Odaiba Gundam RX-78 VS Typhoon 11

Well, I really should have done this on July 31st rather than August 31st.
Thats right, the month of August was when the life-sized original Gundam RX-78 was built at the Shiokaze Park in Odaiba. I was extremely busy the last week of August, but August 31st was a free day for me. And it was also (supposively) the last day that the Gundam would be standing.

Well that morning, I woke up at around eight or nine and turned on the TV.

Typhoon Number 11 is about to hit the Kanto Area Tonight.
...

:)

Outside was raining.
I really wasnt sure if I should go. But my Grandpa said if I had anything to do today I should do it early.

I made my decision: race against the clock, leave here now (11), get there by 12, snap all the pictures I can in an hour (1), and be back by 2.

and it worked out. Now to Replay the epic trip:



Regardless of the fact that a Hurricane was about to hit this area, people were living their daily lives normally, riding the train with their umbrellas.

I took the same route to Odaiba as I did when going to Comiket, So it really wasnt that hard finding my way, I just found out what station to get off. Tokyo Teleport Station (fun name) was the one closest to Shiokaze Park.

Once I got to the staion:



"Gundam Exit B" Thataway.



There was actually a quite of bit of people with the same mindset as me.
Many of them were kids. Also in Japan many start school the day after this day.



Little kid walking infront of me.



Last street to Cross before entering the park.


Here we are.



Welcome to Shiokaze Park!



And behold...... there it is.



Get out of the way! can`t see the Gundam!



anyways... it sure was an awesome sight. Thought itd be a bit bigger, but thats cause of how people took the photographs. But it was really big anyways.



I try to Snap another photo of myself only to cut off the Gundams head in the picture.



The details of the gundam were so cool. Heres the back side.



and front again. I took a video doing a 360 walk around the gundam I might upload later.



Even Darth Vader couldnt miss the lasat day of the Gundam Showing. lol


All of the Pictures above were taken with my new cell phone camera.
My digital camera....sorta broke when I went on my trip with my relatives.
It still works, Just the LCD is cracked and I cant see a thing on the monitor.
Other than that it takes pictures fine. I just need to eye it myself.
The Pictures from here were taken with my broken camera.





I`m rather proud of this picture. Took it full zoomed up. probably the better of all the ones I took.



Down a bit to see its solid body XD



Gray sky, The gundam Oversees the park.



Man there was quite a bit of people.



Lots of people.

I got soaked in the rain. But it was one fun adventure, I was glad to see the Giant Robot in person :D

That completes one of my summer Japan goals for this trip XD

Kxela Survived Comiket Report (part b)

Comiket 76 day 3, August 16:

Ahhh so this day I only had one table to see in mind so I took it easy and got to comiket at 7:00.

The wait to get in wasn`t so bad, we were placed on a sidewalk with shade. The final line up to get in was painful though, 15 minutes in the sun and then 5 to get in.

I really had to use the bathroom, so the crowd sorta forced my direction, I ended up going to the commercial booths first. I then found out that you can pretty much go to anyt booth on the third day and get what you want before having to wait in line-

I was able to go to these tables: Leaf, Cospa, Good Smile Company and a couple other animation studios or goods companies.

At Good Smile company all the FumoFumo characters were sold out but I got my hands on this:



Comiket 76 release Nendoroid Hakurei Reimu! XD

I also got:



Leaf`s goods set (mainly for the bag cause I foolishly didnt bring my backpack)
and



K-on! Tote from Cospa~ I used it that day to carry my stuff

Well After wards I went to the west halls to see the table I wanted to see-


A22b- thats RYUSUKE HAMAMOTO`s table. Unfortunately both times I went, the artist himself wasn`t there. But I did get his books:



I also got books from:


RANGE MURATA



and WHITEPAPER

and a bunch of other amazing artists:



I was able to get a sketch again today~



Thats the awesome thing about Comiket: you buy the comics/books directly from the artists and you even have a chance to get original art from them as a gift ^^

...although some tables are super busy (like popular ones) or some just aren`t ready to do sketches (ie they didnt bring materials to do so). I tried three tables today I think, the last one had a eraser by her so I figured she had her drawing stuff with her. Looks like she does original comics, the one I bought was super cute ^//^

...
well that pretty much wraps up my report.
here`s a semi-decent picture of me failing to get the big sight building in the snapshot of myself (its that thing in the middle right hand side) as proof I went there:




by the way Touhou Hisoutensoku is frickin awesome.
GO Sanae, Chirno, Chuugoku!
Theres a fair amount of new characters from what I`ve played :3

well cya!

Kxela Survived Comiket Report (part a)

Well to start, I guess I have to say- There is no place anywhere else on earth like Tokyo Big Sight on Comic Market Weekend.

Well there was only one thing on my must get list: 東方非想天則－Touhou hisoutensoku, aka the new Scarlet Whether Rhapsody by Twilight Frontier. That Circle was at East A28, on Saturday.

But I went all three days. Lets start the madness report now:


Comiket 76 Day 1, Firday August 14th:

Day 1 was pretty much all anime stuff, I went on Friday to learn how to get to Big Sight and learn the layout of the event. Getting there was quite easy, I was only couple of train changes from　where I`m staying. First train- normal. Second Train-alright. Third train:



and by the way, this is only day 1.

Well I actually got there fairly early, 7:00. Comiket opens at ten, but there were quite a bit of people there already. But We got to line up in the 4th section (I think) of the East entrance.



In a few hours, this area will be packed:



Like so.
I brought stuff I needed- a fan, towel, foldup rain coat, cell, food, drinks-



And my DS of course, which saved me from dying of boredom:


Some people on pictochat actually congratulated me on my first time attending comiket lol.

Well, that covers about HOW I waited equally for each day.

........
anyways I really didnt take all that many pictures while I was there but, I`ll only show you how crowded it was ONCE:





So yeah, the bottom picture- thats pretty much how crowded it was EVERYWHERE and EVERYDAY.

Here`s a fun fact, you know that building you see in pretty much all comiket related anime episodes? :



yeah
FACT: that building is only HALF of the entire convention.

...I really dont want to do a minute by minute report so here`s the summary for friday:

First thought: Sea of people, literally. East building was for mainly Anime doujinshin, West side was was divided into two- Bottom floor Doujinshi, top floor was for commercial booths. It was hot. And my legs hurt the entire time. People were moving like water molecules in a river- go with the flow or go with the flow. Comiket is a battlefield.
If I had to compare Comiket with the conventions I`ve been to, then comiket is like the size of Megacon, double the attendance, and then multiply by TEN.

(gets pelted with stones)
okay okay, I know that wasnt the stuff you wanna see.
You want to know what treasures I was able to get :3 hehheh.
well uploading all of them is a pain so here`s one with everything (from　friday):



OKay from the top starting with the stuff I got from commercial booths:
Exit Trance Best 7 CD, Manga Time Kirara Cross Over Comiket Special, Pivix Books- Vocaloid and Touhou. The rest is a mix of K-on!, Touhou, vocaloid, Hidamari Sketch, and others.

Thus ends day 1 of Comiket.
----------------------------------------------------------

Comiket 76 Day 2, August 15:

So- 6:30 was good enough to be on time yesterday, so 5:30 is definitely gonna be early today, right?

WRONG.

Arrival at 6:30- There was more people already there than when I arrived yesterday.
Saturday is bigger, I`d almost double attendance wouldnt be off.




Well, it took about 25 minutes to get in. Notice, we were on the West side this time, which meant I had to hurry to the east side to get to Twilight Frontiers table.

I got there, and there already was a huge line. And I ended up waiting in the wrong line for a few minutes until I realized-


THATS THE SIGN I SHOULD BE LINING UP BEHIND... then what line was I lined up in?



oh awesome, I was behind the original touhou booth, Touhou Project Shanghai Alice. As much as I wanted to stay in that line, they werent my main target. So I changed lines- just before it started to grow into a "snake" line (one that wraps around).



So many people...... I was afraid they`d sell out by the time I get there.

