After the flight, our trip takes place in an electrical train (Not sure if it has another name though). This kind of train runs neither on gas, nor on steam nor on pedaling power, but on electricity. Do you have such kind of trains in your place of living?

These devices must touch the power cables in order to power the train up so it can travel. I must say this way of transportation is pretty quiet and pleasant to the person.

Inside the train it’s very clean and quiet as well. The ticket lady passes through the wagons to check if someone doesn’t have a ticket, if such a human found, he is being thrown out of the train as it goes (Maybe I kid, maybe I don’t )

For the first time in my life I got to see them trees called Birches. These trees seem to be present in most of Russian forests and that’s a lot of trees.

After a while, we arrive in the center of Moscow. Unlike my neck of the wood, this city is most industrial. Commercials, architecture, subway, tramway, you name it! By the way, the bus on the right runs also on electricity. It’s fed from the electrical wires that run through all of the city so no need in gas and that means – Cleaner & calmer way of transportation.

Russian cars are everywhere as well. Unlike The Diablo I failed to catch on camera due to it’s “beyond the speed of sound acceleration”, this car is called Jiguli and is more simple and popular since the older times of Russia. T’was fun to see one of those

Tis be a statue of one of the most famous if not the famous poets, singers and artists in Russia, Vladimir Wisotsky. The tea might have been named after him, but I’m not sure about that

And this is the movie theater Russia, named after… aw you know!..

Lunch was pretty good that day as Russian sweets are awesome! We had the pancakes at a certain place that we found. The place had great music, something like American 80’s style, designed in a modern fashion and had awesome food and ice cream…

Right near the theater is the statue of Alexander Sergeyivich Pushkin, who was a poet, and is considered to be the greatest poet of all times.

After a day or so, we went for a visit to the Moscow Kremlin.

The Moscow Kremlin is one of the biggest sight seeing in Russia. The Kremlin used to be the wall of Moscow a long time ago, but then the city got bigger and the Kremlin stayed inside the city.

And this be Lenin’s grave. Stalin used to be berried here as well, but then they decided nahhhh… and moved him to a farther location.

This be the main tower in Kremlin the clock tower, and the guy in the green shirt is someone who refused to leave the shot cause he liked the place so much…

And this place full of cash is where people used to lose their heads because the Tsar said so.

Afterwards there was a guards changing ceremony at which the new guards march to the posts raising their feet to 90 degrees angle and eventually switching with the old guard. From here it seems that the new guard from behind is kicking the other new guard’s butt (literally speaking), but I’m sure I’m wrong .

And this is Marshall Jukov who is considered to be the one who saved Moscow from the Germans. As it seems, he used the force against them…

I personally found the architecture of Moscow to be very beautiful, almost like the ladies in it…

And subway is fascinating as well! Be method of transportation ever. There’s even a timer hanging at the train tunnel that says how long would it take for the next train to arrive, and trains usually arrive at most every 3 minutes. If I had such method of transportation to my college I would have more tome to work at home

The Abrastsov theater is also an interesting sight seeing. There’s this clock on the theater wall that releases an animal every hour and at 12 o’clock all the animals come out. Still apparently the clock isn’t this well kept cause the animal were once making their animal noises and now they don’t and there also was music in the background and now there isn’t. Bummer, but still interesting to see

Biggest super market in Moscow, sells everything and anything that you would enjoy eating. Also designed not bad, now here’s an idea for a 3D project…

Dinner! (Finally, you must be thinking) Dinner was at a great place called Menza which is a Japanese restaurant. Apparently there are lots of Japanese restaurants in Moscow and they all make original and awesomely good food. Enjoyed every bite

The evening began with some Miso soup like it’s popular in Japan and continued with some Sushi, why not

Russian original method of rolling the Sushi is not making it in sea weed but covering it with Ikra (Caviar). Original and not bad at all

I found a good taste for Kvas in Moscow. It is a national Russian soda drink (that wants to compete with Pepsi?)

v

The Moscow stadium…

The Moscow winter games tramplin, Ski jumpers jump from here as far as they can. Satellites probably can be launched from here too…

The Moscow university… My dad studied here

And this place is called the library of memory and contains records on people who died during the war. Folks can find info on their relatives here who did heroic deeds.

