Sunday, March 28, 2010 This was the last day in Japan. We got up and did any last minute packing, and Arnond borrowed my scale for his luggage. I headed out first, leaving my bags at the front, and went to Akiba for the last shopping on the trip. Arriving at Akiba on the last day Chris didn’t realize what time it was and ended up checking out of the room late. I hope that hotel isn’t unhappy with us, we certainly used their rooms in ways that I think they had never intended, but we certainly didn’t mess them up and properly paid for it all. I had lunch at Star Kebab, and I went back to the hotel to pick up my stuff, getting there a bit after 13:00. I ran into Chris there, and we both hauled our bags to Ueno, then Tokyo, and succeeded in catching the Special Rapid Narita Express that we had tickets for. Chris and our luggage in Tokyo Station We ran into Arnond heading to the hotel as we got to Ueno Station, so not surprisingly, he was unable to catch the same Narita Express

Saturday, March 27, 2010 Chris and I got up kinda late, since we both wanted a little more sleep, and Arnond dropped by before heading out. He actually hung around for a while as I was prepping to go and Chris was doing laundry, even though we told him he should go ahead without us. He finally relented about going on his own and left. I left not too long after, but came back since I forgot my coat and money. By that point, Chris was about ready to go, so we left for the fair together and picked up train tickets to the airport for tomorrow. We tried the “back by popular demand” Texas Burger at McDonalds for lunch, and didn’t find it that great. We then went into the fair, and began walking around the trade show. As to be expected, there were flyers galore, and official booth cosplayers. Booth babe for SATELIGHT It seemed showing off anime on 3D televisions was a big thing this year, with several booths doing that. I was able to get some free custom stickers from the GONZO booth,

Friday, March 26, 2010 I got up and checked out today, and had the front desk hold on to my bags. I then rushed off to the IDOLM@STER machines to get my producer name right, which I did do properly this time. I also succeeded in trying the Mega Muffin breakfast meal set at McDonalds, which was basically a Sausage McMuffin with Egg, but with ketchup, bacon, and another sausage patty added. It was interesting, but I think I prefer the normal Sausage McMuffin with Egg. I then did a small bit of shopping, picking up a few Weiss Schwarz cards, and then I picked up my bags and headed to Osaka station to leave my bags there. I met up with Chris at Settsu-motoyama station, and he had invited Justin to join us in our visit to Konan University. The front gate of Konan University We walked there from the station, commenting on some of the stores that changed, and upon arrival, we found that the Ajisai room layout had changed a bit, with more tables than before, and that the office area had

Thursday, March 25, 2010 Arnond and I both made our way to the IDOLM@STER machines in the morning and tried to get ourselves satisfactory Producer and Unit cards, but I messed up my producer name twice and decided to just try again the next day. I did a bunch of shopping, and then we headed to my host family’s house for dinner that night. We met up with Chris at Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi station around 6:30PM, and then went to my host family’s house. Some new greenery in Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi station I met their new exchange student, Ryan, and a couple of his friends. Both Ryan and one of his friends were from UIUC, and the third was from Canada. I got the feeling that Ryan was vaguely making fun of us and otaku in general during dinner, but I decided to not pay it much mind. I had a good time, and I probably interacted more with Reiko than I had ever done while I was living there. After dinner, Justin brought Chris, Arnond, and I to a Japanese plum wine bar that was cool, and I had

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 Today was more shopping in the morning, but since it was still rainy, and I wasn’t glad about how wet I had gotten the previous day, I finally got an umbrella from a 100 yen shop. We shopped around for half the day before we went together with Chris to Rokkomichi to visit and have dinner with his host mom. We originally planned to drop his stuff off, go to Sannnomiya, and come back for dinner, but instead we just stayed there once we got there. We ran into Justin, a previous exchange student I had met before, who was half living there, and we talked with him and Chris’s host mom. We had sukiyaki that night, and it was delicious. Arnond, Chris, Justin, and I all then went to have a quick look around Sannomiya, even though it was closed now, and then Arnond and I headed back to Osaka before it was too late to catch the last train. Chris and Justin in the closed Sannomiya shopping arcade Chris would be staying with his host mom for the remainder of the Osak