But luckily:



my efforts were not in vain.

I spent my entire day in the Touhou Area.
Well, before going home I went by the Cosplay area #2:



(makes you wonder how big cosplay area #1 was....)

Well, I`ll just post some photos I took:










I went home in the dreaded heat.

Todays Gold Result:


I was able to get a lot of combo packages with fun stuff ^^
Everything I bought today was touhou except those Narcissu ones on the bottom.-



Cream of the crop. Touhou hisoutensoku, Advent Cirno, and ちょぼらうにょぽみ`s book XD



One artist did some nice Tei Books, I asked for a sketch and happily got one ^^



.................
I forgot Sundays Pictures at home.
Guess there`ll be a part b to this post.
Shame, cause Sunday was actually THE BEST.

see you then!

Kxela

update~

Ahhh
Some of you have seen my demo reel on youtube.
Thanks for the many comments

however that was NOt the final version-
you can watch the "complete and graded and hopefully will get me out of college"
version at my website- Kxela.com. Just follow the links. It's the first and bigger video in quick time format. If your connection is good it should play nicely and in Decent quality.


....oh.
well you've heard it now. I'm done with my demo.
All I have to do is make DVD's of it to send to companies and stuff I guess.

meaning I have more time to...OMG.. "draw"

Seriously, this last several months I'v been INKING every frame of my minute and a half
animation (counting....several hundred drawings)....
Literally Tracing all those drawings you've ALREADY drawn once? yeah it was a pain... but I got it done.

ANyways I've touched my sketchbook a few days ago for the first time in God knows when...
I've got a commission and drawings and *gasp* Comic pages I can finally get to again.

...But I'm guilty of wasting my time on other things.
Such as- Learning to play the guitar again. I never stuck to it long enough to get "good".
I took my first lessons in highschool- an elective class. Then took private lessons in Washington which only lasted three months cause I had to move.
And after we moved here... like a year ago some damn theives broke into our home and stole a bunch of stuff- including my electric guitar. ;_; .... I've never missed it so much. Luckily those fags decided one E-guitar and one Bass was enough, they didnt steal my poor acoustic guitar. Sigh, they looked good next to each other. But my Acoustic is my favorite. So I've been playing that everyday little bit by bit- guess that enough, within a week my fingers are starting to harden up :3 I sped through the guitar lesson books- I've learned a ton within this time frame.

........
but yeah, just a little.
...iwannabuyanotherelectricguitarlolololol

Watching K-On has nothing to do with this. <- lie


ahem anyways.

...
thats all.
I'll be opening commissions up again soon, so
if you want- start thinking of what.

k cya!

Megacon 2009 Chronicles...

Well, I say. The trip to, at, from Megacon is something worth recording down.
Here begins the tale of such a journey to Orlando FL in 2009...

*WARNING EPIC LONG POST*

Friday-(10:00am)
K well, I woke up early ate breakfast and finished packing. I didnt have too much stuff since I didnt have a table at the con this weekend. My friend Dee from Ai asked if my fiends and I wanted to stay at her hotel the weekend so It turned out that I was going to drive up to Orlando with my friend carpooling.
Well, she got up late, our journey started at around...noon-ish.

Friday- (1:30pm)
Stranded in the middle of the highway (I-95), at Mile mark 97, Sitting on a blanket and sunbathing. wait what?
Well we drove an hour on the highway and the front drivers side tire- BLEW OUT. We were on the left lane so we pulled over SAFELY, no one or thing was injured. We attepted to change the blown tire with a spare tire... but we lacked a crank to do so.

Friday- (2:00pm)
well, were were next to a call box, Dee hit it while I did a worthless call to a travel service. A highway patrol came and helped us get a towing service. It cost us $50 to get a TEMPORARY TIRE (aka donut) put on our car. We had to drive to Stuart in order to find a new tire.

Friday- (3:00pm)
We drove to a walmart in Stuart, Who told us that we can get a new tire and have it done in 45 minutes. We spent 20 looking around in Walmart.

