Life's short and boring...

Only 22 days left until ACen...
Ohh I can't wait!!!

I finally got my "Hatsune Miku" Pullip I've pre-ordered since last year. I went all photoshoot crazy on it because I was so excited about my limited edition Vocaloid Pullip.

I am soooooooooooo HAPPY!!!!!!!
I missed Miki so much. She's finally back from Taiwan! I hated being alone, I didn't think I was going to get through going a month without Miki. I'm glad she's finally back!

I hope she learned a lot from her study abroad program. Miki brought back tons of cool gifts for me. Check these out, Miki knows what I like:I don't know if she's pulling my leg or what (I'm super gullible). There needs to be some thorough investigation in this matter. I'm just really happy she's back! I love my gifts from Taiwan!!!

After all of my enthusiastic cheering...
MIKI WON FIRST PLACE IN LAS VEGAS!!!!!!
This is great news! Miki has dominated that cooking tournament. Miki makes the most delicious food in the whole wide world, of course I knew she couldn't lose! Texas can have their beef carving champion, because that's not Miki's style (as a matter of fact, she didn't even place). But when it comes to real food, Miki is a amazing chef. This grand Vegas competition is a piece of cake. Miki is invincible!!!

By the way, I got super bored at work today, so I created a Gaia Online account. My friends are probably laughing and thinking, "whoa, didn't Tess say something about never creating a Gaia account?" Yeah... everyone is most likely mocking me right now. I'm using Gaia until I properly install Ragnarok Deliverance on my new laptop (I've forgotten ever since I got the laptop last year).

Anyways... I finished watching Zoids Genesis a while ago. The ending was way too simple. You don't even know what happens to the rest of the characters after the final battle ends.  The main character is the only one who speaks and he says, "let's go back home to Miroodo." Then it immediately goes into a montage of Ruuji (the main character) piloting back home. I guess it's suggested that everyone went back to rebuild their destroyed homes. Well... with the exception of the Sora people, their home came crashing down from the sky in a fiery mass of destruction.

I started watching the New Century Zero season of Zoids. It was the first Zoids series I ever saw. It was also what sparked my interest in Zoids. This was like way back in 2001. I remembered watching it after getting out of school. I watched Zoids and Digimon afterschool, I remember! Those were the best animes ever... during that time.

Right now I'm in Batavia... Lake in the Hills. Miki is returning tonight. We are definitely celebrating her victory tomorrow... or at least I would like to.

I woke up late again.
I needed to do some shopping before work today. I finally bought the paint for the Murasame Liger kit. Everything at the craft store was on sale, I'm so lucky. I didn't get my phone checked out yet, I'll do it tomorrow. We went to go buy some burgers for lunch.

This is a lobster burger. Mmmmmm... it was so good. This one has lobster, strange lettuce, Swiss cheese, butter, asparagus, tomatoes, and black angus beef. I bought one for Miki too and a Kobe burger for the road. The Kobe burger was interesting. It had sauteed mushrooms/onions, Gorgonzola, prosciutto, and Kobe beef (total lie, you can't turn Kobe beef into a burger patty, it's just wrong).

When I got to the restaurant, it wasn't too busy at all. The three of them looked like they can handle it, so I just went back to Lake in the Hills.

I spent the rest of the day watching more Zoids Genesis. I then did some online browsing. I really want a "Soul Tiger" now. I really want Seijuurou's Zoid. I want the Soul Tiger now, it looks so cool.

I wonder what kind of motor it runs on?
This model runs in the $45 range. I want it. I think I'm going to buy the Soul Tiger online soon. Seijuurou is just a really cool pilot too. A very cool ninja pilot?

My meeting plan was a fail yesterday, mostly on my part for not even checking my stuff on DW. I partially blame my faulty e-mail too. But in this case it was primarily my fault.

I wandered around Hachiko plaza for about two hours and wow did I see interesting sights. Everyone is familiar with the "Tale of Hachiko," right? You know, the dog with extreme loyalty, he escorted his master to Shibuya station every day and even went back to the station to pick up his master. One day his master died at work and Hachiko still waited even though his master would never return. After decades have passed, Hachiko's statue has become a landmark spot for people who want to meet up. Everyone who waits there is usually waiting to meet up with a friend.

While I was sitting on the uncomfortable bench, there were a lot of people waiting for others. I saw a lot of interesting things. There was this old man next to me, he ended up falling asleep while waiting. Now, these benches are a little weird and painful to sit on. Think of a two-tiered railing, one railing you sit on and the other you lean back on. You need to sit upright to balance and even stay on. The old man feel asleep and just completely fell over and landed on his face. The impact woke him up right away. When he woke up, the person he was waiting for just arrived.

I think I also may have spotted "Wakaba Ryuya" walking out of Shibuya station. It's a possibility, he was in a horrible disguise though (he was wearing a nasty wig). There were a lot of screeching girls taking his picture. Maybe it was him afterall...

So... while I continued waiting, there was another Japanese guy sitting next me. He appeared a little older than me with somewhat short red dyed hair. He too was waiting for his friend to show up. When it's uncomfortably hot outside, most people scratch their neck, wipe their foreheads, or fan themselves. I'm not trying to be weird and I WASN'T directly looking at this guy. More like saw it out of the corner of my good eye. While this guy was talking on his phone... he actually reached under his shirt, pulled his shirt up, and started scratching his nipple. That was really weird! I'm slightly disturbed he did that in public. About 15 minutes later his guitarist  friend showed up and they crossed the street.

Continuing... I ran out of water at one point. My refusal to leave my spot made me super thirsty and hungry. Now I know how Hachiko felt... Anyways, there was this other Japanese guy. Umm... I forgot what it's called but it's a popular trend in Shibuya for a specific style? Super tan skin and outrageous hair? I know what it's called for girls, but the term for guys is different. He waited by the Hachiko statue to meet up with his friend. So... this guy was REALLY tan!!! The pigment was disturbingly dark! This guy's skintone was equal to a Hershey bar! Not only did his complexion stand out but he wanted to be noticed... He was dark and his hair was bright hot pink!!! Dark skin and pink hair just clash, it screams "look at me!"

I got tired and Miki swung by to take me off to an amazing food wonderland located several meters from where I was waiting. It was an amazing super market. There were foods from all over Japan. All the ingredients were fresh. After being immersed in that beautiful underground paradise of food, we were on a mission to find "Tokyu Hands." Tokyu Hands is a shop that sells almost anything craft related or collectible. There's even random pharmacy stuff too. I went for the toys! There was one floor that had a lot of toys. I bought a robotic nano bug, oh it's so creepy. I bought some chibi Gundam models to build for fun in the hotel room. I also bought some randomized "One Piece" collectible pirate ships. When I opened the boxes, I got everything BUT the "Going Merry."

Let's face it, I will only buy toys, Japan is nothing more than a giant toy trip to me. I love being a kid (from my point of view I'm still 9).

On the way back from Tokyu Hands, which we technically got lost, we found..... what my friends were talking about "MANDARAKE!" It is well hidden on a side street. Mandarake isn't truly a building... We walked and I noticed the sign and I got excited, "WHOA!!! It's Mandarake! My friends were talking about this place! I can't believe we found it!" The sign was small and said "MANDARAKE" on it with an arrow pointing down towards a staircase. At first we were a little skeptical, should we go, should we not? We began to walk down the stairs... then a second flight of stairs... then a third flight of stairs... Then we were greeted by a blacklight lit entrance followed by an enormous windowless utopia of anime goodness. But then I had my crazy thoughts! THIS PLACE IS 3 FLOORS BELOW BASEMENT LEVEL!!! IT LOOKS LIKE AN UNDERGROUND ANIME CLUB!!! HOW BIG IS THIS PLACE?! THERE'S NO WINDOWS DOWN HERE!!! WHAT IF THERE'S A FIRE?! I explored a little the first aisle I checked out had... Zoids... Kid in a candy store... I picked out the ones that weren't sold in the states and when I walked to the back to go check out the display cases before paying. There it was... in the display case... an ultra rare... Japan exclusive... discontinued production since 2005... "Murasame Liger!" It was priced at $170... "Must have..." Am I insane for being a hardcore Zoid collector? I bought it... now I'm super happy and will not buy anything unfood related for my entire trip here!

I was busy for the rest of the night because we met up with Arata later. We ate. We did each others' nails (excluding me, I hate nail polish). We watched a Taiwanese drama which was on a Japanese channel? I think it was called, "Miss No Good" or something like that.

Well, today, we woke up early and went to the "Tsukiji Fish Market!" Its the largest fresh fish market / tuna auction in Japan. They had so many live fish!!! Thanks to the kind fish monger at the market, he let me film him paralyzing the fish in very violent ways. There was blood everywhere. I had a lot of fun! We then went to another section which also sold seafood and produce. There was another kind man that sold us a cut open / ready-to-eat sea urchin. He was happy to take pictures with us. We bought some fresh oysters from his place too. He poured soy sauce into the shells for us to eat right away. Obviously I'm an American, so I ate my oyster American style... which is to practically inhale them like shots or chucking them, as to Arata who slowly nibbled at the oyster. I quickly slurped the oyster whole, that oyster was gone in the blink of an eye. The guy who sold it to us was amazed and yelled, "SUGOI!!!" I'm guessing that oyster chucking is uncommon here.

We then got on the train and went to Harajuku. We found "Kiddy Land" an awesome toy store! They had a lot of Pullips. I bought a giant plush Ghibli cat, more One Piece ships, a Final Fantasy figurine, and two Bey-Blades. I was so excited over the Bey-Blades. They discontinued in the States a long time ago, the tournament leagues were disbanded all together. But the sport is still going strong and continues in Japan. I didn't know that Japan had new seasons of the anime and they even modified the overall designs of the Bey-Blades themselves. It used to be full plastic with a small metal weight ring to keep it balanced while spinning. Now, the center is full metal and the balancing weight ring has now become the main attack ring. Before, the top plastic panel was primarily used for attacks. Now, the full metal center is used for attacking instead.

Look at me going on about toys.
The main highlight was the Tsukiji Fish Market!

I hope Arata's house has internet.
I'll write soon.

I've been bored during my freetime and times where I choose to neglect my job at work. I've just been looking around at some dramas to watch. Like I said before, I "was" watching "Shibatora,"  but I put it on hold because I can't get the 7th episode. Teppei is so great in that drama. I haven't seen him in anything else lately. Shibatora is an "old" series, so I guess I'm a little behind. But that's just the way I am, I don't always get to watch something the same year it comes out. Sometimes because I haven't heard about it at the time or I'm not familiar with the cast yet.

This will seem a little off topic, but just recently I finished the entire "Meitantei Loki Ragnarok" anime series.

Approximately 26 episodes in total. It's a mystery genre anime about how the Norse "God of Mischief" (Loki) was exiled from Asgard, sent to earth, turned into a child by his father Odin, had his memories wiped, his powers limited, he searches for the truth behind all of it and gathers evil energy on earth in order to return to the realm of the gods so he can face Odin. That was the reason why he opened a detective agency, strange mysteries often result in evil energy. In the first episode, Loki is joined by a human high school girl named Mayura, whom is obsessed with occult and paranormal mysteries. Mayura just ends up stalking Loki the entire series because they always encounter strange mysteries together. Throughout the whole series, Odin sends the other gods to assassinate Loki, but most of them fail and become Loki's friends. For the entire series, Mayura has no idea of Loki's true identity as a Norse god. It wasn't until much later in the series that Mayura begun to question the fact that Loki was different from everyone else, but even then... she still had no clue... part of it was due to the fact that she was always unconscious or not present when Loki used his magical powers to fight.

To sum the anime up... detective mystery + comedy + Norse mythology + Japanese randomness. The first time I saw this series was in English dub. This is my second time watching, but in Japanese this time. Even after watching this for a second time... I still did not understand the series! The reason for Loki's exile still remained unclear no matter how many times I've rewatched it. They kept changing the reasons in the show, all of them proven false too. It's a good anime, watch it. If you get lost in the story like most other people, it's alright, there are plenty of Japanese jokes that will keep you entertained.

Since "I am" supposed to be talking about Japanese dramas, let's get down to what else I've been watching lately...

Okay, so I did mention that I was watching "The Quiz Show 2." I was watching by myself, but then I got Miki into it, so we watched together. I don't care much for Sakurai Sho, I was watching because of Yokoyama Yu. You know... I thought he was going to have another cool yet silly role like in "Yukan Club," but I was totally wrong!!! At first in this drama, he was kind of funny, his character was a cool and persuasive show director. Sakurai Sho's character is apparently kept in a mental institution when he's not hosting the Quiz Show as he suffers from severe amnesia. It was shocking for me to see Yu's character portrayed as the evil villain pulling all the strings on/off the show.

Now remember, the Quiz Show is a somewhat falsely set up gameshow created to lure greedy people in. As innocent as the game questions start off, these contestants are tricked into confessing their own unsolved crimes or guilt until they break down or go insane.

It was convincingly well done to look like a real gameshow spin-off of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." Everything is normal and okay on the set of the Quiz Show. See, Sakurai Sho's character (pictured above), named Kamiyama, looks fine like this, but then...

Yu's character (dressed in black), named Honma, keeps him in the cell of a mental institution and forces Kamiyama (dressed in white) to remember his difficult past that was suppressed by amnesia. Honma basically tortures Kamiyama at the end of each episode, trying to force a memory out of Kamiyama.

I'm not enjoying this evil Yokoyama Yu. I prefer him as that silly guy who keeps the rest of Kanjani 8 laughing with delight. Honma appeared as the one with the mental disorder, not Kamiyama.

It's creepy.
If you're well adjusted to repetition and easily amused by twisted mind bending logic, WATCH THIS DRAMA, it's a power trip. If con-artists, dark secrets, and gameshows bore you, then you will be bored after ten minutes of the first episode. But I thought it was a great drama. Yokoyama Yu crying... the most amusing thing to watch... I'm serious, but you'd need to watch the series all the way through to know what I was talking about.

