Fan-Favorite Sculptor Tim Bruckner To Work On Captain Action Line
Deadite Ash Packaged Image From NECA
Incognito and Low-priced STD Evaluating for Younger people
Toys for Tots this weekend
Disney Pixar CARS 2: New Lego CARS 2 + New Friends + Sale
A Little Bit on the Glossy Side: These high-gloss Smorkin’...
A Little Bit on the Glossy Side: These high-gloss Smorkin’ Labbits are what the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey would have looked like if they had Kozik on their team. They’re 10 inches each, come in red, white, or black, and cost $60 from Kidrobot. They’ll be available on January 12.
TODAY IN BAT-HISTORY It's Barbara Rush's Birthday!
Daily Graffiti: Batman scootin’ by a laundromat. Pic...
Daily Graffiti: Batman scootin’ by a laundromat. Pic by Susan Cromwell.
Check out the DAILY GRAFFITI ARCHIVES for more geektastic street art!
Alex Ready, Set, School Activity Box, Alex Little Hands Series
Alex Ready, Set, School Activity Box, Alex Little Hands Series
Alex Ready, Set, School Activity Box, Alex Little Hands Series - The ALEX Little Hands Ready, Set, School! kit is a great way to prepare pre-schoolers for their very first day of school. Children get a kick start on learning the basics: ABC’s, 123’s, colors, shapes, writing, cutting and learning to tie their shoelaces. It’s a hefty kit that includes everything you need to get ready for school.
Fun & Learning: Fun and learning go hand to hand with the Ready, Set, School! kit. The kit includes a wide variety of activities. 15 fun worksheets will have your child coloring, placing stickers, tracing shapes and performing simple cutting activities. Kids can doodle on coloring sheets and fill in missing parts of silly illustrations. They will learn their shapes by placing the correct sticker in the appropriate outlined area to complete pictures. Children will have their basics covered while having fun.
Using Your Brains & Muscles: The ALEX Little Hands line encourages a child’s development. The Ready, Set, School kit covers a wide range of activities to help get your child started. Children will learn important hand-eye coordination by using stencils to trace and outline shapes. The wipe away activity books will help kids with fine motor skills. Practice writing ABC’s and 123’s over and over again by using the included wipe away marker and wiping the pages clean with a damp cloth.
Designed Especially for Little Hands!: The Ready, Set, School! kit includes great tools to help little ones get started for school. The special spring loaded safety scissors will make it easy to learn to cut along the dotted lines of worksheets. Once they’ve mastered the scissors, the yellow spring can be flipped over for regular use. Triangular shaped crayons fit onto fingertips to make coloring fun and won’t roll off the table. Kids can learn to lace up laces and tie shoes with the shoe tying kit. The water based wipe away marker is non-toxic and safe to use over and over again on the four wipe away activity books.
What's In The Box?: ABC wipe away book, 123 wipe away book, Colors & Shapes wipe away book, ABC & 123 dot-to-dot activity wipe away book, blue wipe away marker, 8 stackable finger crayons, safety scissors, 2 stencils, 15 activity work sheets, 75 stickers, shoe tying activity with shoelace, easy step by step illustrated instructions all packaged in corrugated box with handle for easy transport.
Alex Ready, Set, School Activity Box, Alex Little Hands Series
- Skill building set for pre-school children
- Learn to cut, tie your shoe, and write the alphabet and so much more
- Includes 3 learning wipe away books, and many other hands-on activities
- All activities come in reusable box with handle
- Lots of fun
Buy this Pre-kindergarten toys - Alex Ready, Set, School Activity Box, Alex Little Hands Series...
ESC-Toy news: Frombies, teases and more!
Yesterday's release of the Bloody Dizign figure wasn't the only news from ESC-Toy. Along with the news that the Papa Sama Jellyswordsman was still available at US$75 (limited to 30 pieces worldwide), as was the blue Nathan Drake figure at US$49.99, was the tidbit that a new figure is coming in February, an exclusive for Tomenosuke-syoten. The teaser somewhat makes me believe it'll be an extension of the Soopa Maria line, but we'll have to see.
However, in some more exciting news, our friends at Frombie have tweeted today that they're working on a collaboration with Erick Scarecrow! More info on that will apparently be coming soon, but it should be awfully exciting to see what those two will do. What do you think it could be, Tomopop readers?
Name That…Super Duck
“The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses” Tour – Concert Dates & Locations
Ultimate Otaku Room
The ultimate otaku room? Dakimakura, wall scrolls, retro gaming machines, custom figures, eroge, doujinshi, Dr Pepper, dedicated Tohou machine and more! This place looks more like a shop or museum! Posted by member Nanashi over at figure.fm.
A room like this is known as an Itabeya [痛部屋[いたべや]]. The kanji "痛" is now commonly used to refer to illustrations of cute 2D girlies being plastered over any type of object - a car for example is called Itasha [痛車[いたしゃ]] - here is an example.
Nanashi enjoys 2011 Christmas with one of his favorite 2D girls.
More evidence that this could be the ultimate otaku room - Sega Dreamcast machines used as plates for caek.
The mortal enemy for an otaku room - photo taken just after the 3.11 Earthquake.
Photos of the room back in Summer 2010.
Nanashi-san's room Christmas 2009.
2009 Summer
The room back in Winer 2008.
