Akihabara Loot

I finally received my first scholarship payment yesterday (or rather my first three, as the previous payments had been delayed) and decided that a trip to Akihabara was in order! It was a short trip this time, as although I had planned to spend most of the day there and make a trip to Volks, a friend of mine had some tickets to a couple of films at the Tokyo International Film Festival, so I went along to that in the afternoon.

A couple of hours wasn’t long enough to fully explore Akihabara, but I did visit the big anime stores and a few smaller ones as well, and I’ll have  a better idea of my way around on my next trip (which should be pretty soon as I want to order myself a doll from Volks while I have the money for it, and while I’ve got enough time for their Full Choice System wait time which is currently about two months).

I just have pictures of the spoils of my trip this time. Next time I’ll be taking some pictures of Akihabara itself.

From top to bottom, left to right: Figma Kagamine Len, Azone Ryougi Shiki, trading figures from Togainu No Chi and Sengoku Basara first and second sets, an Azone biscuit freebie, clear files from Kara No Kyoukai and Canaan.

GSC Kagamine Len 1/8 PVC

Having successfully used my British credit card here in Japan, I caved and bought myself a new figure – Good Smile Company’s Kagamine Len. He cost me an impressively low ¥3387 with free shipping, a far cry from the £40 or so he would have cost me to import into the UK (and that’s without getting caught by customs). Another advantage is that I received him the day after placing the order, and I was given a tracking code even with Amazon’s free shipping service. I’ve been very impressed by the efficiency of the Japanese postal system in comparison to Royal Mail in the UK. What finally pushed me into ordering him though, aside from the ease of obtaining him, was actually that there was a volume of manga I really wanted to get, and it was convenient to buy enough to qualify for the free shipping, and I’d been so tempted to get him anyway that I gave in and just bought him in the end.

He looks great, as figure collectors have come to expect from Good Smile Company. He’s 1/8 scale and leaning forwards so he’s quite a small figure and wasn’t as expensive as some of their other offerings, but the quality is very good. He has a nice, dynamic sort of pose. I think the only downside is that the angle of his head is such that you can’t really get a good look at his face without crouching down, which is how I took all of these shots of him.

Referrals

Looking through my blog stats page at referrals and searches, I was surprised to see that quite a few people have come here through searching Google for things related to Subeta, as well as the occasional person looking for things through the WordPress tag for Subeta. I feel like it’s cheating the visitors in a way – my blog has nothing really to do with Subeta besides the occasional mention! It’s certainly odd to see my blog appear on the first page of Google when someone is looking for the Subeta Twitter page or something (after writing this entry I’m probably going to get even more people coming through for that, aren’t I?).

On a completely unrelated topic, my Nendoroid Len is probably arriving on Friday. The mail arrived when I was at lectures (as usual) on Tuesday, so I rearranged for Friday because I have no lectures at all. Friday is going to become my figure day, isn’t it? Also turning up should be my copy of the Kogorin (a dictionary of archaisms) which I shall be using for the module on Classical Japanese I’m taking this semester. It can’t be anything else, because the couple of small items I’m waiting for would probably fit through the letterbox, and won’t be arriving this quickly anyway.

Figures on the Way

HLJ shipped my order out this morning. It will undoubtedly be a while before it shows up, since their cheaper shipping option is painfully slow (2-3 weeks in my experience) but I’m glad it’s on the way. I may well encounter customs charges this time, since it goes over the £18 limit by a few pounds, even if HLJ don’t include the shipping charge in the declared value (it seems as though Japanese companies never do. Maybe it’s standard practice over there?). If so, it will be my first encounter with charges, since the few more expensive things I’ve imported have been through eBay, and the sellers always seem to mark the value down, or through YesAsia who pay customs for you.

The figure I’ve ordered is the Kagamine Len Nendoroid. It will be the first Nendoroid I’ve bought so far – they’re really cute, but most of them aren’t characters I’m familiar with or interested in enough to buy a figure. That will probably change from now on, though. I’ve already preordered the Itoshiki Nozomu one from HLJ, and I’ll probably be getting Kaito when he is released later this month. I also have the Chara-Ani exclusive set of Junjou Romantica Nendoroid Puchi preordered from one of the few sites offering them (I got lucky – I was worried I’d have to buy them through a proxy service, which would be too expensive for my liking). I’ll preorder Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji once I can, although he’ll probably be out late enough in the year that I’ll be able to get him when I’m in Japan. I might get Miku (if she’s available) and Rin later on to go with Len and Kaito, but right now I have enough figures preordered and planned as it is.

My Busou Shinki Strarf should be on the way as well. I got her through a British eBay seller, so she was quite cheap. The newer Strarf Bis has a better face, and that really neat visor piece, but she would cost a lot more, and if I’m buying an expensive Shinki it will be Graffias. Still, now I have some company for Arnval.

On an unrelated note, I’ve been adding links to my various other accounts and sites in the sidebar. You can find things like my dA gallery and my Livejournal (which I use for personal things more than otaku-related posts) and my Twitter account. A proper banner is in progress, but I’ve got two commissions to work on as well, so they take priority.