Next series I started watching is "Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge."
Okay, so this series is about these four handsome guys (F4 rip-off? I'm kidding) which all comfortably live together in a nice big mansion. Living in the mansion with them is the mansion owner's son. One day they get a video call from the mansion owner saying that the four guys will be forced to pay rent(which had always been free) or if they couldn't pay, they'd be evicted. However, the mansion owner negotiates a deal with the guys if they wish to remain in the mansion free of charge... The deal was, if they can transform the mansion owner's niece into the perfect proper lady, then they would be allowed to continue living in the mansion. The biggest problem is... the so-called-niece is far off from being a "proper lady." The niece has an interest in darkness, anatomic plastic models, skulls, and all things death related. Looks like the boys have one tough mission ahead.

Kame has the lead role in this one. He always gets all the major roles, it can't be helped... he's a good actor afterall. In this drama, Kame seems very straight-forward. He's ill-tempered and impatient, but you can tell his intentions are good. He tries his best everyday, even after many failed attempts. He'll do anything to maintain his "free rent." However... if Kame used the same training method from "Nobuta wo Produce," I bet the drama would end too quickly.

But also co-starring a few other Johnnys as well, Tegoshi and Uchi. Oh wow, the triple threat.


I remember how awesome Tegoshi was in "My Boss, My Hero." I haven't seen Tegoshi actually act very much in a while. In this drama, his character was super feminine for a guy. As a matter of fact, he looked stunningly gorgeous in drag with that cute pink dress and hair extensions in this first episode. I had no idea his figure actually suited him well as a girl too. His reputation has apparently gone downhill, so I don't know what the situation with his popularity is anymore. I still think you're awesome (as an actor).


As for Uchi... he was demoted and on the verge of getting fired the last  time I saw him. So Uchi is making a comeback in the drama world huh? Well, the first time I noticed his comeback was in "Osen," ah the wonderful drama about old style food. In this drama, Uchi plays the ONLY responsible/mature guy in the household, everybody else in the house doesn't exactly think straight... Uchi's plans and reasoning actually works, while the other three guys' logic always seem to end in disaster. Miki finds Uchi to be attractive and she claims he's hot. Really? Uhh... Miki... I'm not seeing it... I don't know, I'm not into Uchi. But I loved his role in Osen. Ohh... that OP... Uchi crashing into the floor in slow motion... EPIC!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways... Yamato is by far excellent. It's funny and cute and therefore awesome. I'd recommend this! It has so many cliches but you can't help but want to watch for the pure enjoyment of the cheesiness factor. You wanna know what I think about this drama? "I think it's t-t-t... too... too... DAZZLING!!!!!!" *hiss, run away from brightness* But seriously, this drama is good.

That's all I got for now, I might find some more dramas to watch in the near future.
Until next time, see you again later.

Yeah!!!!
Just yesterday I received my full weekend badge/pass for this year's "ACen."

It's funny, all the badges up till now have always been made from cheap materials. But for this year's badge, the badges are actually plastic cards, like "real" plastic for once. Usually the badges have been made from paper, they've upgraded this year. This is the thirteenth annual convention, so that explains why the con mascots look like zombies on the badge. Lucky number 13!!!

You know, ACen = anime central... largest midwest anime convention, lots of people and crazy cosplayers. There are a lot of different competitions too, video games and tabletop. One of my friends is joining the pokemon tournament again this year. They made it to the semi-finals last year, I wish them luck for this year too! I've been attending this con for so many years, it's fun!!!

I can't believe there's only 40 days left until the convention!!!!

This is the beginning of my countdown, I will mark the number of remaining days on my post titles. I'm so excited, I'm taking a large group of children with me and it's a good thing they're well behaved... or else I confiscate their i-pods. This will be the second time I'm booking a room at a nearby hotel... so I can party and rave ALL NIGHT!!! and have a place to crash. It's good thing I know people who work on staff for the convention, that means I can cut waiting lines, YES!!! Aww... I hope we all don't have to put up with "Mr. Yellow Fever" (Samuel, the man with an Asian girl obsession) this year. Apparently... Samuel only goes to pick up Asian girls.... he's not so good at it though. My friend Roel actually gets their phone numbers... Samuel at most scares girls away because he comes off very stalkerish. I know I'll see Roel there, I always do... unless he runs off to some errand like last year. But I'm so sad that Marvin won't be able to make it to the con this year. I always hang out with Marvin at ACen... This isn't fair!!! It's because he couldn't find a job. This mainly occurs at ACen, but Roel and Marvin are like a team... Marvin follows Roel around and helps Roel pull off the "I'm gay act" and Roel picks up the girls... It's very amusing to watch Roel "work."

It won't be as fun without Marvin around, but I still got my other friends too.