Road Trip June 2010

Wow its been a while since we last updated.

I recently went on a road trip in June, but not with Jenna unfortunately :( It would have been a LOT more fun if she could have come.

Even though it's not a trip to a foreign country (keep checking back, though!) I decided a road trip in our home state is still worthy of a World Traveler's blog. So here are some pictures from the trip.

We went from San Jose (where Jenna and I attended Fanime) down to Santa Barbara, from there to Anaheim or outside of it, to San Bernardino to some small town and back home. The two people who went were C and C(male and female).

An old fashioned telephone booth in Santa Barbara.
There was a part of Santa Barbara, I forget what the place itself was called but it was FULL of statues like this one and a smaller trio that you could move the statues' arms and hands.
A hall at UCSB, what's with the dog thing?
The Hollywood sign!
At Disneyland. How could we go to Anaheim and not stop there?
I was so happy I found his star on the Walk. Denny Crane <3

This was painted on the wall by the entrance to a comic book shop Female C's friend took us to. OMG Marvel Comics' headquarters!! I was so excited to see this you don't even know! I wonder if I can get a tour of the place if I went back?

Manhattan Beach where we stopped to visit my cousin.

I know that SoCal isn't a foreign country to some of our readers and it wasn't the first time I'd been in the area (I have friends in the area and I visit a bit) but I've learned to look at life as a series of adventures. Instead of waiting for one big adventure, like going to Japan, to happen, we should look at every day as something new, something exciting. I spend all my time in my hometown and in nearby towns, so going outside my zone, going to SoCal, even just going to close by San Francisco or further out Sacramento should be cause for excitement, it should be an adventure. And it is a part of our world, so, here you go, a new adventure.

On Wednesday, Jenna and I are taking a trip to Sacramento, she's found a part of the city that I've never been to before, so I'm already geared up for another adventure, another journey!

Pictures in retrospect

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Life Size Gundam

So I signed up to Youtube expressively so I could post the video I took of the life size Gundam in Odaiba.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZPNd1vsTFs

Going Home!!!

Alright! It's time to go home! This trip has been one awesome adventure for both me and Liz. But I am tired and can't wait to get home to a normal life again, where everyone speaks American and I can sleep in my own bed! Also, both Liz and I agree, we can't wait to bite into a Supreme Steak Chalupa at Taco Bell! If you guys are fans of mexican food, I would not recommend Japan, because I've only seen 2 places on the whole vacation that serve mexican! And it's super expensive, like $20 a plate. I guess Mexican food in Japan is like Japanese food in California! I find that funny. And Japanese food was less expensive here, I got some octopus sashimi for like $3! And it was good!
But I will be happy to be home, like I said. And I got plenty of gifts for everyone. If I didn't get you a gift, it's probably because I don't know you.

Nerding out

Yesterday we went to Akihabara. Wow. It....was not all I expected. Maybe I'm just in a negative mood about it because I was looking for four series and didn't find much on them (Saiyuki, ROOKIES,Kyo Kara Maoh and One Piece, all still on going, all pretty popular, I believe, by the amount of stuff I've seen for those in OTHER parts of Tokyo) so I'm kind of, blah. But it was pretty intense. Although every anime store all had the same kind of stuff, and nothing different from one shop to the next so maybe that's another reason I didn't care for it? I mean, if they're going to advertise Akiba as the 'Destination for Anime Geeks', the least they could do is have different merchandise in the stores. But I digress. Jenna seemed to love it plenty, so maybe it's just my frustration coming out. Anyways. We did the Maid Cafe, like Jenna wanted. I'll let her talk about it. We wandered around, went to some famous shops. I liked those shops enough, and if I was interested in Hetalia and D. Gray Man, I suppose I'd have loved the floors of doujinshi they had devoted to please the woman. But I was looking for my favorite series. And I'm past the stage of spending money on every cute thing I see. But, this part is pretty weird. I told Jenna, "that's it. I give up! I can't find my stuff, I'm done!" when, for the 100th time, we couldn't find any One Piece stuff ( I do love me some Nico Robin and Zoro Ronoroa..) or Kyo Kara Maoh, and the very next store I went into, I found a Gwendal figurine. Of course I snatched it up!
So yeah. I bought some stuff there, but not as much as I had at Nakano, where we went on Tuesday. It's a used goods section of a mall devoted to anime and japanese media and I spent quite a bit there. We're actually planning to go back there some time before we leave Japan since they HAD the series' I liked. But yeah. Akihabara wasn't as great as I'd been led to believe but maybe I had gone there with too strict of expectations. If I hadn't been determined to find specific things, I probably would have enjoyed myself more. It was still fun, don't get me wrong. It just wasn't AS fun as I was told.

Gundam go go!

On Odaiba, they have a life size Gundam (and by that I mean life size if a Gundam were real.) It was so cool! We went there after going to Muscle Park and it was this huge event. We got in line so we could go between its legs and touch its feet and I took pictures of it from all angles and it was so amazing! I loved it! It even lit up and spoke and turned its head and had the thrusters on the back and it was just SO COOL! And I wasn't the only one who thought so, all these other Gundam affectionados were gawking at it and taking pictures and screaming about how awesome it was. A real life Gundam!! It doesn't get any cooler than that!

NINJA WARRIOR!!

Go to this link to see me at muscle park doing the ninja warrior course!!!
Click here for the video!