Life in Tokyo through photos covering the past few weeks. Tis been a while since the last installment of A Week in Tokyo. Usually takes me a day to sort out the photos and write up the English and Japanese version of these posts - its been difficult to get a day off to do so of late.
Today we cover my 2011 Summer which is been mostly consumed by production of my TV show Culture Japan Season 2.
During late Summer, its festival time in Japan. The first photo is taken outside my local train station - the Ryosha festival is about to take place where a load of Omikoshi are carried about our town.
Off to Osaka to spend two days filming with voice actress Mimori Suzuko. Shinkansen bullet trains run at various speeds - the faster they are, the more you pay. I think we took the Kodama which took about 3 hours.
Some traditional snacks to nom on during the journey which include onigiri rice balls and boiled eggs.
Some train carriages are women-only for certain hours of the day but these ones are women-only for the whole day during the week.
First stop in Osaka is a visit to the offices of eroge maker Yuzu-soft. If you like anime titles like Kore wa Zombie and Hidan no Aria then you will like the girls in Yuzu-soft's games done by Muririn-sensei and Kobuichi-sensei.
Tis been a few years since I visited Osaka - I should go more often! Photos from the trip in the Osaka Namba post.
Filming at Osaka's equivalent of Akihabara - photos in the Otaroad post.
Trying on jeans for a change. I used to wear jeans all the time as a teenager. After wearing black trousers for many years of late, I thought I always looked odd in jeans.
Mens apparel store in Osaka filled with Ikemens.
This part of town in Osaka is called "America Mura" (America Town) [アメリカ村] which is filled with fashion stores.
Heading to catch the Shinkansen bullet train back to Tokyo after a weekend of filming.
Cute girl at the station not wearing much. I approve anyway.
This is called Eki-ben [駅弁] - a bento box designed to be eaten on the train.
When we arrived at Shinagawa, 2.5 thousand girls crowded around what appeared to be the group Arashi (?) who were surrounded by Mr Smith type body guards. It really was commotion!
Filming at the JC Staff studios for Culture Japan. This time round we cover a lot of the small details including at what DPI are images scanned at. This will probably be episode 5 of Season 2.
JC Staff producer Ohashi-san on my left, reader Dan's, Nakamura-san from Ascii Media Works and DMYO-sensei who is shy.
Treating the lads to some Indian food outside the JC Staff studios. Did I mention that Indian food always reminds me of my past?
The office at a time before I started editing on the iMac.
In our hood at Musashikoyama.
Saving money tip - if you are in Japan and want to save every penny on shopping in Akihabara, buy food from a supermarket instead of a convenience store. Go to the supermarket at about 8PM and you will start to see stickers on food products like this one - 20% off at the register.
Many bento boxes and perishable foods will also be discounted as they want to get rid of them as soon as possible.
When you are in Japan, where do you go to stock up on food? When I first visited most my food was from a convenience store ^^;
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Our shopping for the evening - I cant live without milk! They say folks who like milk like oppai too - is there any truth to that?
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Cute penguin thingy hanging outside a shop advertising some cold shampoo.
Ever since the earthquake and nuclear reactor disaster, Tokyo has been in power conservation mode or "Setsuden" [節電]. This is the Chuo-line - tis never usually this dark.
DMYO-sensei's iPhone screen. What do you have as your phone screen?
These boxes are supposed to be used for trading card games but I use em for business cards. Endo Saya here from the eroge Kisaragi Gold Star.
Wifey's Singapore Laksa is so yummy!
Shiitake mushrooms filled with minced meat and veggies.
Doing the accounting and contract filling for Culture Japan with Tokyo MX TV. Making the show is certainly fun but there is a lot of headaches behind the scenes that are involved ^^;
Treating myself to some cake with a cuppa PG Tips.
Meetings at Sony Music Artists in Aoyama.
With the boss of Obitsu and Sony Music - what sort of collaboration could this be?!
Quick curry before heading back to base. figma Mirai in the background needs a change of clothes.
The lovely Maki Horikita continues to plug the mobile carrier Docomo.
Onigiri rice balls for lunch.
Filming at the offices of Cybernoids who worked on the Oreimo iPhone app. They done an incredible job with Mirai-chan! Sneek peek here - that pose wasn't drawn by anybody but by the powerful rendering tools that Cybernoids have.
Love that AKB poster drawn in the style of how old cinema posters were done many moons ago.
Yamanote line bound for Meguro.
Some Vietnamese food in Shinjuku.
