Taking a gander at a load of anime wigs in a cosplay shop called Lovepop Studio. These wigs being an essential part of cosplay but what about everyday life?

Me going bald but not bald enough yet to consider wearing a wig but wondering what would you do when you start to get bald patches on your head?
Would you wear a wig or go bald graciously? Or how about?

Come to think about it - being bald saves time and money. One does not have to spend money on shampoo, conditioners, combs/brushes, haircuts and one also saves time from hoovering/sweeping up hair from the floor. Electricity is also saved from hair drying or hoovering too.

Being bald can also serve as a form of self defense too - by using the shiny reflection to blind the eyes of an assailant.

There is a poll embedded in this article.

Filming with Suzuko Mimori from Milky Holmes for Season 2 of Culture Japan - broadcast starts next month!

More from Otaroad in a post which I'm preparing now.

Looks like somebody posted their answer to the question on the previous post. Thanks to Tomasz for sharing this vital piece of information on my Facebook wall ^^;

Otaroad [オタロード] - Osaka's equivalent of Akihabara. There seems to be quite a large population of otaku in Osaka and because Otaroad is on a much smaller scale than Akihabara, most of the shops seem to have a load of human traffic most of the time.

This photo taken outside of Gamers which we already took a look at - if you died and went to 2D girly heaven then that's what it would look like.

To get to Otaroad, head to the following address - get there from Nanba station.
大阪市浪速区日本橋3-8-16
[gmap=34.66191, 135.505250]

Folks after news on Akihabara can go to Akibablog, and those after info on Otaroad can go along to Senakablog.

After Gamers, its time to get some grub at a maid cafe called Moe & Shandon.
At Home Cafe is a great maid cafe but Moe & Shandon was another experience indeed! You got to choose courses like Imouto and Tsundere where the maids would act like a little sister or a Tsundere.
I chose Tsundere and got shouted at all the time!

Suzuko-san and I had a laugh and a half - all to be revealed in the second season of Culture Japan.

Mirai-chan gets omlettified.

Sharo!

Plushies to place bewteen your... toes while eating.

This was one of the maids that served us - a cutie - especially when she was angry in tsundere mode!

Some of the other cute maids.

Manga reading material while om nomming.

Bumped into some Milky Holmes fans who came all the way from Kanagawa to see Milky perform live later that day.
I know what its like to be a fan back from my Kylie Minogue days so I let them join us for the rest of the day filming. I'll also be bringing them along to other filming involving Milky.

Lunch done and its time to cut down some Osaka folk. Rumor has it that Osaka folks give a reaction when being sliced by an invisible katana. Suzuko VS Danny to see how many reactions they can get within the 5 min time limit.

Slicing and dicing done and its off to explore the rest of Otaroad.

At Gee Store - Cospa's retail store which is filled with a ton of anime and game merchandise.

Everything tastes better if its got an anime label on it. Also sells better too! So now you know what to do when you are trying to get rid of some secondhand stuff - just stick some anime on it.

Sonico's game Sonicomi is out soon - Mirai is in it and so am I ><

The car park beside Otaroad has a few Itasha too.

Discovered at Gee Store that my Mirai Itasha was in an Itasha magazine ^^

Buildings look so much better with 2D girlies on it.

Faith is a store that you would go to get PC parts - available in Akihabara too.

Made a new kigurumi comrade.

I thought Tohou games were just of the shooting variety but discovered that there was a whole genre of ecchi Tohou games.
How many of you play the shooting variety? I'm good at dodging Axelay bullets but lousy at dodging the Tohou variety.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Tohou bullets...

Axelay bullets ^^;

Kirino gets the Tohou treatment.

Then its time to check out some anime wigs at Lovepop Studio.

Suzuko-san gives us an example of how one should react after being cut with a kanata.

Now its Suzuko-sans time to do the chopping.

Suzuko's reaction wins! ^^;

Lovepop Studio have a load of cosplay accessories too.

Anime contact lenses to make your eyes red...

Atsuzoko boots.

Messages are better conveyed if its got a cute 2D girlie attached to it. Noizy Ito's Neon asks folks not to walk and smoke at the same time because its despicable.

Treating myself to some sweet stuff after filming.

More places to visit in Japan listed up below.

if you looking for more of the same then there are a load of photo posts about Akihabara below.

And more from Gamers and Suzuko-san in Culture Japan Season 2 ^o^
Other Culture Japan related posts listed up below.

Following on from Twin Angel, Mirai Suenaga makes another anime cameo - this time in Mayo Chiki!
In this weeks Episode 9 shes about to pay a visit to a butlers cafe with her two comrades who you will also see in Mirai Millennium ^o^

And in Episode 8, we see Mirai glancing at the camera while munching on some candy floss. We told her that she shouldn't really look at the camera though but shes not so used to being on TV. Hopefully she will be used to all of this before Mirai Millennium is out ^^;

More Mirai-chan in Episode 13 where you will see her more than once ^o^

Fan Expo - a fan event in Canada which brings together Anime, Scifi, Comic and Game fans from all over.
The last event took place a few days ago in Toronto where reader Rin went along to take some pics - thanks Rin for letting me share these photos here and on my Flickr account.
Originally posted over at Figure.fm with more to see at his blog.

How many of you hail from Canada?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

More coverage from Anime Expo 2011 which I nearly forgot to post ^^; Here I'm with Super Sonico at the Good Smile Company and Nitroplus panel - I forgot her name - if its you then leave a message!

Starting off with a few photos taken at my panel. As I was still finishing off my presentation, a few folks told me that there was a huge line outside waiting to get in - I thought they were trolling me ^^;
I didn't expect so many to come along and would like to thank everybody who came along to make it such a fantastic evening - thank you so much!

Group photo taken at the end - need an even wider angle lens ^^;;

But the folks who were cut off in the group photo can be seen on the sides in this one.

I didn't get a lot of time to prep my presentation - was in France just before LA. Managed to get the outline done on the plane over to LA and polishing off between breaks right up until my talk ^^;
For folks who didn't attend but are interested in listening then watch it on YouTube below - thanks to cyberinviso for sharing!

A load of sons n daughters turned up for the talk. Me wants Dancing Queen's ecchi dakimakura.

Cute!

You will get to hear Mirai-chan's first single as it will be used for the OP to Culture Japan Season 2.

And the rest of the photos are mostly from day 3 and 4.

Bumped into Mirai and Kanata cosplayers ^o^

Interview with the great folks at AX Live uploaded to the Internets below. The YouTube splash for this video... ^^;;;;;

Looks like a family photo ^^;

Exibit halls filled with a load of goodies which I didn't get a chance to go around much. Will make sure I have a day off to mingle and meet next year.

A load of fanart and other goodies in Artist Alley.

Large banners like the ones in my office are available for worldwide shipping from KidNemo.

Cute girly at the Kid Nemo booth.

Another cute girly who wanted you to see her starbucks.

3 ladies keep me company at the closing ceremonies.

And its all over - until next year!

Previous Anime Expo photo posts listed up below.

Some updates on the anime that I'm working on with JC Staff titiled Mirai Millennium - Mirai Suenaga's story finally starts to get the anime treatment. We are currently working on the OP which I'm going to use as the OP to Culture Japan Season 2.
JC Staff is taking care of the animation and I'm looking after the rest - backgrounds, effects and editing. This saves a huge amount of cost in anime production which I'll go into detail one day.

Kazunori Iwakura is responsible for the anime character design for Mirai Millennium who has worked on the following titles - copy paste from ANN.

Ai Yori Aoshi (TV) : Character Design, Animation Director (OP, ED)
Ai Yori Aoshi ~Enishi~ (TV) : Character Design, Animation Director (OP, ED), Key Animation (OP; ep 1)
Alien Nine (special) : Storyboard (OP), Unit Director (OP), Animation Director (eps 1-3), Creature Design, Key Animation
Angel of Darkness (OAV) : Character Design (ep 1)
Aoi Kioku - Manmō Kaitaku to Shōnen-tachi (movie) : Key Animation
Aria the Scarlet Ammo (TV) : Character Design, Animation Director (OP/ED; ep 12)
Art of Fighting (OAV) : Character Design, Chief Animation Director
Big Wars (movie) : Animation, Assistant Mechanical Designer
Burn Up Excess (TV) : Mechanical design
Daphne in the Brilliant Blue (TV) : Character Design
Digimon Adventure: Bokura no War Game (movie) : Key Animation
Digimon: The Movie (U.S.) : Key Animation
Eiken (OAV) : Animation
Genesis Survivor Gaiarth (OAV) : Key Animation (MAGIC BUS; ep 3)
Gunparade March (TV) : Mechanical design
Hayou no Ken: Shikkoku no Mashou (OAV) : Key Animation (ep 2)
Juu Senshi Garukiba (TV) : Animation Director
Kimikiss pure rouge (TV) : Character Design, Animation Director (eps 1, 3), Key Animation (ep 6)
Living for the Day After Tomorrow (TV) : Animation Director (eps 2, 11)
Loveless (TV) : Character Design
Master of Mosquiton (OAV) : Key Animation
Nabari no Ō (TV) : Character Design
Nekketsu Saikyo Gozaurer (TV) : Animation Director
Ojamajo Doremi # (movie) : Key Animation
Okusama wa Maho Shojo (TV) : Animation Director (ep 10)
Orphen: The Revenge (TV) : Storyboard (OP), Ending Animation (ED 2)
Otome Yōkai Zakuro (TV) : Key Animation (OP)
Revolutionary Girl Utena (TV) : Key Animation (ep 1)
Rune Soldier (TV) : Character Design, Chief Animation Director
Samurai Shodown: The Motion Picture (special) : Character Design, Animation Director
Seikimatsu Darling (OAV) : Character Design, Animation Director
Sky Girls (OAV) : Character Design, Animation Director
Sky Girls (TV) : Character Design
Slayers Great (movie) : Animation Director, Golem Design, Key Animation
Slayers Return (movie) : Key Animation
Sweet Blue Flowers (TV) : Chief Animation Director (assistant; ep 9), Animation Director (eps 3, 8)
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun (TV) : Animation Director (ep 9)
Toradora! (TV) : Chief Animation Director (eps 20, 22), Animation Director (eps 13, 17, 25)
Uragiri wa Boku no Namae o Shitteiru (TV) : Animation Director (eps 8, 13), Key Animation (ep 23)
Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer (OAV) : Chief animator
Winter Garden (special) : Key Animation

