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.

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

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

Mammoths!

So ya, it's back to the museum today for the Mammoth exhibition. No lines today. HURRAY! Spent about 1.5 hours there looking at info and dead stuff. No photographing though. So no pics D:

After that, we went around the main hall again to see ones we haven't yet. Stuff included A bunch of Chinese stuff, Oceania, Human life, microbes (got some cool pics of spiders and cockroaches www), and a few new limited exhibitions. Didn't get time to go to the gardens though, oh well. Photos are on photobucket, took some interesting ones.

Also went to this "bird's eye view theatre" where you look down on this projector some 3 stories down. I was looking at the aerial shots thinking "I CAN FLY!!!" or something. Pretty fun.

I might have to go there another time, but doubt I'll find the time to. Meh.

Science museum pics

Died today

Ok, last time I went to the Black-Tristar anime shoo district, there was this merchandise shop in the bigger shop that wasn't open since it was Sunday.
I went in...
I looked around...
I saw...
YUKKURI HEAD PLUSIES
I died.
I saw Aria Shachou plushies.
I lived again.

However, they are really expensive since they like Airmail it straight from Japan... like the Yukkuri plushies is like $65 US or more. Wow. Still, seeing stuff like the limited Haruhi games, Macross Albums (Jap), Vanilla salt (Jap too!), and Limited edition Aria figures mmade me want to empty my wallet WHEN I GET THE MONEY. Must get that Akari figure or something... (turned ARIA fanboy >.>)

Then bought friend the last Lucky Star shopping bag in stock, and found some cute mini Aria figures which I think I will buy later. Oh gawd I'm so ARIA fanboi now. Not even finished the first season... >.>

Hurry up and give me the money, Mr Ma. I want my animu stuff.

Random stuff happened.

I spent yesterday watching anime. Need to finish Minami-ke and okawari before 3rd season.

Ok, so today, I was halfway through Tora 12 (Finally had time), when we had to go out. We went to our uncles and wasted some time on the Wii. Then we went out to lunch. Afterwords, my cousin wanted to get some pokemon movies so we went to a few DVD stores, but they were sold out (ya, wtf), so we just walked around a bit and stuff. Then we came back and had dinner.

Also, lol, sneaked in this message. the International Saimoe League (ISML) uploaded their international welcome messages. Got this extra Chinese message sneaked in: (提名東方角色吧! - *拖走*) (TL: Nominate Touhou Characters! *Dragged away*)... extra lolz. (Guess the culprit...)

So moral for today, Nominate Touhou. Gonna go catch up on more shows.

EDIT: They took it off, XD

National Science Museum

Well, we spent quite a bit of time at home today, so I was catching up on all the little bits I needed to (namely ISML stuff). Got that all done. Still need to watch Tora 12 but...

So anyway, we went to the National Science Museum this afternoon. We wanted to see the mammoths, but there was a huge line, so we will probably go there some other time. So we just spent some time looking at other things (photos are currently going on photobucket), like satellite images of Taiwan and photo shoots of penguins and polar bears.

Also was a Chinese inventions display, I was like "wow" when I read some of the stuff. They had newspapers in the 1600's and a physicist then stated that "time and space cannot exist without the other", so I was like "where did all the REALLY smart Chinese go?". Also took some photos of a giant squid, while thinking about BBQ's.

Will need to spend a whole day there next time, they seemed to have a lot more exhibits than 4 years ago, or I just missed them. They have 980,548 pieces of stuff in this museum :o (as of Oct 2008)

Photos: Here

past 2 days

Ok, we went a few places. Firstly, we went to the 823 Peace Memorial Park. Over there is a lot of old machines (ie Tanks and planes) on display. I took a heck load of photos so I am just gonna UL them on Photobucket and give you the link. It was a pretty cool place lol.
We later went to see my cousin do some horse riding, she's pretty good at it. Didn't take much photos because my sister had the camera and I was reading an interesting book between glances. XD

Yesterday, we went to some hot springs, again I will load pics on Photobucket, since there's quite a bit. The palce is called "Flame mountain" because it has soil that makes it looks like its on fire from a distance. They are also building Taiwan's Shaolin temple there. Pretty cool, since there was statues of all those monks in martial art poses. /me failed to imitate them. The hot springs were filled with funny white stuff in it. it is only the calcium, though XD there was also some circus-like performances, and All I could think about was vectors and centre of mass. DAMN YOU PHYSICS D:

So overall, really short account, because the photos can speak for themselves.

