Wife and I went for an impromptu holiday to Tokyo... yes, again! Wife has never seen the sakura cherry blossoms in full bloom, so we decided to take this chance. Besides cherry blossom viewing and hanami, of course we also plan for toy shopping! We didn't buy as much as our previous trips, but we're happy with our purchases.
Firstly, our Yotsuba & Danboard loot! We came across this Yotsuba & Danboard exhibition being held at Sunshine 60 observatory in Ikebukuro, and were pleasantly surprised to find some great stuff there. We bought the Ts because of the Danbo peeping out from the pocket. Even the shirt label is a Danbo face, too cute!
Wife and I went for our almost-annual pilgrimage (hee!) holiday to Tokyo. As usual, we took the chance to stock up on toys!
To start off, my Transformers loot!
I was on business trip to Tokyo from 24 to 30 March 2013. This year the cherry blossoms started blooming earlier than usual, and I was lucky to be there right when they were at full bloom! Here are some photos.
Wow, so fast and it's April 1st already! I didn't post anything in March 2013 because I've been on business trips. Good thing for me is the last destination of my trip was Tokyo. In between all the meetings and trainings, I managed to squeeze in some shopping time. ;)
My Transformers loot bought during this trip!
The Doll Carnival 2012 was held on 16 December, but Groove only start selling tokidoki Pullip Luna on 19 December onwards. Good thing wife and I were still in Tokyo, so on that morning we headed back to Matsuya Ginza to get her. Here are more photos from that day.
The new dolls that were sold only at Matsuya Ginza.
My wife has uploaded the photos we took from Doll Carnival 2012 to her Flickr and you can view the full set here. I will post some highlight photos below.
This photo is not of a doll! It is a life-size (well, about 140cm) Pullip Pere Noel at level 1 of Matsuya
Ginza shopping mall. Lots of shoppers were taking photos with her.
During our recent holiday in Tokyo, wife and I visited the 1:1 scale RX-78-2 Gundam in Odaiba. (OK, it was more like me who wanted to go!) It is located in front of the new DiverCity Tokyo Plaza shopping mall.
Wife and I attended the Groove Doll Carnival again this year, but this time it is different from previous years. Instead a one-day event on its own, this year the doll exhibition is on display for several weeks at Matsuya Ginza department store.
Groove had a lot of dolls on sale there, old and new, including the popular re-releases like Regeneration Pullip Paja, 10th anniversary Cinnamoroll Dal, and the Dal 6th anniversary Jouet. Some special dolls were also released at the event like Pullip Pere Noel (Matsuya Ginza 2012 Christmas promotional model), Pullip Rche (Doll Carnival 2012 exclusive), Taeyang Hide, Pullips Nanette, Princess Knight and tokidoki Luna.
I visited Animate アニメイト at Ikebukuro yesterday, and they were having K-ON exhibition on the top (9th) floor.
Entrance to the exhibit
My favourite place in Akihabara - the original Radio Kaikan building - closed down this summer for renovations. While I'll admit that place was old, cramp and rather unsafe during an earthquake, it has a certain charm.
Radio Kaikan building - Dec 2010
More photos from Doll Carnival 2011! Apart from the custom dolls and prototypes/future release displays, another highlight of the doll carnival is the vendors' booths. Their store displays were beautiful, with dolls dressed in the clothes and accessories they were selling.
Photos are from my wife's flickr. But I took most of the photos as she was busy buying their stuff LOL
More photos from Doll Carnival 2011! These are
customs sent in by doll collectors and displayed during the carnival.
Photos are from my wife's flickr.
More photos from Doll Carnival 2011! These are customs by renowned doll customizers, and are available for purchase via auction.
Photos are from my wife's flickr.
