24/11/2012 - Hyper Japan and clubbing

Day 2 of Hyper Japan was probably my favourite! I just cosplayed maid Hatsune Miku again, so I didn't bother taking a photo this time. I arrived at about 3, I think, and spent some time properly looking around, which I hadn't really had time to do the day before. 

I bought some MAIFO merchandise:

I don't even like badges, but it was cheap, and I love the little characters that Tsukasa draws haha.

Then I met these two fabulous girls (who, as it turns out, were already friends with Dodo), and we wandered around together until Dodo and Gigi showed up:

At some point, we ran into Zero and Shun, so we finally manned up and talked to them a bit/got pictures. 8D As you would expect from their videos and such, Zero was pretty quiet, but Shun was like "Ah, Hatsune Miku? Cute.", which made me kind of happy. 

It was so awkward trying to fit us all in the photo haha. Looking back, it probably would have been better to get someone to take it for me. 

Later they had another meet&greet, where I got Zero to sign a cheki I'd bought earlier:

Because I'd seen them around the event so many times by this point, I wasn't so nervous, and managed to say (in super awkward Japanese) that I'm looking forward to their London live (which will apparently happen in February 8D). Shun also addressed me as "Hatsune Miku" again haha.

We had an hour or two to kill before NINJAMAN JAPAN's live, so Dodo, Gigi and I were just sort of wandering around aimlessly/talking to people we know/eating takoyaki. We kept seeing MAIFO taking photo of/with cosplayers, which was sort of cute haha. At one point we were just standing on either side of Dodo, watching her type something on her phone, when OUT OF NOWHERE, Zero suddenly appeared right in front of us, leaning over to look at (or pretend to) Dodo's phone, scaring us all to death. Seeming quite proud of himself, he walked away fairly quickly, whilst we were all just like "...Did that just happen?". 

A little later, NINJAMAN JAPAN performed, and they were amazing! I'd never seen a video of them live before, so I was really surprised by just how theatrical it all was. They had a fake fight with some "evil ninjas" at the start (and about half way through the show). By fight, I mean full-on dramatic, cartoon-esque martial arts, and not just a fist fight. After the band won the fight, they posed/danced a bit, then played their music (which was very good live). 

It was hard to get good pictures because they were just so fast, but here are a few anyway:

Note Sarino flying through the air in the top right corner.

Pinky is so tiny! C:

The live finished shortly before the event's closing time, so we were just hanging around and trying to gather up people who were coming to mine before Japan Underground. A photographer took me over to a blank wall to get some photos, and then other people kept joining in, as is typical in these sorts of events haha, so I was stuck there for a little while. During this, Dodo started yelling at me, and I ignored her at first, thinking she was just trying to make me laugh, but when I did look over, I realised that Shun had appeared between the photographers and was taking a photo of me ahaha. He hurried off pretty quickly when he realised we'd noticed, though. 

After we'd gathered everyone up, we headed back to my house to drink/so I could get changed before Japan Underground.

As usual, Japan Underground was a lot of fun. We missed the first band(s?), but the last one was very good.  Not satisfied with the early closing time of about 12, we gathered up some people to go to Slimelight. Slimelight's music wasn't as good as normal, but the ball pond was back! We just sort of laid in it like a hot tub for about half an hour at the start, then danced until about 5am before stumbling back to mine.  

23/11/12 - Hyper Japan and The Alcoholympics

This weekend was long, but incredibly fun! 

On Friday, I got the train down to London at about 11am (I maaay have skipped a couple of classes). I took my suitcase home, got changed, then headed off to Earls' Court for Hyper Japan. My outfit was pretty boring, though, because I wanted to get there as quickly as possible:

Really awkward photo, sorry.

For those that don't know, Hyper Japan is a fairly new Japanese traditional and pop culture event, running once or twice a year. I'd only been to the very first one (a few years back), and it's really improved a lot! I hadn't actually planned to go to this one, but then it was announced that some of The MICRO HEAD 4N'S (Zero (ex D'espairsRay), Shun, Ricky) would be there. 

I arrived at Hyper Japan at about 5pm, right before MAIFO's meet&greet started. 

Surprisingly, we were allowed to take photos! The band members (especially Zero) would actually pose for the camera when they weren't signing things haha.

It was really strange to see Zero (who doesn't seem to have aged at all since about 2006) up close, because I've been such a big fan of him/D'espairsRay for about 4 years, and by the time I got to the front of the surprisingly short queue to meet them, I was really nervous, which I hadn't expected at all haha. They were all very nice, though. C: They weren't selling CDs, unfortunately, but they all signed my ticket and shook my hand. After everyone's stuff had been signed, we were allowed to take photos with them! 

 I look super awkward because... well, that's how I felt haha. I was also trying to bend down a bit to be closer to their height.

Shun was also giving out stickers like the one you see at the bottom. 

After, I found Dodo and Gigi, and we went to NINJAMAN JAPAN's signing. I don't have pictures of them, but they were all adorable and super friendly. C: 

Pinky had a lot of trouble remembering the date, and after some discussion, we decided it was the 23rd. He also seemed to like my horns haha. 

After the signing, we looked around the event, ate okonomiyaki, and drank loads of free Yakult (they were giving it out all weekend, for some reason) until MAIFO's talk show a couple of hours later. We also ran into various members of MAIFO and NMP several times, and we were generally very awkward because we were taken by surprise haha. To keep seeing Zero was the most surreal thing ever, especially in a place like that. At one point, we ran into both of the bands at once in the very small elevator room, and we just sort of awkwardly rushed into the elevator and waved to them. I think that's when this photo (from Shun's Facebook) was being taken:

I bought Mameshipamyupamyu tights 8D

MAIFO's talk show was pretty much them being interviewed by some presenter guy (with an interpreter) about the band's recent activities, how they were finding London etc., and a few more personal questions. I can't remember many specific questions, but it was interesting! 

After the talk finished, Dodo and I had to rush off to Nick's house for THE LONDON 2012 ALCOHOLYMPICS! \8D/ 

Dodo and Randa decided (but wouldn't explain why) that we would be Team Hotspice. Here is our team:

I don't think the other two teams even bothered to come up with team names, but we came up with individual member names too lol. Due to a mishearing, I was Mama Hotspice. 8)

The first round was a relay race. It was outside and dark, so I didn't take pictures, but team members had to take turns at completing an obstacle course (which was not easy in spiked litas), then making (and drinking) a Jagerbomb at the end. I think we lost that one haha.

In this round, one player from each team had their hands cuffed behind their backs, then they had to race each other to drink 3 shots from the floor without spilling them.

The next round involved lots of cups of wine being spread on the floor, some of which contained money. One member from each team had to quickly drink the wine to collect the money at the bottom. The player with the most money at the end (not us lol) won. 

In this round, players had to drink as many alcopops as they could in a certain amount of time:

Scumbag Fin

Sam and Dodo got hold of my phone.

...

In the next round, one player from each team had to lie on the floor, and a second player had to pour Rekorderlig (strawberry and lime flavoured cider) into their mouth. First to finish won. I chose this round because Rekorderlig is pretty much my favourite drink ever. 8D Unfortunately, I started laughing hysterically about 2 seconds in, which caused Rekorderlig to get poured all over me, which just made me laugh more, and long story short, we lost that round horribly (although this did mean I had more Rekorderlig left to drink at my own pace after, which was nice). 

The last rounds were outside, so I couldn't get decent photos. One was a kegstand, which I am thankful I didn't have to do. The final round involved the whole team racing the other teams to finish drinking (with straws) a bowl of various unknown alcohols (and raw eggs, apparently, but I couldn't really taste them). 

The winning team: