OK, so, I'm not really worried about that thing.... But, as the video suggests, if I disturb a hive I will be sure to 'run like the wind'

[quote="petitetoilonrouge"]I'm now 34, and I have to say Nagoya seems to have struck the perfect balance between stuff-to-do and slower-pace. quote]

Again - sounds like I'll be taking a trip to Nagoya! Crazy thing is - prior to posting this thread I had never heard anything at all about Nagoya!

Again - sounds like I'll be taking a trip to Nagoya! Crazy thing is - prior to posting this thread I had never heard anything at all about Nagoya![/quote][/quote]

If you love unagi ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unagi.html ) then you got to have it there! I here the Nagoya is unagi heave, but imo, Japan is heaven

Here's another suggestion of something to see. It's not featured in guide books, and it isn't overrun by tourists or overly monetized. But it is downright awesome.

If you're in the Osaka area, you should try to visit the 1970 Expo Park. So amazing in so many ways, from the Tower of the Sun (by Okamoto Taro) to the Expo museum (it's in a building on the right hand side of the park) to the stunning lake and traditional Japanese park in the back. Man, I just went into my image archives and realized I never wrote the place up on KK. Add that to the list of things to do...

Here are some preview pics:

I totally concur with the Tower of the Sun, it is amazing. If you do come south that way, then definitely check out Nara. Sure, there is that over-marketed aspect to some of it, but the temples there are amazing and (at least when I went) the tourists and pricing weren't nearly that of Kyoto, and for my mind what you see is way better.

Agreed about Nara. So much to see there, without feeling like a tourist mark. In Kansai (which is awesome in general), Nara + Osaka + Kobe FTW.

I totally agree with this. I think everybody is contractually obliged to visit Kyoto once, but once that's out of the way, I would much rather spend time in either of those 3 cities.

Thanks again Andy! I'll put those sights on my 'to-do-list'! There are sooo many things that I keep learning about that make me realize how short a year is.... Especially when you take into account that my wife only has 20 days off (plus national holildays, etc.). Not that 20 days isn't a lot, but I'd hate to be off exploring without her all the time!

On an unrelated note - Congrats to Japan on the Womens' World Cup Win! It's a great feat, and certainly a nice little boost for the country right now!

Only a couple weeks until I'm over there now! Once I get there, I'll spend some time in Tokyo (including a vinyl factory tour with Velcitron - which is SUPER exciting). My first 'toy goal' is to try and score some of the new Gargamel micros! I hope they have the Gachapon stocked up following SDCC!!!

Oh yes, definitely go to Nara and to that park in Osaka! When I went there was no one at all. Weird, it's gorgeous. And Nara looks a lot like my hometown (Quebec City)... Though I guess I'm the only person in the world to think that.

Hazmat suit.

Just saying.

Well, that's kind of an uneducated suggestion. Do you know what the levels are? Do you have any information aside from what fox news might have spewed? I do.

If you were kidding, I apologize for my response. But if you were serious - I suggest you do a little research. - especially pertaining to areas removed from the earthquake/tsunami affected region and the Fukushima reactors.

Alice lives in Japan. Pretty certain he was kidding.

OK... I may have over reacted.... I'm just sick of so many people giving us crap for moving to Japan and citing completely unfound and unsupported information about the nuclear reactors and all... My father is a nuclear engineer (20 years of experience at a plant and in remediation), so I've gotten the bottom line on the situation from him.

Nice! I'd be interested in chatting you about about that at SF.

Would actually love to have a summary of what your dad thinks here...

Rather than paraphrasing the specifics, I'll e-mail him and ask for the full story in an e-mail - then post it over here (maybe in a new thread). The bottom line is - aside from areas directly impacted by the range of the small explosions (and their fall out) the danger is actually relatively minimal. The general trend for winds blows from west to east (out of the sea of Japan primarily), and causes the radiation to travel into the Pacific. A friend of mine, who has been working as a micro-oceanographer (observing ocean currents on a very small scale) at the U of Washington (Seattle), and who is now moving to Japan to work for U of Tokyo, will be working with the Japanese government to track the movement of the radioactive fall out in the pacific (as it, assumedly, migrates from West to East in the water).

More soon!

going to TYO towards the end of December and i was wondering what shops i can head out to for plastic-hunting, records/music, DIY music gadgets, threads.

so far what was planned was to head out to the Erostika, Secret-Base and BxH shops. anyone knows where i can get some kaiju fix? i'm not gonna bank purely on Akiba. i would love a list or database and the like. any TYO or JP natives or peeps who have gone to JP?

someone. help. :p



is there a JP toy store database thread in here though?

geebus, that hornet is the size of a small bird...

thanks
andy/KK helped to remind that he's made a database up in the blog as well

anyway, any knows if there's any word that Bandai will set this up again? heard it's been torn down in January this year. i'm always missing the good stuff -_-