823 park: http://s445.photobucket.com/albums/qq173/BasakaNZ/823%20park/
Onsen: http://s445.photobucket.com/albums/qq173/BasakaNZ/Hot%20springs/

Finally home.

Well, as I think I have mentioned before, one of my cousins came back from Qatar. However, she is only staying for about 9 days, so we are going to be out a lot these few days (Sorry, Silence and Bowen and the lot lol). Today, I went out at like 8:30. We spent the morning waiting for uncle to come back and take us places, so I listened to her play the piano (She's grade going for grade 9 soon). It was pretty good playing, just as expected from one of that level. My sister, however, KEPT TRYING TO GET HER TO PLAY ANIME SCORES. Geez, can't she learn piano herself?

We had lunch at a Korean BBQ place, the side dishes was free so we kept eating it. Tasted quite nice.

We spent the afternoon at a mini department store/bookstore and read books and walked around and chatted. Still better than just sitting in front of the computer and watching anime all day XDDD. We are probably going to watch a movie tomorrow (She REALLY REALLY wants to watch Twilight), and go around the rly beeg department store that has the cinemas in it. Not too sure what we might do on Thurs, so certain projects may be stalled, gomen.

At least I'll get to watch Megami-sama in 30 mins. :P

Taiwanese people... and some extra stuff.

I dunno why this took me a week to remember and post... but Taiwan people are scary when it comes to arcades.

Remember I went to Taipei last week? Well, when we went to the arcade... there was these two people (which I guess father and son) playing Taiko Tatsujin. They were passing Oni stages like they were made of nothing :o in one song, the father got a full combo. IN FRIGGIN ONI MODE D:
Then, there was this person playing DDR... and uh, he was playing the double mat thing (for got name) on lik ehard mode by himself and passing it...

I was like, oh eem gee. NZ people sucks at arcades. lol. Also, there was also one arcade game involving shooting. That's nothing special, but the guns they had for the machine looked exactly like Zaku rifles. OTL

Now, there are 3 anime stores, each within 15 minutes walk from where I am living right now. All 3 sells mangas and light novels, but the other merchandise are quite differnt.
Shop 1 sells Mostly small stuff like Badges, phone straps and playing cards. They also do doujins.
Shop 2 sells quite a lot of figures, and some MTG boosters (XD), they also have quite a good range of figures and those boxed mini figures + other small figures. Gunpla too.
Shop 3 sells figures too, but they are pretty different to shop 2's. So going around all 3 can get me most of the things I might want. Shop 3 also has a large ordering log for new figures. Anyone want to order 1/8 PVC Horo figure released in April? Lol.

Still need to get some stuff from Taipei such as Calendars from animate, but overall I'm not complaining.

Taipei, 12/7 - part 3

Morning was normal, woke up, had breakfast, read some manga. At about 10am we went out on the bus. There was a lot of buses, and they had set routes unlike Auckland where 1 bus goes to way too much places. Buses + MRT = epic.

Went to the Guan Hua business circle. It's basically 4 floors of computers, electronice, stereos and gaming (PS, XboX, Wii). There was also a few book/manga stores. Looked around for what I could buy. Found some gundam parody mangas that had an awesome blurb. I also saw 5 vols of Ga Rei, 14 vols of SZS, and 15 volumes of Hayate that I want to buy. Sadly, my ATM... I mean, parents aren't back yet.

Went back to the University area for lunch. Lunch was Tonkatsu. I don't know why but like all the meals I had in Taipei outside was Japanese. Breakfast was rice porridge so you can SAY it's Japanese too. Ahaha. Should have gone to Ximen and ate at that restaurant with toilet seats as your seats. XD

After lunch, it was back to Ximen to order that Hayate Figma for Wing. Luckily, I had enough money left since I didn't buy that T-shirt last night. I just hope I can pick it up before I go back... since they ain't sure when it will be released in Japan (sometime in Jan), and it needs to get shipped over. If we may have to wait till the friend comes to NZ again. Wallet is almost empty now, after buying tickets back home.