And just when we thought it couldn’t be hotter (Since of course it’s Russia, one of the hottest countries in the world) it began raining! Surprise…
That day we arrived home wet and everyday since we grabbed umbrellas when left home, but as you know, that means no rain!

Personally I like rain better than heat in the summer…

So, I believe that’s it for now until next time in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Finland & Norway… I’ll be visiting a lot of places, so stick around for some footage on great locations…

Cheers!

Disconnecting me-self a bit from the current events, I didn’t know this but luckily someone told me. Apparently, there was an anime convention in 2 days which after the acknowledgement, I was compelled to go to
The convention included the mostly usual stuff, cosplay contest, merchandise sales and this time a Trivia contest was arranged too… It’s been a little while since the Yume-Con event and now it’s time for another gathering of fans of Anime and Manga!

Check this out

I tried to arrive at the place early but came half an hour later than I planned. The line by that time (obviously) was already huge, so… I started to take some shots and in parallel not to miss my chance to squeeze in…

Like in the previous anime & Manga events, the Yume-Con (for instance), lots of creative people arrived with nice cosplay appearances for the Manga or Anime they love and with them lots of girls (and guys) with Neko-Mimi (Cat ears) hats, it cold now in our local areas, so you gotta wear these

Additionally in this event, like in previous Japanese culture events we have another guest photographer – Lior Kraisler, who will show up later on… So, if you see a good photo, it’s probably his

An endless line of hungry anime fans!…

By my count, this one might be the winner… Franken Stein from the Manga & show – Soul Eater

The selector to the convention looks massive and frightening… You better not mess with this one, or he tells the Hot Dog stand seller not to give you any!
Scary… O_O

So luckily I got in as one of the first people, and by “first” I mean about number 100-150…

To my surprise, I got a free Hot Dog ticket, which to my understanding, not everyone got(?) LUCKYY… Because I has no breakfast that day!

The bar apparently is closed… Too bad, a good drink might keep me doing better productive work from time to time

From here on, we play a game. The game is called “Recognize the Anime character”… He who recognizes the most anime character cosplays and makes Notes on their picture, shall win a prize from My Stuff! (Limit for the game is 2 weeks from publishing date) 1-2-3 Go!…

This person would be no cosplayer, he is the one called Lior Kraisler, guest photographer to this article and the credit for the good photos here goes to him!

This one looks good… I just might look out for one of these for me-self at J-List! Hehe…

If there’s one thing that attracts the hungry convention people, it’s Manga and Anime.. Oh, and the Hot Dog stand!… I was right to get one right from the start, cause that’s what happens later..

Wanna get some bonus points for the game I mentioned earlier? Say what’s incorrect in this picture…

And Stein frightens the Hot Dog stand seller… Probably to get more mustard on his Hot Dog. In his place I would cooperate!

This is one of my favorite… hehe

This guy did have his shower before going to the convention, don’t misunderstand. The idea here is to get as much facebook nicknames as possible from the people at the event, many folks were collecting these and where is it better to write these than paper? Your hands and body of course

The Anime & Manga community at our local area is pretty small so you always try to make new contacts…

The inside place was kind of small, I gotta say. The Yume-Con previously was a much larger event… But never the less the event came out to be worthy!
That’s my call.

That person apparently is an anime artist, if I’m not mistaken, who was selling drawings of his, the drawings were pretty impressive I gotta say, but no photos of course

Something about him reminds me of EiJi Niizuma from the Anime and Manga Bakuman, but whatever, talent is not missing here…

More facebook contacts…

These guys are the sponsors for the event. TechTV is a website for selling gadgets and computer stuff, as well as useful reviews for products (in our local area only, though). At the event they sold out special products at special prices.

As for the main event of the Anime event of the… never mind, it was the premiere of the Avatar play, fun to watch an nicely done!

Most of the people gathered for the show of Avatar and before that, the Anime Trivia contest… But we’ll get to that

Unfortunately the place was pretty small so there weren’t much figures to sell and when I got to the figures stand to get me a figure, the good ones were already sold out so I got me something else…

Mangas.. mangas.. mangas…

You might wanna get yourself a hat.. It’s chilly outside nowadays!

Lots of gothic stuff was being sold too at the convention, this item for instance is a pocket clock… Interesting stuff indeed

And then… It was show time!

