm. Will go up again for the intl book exhibition.

Pics here but not much cuz sister is too lazy to take the camera out

PONYO ON THE CLIFF BY THE SHORE

Watched, and thumbs up. I miss the hand drawn animations and the Ghibli characters. Havent watched a Ghibli in a long time. I can now see why the production took 3 years. The amount of stuff moving on some scenes is just... wow. Major respects for you... now I feel like sleeping.

Could say more but I suck at reviewing, so... I won't. Although the musical score is just awesome. Need OST NOW.