Friday- (3:20pm)
Walmart said they couldnt put the tire on because their POLICY says that they cant add tires to cars with custom rims. yeah.... so appearantly Dee's car had custom rims. yes, very tasty BS indeed.

Friday- (4:00pm)
we found a tire shop across the street, saying they could do it with no problems.
Dee called her friend Brian and we had pizza and hung out at Gamestop until the car was fixed.

Friday- (5:00-6:00pm)
Well were were back on track. Only that the car still had problems. It kept shaking and the gas wouldnt work (got stuck) when ever we tried to go around 70 on the turnpike.
We endured it, but it was another problem we had to fix later.

Friday- (8:00pm)
Well after getting lost at Downtown, we finally found our way to the hotel. Simon came a little afterwards (party= 3 ppl) We were walking bout a quarter ways to the con when we hitched a bicycle bench rickshaw peddler, which we rode nicely to the con. Peddling Paul was his name.

Friday- (9:00pm)
We met up with chris (:iconpawpaw:) at Megacon (party=4) , which was of course pretty much over already. We hung out where they had a huge projector and had a PS3 with Naruto ninja storm and had a little tournament we were all forced to join. There was a Pedobear cosplayer who handed out Yo-yo's to everyone, I had some fun messing around with the yoyos.

Friday...er Saturday- (12:00am)
We had dinner at Bahama Beach or whatever the restaurant was called. It was pretty good. I had Shrimp Linguine and Dee and I split a Key lime cheese cake.

Saturday (2:00-4:00am)
WE made Magic the gathering decks from a bunch of cards Dee brought and did a epic 4 player free for all duel. Dee won. Simon was 2nd, I was third, Chris was first out.
We went to bed at four, though it did take about 30 minutes for us to actually fall asleep.

Saturday (8:00am)
Chris had the nerve to wake me up THIS EARLY. We walked to Walgreens to get some drinks and medicine....cause Chris felt a bit sick. We made Cup Ramen with the Coffee machine that we had to ask the hotel to bring to our room (there wasnt one initially).

Saturday (10:00am)
Well, Chris didnt want to walk to the con even if it was less than a mile away so we took the car. We were dressed up. I was Zero (Code Geass), Chris was a Jedi, and Simon was a martial arts dude. We split up there after.

Saturday (til 4)
Well I did some browsing, found some cool stuff, got a gundam model (00Raiser). I went to the artist alley but didnt get to see many familiars that day. I went by :iconsakura02:'s table to hand her a Li book she wanted to get but turns out she was sick. I handed the book to her friends and wished them well.

I played DDR in my Zero outfit (no mask but still)

I ran into a Code Geass Cosplay group, There was a Kallen, C.C., Kaguya, Rakshata, and me Zero. Took some cool pictures. I was gonna have lunch with them but Simon and his new formed party wanted to go to the Costume Contest. I joined. Heard Chris left to the hotel cause he really wasnt feeling well.

Satuday (7:00pm)
Well the Costume Contest... was a costume contest. We waited in line for a good hour to get in. It was ok, not anything special. They did have a raffle for the audience, but of course like hell I would win. With our empty hands we left after seeing who won the frickin Frost Sword.

Saturday (8:30pm)
We went to Mcdonalds. Simon and I wanted Fast food. I had a Quarter Pounder.

Saturday (9:30pm)
Well it was time to part with Chris and Simon, they were only planning to stay on Saturday anyways. They left and Chris also "left" his phone charger at the hotel. We were soon joined by two of Dee's friends Brian (from stuart who decided to come Saturday) and another friend. They stayed at the hotel and hung out, I wanted to check out the Rave.

Saturday (10:30pm)
I almost got in. But the Rave room was packed and they enforced a line to get with all these security guards. I decided to just walk around til the line got smaller but it didn't. I waited in line for a half an hour to an hour to get in. Although I did win a glow stick when they were doing a trivia for the people waiting. I answered correctly "where did the original caramell dansen DANCE come from?" ... haha

Saturday (11:30pm)
I got to rave for a hour maybe. I met a friend/fellow Code Geass cosplayer (no I wasnt in costume for the Rave) that a have met at like all previous cons I've been to. I didnt know she Raved but it was fun to be able to dance around with someone I knew.