Initially the crowd was throwing Shurikens at the hostess of the show to begin the contest, so they were asked to stop. Yes, there were ninjas in the crowd, there always are… For some info, there is probably a ninja near you as well…

For the Trivia contest there was a different host. To my notice, at every event there’s a host who is a Jokester, he was one as well…

Right after the contest the main event, the Avatar play began…

Loot Loot Loot… It’s always about it… I did get something at the convention… (Although could have gotten more T_T )
Matsumoto key-chain which I stuck to my beg to stay with me at my travels to other locations and places

Hopingly, they would arrange more of these events in the future… Do you go to Anime & Manga & Japanese pop culture events?
Cheers!

This morning started with me doing some business in the city. At the end the business ended up quickly and I had some time to make plans for the other days and check on a few progresses in my work. When events roll in such a way, I usually go to a nice cafe in the area that I know of, order a warm drink and use their Internet (“Coffee and a WiFi – 2 Bucks!” – Although a little more expensive than that ).

This time I thought to try the stuff you usually see on TV and I had seen it in the place’s menu for a while, the Cappuccino with extra cream, delicious indeed.
This kind of stuff you can’t find in my local cafe…

The place I sat at is called “Cafe Joe”, I like it because it has a smoking area, the service policy in the place is waitress oriented so noise-making punks would consider it too fancy to go to in the middle of the week and the place is usually filled with elder folks who are quietly enjoying their drinks and food – Sounds perfect for me! And I spent there about an hour doing my stuff and having my drink which by the way was delicious!
That is, until the big event of the day…

I got actually invited to this one by a friend who studies arts in the academy of Bezalel, he sent me the invitation and I figured that this would just be too much of a miss-chance if I didn’t go. Long after I began my Japanese studies and until this point of my studies that was a great opportunity to check myself out, see what new stuff could I learn and enjoy me-self upon all that

I’ll mention here that in this article we also have a guest photographer, Natalie Peselev.
So, watch out for good photos…

The event really was a 3 day workshop to which, until my friend and I received the invitation, the registration was already closed. But, nevertheless I could attend the opening ceremony and snacking table.

The event was well arranged for our visitors from Japan, about who I will tell shortly and I was impressed…

Snacks, tea and coffee are always a good idea… Although I ate mine already

Basically the Japanese guests of honor for this Workshop were Tsuda Taigen sensei and 2 of his students.
As I was told, he and his students are masters in the Art of Shodo in Japan and to meet them and see the process of Shodo in action was very exciting

This was probably the first event of Japanese culture that I visited to since the Tanabata festival in Hulon and besides the Shodo demonstration there were a few more experiences which I won’t forget HeHe

After several greetings and speeches from side representatives in Japanese (of course) and in the local language too, something great was coming.

I was surprised that I could actually perceive and understand partial words and sentences from the speeches after all my studies, but it wasn’t enough to understand everything they said, so for now I got more work to do.. right?

And speaking of understanding, previous to the beginning of the ceremony, I just thought to tryout my current skills. For a moment, an idea jumped in my head that it was a bad idea, but I needed this and it was a great opportunity. I got up from my seat went to our Japanese guests and asked in Japanese if I could take their picture… They replied me but I didn’t catch the answer but not to panic, I said that I didn’t understand in Japanese, after what, I kindly received the simplest answer ever – “OK desu”… Arigato Gozaimashita!

Telling the truth, I was freaked out, but I knew I took my chance and something good came out of it hehe… And now back to my books!!

The representatives of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem gave our guests a little gift on this ceremony, but to my consideration, it’s not as big as the gifts we were about to receive from them…

Pictures & Memories… Memories and Pictures… I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a Sony (Did I just make an indirect advertisement?)

And now for the preparations…

Most of the crowd were students of one of the universities nearby. This person happens to be my good friend and the one who sent me the invitation, Alon Hetzroni. Currently he is checking his homework or something, or maybe he is writing down the Japanese speech that’s being said behind the podium?…

Is it just me or do most of the people who are interested by the Japanese culture have or at least are interested in iPhones?

Materials preparation for the creation of art…

Special paper cards of otherwise.. I’m not sure what these are called… If you happen to know, please do tell in the comments

So what was actually the big highlight of this event?
Our Japanese guests were making for an amount of time, writings of Kanji for the students. What was required is to write the Kanji one wanted, for the ones who are not familiar with Kanji, they could consult with some of the teachers around and then the Kanji was written on a paper card for them with a brush and paint, which is called the art of Shodo

T’was a bummer I did not get one cause the cards and time were up until the line got to me, but I admit that seeing it happening was worthwhile for me!

Now let’s play “Recognize the Kanji”… And the rules are simple: He who knows that’s the meaning of the Kanji in the picture and/or it’s reading makes a note on the picture or a comment in the bottom…

There’s a prize in the end for the winners who get most of the Kanji

The artwork is always stamped with the seal of the creators…

Then, at some point, there was a surprise, the Shodo masters began writing the Kanji on fans and apparently just because they were out of cards. I envy the ones who got one of those…

Lots of requests…

Needs more painting materials…

This person is Natalie Peselev, guest photographer for this article. She was taking pictures in the event also, like me-self. But since the camera she was using is, like I said previously “It’s a Sony”, I asked her for some of her photos…

In other words, if you see a good looking photo in this article, it’s probably hers…

On the my way back, a sub-story came out,

I was hungry (it’s not new though) cause my latest meal was breakfast, so on my way to the bus station, I passed through the mall, I was planning to get a burger from McDonald’s, not that I admire the place, but when I’m hungry, I can allow me-self . Once I got to the place, I found out it was kind of small and not what I expected and the Sushi shop on the other side looked better…

So, I went and got some Sushi for dinner. With this plate of Sushi which I’m dying to eat I went to the bus station to settle down until the bus comes… Surprise! It’s already here and ready to go.. O_O
I make a run for it and jump into the bus. Surprise number #2: All seats are taken.

So, here I am, standing for the next hour of ride, hungry, the Sushi is in my hand with the Soy sauce and all, the buss is shaking and if that isn’t enough, the driver turned off the lights cause it’s a long ride.
My first thought: “Forget it, you can’t pull this off… You’ll mess up the bus…” But the hunger finally got me and I decided to pull off the greatest trick ever:

Yes, I’m riding the bus while sitting on the door stairs, in the dark and with the bus shaking like crazy I’m eating my Sushi with Soy sauce with chopsticks without spilling or dropping anything…

Eventually, I was full and got home happy from this great day

The book has short dialog texts, vocabulary in every chapter and grammar. After those 3 parts there is a practice on all the material. I don’t really read the vocabulary part because I use my iPhone Genki I app which helps a lot in that matter. With the app I can review words and test myself on specific lessons by the book, which is very handy when I take a ride somewhere, I like utilizing my time as much as possible, I always knew it’s important but one beautiful day the idea got just official.

Anyhow.. where was I? Ah.. Japanese! After some studies, I usually notice I can understand some of the expressions in anime and my perception for the speech rises My idea for now is to complete the Genki I book and by “complete” I mean be comfortable enough with all I have learned, remember it all and for now, utilize it for watching anime (Just until I visit Japan physically.. Hehe). Then, move on to the Genki II textbook (which has an app too) and study it by heart as well… Do I sound like “conquer the world one human at a time”?

After these books, I probably will have the basics known, or at least a good part of ‘em, so I can move into studying for the JLPT tests with the Kanji and everything… Also, I’ve had the thought to study some geography and history of Japan along the way… Couldn’t hurt, it is an important part of the Japanese culture as well and until I really visit Japan, I just hope there will be more events in my local area like the Tanabata Festival sometime ago… That one was great!

Whatever I do and whatever I try to achieve, whether it is the Japanese language or another goal I put in front of myself, I remember that as long as I want to do it, I love and enjoy doing it and I’m ready to give some (or more) of myself for it, my passion keeps me going.
So that’s my plan to conquer the worl… umm… I mean learn Japanese… darn! now I need to erase your memories…… Done

So, I hope this info helped somebody out there who has the passion to dream about Japanese Culture too and learn the Japanese language. You are welcome to share your experiences in the comment section below
Cheers!

First, I grabbed my iPhone and found a little app for lots of Japanese food recipes. At this point I was inspired even more considering how delicious the food looked and also my admiration towards the Japanese kitchen together with my passion for the Japanese culture. But alas! I did not have any useful ingredients for any of the recipes.

