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).
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…
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.
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.
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.
(please click the picture to proceed to TheAkiba website)
It was supposed to be just a normal sunday for me, until I decided to go hang out with my friend Kosuke in Kyoto. So I picked a random day (today, 15th of July, Sunday) decided on a time and went to Kyoto, where Kosuke was waiting for me. Little did i know what was in stall for me…
So first off we went to a place called Fushimi Inari-taisha (伏見稲荷大社), or as it is better know as: “the place with lots of orange gates”. It was very hot (35°C), but we somehow managed to get up there, look around and take some pictures:
A weird coincident accused at that temple. When we were leaving, I saw 4 foreigners walking into the temple, then I realized that 2 of them were the russian girls from my class in Ark Academy (japanese language school). So I went and said hi. They were so shocked to see me there that the even said that all of japan is like a small town where anyone can meet anyone easily.
After that we went to some arcades and played some good’ol Street Fighter. Got some points, and got a better understanding of how to fight against Rufus, oh how i hate Rufus…
Anyway back to the real world. So after spending an hour or so in the arcade, we went out and saw this huuuuuuge number of people gathering, for what apparently is the Gion Matsuri (祇園祭). Its this huge festival in Kyoto with take place through out all of July. Well in order to enjoy a real japanese festival to the fullest, and to avoid the scorching heat, I went and bought a Jinbei (甚平).
It was rather cheap, only 2100円. It saved my life during this festival, cause walking through that huge crowd would have been too hot in normal clothes. I’m also planning to wear the Jinbei when I go the Tanjin Matsuri in Osaka on the 25th of July.
Here is a video of a guy painting a painting… that sounds kinda weird, but i have no idea how to explain it in more detail…
So once we walked around for a good 3 hours, it was time for dinner. Kosukes father came along and we went to have some shabu shabu. It was delicious to say the least. Also Kosukes dad is a very nice person, we managed to talk a lot about the difference in cultures, my study and overall life in Australia. I was also treated to some Umeshu, which great as well.
Aaaaaand here is a gallery of today mini trip to Kyoto: