Japan trip 2014 - Dolls, Robots, Beer and storm

Saturday, the 9th of August
 

I woke up super excited because that day I'd go to my first ever doll related event, not the BIG super famous Dollpa (n.8 Osaka) I'm afraid but the pre-event Dollpa pal Osaka.

I did not really know what it was so I asked my husband to ask a staff member about it.
Apparently Volks has some sort of competition in their showrooms prior to the event and then the winner will be picked and a ceremony made in their name. The item they make also gets sort of mass produced and sold only in that event which makes it kinda always sell out.
So this year the item other than the usual faceup thing was a kigurumi or what we call a onesie. Every participant was "given" a base kigirumi which they then would use to alter and make into something of their own for the competition.

Breakfast: coffee, two toasts, na egg, my beloved sausages and a bit of salad.

Anyway I was worrying about the weather and so was everyone else. Outside it had been raining all morning, to me it looked like regular rain you'd often see in Portugal but to them it was apparently not normal. The sky was gray and the river looked seriously dangerous. The Yamatogawa usually looks pretty calm and with little flow or even little water whatsoever and that day it looked like a normal full river which is definitely not normal.

The dark sky

The Yamatogawa

 Suddently the news hit me pretty bad: the JR line that goes through here was shut down! Now we could no longer get to the event.

Of course my father in law who is amazing as I bet I am always saying, told us he would drive us to the closest place where a train would be available. We got in the car and rain was still dropping, very few people could be seen on the streets and I started thinking that, if this was in my country, the event would probably be cancelled so we kept on checking volks's twitter for updates.

We were so surprised it wasn't going to be canceled at that point... the staff kept posting photos of them getting things and dolls ready.

 

During the ride through Osaka's highway it was borderline scary, I could tell everyone in the car was unconfortable at times we couldn't even see the cars in front of us because of the rain and low visibility.

Finally we managed to get to the center and into the subway from where we started our trip towards our destination, the Cosmo square station.
From there we could see a couple people carrying dolls and that's when it became sure this event would take place.
Curious thing... when we got to the Osaka port area it was not raining, it was just very windy which was super strange.

After some walking we finally arrived to our destination, Intex Osaka. From the outside it looked empty but when we went through the door it was full. There seemed to be multiple events going on. The doll event was more organized with participants in lines waiting to get in through two doors: one for those wishing to purchase something and those who just wanted to go in.
There were really well dressed people there too so i suspect a wedding was also taking place somewhere. We had not had lunch so we went around looking for food and I got pretty upset at this point. I didn't want to go in super early but the time spent looking for food was too much, when we got to a shop the water for noodles was gone and they asked us to wait for 15min and when we were back they said now they only had water for one! This happened in several stores. I thought it was completely unacceptable for a place like that, in Portugal that wouldn't happen, there'd be a macdonalds or something at least.

 

When I entered I have to admit I was a bit underwhelmed. I know this is not the main event but for someone who has never been to a doll convention/party I was expecting more especially in Japan. But I guess since its a party only for VOLKS that it makes sense. It wasn't because of the size and lack of activities and items (I was hoping for more items for sale but then knew that would be the nexy day which i'd miss) but the overall look of the room which would be more of less the same of the next day. There was little magic... lack of decorations and the place just looked like a major storage room with some tables and displays. I always wanted a doll event to be more posh like a Lolita event I suppose.

The first thing near the entrance was the workshop area where i stopped for a while until i realized even i could do what they were doing: changing eyes and eyelashes. The end of the day the workshop changed to hair and wigs where they told us to use a toothbrush to brush them, what kind of elastics are used to tie hair etc... again nothing too complex.

 

After that there was a bit table/display where all the kigurumi contest participants would be placed.

 

Then there was the booth to apply to buy the one off dolls available for purchase, yes because you don't just have to have the cash to buy a doll, you have to first win the chance to buy it. I know... worse than Lolita!

 

4 of the 5 dolls for sale at the event. I liked them all but the one that got me drooling was the next...

MSD one off doll, one of the lucky people got to buy her and take her home.

It was this doll that made me go nuts, i fell for her madly. I even almost wrote my name to apply to get her even though it'd be lucky enough to be called for that and the price was a swooping 90.000 something yen!

SD one off doll -everything was perfect about her...

 

and to know I was this close to her, kills me. I love her and she will never be mine.

The little ones, priced at 55.000yen each.

These two were so silly, one could not even see their faces, they were just spinning and laying there haha sushi bjd.

After this in the center stage they were finally presenting the 4 new VOLKS releases. I do not especially like the anime looking bjd dolls,if someone gives me one for my birthday i get one for dirt cheap i won't mind owning one but they're not my pick as to where to spend my paycheckif you know what I mean, but i thought the msd Lolita twins were adorable.

And here they are! (such mystery, i thought it was adorable)

Alisa Ilinichina Amiella from God Eater (for this sort of doll I kinda liked this one, the weapon is amazing)

Makoto Kikuchi SD

 

The Lolita Msd size twins

After this they called a girl on stage and gave her a award for best kigurumi so the lovely piece being sold was not attached to a face. The girl was also now part of the staff and will be working at Volks showroom apparently which seems pretty cool. I was happy for her, she seemed delighted and her outfit sold out.

1st place kigurumi contest goes to the lovely lady with the cat ears.

And this is her adorable creation which was sold at the event for 5.300yen - and sold out, guess people were lining up for that.

What was for sale: two heads (apparently the two used for the faceup contest, 15.000yen each, the bust in which you could display your work 3.000yen, a faceup starting kit, the base kigurumi and the under full suits in Brown, black and white. Oh and of course the winning kigurumi design.

 

The staff then started calling all doll owers to place their dolls down for the group kigurumi photo. The staff first asked for us to keep away for a bit for them to finish placing all dolls and also for their photographer to take their official shots.

And then flashes everywhere because these were too cute to miss. I think this was when i fell for the little size bjd which i never liked much, the winner kigurumi did make them adorable. <3

Some people used the base kigurumi and made kigurumi for bigger sized dolls, even SD!

In the middle of the room, the bigger área of the room there were tables set for those who wanted to pay an extra 500yen i think for a place there, these people brought their dolls for display and it was of bad tone to take photos without permission. I did see a table that, even though not my prefered style, impressed me. A girl made a full Sailor Moon cast and they look perfect. I asked for a photo and she was quite nice and seemed flattered. When I was looking closely at all of them in awe she commented in japanese how cool it was that I was paying them so much attention and cheking every detail and how she was sorry she didn't speak any foreign language and couldn't communicate with me. I can understand a lot of what people are saying but speak very little japanese so i just kinda pretended I did not hear/did not understand but it made me feel kinda happy because i never know what people are thinking here.

 

They were all there! What a collection.

My favorite was Júpiter, I always liked Júpiter...

 

This is when they were announcing the winners of the raffle, the one that would give people the priviledge of buying the special event dolls.

Finally there were some tickets for sale for 500yen which i got two of, these were to make a donation to the earthwake victims so I felt like it was also for a good cause and since I had no idea what the prizes were I actually got them for that.

But when i saw that the prizes were clothes lucky packs and even bigger things than that I started hoping I'd actually win something, I had gone to such an extent to go to this and couldn't attend Dolpa that I felt like maybe I could be lucky enough. But I was soon reminded that I am very unlucky in these things. I was kinda bummed and then my husband pointed at some of the tables in the back and most people had bought crazy amounts of tickets so I had very little change. I was number 300 and something and there were around 6~7 prizes.

 

And just like that the event finished. I was happy I had attended something like this. There were two other foreign girls there (i mean non-asian, there might have been more non-japanese of course).

There was one thing that made me happy and one that made me a bit... embarassed.

The happy thing was the amount of boys/men into the hobby and how people in Japan accept this as something "normal". Unfortunately in my country if a boy is into dolls like this to this extent people will probably judge them harshly which is a shame. I bet in Japan it used to be like this as well so if boys keep pushing this will be accepted elsewhere too!

The thing that made me sad was to see that the idea that I once had about people putting a lot more effort into their dolls than themselves is a reality. It is quite sad even if looks are not important to them it still bugs me, especially if we are talking about people who are clearly living though their dolls or people like some present who look like they have not taken a bath in a few days and look miserable and then are paying for 90.000yen dolls. I mean... i'm sorry if this is harsh but common... please take care of yourself and then enjoy your dolls. This is my opinion, usually my opinions are a bit... harsh for some people but it is really how i feel so please respect it.

 

I got a piece of candy/snack for every ticket i got that did not get a raffle prize which was nice of them. Overall it was a very positive experience. I was just sad that there weren't any items on sale for my girl because she kinda still is in her box, bald and naked.

 

Patlabor

In the surrounding area there was something else we wanted to see, the Patlabor Next Generation event: aka a big scale Patlabor model + transportation truck and even staff.

