Tatami Galaxy (四畳半神話大系) - an anime worthy of being called a classic! It is hard to describe the genre for this particular anime, but I’m guessing it would fall under the random / life / mystery. Even though it was only 11 episodes long, it is definitely a must watch for all anime lovers.

If you wish to continue reading, be warned that a lot of SPOILERS await!

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The story is about a college dropout (he has no name, he just refers to himself as Watashi (me in japanese) during the whole series, cause he is the narrator), who, after meeting a certain person at a ramen shop, has to re-live his 2-3 years of college in various manifestations. In each “dimension” he joins a different club (circle) in uni and therefore the way he interacts with the other characters alters episode by episode. But in every variation he is destined to meet Ozu, a sly looking fellow who was always seeking to cause trouble. The MC (main character) a Ozu always end up becoming good friends, even though MC hates Ozus guts. There are other characters like Ozus master Higuchi, the doll lover Jougasaki, the fortune teller which raises the price for giving advice to MC in every episode (starting at 1000Yen and hoing up to 9000Yen), and of course the lovely Akashi, who MC is head over heals for (in most dimensions).

Oh yea, this is a romance story! Riiiiight, I almost forgot about that… THe romance between MC and Akashi is obvious yet hidden. When all the dimensions come clashing in the end they do get their happy end though.

It reminded me a lot of the Endless Eight from Haruhi. But unlike that, the episodes in Tatami Galaxy had more differences in the story/characters involved. In the end it was all worth it. The last 2 episodes were pure epic. The whole series, all the different dimensions were building up to the last to episodes.

Overall this series had solid characters, a very interesting plot, unique art style and awesome OP and ED (they are in my top AniSong playlist).

Rating: 9/10

Have you every wanted to go on a date with the 3D virtual idol Hatsune Miku?! Well now you can! As this guy demonstrates, by using a kinekt and some virtual reality glasses, he was able to go on a date with Miku and even managed to pat her. Here is the video:

Now that Im back from Japan and have taken out all the anime related stuff which i have acquired there I would like to present the current state of my room. (PS the BRS fig is not mine, I got it for David).

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View album on Imgur

So these are my last few hours in glorious Japan. I will be leaving for the airport shortly… But before leaving I went to Nipponbashi one last time. Played some Street Fighter, jubeat and most importantly got to see the Yuru Yuri exhibition. Im sure my friend Tac will be so jealous right now. And this is where I bid farewell to the land of Japan and get ready to go to the airport for my 4pm flight to Shanghai and then to Sydney.

The photos of the Yuru Yuri exhibition are somewhere at the bottom:

Today was the last time in the next 2 years (probably) that I saw one of my best friends: Kosuke. We went to Osaka Dome where there is a quite an interesting exhibition happening. In japanese they call it Trick Art, basically optical illusions.

Paintings drawn on walls, but with parts of the body sticking out of the frame, making it look like they are 3D. It was a lot of fun. Here are some awesome pics:

Yesterday (25th of July) was the day of the Tanjin Matsuri in Osaka. My classmates and I decided to go there and have fun.

Imagine a typical japanese festival with all the stalls and stuff and us walking in that huge bunch of people in the heat… It was +32 over there, + the amount of people that gathered there wasn’t really helping…

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After walking around the stalls, eating and drinking, we went to look at the “parade” and went inside the temple. Then it was time for the fireworks. While waiting for the fireworks, I, being a diligent student, did all my homework for the next day ^_^

Overall it was fun to go there with friends, but since I’ve been there 2 years ago, for me it wasn’t really all that exciting… But still worth it i guess ^_^

Here are pics:

Today I went and watched Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki in TOHO cinemas Namba (Osaka). I am so lucky that I got to see this movie while being here, in Japan. This movie is from the creator of The Girl Who Leaped Through Time and Summer Wars, Director Mamoru Hosoda. Knowing that, you must imagine the hype over this new movie.

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It was a very, very, very good movie. So many heartwarming scenes… Some even made me cry, cause they were so nice. And the music, the music was epic. The ookami kids were just so adorable. And the mother was a cute uni student in the beginning and then became a proper mother. I would love to go into more detail, but I don’t want to spoil this awesome movie for anyone.

Here is a picture of the cinema ticket:

PS. To all my anime loving friends:  Have fun waiting 6 months for the BluRay releases XDDDDD

So today my friend Kosuke invited me over to Kyoto once again, this time to eat some real Japanese sushi. So 3 things happened: Street fighter competition, playing Street Fighter with Kosuke, and eating delicious sushi with Kosuke and his father.

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We wanted to play some games, so we went to the biggest arcade in Kyoto. As it turned out there was a 3v3 Super Street Fighter IV competition happening there. We were very exited about that, so we decided to stay there and look at the all the games up until the finals. Wow, the level of play was amazing, some of the strongest people of western japan have gathered in that arcade in Kyoto. There were the #1 #5 #8 #9 top players of Osaka, #1 #4 top players of Kyoto, #1 top player from Nara and #1 of Wakayama. And in the finals we got to see a suburb victory by no other than Uryo (Sakura). The best sakura in japan, he competed in EVO 2012 and is now back in japan is still winning.

Then after spending 3 hours in a Namco arcade playing SF with randoms and Kosuke, we finally got hurry and went to the sushi place, where we met with Kosukes father. A real Japanse shop (restaurant) is not like one of those sushi train places, its looks like an bar and you order the sushi which you want to eat. All the different types of sushi are listed on a parchment on the wall, all you have to do is shout out the name and in a minute you get a fresh pair of sushi on the table. What can I say, I’ve never seen so much fish in one place. I don’t even know the names of half the fish that we had today (in japanese, english or russian). But they were delicious! However, the sushi were nothing compared to the special dish we had. Can you guess what it is:

If you said fried whale meat, you guessed right! That was a delicacy that used to be very common food in japan, but after the ban, its has become one of those foods you only eat at rare occasions. It was like nothing I have ever tasted before. Soft, gentle and then chewy. This was a once in a lifetime experience. Eating whale meat while drinking umeshuu (alcoholic beverage made from japans plum), this is the life of a poor australian university student XDDDDDDD

On our way back, we dropped by one more arcade and played some more Super Street Fighter IV. With Kosukes help, I have reached 10,000BP (battle points) and “B” rank. Its still a long way until I become a world warrior, but I will get there one step at a time!

Also there was some kind of cool fountain show in front of 京都駅:

Whole album:

In Super Street Fighter IV some special moves can be preformed by canceling of of normal moves. Some of them even allow certain characters to extend their model range, allowing them to grab opponents from further away, or to preform special moves with extended range.

Notable examples of Kara moves are Ken’s kara-grab, Sagat’s kara-uppercut and Akuma/EvilRyu/Oni ‘s raging demon. Here is a video tutorial explaining how to execute Oni’s kara-demon through normal moves.

Summer 2012 anime season has started and is already in full swing! The people at TheAkiba.com have compiled a nice list of “must watch” anime this season (with a description of why they like each series).

Personally I’m watching 6 new things this season and 1 from last season.

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• Yuru Yuri II
• Sword Art Online
• Kono Naka ni Hitori Imouto ga Iru
• Kokoro Connect
• Jinrui wa Suitai shimashita
• Dakara Boku wa H ga Dekinai
• Hyouka

(please click the picture to proceed to TheAkiba website)