Event

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    Mom Thinks I’m Crazy to Marry a Japanese Guy

    Okay, first of all, contrary to this post’s title, I’m not getting married to a Japanese guy. Heck, I’m not even getting married to anyone! Well, at least not yet anyway… One day, perhaps?

    You’re probably wondering why I titled this post as “Mom thinks I’m crazy to marry a Japanese guy” and it’s because it’s the title of a movie I watched recently. On the 8th, the Japan Foundation held a screening of this movie at the Taiwanese Art Academy in Westwood. Yeah, Westwood of all places. (Westwood traffic was bad. The 405 traffic was also bad. So, what else is new?) Because of it being in Westwood, I was close to not attending this screening. I was actually quite hesitant to RSVP for this screening. And then on the day of the screening, I had other errands to tend to prior to the screening which made me second guess on whether I actually wanted to even go to Westwood. In the end, I decided to go to the screening. I was a few minutes late, but I made it and me being a tad bit late wasn’t a problem because 1) I managed to get a seat and 2) the screening hadn’t begun yet. I honestly wished I had gotten there early so that I could have gotten a seat in the front row. Sitting behind people taller than me was a pain. Worst of all was how I couldn’t see all of the movie’s subtitles thanks to it being blocked by heads in the audience. Meh. (Thank goodness that my crappy Japanese skills came in handy, I guess?) The idea of sitting on the ground, right in front of the first row actually crossed my mind a few times during the screening but I suppose I knew better and chose to stay put. (I mean, I was actually fortunate to even have a seat. There were actually people standing against the wall in the back of the room to watch the movie.)

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    San Fernando Valley’s Obon Festival

    It’s summer and you know what this means. It means hot weather, sweaty people and festivals. One particular festival that occurs every summer is the Obon Festival. This festival, while most well known in Japan occurs outside of Japan as well. Not long ago, I had the opportunity to attend one of the biggest Obon Festivals in Southern California. It was San Fernando Valley Hongwanji Buddhist Temple’s Obon Festival held in Pacoima. Yup, the valley where it’s super hot if isn’t already hot enough elsewhere in So Cal.

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    Shall We Date? booth at Anime Expo 2018

    Shall We Date? BoothThe first booth I visited at Anime Expo 2018 inside the Exhibition Hall was NTT Solmare Corporation’s Shall We Date? booth. I am not joking when I tell you that I made a beeline for their booth. lol The reason I made a beeline for their booth had to do with me wanting a bag from them and bag I got but not without some patience. I cannot tell you how worried I got while “waiting” for a bag. I say “worry” because I knew that if they were to run out of bags, I wouldn’t have gotten one. (Cries. Lol)

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    Cybird’s Ikemen Series booth experience at Anime Expo 2018

    Hiroto at AX2018
    Hiroto, cosplaying as Ray Blackwell from Ikemen Revolution

    Since I was only at Anime Expo 2018 for a day, I was quite limited in what I could do. That said, I did pay a visit to Cybird’s booth inside the Exhibition Hall. There, I got a bag and a card (2 actually). The bag, I got after showing that I had the “Ikemen Revolution” app on my phone. This year’s bag was smaller than last year’s but it was still a nice freebie regardless. As for the cards, I received them after publicizing their booth to my Twitter account and showing it to an employee. The employee (male) was rather expression-less (just like last year) but I suppose that’s just a personality thing and I did get two cards from him, so I’m guessing it’s all good…

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    Anime Expo 2018

    Anime Expo 2018 badge

    I originally did not plan on attending Anime Expo this year. I’m not too sure why I originally wanted to pass up on Anime Expo 2018 but it probably had something to do with crazy badge pick up lines, overly excessive people (Rumor has it that tickets were oversold or something.), cancellation of showings/screenings at the last minute and not wanting to spend a lot of money. (If you’re curious, you can see what I bought last year here and here.) So, what was it that made me decide to go this year, borderline last minute? I really don’t know. A specific panel perhaps? A desire to visit specific game booths?

    Since I decided to attend Anime Expo borderline last minute, my ticket was not cheap. To make matters worse, the ticket was for a one day pass only and my, was the cost steep! It’s interesting though because I purchased a day pass borderline last minute in 2015 and that ticket was a lot cheaper than the 2018 one day pass. Hmmph. If only I knew I’d be attending, I would have gone for a 4 day pass early on or when they had a sale going on. Ah, oh well.