Saturday/Sunday (12:00am)
I was out. Beat. Slept as soon as I walked back to the hotel.

Sunday (8:00am)
The four of us went to the lobby to get breakfast. I had some coffee and a apple cinnamon muffin.

Sunday (10:00am)
Check out from the hotel was at noon. We decided to run out early. Dee had to see what was wrong with her car. The other three of us went searching for a Wachovia bank for a whole half hour but only to turn around and go back. I was dropped off at the con.

Sunday (1:00pm)
Well, I did more last minute browsing. I got some manga, some Knightmare figures, and some Higurashi mini figures. After a while I met up with Dee, who told me the other two left already (party = 2) She said she was meeting another one of her friends soon.

Sunday (3:00pm)
well Dee met up with her friend and went off to the dealers room. I read my manga i bought and headed to the dealers room as well. I went to the artist alley again and looked around and found some cool stuff. I saw :iconcetriya: at her table finally, she was gone the last three times I went to see her.

I had to go meet one of Chris's friends and hand him the charger her forgot at the hotel.

I met up with some CG cosplayers again, and we took some more pictures.
the total amount of People that wanted my picture: 70+

Sunday (6:00)
I met up with Dee and three of her friends, we decided to have dinner before going so we went to Houlihans. They had pretty good food. Our other party members were school mates studying Graphic Design. I had a awesome chicken wrap with a couple of beers XD;

After that we met up with friends of their friends and went to friendly's for icecream.
Spent some good time there.

Sunday (9:00)
Well, it sure wasnt the choicest time to be traveling for 4 hours, but I had to get back by today. So we left. A juggle with the GPS and getting lost, we finally found our way to I-4 and then to I-95. It was cold, Dee's car has no heater. But we chatted away and listened to music then switched after a while.

Monday (1:30am)
Running out of gas, stopped at West Palm to fill up. Dee was asleep.
Just another half hour til home.

Monday (2:00am)
Finally home. Said bye to Dee and then was greeted by my brother who wanted to see what I got for him. I unpacked all, put up my toys i bought, read Kekkaishi, and went to bed.

Monday (1:30pm)
Damn, I over slept and was late to class. But I was cool about it. It all turned out well.

Monday (3:00pm)
.........
I'm typing this journal and uh...OMG someones attacking meh.....

JK

well thats the Chronicals of Megacon 2009.
My fingers are numb now cause the computer lab is freezing cold.
and I need some food now.

I will update this journal with links to pics and stuff later.

thanks for reading lol

hey! wanna have your art in a NY gallery? + VN pro

APW gallery in New York is doing a "call for submissions" event
called "Sketch it out" Which is asking any and all artist around the world
to participate. Whats cool about this?- Sign up, and you're guarenteed 5 pieces
into the gallery for the event. ^^ I thought about it a bit then I was like,
"why shouldn't I?" It's a great chance to have your art seen, in a gallery no less o.o

Well the sign up price is $50 for 5 pieces max, the deadline is the 28th.
EDIT: You can also put your 5 pieces up to sell at the gallery too :D So your work wont just be for show ^^
go here for details:
http://apwarts.com/Callforsubmission.html

...there's actually a laundry list of contests I've built up to enter..wahhh


other news:
I have been working on a (kinetic) Visual Novel! I'm making "Can't just Add Water" (thats the short story I wrote, You've seen my Allison character in my gallery) in to a visual novel~ well, actually I'm almost done! Just a few more sprites to spice it up, couple back grounds and the CG's. i got all the coding and typing crap done ^^
If you're a good friend of mine I may share a WIP.... or I'll post some WIP images up soon.


I have 4 weeks left in the quarter, My demo is right about finished being animated. Once I finish that I'll post a rough animation video here or on youtube and then start on the inking and coloring and effects and whatever else.

XD

Oh, I'm going to megacon! Coming? Comment! See you there!!