Caught the 3:00 train back and arrived in Taichung at aobut 5:15pm. I'll be back again, with a fuller wallet next time. Rawr.

Taipei, 12/7 - part 1

Took the 9:10 train to Taipei. Luckily for us our house is pretty close to the station so we got there in a few minutes. There was quite a few interesting things at the Taichung station. Such as this poster:
Funky, eh? If you still don't get it, its an anti-smoking poster featuring Optimus Prime. Rawr.
While waiting, my sister got bored and decided to take a picture. For people who plays Touhou.

Yes. Mind the gap.

Arrived at Taipei at ~ 11:30pm. Went to the nearby department store for lunch (Omu rice), then hit the RMT to get to Ximending. The RMT is bloody convenient... at busy times, there is like one train every 2 minutes. It's cheap also, I think the furtherst from the mian station is ~40NT ($2.30 NZ or $1.25 US). So we got there pretty fast.

Ximen, for those who don't know, is a famous shopping district in Taipei. It's a bit like a mix of Akihabara and Shinjuku. There was some weird shops too...

Shop C4, what does it sell?

They sell everything from anime to condoms. Yes ,there IS a condom shop there. There was a pretty big sign.

Our first stop was Animate Taipei. My sister forgot to take a photo of the store... and we couldn't take any inside. They banned it. However, there was a load of anime posters, calendars, and other small trinkets like phone straps, mugs, badges, stickers and a lot more. Found a few pretty good Shana, Sensei and Rozen Maiden ones too. Bought for friends Clannad calendar, LS stickers, Nanoha badges and Haruhi keychains and phone straps. Also bought a Sensei good luck charm because it was way too funny.

Best good luck charm ever.

We then wondered around and somehow managed to find KT, another Anime merchandise store. Heaps of Gachapon there too. WIll prob take more photos when I get back to Taipei. There was a lot more figures and mini figures there. Also quite a few T-shirts and apparel. Found a set of cool Touhou key-chains/magnets, which should keep some friends happy for a Bday/Xmas present. I think we weren't allowed to take photos, but since the shop was a lot bigger etc ,my sis managed to sneak a photo in.

Some of the girls.

The store also had a cabinet full of autographs by mangakas and those sort... wanted so badly. Saw a 1/7 Hayate figure too, but its 3300 NT... ($100 US or $180 NZ ish). Bought some of those magnets for friends, and a Kotomi keychain thingy.

All the stuff I bought will be posted later in a seperate post...

Went to the Taiwan University station at about 4:30pm, to our friends where we will stay the night. took a photo of the Taipei 101 for the lulz.

Tall building is tall~

Went back out at about 5:30 and had dinner. For the coming concert. Dinner was Japanese curry. It was very delicious. Made my way to the gym for the concert.

Part one will end here, part 2 will be my review on the concert mainly.

Old memories gone...

Went to visit my Nana today. Glad to see that she's doing well. However, they have moved to apartment complexs, and the old area they live in has been demolished and stuff, and its no longer liveable. You probably don't know this, but Taiwan has these things we call 眷村 (military dependents' village) (see wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_dependents%27_village), which is a bloody fun place. Everyone knows each other etc etc, and most of them have military backgrounds. They are getting knocked down left and right from development, though D=

Basically, we went around the old village they lived in. Most of the buildings have been damaged (due to demolishment), with anything that could be sold (metal pieces, doorknobs) taken. Rubble and wood lay everywhere... it was kinda saddening, to think that I used to play there often when we went to Nana's. However, the tree we used to climb was still there, so its somewhat a relief. Walked around a bit, but didn't get in too far because there's apparently snakes now >.>

Didn't bring a camera, but if I get to go there again I will take some pictures of how deserted and runied that place is... T_T

Going to Taipei tomorrow, gonna take looooooots of photos. FES & Nagato... I'm coming!
See you for now~

Touchdown

*puts on mask*
PEOPLE OF TAIWAN, I HAVE RETURNED.
*takes mask off*

Well, anyways, I flew from NZ, transferred at Hong Kong and arrived. One of my packages is still missing but they expect to get it delivered before noon tomorrow. So it should be fine.

Prob post more stuff tomorrow, its 3am in NZ XD (10 pm here though). Cousins are pretty hyper. lol.