Putting the iPhone down, and deciding that these are going to be prepared on another day, I scanned the kitchen far and wide for the real possibilities. Along the way, an idea came!

I decided to make a dish of macaroni with mushroom sauce. Come to think of it, I’m not so sure how popular it is in Japan, probably not as popular as ramen, curry or rice dishes, but the idea wasn’t directed that way anymore. I was hungry and the stores were already closed…

Starting with cooking the macaroni.

Afterwards, preparing the mushroom sauce along with it. The sauce is basically not much, cream boiled on a frying pan with addition of fresh mushrooms and a able spoon of onion soup… Actually my preference is chicken soup, but that’s what I found in the cupboard.

It really doesn’t matter, after all everything tastes like chicken!

Over that, I cut some dill for an addition of vegetation and style to make it look nice and and add extra good smell.

The final dish is ready.

With that I put some sardines in tomato sauce on a plate to go with.
There, now it’s time to eat, bon appetite!

The macaroni came delicious after all, although I ate only half. Why? I made too much and couldn’t consume all of it. In anime the person who makes too much for their Bento (or at least says they made too much ) offers to share the food with the boy or girl they put their eyes on. But… I don’t have anyone to offer my work to right now so I’ll save it for latter…

Oh and next time I’ll definitely try one of the Japanese dishes… Itadakimasu!

Me-self is being fascinated by the Japanese culture and language – that is the way I would say it if I wanted to be humble, simple and short on words, but not this time. During the last year or so, I developed grand passion and fascination towards the Japanese language, culture, arts, Manga and Anime, games, Kanji, way of life… Did I mention “Japanese”?

I’m not even sure how it all began. I remember when I began watching Bleach, I remember wishing to know Japanese as one of my desired languages to know, but the source of my passion towards this probably came ever earlier, I will establish this moment as an unknown point in time . Since then I simply got interested. In the first stages as I remember came lots of Anime’s. “Bleach” and “Shakugan no Shana” were the first ones, after which came “School Rumble”… Hey, I do remember this, nice!

From all those artistic presentations I believe I began to assemble the idea of the Japanese life in my mind, even previous to me-self visiting Japan and seeing it all with my own eyes. I still haven’t visited Japan, my work and occupation wouldn’t let me for now – in other words, I’m still a virgin… Boo-hoo!
So, from that point on my fascination and passion began to grow like a tree (Sakura tree?) and as the time passed I already visited all kinds of websites about life in Japan, some of which are Culture:Japan, figure.fm, Tokyo.Japan Times and many others. I was looking at the time for helpful sources to learn the language of the country I wished to visit so much together with examining Mangas, practicing my drawing, searching for materials of all kinds and exploring – exploring – exploring!
(Also, along the way came the idea to study and live in Japan in the future, that idea stays with me until today ^^)

My first source was a series of video lessons – season 1, after which came season 2 that helped me learning the basic structure of sentences in Japanese, Hiragana & Katakana & some vocabulary too. As I was watching and it was my only source of studies at the time (A specially because I wasn’t familiar with any Japanese courses around my area, if there are any at all) I began to take notes and practice daily. I used a small software called Evernote what helped me make notes and synchronize them on the Internet.

After I finished the lessons series, learning not much at a pretty long time, my passion to the subject requested that I look for additional sources, since that was only the beginning and certainly not enough! I was hungry…
After looking for a time, I found a little software called Kana Quiz – was one of the most helpful thingies I ever had. It helped me learn Hiragana and Katakana in about 2 weeks and certainly gave me a push.

The time to study Kanji had come by then! I red an article from dannychoo.com about the ways he learned Japanese (It was most helpful, Thank you Danny!).
One of the points I took from him is hanging Kanji charts in the toilet, makes sense, cause toilet time is practically free time. Along with that I got my greatest tool so far, the Genki I – An Integrated course in elementary Japanese book, which I use to study daily until now.
With that I have my Japanese iPhone app that comes very handy in repeating expressions and Kanji when I travel