Nanashi-sans room back in 2008.
More world wide room photos listed up below.
Hot Toys: Captain America Red Skull Is Up!
Hot price on Magic: the Gathering – Sutured Ghoul – Magic 2012 – Foil, now at $0.01 after 100% decrease in price!
Oshogatsu
Oshogatsu [お正月[おしょうがつ]] is the word meaning "new year." Currently 4 days into 2012. How has your new years been so far? After about half a year of Culture Japan Season 2 production, I've always said that I'd take at least a day off in the new year. It turned out that so much other work piled up over the 6 months that it was difficult to just drop everything for a whole day ^^
But did manage to get some time to do the new year stuff which includes going to our local temple to make a prayer and exchange our Omamori and Ofuda.
At the Fudouson temple grounds. At this time of year, a load of hawker stalls would setup to sell nourishment and beverages.
Folks who want to visit the Fudouson temple should get off at the nearest stations which are Musashikoyama and Nishikoyama on the Meguro line.
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At the entrance to the main temple, there is a fountain which you should use to clean your hands to purify yourself.
The act of attending a shrine or temple at the beginning of the year to make a prayer is called Hatsumoude [初詣[はつもうで]].
These are called Omikuji - fortunes which have turned out to be bad - things like "a baboon will leave a pile of poo in your breakfast every day for the rest of this year." Most folks would not want something like that to come true so they tie the unlucky fortune to this fence.
Time for some noms - boiled potatoes with some butter.
This is Okonomiyaki with some katsuo sprinkled on the top. The katsuo will wave about while the Okonomiyaki is still warm which makes it look alive ^^
Huddling together with strangers in the cold.
Incense is burned infront of the main temple. Folks will approach the burning incense and try to get a whiff of the smoke.
Inside the main temple. In the middle there is a box called Saisen Bako [賽銭箱[さいせんばこ]] where you would throw money before making a prayer. You would often see the box drawn in Tohou illustrations.
Usually one would throw a 5 yen coin - the pronunciation for "5 yen" in Japanese is "Go-en" (pronounced "goh en") and is the same pronunciation as "ご縁" meaning "good luck or fate."
Behind the Saisen Bako is where one will see many priests blessing the amulets and talisman before they are handed over to the owner.
We discovered this temple a few years after moving into this area - one of the things I love about Japan - a new discovery everyday.
These are called Ema [絵馬] which are plaques of wood where one would write their wishes on.
Its time to visit the god who specializes in ones legs and waist - just what I need for my spinal hernia.
The water in this fountain is not only used for purification purposes...
...but also for splashing water on this god.
Visualize your goal and toss a coin.
Some kids about to try their dab hand at shooting a target.
If you are playing, remember not to take this too seriously. All the PSP games and wot not are all for display purposes only. What you are supposed to do is shoot a cork at one of the targets - if it falls over then its yours. Only the small items worth less than 100 yen will fall over ^^
This guy here is getting greedy and tries to go for the Koala snack. Even though he puts the gun right next to the target, the snack barely budges.
Arashi, Exile and AKB posters to entice the punters - these are just for display purposes too.
And this is what the Meguro Fudouson temple looked like many many moons ago.
Outside the temple are more stalls being setup to feed folks with warm rice wine and yakitori.
Then its off to check out our local shopping arcade as we usually do.
Most shops are closed but restaurants and grocery stores are open.
Decorations and signs outside closed stores wishing folks a happy new year.
Not sure about the meaning of these rubber chickens though ^^
Had a craving for some KFC ^^
Not too sure what I'm doing here ^^;
A load of folks lining up for some takeout sushi.
Pokeon calendars given away at Mc Dees.
And this is what we are after - Mc Dees apple pai for dessert ^o^
And this is how I eat apple pie - with ice cream ^o^ Absolutely nomalicious.
TV is filled with new year specials - here we have the Milky Holmes girls on their own show.
Hope you had a nice time off but also hope that you get back into gear soon - especially if you got goals to reach!
Before I forget, you can see coverage of previous years in the following photo articles:-
-Japanese New Year 2006 (Meiji Jingu in Harajuku)
-Japanese New Year 2007 (Sensouji in Asakusa)
-Japanese New Year 2008 (Meguro Fudouson)
-Japanese New Year 2009 (Meguro Fudouson)
-Japanese New Year 2010 (Meguro Fudouson)
-Japanese New Year 2011 (Meguro Fudouson)
Otaku Room - Before and After
If there is anything I love more than looking at photos of otaku rooms - it has to be looking at "before and after" photos of otaku rooms. Today we look at the room of Mim from Australia. This is what Mim's room looked like before - this photo was featured in episode 14 of Culture Japan Season 1.
Mim clears up ready to paint the room. In the meanwhile, all the Nendoroids get stacked up to make a temporary wall.
The sky blue wall gets painted...
Just the new lick of paint makes the room look so much fresher.
New display cases for the figures.
Wall scrolls leading up to Mim's room.
And this is the room after all the renovating. Carpet replaced too.
Mim still has some Nendoroids in their boxes waiting to be displayed.
A temporary spot for Mim's DVD collection. I'll be posting my before-and-after room photos soon but if you want to share yours on figure.fm then please do so! I'll pick up some and post em here from time to time.
More otaku room photos from around the world listed up below.