I'm developing the look and feel of the Mirai Millennium with Pinakes. I discovered his talents after he done some fanart of Mirai which he posted over at Figure.fm and have hired him to work on the anime.

In this scene, Mirai looks over the metropolis as her hair waves about in the wind. Everything in this backdrop is on separate layers which will be parallax scrolled.

Scrolling classroom scene. The screen is an alpha channel which we will use to show some video.

Initial classroom rough.

Classroom is modeled in 3D Max. This was the initial design.

Ceiling turned out looking typical Earth initially ^^;

Full classroom scene.

Still work in progress but these are the frames where Mirai is in her Solar Marine uniform swinging the Millennium Blade. Blade details and glowing hilt are drawn on overlay frames.

An anime OP is not an anime OP without the walking scene ^^;

49 frames are used to make up 4 seconds of footage for this particular cut where Mirai turns around to face us, blinks and smiles ^^

An up n coming scene.

Larger version of this in Pinakes gallery.

And this is the school that Mirai and Kanata attend. Still work in progress.

Mirai's school in the Autumn. All of these backdrops will be distributed as wallpapers when Mirai's site is fully ready.

I love the Winter version.

There is a poll embedded in this article.

Hero image for the girls in their Solar Marine uniform. JC Staff are currently working on the anime version for the poster - should be in time to display at Anime Festival Asia 2011.

JC Staff will also be working on the anime version of this poster too which I'm going to try to get the monthly anime magazines to run.

Am working to get the site revamped with a new design to coincide with CJ Season 2 and the Mirai Millennium OP. If you are reading the site via RSS or the free email subscription, you may want to come and have a gander at the new design.

Tis the first time we are using embedded fonts for the menu. Go to Google Web Fonts and use them for free on your site too.

Instead of Mirai's stuff being on one page, she gets her own portal page where everything will soon be in sections - cosplay, merchandise, itasha, wallpapers, photoshop files etc.
Currently available here - only half finished though ^^

Whenever you are on a post related to Mirai, the top navigation menu will change to all things Mirai related. The header logo will change so that users can navigate to Mirai's top page. If you hover over the logo however, you can get back to the Culture Japan top page. You can also use the breadcrumbs in the top left corner to navigate back to the Culture Japan top page too.

The comments section has been revamped. When you hover over a photo annotation icon in the comments section, an overlay will appear to show you which photo was annotated. Once all changed have been made here, the theme will be ported over to figure.fm with a few tweaks.
Am continuing to use the web design services of Rob who has also helped me work on the Love Plus site for Konami. I also discovered his talents over at figure.fm ^^;

Many folks who are involved with the Mirai Millennium project are readers who have demonstrated their interest and made clear what their skill set is. If you are interested in being involved then all you have to do is do the same. Folks who end up working on the project will not only be compensated with $$$, but also have the chance to travel depending on the task required.
I recently brought a reader over to Japan to help out for a few months - you may have seen him in previous A Week in Tokyo posts ^^; He approached me and demonstrated his skill set which was something that I required and have been working with him ever since.

Back to the anime, will post the colored cells when they come back in a couple of weeks and should have the scenario ready for you to read by then.

For folks who are wondering about Chinka - mentioned it before but will do so again. Chinka was originally not my IP and while I'm still involved with the project, the team Hibuse are the folks who own and are responsible for the Chinka OVA.

Mirai Millennium however *is* my IP and my baby - I will do everything I can to make it a reality ^o^

Went to check out the Futako Tamagawa Rise shopping complex that opened earlier on this year - filled with restaurants, fashion, entertainment and is a nice place to walk around on a Sunday afternoon.

The complex is located at Futako Tamagawa station [双子玉川駅] which is on the Denentoshi [田園都市] and Oimachi [大井町] lines.
[gmap=35.61161, 139.62661]

My ticket does not cover the length of the journey so I go up to a Seisan-ki [精算機] machine like these ones to pay the difference.

I pay the extra 70 yen and am given a ticket so that I can get out the station.
I remember being fined something like 10 pounds back in the UK because I didn't have a ticket that covered the length of the journey.
Does transport in your local require you to pay the full fare at the beginning of your journey or can you pay the difference at the other end?

So when you are in Japan, if you don't know how much it costs to get to a certain station, just buy the cheapest ticket and pay the difference at the other end.

Entrance to the Rise.

Snazzy interior.

Time for some grub.

Some for Yui too.

Me has a sweet tooth.

Me likes dessert - some Japanese this time round.

I love plastic food samples - really do help make a decision rather than looking at a menu of text. Not all establishments have food samples like this however. I remember one of my comrades from the US came over to Japan but because he was too shy to go into the nearby Japanese restaurants - he ended up eating Mc Dees for most of the time ^^;

Have you blindly ordered something from a menu in Japan ending up with something that you didn't like?

You can tell which are the restaurants to avoid - the ones without queues ^^;

Kiddy Land - popular toy store. There is a large one in Harajuku - photos in this post.

Store filled with fabric, threads and wot not for you to make some gear for your daughters.

Food for folks who take regular journeys to space.

For those who want the world to be theirs.

Cute girlies!

I want grass in my office instead of carpet.

Still got my mince pies on a bike.

Mama-chari [ママチャリ] is the term for a mothers bicycle and Papa-chari [パパチャリ] is the term for a fathers two-wheeler.

Comme Ca is a store where I go to get a load of cloth to cover my private parts.

Apart from the Dolphin, I never got the chance to learn how to play a musical instrument. How many of you play and which one?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

They has PG Tips here! PG Tips is a British brand of tea - I usually bring a ton back from the UK with me ^^;

I love the effort put into presentation of food over here.

Dried aliens legs.

Being brave and trying out different colors for a change.

Loft is an interior zakka store which sells a load of useful bits n bobs.

Still not managed to get into the baking-own-coffee-beans thing yet. I love coffee but dislike the after taste ^^;

I used to live in this neck of the woods back in 2005 when I was still with Amazon. The area around the station has completely changed.

More places to visit in Japan listed up below.

The iconic Shibuya 109 building. The name originates from the Tokyu Group who built the facility. "Tokyu" [東急] (とうきゅう) is converted to the reading for "10" as "To" and "9" as "Kyu". Its also called "Ichi Maru Kyu".
Back in 1979 when the facility first opened, the tenants were stores which catered for women between the ages of 20 - 30. These days however, tenants cater for teenagers to ladies in their twenties.

And this is Shibuya 109 by day. They've got a small stage at the front where they do live events from time to time - YouTube Neta Battle being one for example.
To get to Shibuya 109, just get off at Shibuya station - you will see it from the Hachiko crossing.
[gmap=35.65971, 139.69868]

These photos taken inside Shibuya 109 when filming with Elly Otoguro. There is not much in Shibuya 109 for men apart from waiting spaces, restaurants and men's toilets ^^;

First batch of photos taken at Cocolulu who cater for the street fashionwise girl.

Oppai support systems.

For Hideyoshi's and Waai's.

Some of these photos taken by Ken Lee.

I think these photos are all mixed up ^^;
Following photos from stores Lip Service and Dilga.

A sign to remind folks that shop lifting is a crime. Have wondered why they use the term "shop lifting" - is it because many moons ago folks used to actually try to lift and take the whole shop?

How much of your hard earned cash is spent on clothes? Do you go for brands first or whats comfortable?

Cute!

And more photos from filming with Elly in the Shibuya Tour post.

More places to visit in Japan in the photo posts listed up below.

Previously posted some positions for full time members of staff (like the Ruby Developer) and after sifting through many applicants, I finally hired somebody - and this is what she looks like...

OK - its me telling pork pies as usual. The orange haired girl is actually Amiko - the mascot character for AmiAmi. You can usually find her hanging around at the AmiAmi blog.

Today we are filming some bits n pieces for the second season of Culture Japan - first episode starts in two weeks in Japan @.@
I don't think I've ever been this busy before. This time round I'm directing and producing the show which alone is a 2 person job ToT
And then there is production of the opening anime and OP/ED soundtracks too - which I guess is another 1 person job ^^;

Apart from TV production, I'm in the final stages of producing the Mirai Health Mouse Pad - the first few samples had problems. Been working with our factory to get the perfect product before we can commit to producing a load.

Mirai Gaia clients are on the increase - our next client after Konami is a rather popular eroge company ^o^ Their site will launch on Mirai Gaia at the end of October.

Have not been able to update this site as much as I would like but am making the sacrifice in order to complete the life changing milestones. Have been updating my Facebook more often though.
Anyway - cant wait until January where I think I'll get at least one full day off to do absolutely nothing but laze around ^^;

Posting a short Desk Diary today as "Desk Diary 2011/09" but will catch up with 2011/08 in a later post.

Our camera and sound guy setting up bits n pieces.

Making sure the girls are in the shot.

Filming in the office studio is much cheaper than filming at the TV stations studio where I would need to pay for the studio set to be put together, camera, lighting, sound and tape conversion - footage taken on the TV studio cameras is handed to me on a tape which I then need to convert to data which ends up being on a tape again! Japan may have advanced technology but it doesn't seem to exist in the broadcasting world yet.

Been learning a load on the job about TV production which I mostly left to my producer to deal with last time. One thing I recently learned is that flicker while filming happens under certain lighting conditions - changing the shutter speed to about 100 would normally stop the flickering. I thought shutter speed was something only for still cameras.

One of the goals for my company is to have one pillar dedicated to TV production - have been slowly building up the inventory - currently lacking an audio mixer and a boom mike - will probably get during Season 3.

Now that I'm doing a load of editing, the iMac moves over to my desk.

The lighting is also part of my inventory - picked up 2 for about 120,000 yen. Both are LEDs which is why they cost half a spleen.

The lady in the photos is Sekai no Yumi who works at AmiAmi. She's Japanese but was brought up in India and has many tales to tell us. When shes not wearing her gothic lolita outfit...

...shes wearing the Amiko mask.

This is the type of Mixer that I'm after. They cost quite a bit though.

This is our main camera - the HXR-NX70J - I'll talk about this little fella in a separate post.

One has to be prepared to deal with a load of heavy stuff when entering the world of TV - this battery pack alone is a few kilos.

Opening up the gun mic to see whats inside.

Sennheiser is apparently *the* mic to have.

The cone gets rid of wind sounds and when wrapped in a furry jacket then wind is reduced even further.

This belongs to the sound guy. Me need a decent pair of headphones too.

Another pair belonging to the sound guy.

Up until now I thought white balance is only taken from a white sheet of paper.

Tried a view from the ceiling which didn't really turn out well ^^;

A more detailed Desk Diary coming up soon - previous editions listed up below.

Back at Edo Wonderland in Nikko to build up upon my current Ninja skills - can anybody guess the name of this leaning ninja skill? Brought along Elly with me to train her as Kunoichi.

Japan is not only the land of the Rising Sun, its also the land of electronics which is integrated into the daily lives of citizens in Japan. When we bought our house, it came with stuff like an interphone with monitor, heated toilet seats with a water jet to wash away stubborn spinach or corn, and an electronic water system that can be controlled from the kitchen or bathroom which speaks to you when the bath is full and wot not. Did I forget to mention the motion detection anti-burglar pressure units in the floor?

There are a load of electronic stores in Japan - the larger chain stores being Ks Denki, Bic Camera, Yamada Denki, Yodobashi Camera and Kojima.

Today we take a lookie at Yamada Denki's brand store called LABI located in Shibuya. If you want to pay a visit then just get off at Shibuya station and walk down Dogenzaka.

Just a quick note - if you visit any electronics stores in Japan - bring along your passport so that you do not have to pay tax - the amount is usually deducted on the spot - obviously only applicable to folks who are not resident in Japan.

If you signup for a point card, then you will earn points at the same time. So if you buy something for 50,000 yen then you will get up to 10% of what you spent to spend on your next purchase which you can do right after you pay.
[gmap=35.659824, 139.698162]

We didn't have hot pots like this back in the UK - I thought they were amazing when I first saw them during my first visits to Japan.
They keep water constantly hot at just below boiling temperature.

Japanese rice cookers are the biz. We just had to get one on a visit to Japan when still living in the UK.

The hot pots on this shelf range from 9,800 yen to 14,800 yen.

Something cool looking to make a cuppa coffee.

Dishwashers are generally very small like the one that came with our place. Takes ages to put stuff in and thus quicker to wash manually ^^;

Ever since Dyson released their hoovers in Japan, many other manufactures followed suit and started to make cyclone models. The same thing happened with the iPhone after it entered Japanese shores - Japanese manufactures started to churn out touch screen phones.

Some beauty products for the beauty conscious.

Ion Cannons built into these hair dryers.

The trial cannot be done now.

Once upon a time, the Japanese used to use a small wooden stick called Chugi to wipe their bottoms. It wasn't until the Meiji period when they gradually started to use toilet paper.

Toilet paper wasn't available during the Meiji period and folks had to import it!
I think people got fed up of using those Chugi sticks because some people mistook them for chopsticks and then realizing while they are eating breakfast that they were not chopsticks but elder brothers personal Chugi. The victim thinking "no bloody wonder there was dried corn on the end of that Chugi..."

The Japanese finally got bored of using toilet paper and invented the washlet. Basically what happens is that once you have finished your morning dump, you press a button and a stream of water shoots your back door to remove bits of poo and undigested spinach.

While a bidet does offer similar functionality, you have to actually move over to it and risk dropping some waste in the process. One could then slip on the poo and end up with their head in the toilet with a bunch of spinach poo in their mouth - all very dangerous stuff.

I jumped off my seat when I first tried a washlet but am used to them these days however and prefer to use them to clean my botty especially after a night of spicy food - prefer to wash off the skiddy splashes rather than use paper and spread it around like peanut butter, nutella or marmite.

Retro washlet CM below.

For folks who have their botty hole further up their back, one can use controls to aim the nozzle of water and such.

This is the control panel for a washlet where one can even give their botty hole a massage with a jet of water. You can obviously increase the water power to get rid of the really stubborn poo which is trying to cling on for dear life to your nether regions.

This control panel enables one to open and close the lid of the toilet in the case that ones hands are dirty after....doing something with them...

This washlet cleans the nozzle too which not all of them do - splashes of poo from somebody could be left on a nozzle - the next person would be treated to a sample of that poo if they used the washlet.

Some folks are embarrassed about the noise of their pee trickling or poo making exploding noises when hitting the water. This device emits the sound of water flushing enabling one to do their business without being embarrassed.
Folks who do not own this device could compromise by clapping or singing very loudly instead.

Had a very large sewing machine in the office at one time when I thought I was going to make leather accessories.

Guess what these are.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Japanese washing machines are the biz too. Washing machines in Japan do their job entirely with cold water. Each machine will come with a hose to siphon water from the bath too to make good economical use of resources.

Most Japanese washing machines have the drum opening at the top - not sure why though. I find them easier to take out and put in washing from the top rather than peering in from the side.

These look like a bunch of air purifiers.

Fridges have a load of gadgets in them like this one - the bottom compartment is vacuum sealed to keep food fresh. Some of them emit certain types of light to help veggies continue to grow before they are killed off.

We finally got a digital TV earlier on this year (or was it the end of last year?). Was actually looking for a Samsung TV but could not find them listed at any Japanese retailers even though they were being plugged in commercials on TV - have a feeling something fishy going on there. I'm not too bothered with brands as long as they do the job. Whats your fave electronic brand and who makes most of your electronic goods - does not have to be a Japanese manufacturer.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Sparkly mobile charger.

The sparkly style of a diamond decorated phone is called "Deko-den" [デコ電] which is short for "Decoration Denwa" or "Decorated Phone".

LABI has a service where you can give them your mobile or any other electronic item and they will decorate it for you.

Examples of how your phone would end up like.

The very cute mascot characters of Tsukumo and Labi.

There is a poll embedded in this article.

Expensive in the short term - cheap in the long term. Eneloop batteries make up most of our battery inventory.
Whatever you do in life, always think long term - unless you don't care about the future.

How many kanji can you read here?

Not sure if these ones do it but some cooking devices of late connect to the Internets to enable remote control.

Smaller air purifiers.

These air purifiers get rid of smells, bacteria and viruses in the air.

Decorations for your ears.

Now in the mobile department. Some pocket Wi-Fi's which I wouldn't need to consider if Softbank allowed tethering for my iPhone.

When we first came to Japan, wifey and I went without a mobile phone for quite a few moons until it was absolutely necessary to get one ^^;
We started off with Docomo and then switched to AU finally ending up with Softbank because of the iPhone.
Following poll just to get an idea of what carriers your are using.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Decided to invest in a few LED bulbs the other day - only to find that apart from being expensive, they tend to be dark for some reason too.

This is the entrance that you should be looking for when visiting LABI. These photos taken a while ago with Elly when touring Shibuya for Culture Japan. LABI has 6 huge floors filled with stuff - too much to go through for one TV show which is why we skipped some floors including the games.

Leaving you with a few more photos of Shibuya by night.
More places to visit in Japan listed up below.

I need to watch TV more often - just saw this most awesome commercial just now - Gundam about to take a cup noodle break. Full HD version at YouTube.

Was filming 2 episodes worth of Culture Japan Season 2 at the Good Smile Cafe. After the Madoka theme, the cafe this time round gets the Carnival Phantasm treatment with the Fate girlies looking sooooo cute! ><

Rewinding the clock back to this morning - prepping camera equipment for today's shoot.

Setting up at the Good Smile Cafe. Folks who want to nom nom while being surrounded by lovely figure girlies, get off at Matsudo station and follow these directions.

My current setup for a studio shoot is the HXR-NX70J for the main camera, HDR-CX700V for the wide shot, two LED 5400K lights and two wireless pin mics. I've run out of hardware budget for the 2nd season so will wait until season 3 to get a sound mixer.

When I need a camera and sound engineer, I would reach out to my network to see who is available. Chiyoda Video is just one of the TV production companies that I work with. Chiyoda-san brought along their CRT monitor to check the color settings. I need a field monitor but they cost a bomb - cant wait for season 3 for more production budget!