Back in the 80's a group called BROS used to wear these bottle caps on their shoes - and so did everybody who liked them including me ^^;
You can tell that I have a sweet tooth ^^;
Most restaurants in Japan have spoons n forks but not all. How many of you regularly eat with chopsticks?
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Weather around the typhoon was pretty lousy.
More stuff taking up office space - LED lights for filming. Although I do use them for figure/doll photo shoots too.
Saber and Aki have been rather hot of late which is why they are skimpy all the time. Saber dons a T-shirt made for me by DDotark - Aki's top by Chun.
Picked up this Sony HDR-CX700V as a second studio cam. Hope to do a writeup of this separately. In the meantime a review from the Tubes below.
Occasionally I would tweet my whereabouts on my Twitter and readers would come along. I'd treat everybody to dindins if not too many show up ^^;
Prepping for shoot.
About to film with AmiAmi at the office.
Helping Elly Otoguro get some ninja girl training at Edo Wonderland.
Libec tripod get! Its so cool that I just want to keep it unfolded in the office - but it would take up too much space and I'd be tripping up over it all the time ^^;
Mr Brown getting a bollocking from his producer asking him not to talk over my sentences ^^;
Mr Brown is Singapore's most well known blogger who was over in Tokyo for the Tokyo Game Show. He was filming at my office for his new show on Yahoo.
Taking a break to enjoy some of the Autumn festivals at the local shrine.
Mr Greg Penny - a record producer for folks such as Elton John and k.d. lang. Greg was over in Tokyo for some work and we hooked up. We've known each other for quite a bit ever since he reached out to me from discovering my writings about Japan.
My fave cereal ever - Cinnamon Toast! My producer for Culture Japan Jun in the US sent some over - but its all gone...
Jun!
I've seen sprays at the entrance of supermarkets but now they have anti bacterial wipes.
Skan Srisuwan is the guy who is responsible for the design of Mirai's Solar Marine uniform and the Retrograde Suit.
He was the lead designer at Square Enix for the Front Mission project and was in Tokyo recently for the Tokyo Game Show.
Taking Skan and Kan out for some Nagasaki Chanpon.
T-shirt samples arrive at the office.
Recent snap of the office with the iMac on this side of the desk as I'm using it everyday now.
Looks like I'm in the middle of editing the ED for Culture Japan. I use Teleport which enables me to control the iMac with the MacBook Pro mouse.
Filming at the offices of Good Smile Company for Culture Japan - photos taken on the day in the Carnival Phantasm post.
The hole in the ceiling not mended yet - this months loot. What do you already have here and which tickle your fancy?
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The first sample of the Mirai Health Mousepad had quality issues - been working with the factory to iron out the issues but its taking a lot of time! I think we are nearly there. Hopefully the next sample to arrive should be perfect. As you can see from some of these - some of them hardly have any cleavage. A mousepad without a cleavage means that you cant rest your.... arm on it properly.
Steins;Gate girls up for grabs at the local UFO catcher.
On paper recycle day, you can find a load of manga on the streets waiting to be picked up and recycled.
Voice actress for Mirai-chan is doing the narration for Culture Japan.
Picking up some lunch at Nishikoyama.
Katsu for lunch.
Its Asanon's phone and her phone straps!
I look at this view every morning while getting a breath of fresh air at the start of the day - looks great at night too.
Japanese TV stations still rely on tape - all these are required for the Culture Japan broadcast.
MacBook Pro 17" had been rather noisy of late until I cleaned out the fans of dust - much quieter now.
Heading out to dinner around Musashikoyama.
Trying out a new Korean place.
Brekkie while trying to finish the official site for Culture Japan ( http://culturejapan.tv ) and Mirai-chan's page too ( http://mirai.fm ) - both to be done before the broadcast.
Production of the Mirai Millennium OP took just over a month and involved many hours on Skype with my man in Singapore - Pinakes.
And before I knew it - Culture Japan went on air. The first episode of season two was broadcast in Japan last Saturday. Hope to finish off two more episodes this week. Have already filmed 9 episodes of the 13 and am trying to get everything handed into Tokyo MX before I head over to Singapore for AFA 11. Mnet America should be prepping season 2 soon.
Anyway, before I leave you, many folks have been telling me how I put too many photos in one post and that a page takes 2.5 years to load. How is loading speed on your end for a post like this one with 80 photos?
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More life in Tokyo through photos in previous editions of A Week in Tokyo listed up below.