Spotted from afard

Some cosplayers were taking the oportunity to make the best cosplay photo ever, how can you top this?

The Patlabor was only raised three times a day and the next would be in the afternoon so we decided to have lunch and wait for it so we could take some photos.
We decided to eat Udon and since I chose Curry Udon I was given this bib because since japanese people slurp when eating noodles and curry does not wash out well one must protect one's clothes. I felt really silly and it was amusing!

We also saw that there was a Sylvanian Families exhibit so we looked for it. We finally found it and I was excited that is untill we saw that we had to pay to see it! When I peeked it was just a big room full of these toys and I thought to myself: aren't these sold in supermarkets? Isn't this a way to advertisse the toy? I felt sad because I did not want to pay to see a few dozen houses and figures. If they had let me in for free i would also probably have bought something but this way I still got to see the ones at the entrance.

 After this it was finally time to see the big boy standing. I love Patlabor, when I was a teen my older brother collected the manga and I read all the volumes and thought it was awesome but I am into mecha manga/anime so its not really strange.

Anime/manga fans are really lucky to live here even though I suspect after a while it gets a bit overwhelming or even boring since its everywhere and in everything.

The transportation (just like the manga) and the crew!

After that we had to rush a bit, it was time to leave. We had promised my sister in law that we would attend another one of her live acts and it was in another stop.
When we arrived I found the label in the shopping street that connects to the train station to be rather odd and took a photo.
When we came home or the next day my husband researched it and we finally got why it was called: Tomy town and why there was a picture of a boy peeing.
The line stop is Juso in case you want to visit and in the area there are a few clubs and bars.

Anyway I cannot find any info on this in english and my memory is pretty bad so I will try to tell the story as best as I can.
Apparently after the war, this area was pretty pety and there were no bathrooms around so people would pee in this street and it smelt of pee, it was disgusting. One day the people who owned stores around it decided it was time to take action and decided to clean the place and make sure people would stop doing it. In order to change the image they also made efforts to change the name of the street to Tomy town but apparently kept the picture of the boy peeing and there's also a statue in there that reminds people of those days. Today its a decent osaka typical shopping street and all belongs in the past.

We had to look for the bar as it was again one of those places located in a top floor of some random building and these things are not easy to find, its easy to find "a" bar to have some drinks but not to find a specific place.
When we arrived it was pretty empty but I was still happy there was anyone there since the streets were deserted, people were completely uncertain of what would happen in a couple of hours with the arrival of Halong (of the nº11 typhoon since apparently in Japan nobody calls it Halong).

First time I had this beer and it was pretty good, Kirin Hearland beer.

The bar, they actually offered a wide variety of liquor and the price was so-so.

I had a blast, the sound was crude but that's their style, original with their own personal flavor and personal experiences, kinda sarcastic at times but also pretty cute and innocent. I really enjoy listening to her and I find it amazing that she fights so hard for the things she loves. I feel a bit like that sometimes too so I can relate.

This is a view of the stage where my sister in law and her friends played.

After that we went back home... we checked the train lines and the lines we would take were all open now so that was a relief. It was actually quite a fast and smooth ride and we did not even get any rain which felt really odd. We were all just very confused, you could see that in people's faces. I also saw the only other foreign Lolita I had seen in Osaka till then, she was wearing an Angelic Pretty Happy Garden dress but I can't recall the colorway, she looked pretty casual, the only thing very Lolita that stood up was the dress. If you are Reading this let me know! <3

 

 

 Sunday, the 10th of August

We were preparing for strong winds and some flooding and I woke up feeling sort of nervous. It was raining at times for as hours went by it seemed like the weather was actually better than the day before.

I ended up realising that in this particular area and in Osaka there were little interferences other than some rain and wind which made me feel really sad to have missed the actual big Dollpa. I saw the photos afterwards and I am sure I would have found something awesome for my girl. Oh well such is life.

We stayed indoors and ate, played with Mari, did some cleaning, you know, house stuff. It was a nice day, all days here are nice days.

For dinner we made Takoyaki. 

 There's actually a Takoyaki stand next to the local supermarket but because its summer and its freshly made I never feel like eating it outdoors but the workers there are so nice, we always greet when we go by.

And that was how I spent the "typhoon" weekend. Pretty strange but fortunately I did not get to experience my first ever typhoon in full force. I had already felt one when I was travelling by sea from Shanghai to Kobe the first time I came to Japan but in sea you don't feel it as much...just a lot of waves... it was scarier though because I was all by myself.

I hope you liked reading yet another adventure.
Love,
Jo