My first production camera is the HXR-NX70J. Will talk about this machine in a separate post.

Setting White Balance.

Decided to go for something compact as a second camera and chose the CX700 - I was initially thinking of using this as my main production camera ^^;

Going over today's schedule.

Love the style of Carnival Phantasm - the girls are just so sweet!

For one of the cuts we do a SMAP SMAP parody ^^

My new Libec tripod. I initially thought I could get away with a 3,000 yen tripod but found out the hard way after footage turned out terrible. Will talk about this chap in a separate post too.

Rin so cute!

Sabers botty asking to be smacked.

There is a poll embedded in this article.

Good Smile prepped food for readers - who I forgot to invite ^^; I usually invite folks to filming on my Twitter - keep your mince pies on it if you want to join in on filming shenanigans.

Claris Nendoroid Puchi are so cute too!

Gorgeous Makise scale figure up for grabs soon.

The best part of the job - eating while filming.

Figma Mirai gets some air time too.

Today's script.

Comrades from Ascii Media Works (the Mikunopolis folks) join us for the shenanigans.

Our guests for the two episodes are Mikatan and the General manager of Good Smile Akiyama-san.

Group shot with today's crew.

Back to base for further meetings with Tokyo MX TV to go over the first few episodes of Season 2.

Please forgive me for the lack of updates of late - the second season of Culture Japan is pretty much eating up all of my time and I've taken on the job of Producer and editing too. Season 2 Episode 1 starts to broadcast in Japan on October 1st at 22:30.

The opening anime is nearly complete and cant wait to show you. While JC staff are doing the animated parts of Mirai-chan, I'm doing the rest in-house with Pinakes which is actually most of the work.

Apart from Culture Japan TV stuff, I'm working on the final samples of Mirai's Health Mouse Pad, migration of all our sites over to Amazon EC2 and launching a new website for an eroge maker.

Will update you more again as I hope to get the latest installation of A Week in Tokyo up.

More posts related to Culture Japan listed up below.

We are currently taking a battering by the Typhoon that's making its way across Japan. Its chucking it down outside right now and the wind sounds like a jet engine as it shakes the house.
So far 4 have died and 3 are missing. Flooding in many parts of Japan. Many blackouts too. Some highways are closed as things fall down like trees and wot not - I'm hearing stuff fall down constantly outside. My area in Meguro Tokyo seems to be not too bad but not a good time to be out n about.

Yesterday, as the typhoon made its way across Japan, over a million people were asked to evacuate the city of Nagoya.

A load of flights have been cancelled and the trains are not running on time either. Looks like Japan will be in the clear by tomorrow 3PM as the Typhoon heads up North.

Photos just published at the Dollfie Blog of some new Dollfie goodies up for grabs - DD Saber Fate/EXTRA Ver looking rather stunning indeed. The price is also stunning at 72,450 yen.

If you got a spare 65,100 yen lying around in your left shoe then you may have a chance of getting hold of Saber Alter 2nd Version too.

Saber Alter Jersey and Bloomer set.

Black swimwear for folks who don't mind color stains.
Wolf is covering the latest on this and you can find out more buzz over at http://doll.fm

Oh, and grats to Kodomut for adopting - cool figures at his burogu too.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Other doll related posts listed up below.

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「創作造形©ボークス・造形村」©2003-2010 VOLKS INC. All rights are reserved.
スーパードルフィー®、ドルフィードリーム® はボークス社の商標登録であり、その全ての権利を所有しています。

Last year we had a look at the steps needed to become a ninja. Today we take a look at what it takes to become a ninja girl otherwise known as Kunoichi (くノ一). The training ground is same as last year - Edo Wonderland in Nikko.
But before I continue here is something for fact fans. If you take a look at the characters for Kunoichi (くノ一), you will notice that all those strokes when combined make up the kanji for "woman" (女).

This time round I brought along Elly Otoguro (@ellyotoguro) to train to become a kunoichi. I've already graduated as a ninja so this time I'm training to upgrade my rank to a Chu Nin (中忍). Speaking of which - Ninja Gaiden 3.

Step 1 - Seek and prove worthiness to Sensei

First step is to seek the sensei who taught me last time and ask if he would train Elly. Sensei then first asks Elly to prove her worthiness in battle.

Sensei and his minion ninja's disappear in a puff of smoke and attack Elly from left right n center.

You already know this but ninja's move fast ^^;

Elly puts up a brave fight but is left bewildered due to the other ninja's speed.

Sensei accepts Elly as his student and starts training her on how to use the ninja star called Shuriken (手裏剣). The kanji for Shuriken is directly translated as the "sword (hidden) behind the hand".

Brought along my camera and sound crew to film Elly's progress for Culture Japan Season 2.

Our sensei is a stuntman and an actor too - he was also in the Tom Cruise flick The Last Samurai.

Elly passes her first training and its off for the next step.

Step 2 - Leaping over mountains

In the next lesson, Elly learns how to leap over mountains which require a running start of 3 miles to build up momentum.

Mountain leaping training complete - now its time to face the maze.

Step 3 - Escape the Maze

The maze is not just any old boring maze - comes complete with sliding walls which needed to slide in a particular order to get out. Some of the walls spin around too. Here Elly has already left the maze while I run around in circles ^^;

Edo Wonderland is a great place for cosplay photos and there were a load of cosplayers about.

The kids love Edo Wonderland where they can get dressed up in gear from the Edo period.

This is the second year filming at Edo Wonderland. Last year was the same time - in the middle of a boiling hot Summers day ^^;
I drank several cans of Pocari Sweat but didn't go toilet much so probably sweated off all the water instead?!

The broom is attached to a cable from a 30 foot tall crane for this Ninja Potter sequence.

Step 4 - Balance Training

Time for Elly to improve her balance skills in the Ninja Kai Kai Tei building. This place is just incredible and just has to be experienced by everybody!
The building is slanted and as soon as you go in, your senses are all thrown off - everything looks normal but gravity pulls you to one side of the room. Unless you already live in a place like this, you are guaranteed to feel dizzy as soon as you go in. If I ever get to build my own house I'd love to have a small room like this ^^;

I do all my own stunts - all I could do was laugh and cry as I slammed my foot in the wall ^^;

Step 5 - Grappling Hook and Katana Training

Elly learns to use the ninja weapons of trade.

Step 6 - laying traps

Ninja's carry around portable fans like these which is used to blow away any chasing assailant.

Nendoroid Sharo makes an appearance during the recording.

Step 7 - Roof Top Running

Ninja's spend a third of their lives running around on rooftops. Some folks think that they are the real identity of Santa.

Step 8 - Spotting obvious danger

Obvious enemy is obvious.

Filling up with some nomalicious ramen for a very late lunch.

Step 8 - Defeat Sensei

Elly is to use all her skills learned to defeat Sensei and his ninja minions.

Elly graduates as Kunoichi and I level up to Chu Nin. We both leave the Edo period to return to present time but there is a disturbance in the time portal. Something went wrong...

If you fancy training as a ninja or kunoichi then get along to Edo Wonderland.

The Return to Edo Wonderland can be seen on Culture Japan Season 2 which starts to broadcast in Japan on Tokyo MX TV next Saturday 22:30PM.

More Culture Japan TV related posts listed up below.

Does this 1/7 scale Saber Lily from Good Smile Company tickle your fancy? Does the half horse girl look like Saber? Are you feeling lucky today?
If the answer is "yes!" then you may want to participate in this giveaway to win this Saber Lily thanks to Kid Nemo who want to give one away worth 119.99 USD.

All you have to do is tell me how you discovered this site and why you decided to stick around. I think I asked this same question 2 years ago but there has been a load of churn since then so would be great to hear how readers since then came about the site. Also added a poll too.

"Churn" is an Internet marketing term that we used at Microsoft to describe how previous readers move on and new readers come on board.

Just pop your answer in the comments and I will let Mirai Gaia choose one at random this time next week and announce the winner on my Twitter or Facebook. The winner will then have to contact me where Kid Nemo will send your Saber Lily to you when she is re-released next Feb.

The last person to win a figure was Evil King who posted photos of his prize in the community uploads.

But! If you are not feeling so lucky, then you may want to secure your order of Saber Lily instead at Kid Nemo before they all get whipped up.

There is a poll embedded in this article.

This could be the one pirate who you may not mind boarding your ship. The gorgeous Queens Blade Rebellion Captain Liliana from Mega House. This 1/8 scale figure released recently seems to be sold out everywhere including Hobby Search who sent her over ^^;

Rather than get in toraburu from a late review which is not in stock anymore, I'd better plug the figure sale that Hobby Search are having as well as their exclusive Mashiro figure they they got up for pre-order.

Loads of bits n pieces in the box to play with.

Absolutely lovely figure. Skirt and coat edges not as sharp as the ones that you would see on a Good Smile, Max Factory or Alter figure though.

You can remove her coat for when she gets hot n stuffy.

Skirt can be removed for when its extra hot n stuffy.

Liliana comes with two starfish...

...which are used to cover her eyes.

Looks like Astry Boy is trolling Liliana.

Astro Boy plays with Liliana's starfish.

Looks like Astro Boy wont be trolling Liliana anymore.

Updated with the video below - or view it in high res at YouTube.

Day one in Paris. Meetings in the morning, filming in the afternoon and then meeting up with DC readers in the evening. Had a great time! Will write more when I get a bit of time to sit down. Just arrived back in London and have been running out n about. Need to head out again in a few mins ^^;
Will be posting photos from the iPhone in between meetings to my Tsubuyaku account from time to time.