So, these are all my tools until present day, hope it helps the ones of you who wish to study Japanese as well. I always try to push myself forward and organize my priorities, although I’m not a 100% good at it and I gotta confess, I waste a lot of time in the process and not always get the result I want, but what keeps me moving forward and push myself towards more of what I wish to know and be able to do is my passion for it. I have my desire to do it, I know I’m capable of it and I take my time towards it so one day I will be there! Peace…

“It doesn’t matter how slow you advance as long as you keep moving” – Confucius

I finally got to visit it this year and was truly excited to go! The festival came out beautiful with figures for sale, mangas, posters, anime music, cosplay contest, lots of cute girls and even maid cafe… I got there a bit late that day because of a late-at-night work. Of course I was telling myself that I will be able to wake up on time and so, like it always happens, I wake up by 2 hours late. 2 hours of sweet dreaming about a ringing alarm clock.

But still I got to see almost all the aspects of this gorgeous event! Ha!
Made by fans for fans, stay with us…

The event was organized at the Tel Aviv university, in a big hall and auditorium named Smolarz. The place was already packed when I got there (Not surprisingly). The ticket for the event was about 10$ and then you can go in and have fun for free.

By the looks of it, I pretty quickly got frustrated I didn’t prepare a cosplay of my own as every second person had some kind of character on him…

Maybe next year I’ll go as Kurosaki Ichigo, what do you think?

Down here you can get your favorite manga, poster, art book, bunny ears hat or any other stuff you like, it’s all there.

Everybody likes their picture taken of a good memory

Upstairs was a DJ station, but not for one DJ master only, but more like an “anyone can put his favorite anime music on” and let the festival folks hear it. I had mine with me on my iPhone, but I needed it on a flash drive to put it on, bummer, maybe next time…

Got a fave anime song?

One location was dedicated to the Mangas of Comikaza, the same place I get my mangas and other loot at. Good to see the culture expending to all kinds of places!

Vocaloid, One thing I’ll need to start using very soon (Stay tuned…)

Free hugs anyone? No really, it doesn’t cost anything…

Cat ears, bunny ears, we got all kinds of ears right here and they all are adorable… Are you the cat or the bunny type?

All kinds of cute stuff

Cute ladies with a bubble making thingy.

There also was a not-so-tall weird but interesting looking guy there with a camera who was taking pictures and videos everywhere. He had some kind of website written on him, maybe I’ll check it out…

Oh yeah! A Tekken 6 art book! This one had some nice pieces o’work in it… I’m going to study 3D animation and modeling in about 2 months and I certainly wanna reach this level and above!

You play Tekken?

After all the attractions in the hall, I got to the auditorium, cause the show was about to start.

It’s show time!

For number one, the guys from Tricksrael presented some nice fighting in video game style. Afterwards, they explained what they do and what tricking actually is. More info and good stuff can be seen on their facebook and YouTube channel.

Do not try this at home!

Before the Cosplay contest began, some loot was thrown into the crowd to make them fight each other for the laugh of the judges, and so it was!

Girls practicing their favorite anime dances. As far as I remember, they did the Suzumiyz Haruhi dance, KissXsis dance, Lucky☆Star and few more I didn’t really recognize… :/
What dances do you know?

The respected judges of the cosplay court…

And here we got our respectable hosts, Gershon and Ran. They hosted the cosplay contest very honorably. And by honorably I mean there were so many jokes on stage, they probably even exceeded the amount of the cosplay… At some point, Gershon (the one with the green dress) played the Super Mario theme on his mini-guitar…

Which one of the next characters is the most Kawaii? (Gershon and Ran don’t count!)

Justin Law from Soul Eater

Mikuru from Suzumiya Haruhi

Ako & Riko (They also knew their dance)

After the show was over, I made my exit towards the train station. I guess it was enough for one day.

And how could I leave with out some new loot? Here you go, Got me Suzumiya Haruhi as my new friend…

Wow! I finally got to go to Comikaza, my local comic book store to get a bunch o’stuff!

Comikaza is located at Dizengoff Center where I visited lately. The store is not such a big one like Manga stores in Japan for instance, but it does have some of everything, Marvel comics, DC comics, Manga, figures, posters, souvenirs – you name it! And if you can’t name it, maybe you’re not a true fan of what you say you are.

So what kind of comic books do you like?

Like I said, the store is located at Dizengoff Center at some location which I always find only by memory.
By the way I’m currently planning to study Manga drawing in Japan in the future, so I visit Comikaza not only for the reasons that reside in the fan that I am, but also for my present and future inspiration of the true art that comics is.

And that would be a… uh… please remind me who… Just kidding, that’s your friendly neighborhood Spider-man!

Kinda reminds me of an article from long time ago about a guy who dressed up like Spider-man and went out to a highway to fight crime. He was jumping from a car to a car or something when the local police stopped him. There weren’t much pictures of this incident but in the forums people commented that Peter Parker probably has the pictures. And that, was even before Kick-Ass came out…

Do you have a friendly Spider-man in your neighborhood?

Comikaza is a pretty friendly place. Lots of people coming in saying hello, discussing comics, recommending stuff, hanging out… Oh, also buying loot!
During my last visit I saw what I thought I would see only in Japan. At least 3 girls came in with cat years (Neko-mimi – Very popular in Japanese pop culture)
At first I thought these girls were pros, or maybe it was Cosplay-day or something, but then I saw that those are just regular fans, that came to buy stuff like me.

Amazing how love towards something you admire and like can bring people together and even transform them into something really cute!

The Manga wall, my wall! I spent most of my time at this wall picking the books I’m going to give home to this time. My budget was not very tight but also not very loose so I picked 3 books.

The store has all the Manga classics and some of the not so classics, but keep in mind that even if you can’t find something you want and you really really wanna have it and you truely are the biggest fan of it and you say “please” to the owner, the store can order it for you.

Books, figures, arts, others, they have some of each! The sales guy by the way seems to be a comic fan too, so you know who to talk to.

The Marvel, DC wall. I saw his side of the place in to such a big detail since I was concentrated elsewhere. But next time I probably should cause there are stuff I want from here too.

Like I said, there’s a lot of stuff to read here

There are no so much figures though, I think you can order these too, but currently there are mostly Star Wars figures and some others not from comic books. Although I think I saw an Iron-man figure there once or even a life size head, but I’m not so sure.

There are also few anime figures and souvenirs but not much at all. If any of you are interested in getting a figure/figurine out of a Japanese Manga/Anime I suggest you check out J-List as they got the stuff for you.

At the time I got to Comikaza, there was something going on inside. Apparently that something was an interview of a radio station with a certain person, I did not ask any question immediately, as I did not want to disturb the creative process but when they were done, as far as I understood, it turned out to be the person who does one of the voices in “The Simpsons”.

Looks like I was near a celebrity, big honor!

Many good people were hanging around in the store, many of which had cat ears, some of which made their ears by themselves. As a confession, I’d say I was amazed to see that so many people are fans because the Anime/Manga community here isn’t very very big, or maybe I should get out more? O_o

These particular guys were hanging around and I asked them for a photo, thank you!

Do people around your area of living have cat ears? How many got real ones?

Like I said, I got me-self a humble pack o’loot. Here we go…

I’d like to dedicate this one to Danny Choo, the guy who gave me a lot of inspiration in his writings. Thanks Danny, please proceed doing what you do, you’re good at it!

There also was a Vader. I think I’ll get it next time

<Radio> K-Sh.. Ksh… Put your hands up or I shoot!

I like his one! Soul Eater key chain, I’ll cherish it very much. These are Maka and Soul, her partner and friend.

Last but not least, I got 3 new Mangas.
Like I said they serve me not only for the reasons of the fan, but also for my inspiration. Art inspires art, that is.

I also got 2 posters and a gift for a friend of mine, but I’ll tell about that in a later post coming…

Tanabata is a Japanese holiday celebrated on the 7th of July, although some traditions and celebrations are also take place a month after. There are various stories about the origination of Tanabata’s celebration. The stories are about Tanabata and Mikeran who fall in love, separated and allowed to see each other only once a year.

I intentionally got earlier to the festival to check out the preparations and get some shots of what’s going on and what’s it going to be.

The festival took place in-doors. The place wasn’t so small, but if comparing to the festivals in Japan, the festival takes place outside in the street with much more stands and attractions and can last for a few days.

The big and welcoming sign says “Tanabata Japan Festival”. The small sign on the left says “Do not cross” – Luckily there’s no celebrations there…

There were tables for “go”, a known Japanese game (which by the way, originally came from China). The game is played on a board of 19 by 19 lines where 2 opponents play with black and white stones and the point of the game is to block your opponent’s way through with your stones.

After the festival began, it became pretty crowded, so I was glad I got to arrive before that to get some snapshots. Also there were few ladies wearing yukata but they disappeared before I could take a nice picture.

This nice lady is Nanako-san. She was at the advertisements stand (I guess you can call it that). She was handing out the visitors all kinds of brochures about the customs in Japan, Japanese culture, trends and products available in Japan and many interesting others…

This is a handy little book! It should help me when I’m there…

One of Japan’s famous subjects is the bullet trains. The train map of Japan tells there’s even an express line that crosses almost all of the country, I put it on my “things to try” list.
Did you try it sometime? Or if not, would you like to?

This is the Japanese cell phone you usually see in anime that characters have. Now I finally know why they have this phone and what are it’s features. Personally I never saw in anime a character having an iPhone or some kind of powerful Nokia, unless in an anime where the emphasis is on technology, did you? (Check out a larger version of the phone)

The idea here is to grab a certain kanji from the bowl and then the ladies of the stand tell you what is it called and what it means in Japanese and you can keep it for yourself to put it on your key chain or hang near the window or something like that. That was fun and cost only 5 shekels a piece. I got myself 光 (hikari = light) & I got myself 笑 (warau = laugh). One for the key chain, I think and one I’ll probably hang somewhere in the house.

There even was arranged a wishes tree. One of the customs on Tanabata is that you write down your wish on a paper strip (短冊 = tanzaku) and hang it on a bamboo tree. Will the wish come true? I don’t know yet, but I did write mine.

And how can you manage without food… You got it!
The festival sold a little bit of Japanese custom foods, mostly sushi, but also drinks, noodles soup, Japanese beers, alcoholic drinks and special wooden plates to serve the sushi by the tradition. There was no Ramen or Curry but opportunity gave the visitors a small idea of what is there good to taste in Japan, just in case they get hungry…

For the ones of you who like it spicy, there was a whole container of wasabi to go with your sushi. I remember the last time I tried wasabi I drank a whole 1-liter bottle of water in about 2 seconds, so I guess wasabi is not for me. Do you like your sushi with some wasabi?

And these are some Japanese beers, there were 2 kinds on the festival and that (unlike the idea in the previous photo) I’ll be sure to try.

“Ozeki Sake” is a Japanese alcoholic drink, not so strong though. I gave it a try, after which I got me-self a bottle for special occasions.

Two visitors from Japan, I guess, arrived at the festival as well. I kindly asked them for a picture and they kindly agreed. After that, there was my chance to be try out my Japanese that I learned over the last 2 months and say a simple thank you. I lowered down my camera, nodded with my head to show them I’m done and then said “Domo arigato gozaimasu” (Thank you very much) and the person on the right replied “Arigato gozaimasu” to me and bowed 0_0

I forgot to bow with my “thank you”. So I walked away with a smile and felt like an impolite non-Japanese person who said “Arigato gozaimasu”. Bummer but nice try though It was my first time.

So basically, I had much fun at the festival. I received this event on facebook and glad I did! If you would like to attend events like this in the future, be sure to check out the My Stuff facebook page and twitter because I will be publishing other stuff like this in the future…

Here are some of my favorite music videos I found on YouTube.

Music always helps concentrate and stabilize the right aura within yourself to keep it coming in anything you do. There is a tempo in almost every moment of our lives and usually the productivity of anything you try to accomplish comes easier if you adjust yourself to the beat and flow of your favorite music.

The videos are all different in style, check’em out and comment about your favorite…

The video is Bad Apple, comes from Alstroemeria Records made in Anime style.
Besides the awesome tune which I could listen to all night long, not to mention dance, the video is very creatively made, Check it out… Oh, by the way, there’s also a Stop Motion version.

The next video is a remix made by Kevin Crocker. The song is “Kirari” from a Japanese group named Tokyo Girls Style.
Apparently, in Japan the pop groups begin at an pretty early age.

The last video comes from Dub FX and is called “Made”. A truly creative guy, who makes his music on the fly as he sings, check it out!
I believe it will give you some inspiration like it gave me. I was listening to his album for a whole week and I truly felt refilled with inspiration and new energy.