Tuesday, March 23, 2010 We headed down to Osaka today, and checked into Hotel Mikado by the Shin-Imamiya train station. We then simply spent the rest of the day shopping around Den-Den Town. I discovered that the area now had a mascot girl named Neon, and was very tempted to buy a netbook featuring her on it. The ad for the Neon netbook Luckily, I kept my cool, and by the next day had realized that it would not have been a good purchase for me. Otherwise, it was nice going around, seeing how things had changed, etc. Arnond and I found an arcade that still had THE IDOLM@STER, and both of us would come by the next day to play a bit on their machines. The day was kind of crappy, with on and off rain, but I still didn’t decide to get an umbrella. We had dinner together at Oushou, and Chris got a huge “Super Spicy” Korean kimchee ramen set that he couldn’t finish.

Monday, March 22, 2010 This day, I decided to take my time in going since I didn’t want to stand in line for as long to enter, and I knew I wouldn’t be going early enough to be able to get in before a lot of big groups sold out. I showed up at the line at around 10:30, and apparently, so did Arnond. The line had spilled over already to the second Cosplay Area, since of course no one could get in until the event started at 11:00. It didn’t take too long for the line to move after the event started, and we were led to the first Cosplay Area, where I had waited the day before. I got in at about 12:30, and as I predicted, the popular places were all sold out. I wandered around for a while, picked up a few books, and found some interesting stuff in the travel section that I picked up. I met up properly with Arnond today at the Cosplay Area for our lunches, and I hung around the area to take pictures of cosplayers. Some Gintama cosplayers I got a few pictures of Chris, and it was real

Sunday, March 21, 2010 First day of CS5! Arnond and I got up early and headed out separately to get into the line for entry at around 9:00. We both got in line by around 9:30. It was raining on and off, so it was interesting to see all the other participants suddenly whip out their umbrellas for the rain, then put them away when it cleared up again. Nearing the start of the CS5, we were entertained by some guys from a sentai series. Our entertainment as we stood in line CS5 then started at 11:00, but with the long line, I wouldn’t get into the doujin selling area until an hour later. It was amazing that even by that point in time, several groups had already sold out completely, and any popular groups were no longer taking requests for sketches. It was also quite a bit smaller than I had expected, and I was able to get around most of the booths with time still remaining before the doujin selling portion was over. I also stopped by the Bushiroad company booth to pick up some Nanoha

Saturday, March 20, 2010 We woke up for breakfast at the lodge, and took the provided 9:30 shuttle service to the station. We again left our bags at a coin locker in the station, and did a bit more exploring. A view of the mountains coming up from the JR station We checked out Inari Shrine and also a temple, Kanon-ji, which housed a statue of Kanon that Kuukai had carved on his way through the area. We then went back to the station, picked up our bags, and left. I called this tavern (Kayabukiya Tavern) that was famous for having monkeys as waiters to try to get in  a reservation for later in the day, but couldn’t get a hold of them, so gave up on it. We instead made straight for Mito. Upon our arrival, we headed to the Mito River Side Hotel and checked in. Chris stayed in the room and worked on his FFXIII costume, while Arnond and I scouted out the Comic Market locations around town and also stopped in the local Animate. We returned to the hotel to meet up with Chris for dinner,

Friday, March 19, 2010 We woke up the next day and took the 10:46 Yamabiko to Utsunomiya and switched over to the JR Nikko line, which we took the rest of the way to Nikko. Arnond then informed us that the place we were staying would hold our bags, but wouldn’t guarantee them, so we ended up stuffing our stuff in a coin locker at the station before heading out to do sightseeing. We headed up to the major shrine and temple complex of Nikko, walking our way up the major road to get there. Arnond and I still had our backpacks, and so upon arriving at the complex, we left our bags with a lady providing bag holding services. We then got the combined tour ticket, and proceeded to explore the complex. I took pictures when I could, but many of the places did not allow photographs of the interiors. The main hall of Rinno-ji, the Buddhist temple that administers Tokugawa Ieyasu's mausoleum It was an interesting contrast to come here, as the shrines and temples were much fancier than yo