Temple Garden

May 28th, 2017

Yesterday, after waking bright and early at 1 am, we set out for Senso-Ji temple in Asakusa.

That is of course an alternate fact, since at that hour the previous (Saturday) night hadn’t even ended, much less Sunday starting! So there was all sorts of lazing around like dogs before staggering through empty Ueno at 6 am before breakfast and eventually arriving at Asakusa just a tad early.

You can see the temple in the distance framed by the stores of nakamisedori in the foreground. We always end up here first on our Japan trips and while it tends to be choked with tourists it’s a fun place.

Those are the fortunes we pulled; KLS at the top and me the bottom. As is custom we kept hers but mine got tied onto a rack in the hope it wouldn’t come true…

There’s all sorts to be seen around Asakusa and we wandered a while taking in the sights. Partly because of the line of people buying them, KLS tried a cream-filled fish pastry and found it delightful:

In the afternoon we headed over to the big park in Shinjuku. As with most of the sights in Tokyo we’d been there before but not for a few trips. It was the perfect place to leisurely stroll around to chase away the remaining jet lag.

Of particular note was the rose garden, with countless flowers in bloom and hordes of people photographing them.

It was the perfect opportunity for a selfie πŸ™‚

Following this there was shopping and more walking and eating and in the end it was a long and tiring day. Sets the tone well for the entire trip I expect!

We Did It!

May 27th, 2017

The trip was long and hard, and we overcome many challenges. But we made it to Japan!

In truth it was just 20 hours of boring travel πŸ™‚

There’s what $200/night gets you in Tokyo. Here I am punch-drunk with jet lag:

It’s 3 am. I should try to get some more sleep…

Oh yeah the UFO catchers and arcades are as insane as ever. It’s like Japan didn’t ever hear about the demise of video games πŸ™‚

Much, much more to come on all these topics.

“Operation Family Donkey”

May 24th, 2017

In a little over a day we’re off to Japan again! It’ll be our sixth trip and, as usual, you can read about our adventures here.

This time we’re doing things a bit differently. Rather than basing in Tokyo were staying in three cities. We’re also going with western-style hotels rather than ryokan this time.

It’s been four years since our last Japan trip and we’re very much looking forward to this. It goes without saying it’s one of our favourite vacation spots.

Japan’s always been a challenging place to find postcards but you know I’ll try my best. I hope I don’t disappoint! (This entry is illustrated with examples of cards I’ve sent KLS this past year.)

This post reminds me I should always take photos of my postcard art! If I ever sent you some, treasure it since it’s the only copy in the world πŸ™‚

Harder Than It Looked

May 24th, 2017

Gore Magala Girl

May 19th, 2017

That’s the figure/kit I got for my birthday. It was time to set it up!

But first a brief explanation. This is a figure inspired by this guy, Gore Magala:

He’s one of the enemies in Monster Hunter, and his armour – once you defeat him and collect enough parts to make it – is very distinctive:

So this figure kit, while not reproducing the in-game appearance of the armour, is inspired by Magala. Here’s the contents:

So many parts! There are several configurations the figure can be displayed in, and I wanted the dress-with-umbrella mode. This required use of the wings, folded around to form each half of the dress:

The problem was… it’s very difficult to assemble! The pieces hardly wanted to go together, and once I got it mostly done I couldn’t get the dress around her.

The archer mode was just as difficult, and since I didn’t want to use glue or modify the pieces I eventually just settled for replacing her normal clothes with the armour…

…and displaying her in ‘dual swords’ mode:

I think I’ll call her Momo πŸ˜‰

I think I could easily get the wings attached and set up like the image on the back of the box, but I want to finish filling my new curio first to see how much space I have.

Final review: looks great, incredibly (over) engineered, very challenging to assemble!