A Week in the Big Apple: ISML, Barack Obama, and a quick visit to Kinokuniya

by eternal on November 10, 2008

Ne, ne, guess what?

…Guessed yet?

…Well, you’re taking too long, so I’ll just tell you anyway. After a rather short absence that probably felt a lot longer for me than for you (in a good way), I’m back, and with a burning passion to finish everything that I told myself I would do since summer.

…Either that, or just to post semi-frequently and play Gears of War 2.

Obviously, I don’t want to bore you with every detail of the trip (not that I would want to type all of that up anyway), but to put it simply, it was awesome. Toronto may not be such a bad city, but I’ve gotta say, nothing beats skyscrapers that literally scrape the sky and giant bagels that sell for next to nothing. I can see why so many people live there.


Here’s a strangely quiet shot of one of the roads.


*insert witty reference to a 4chan meme here*


No idea who put this here, how it was put here, or why it was put here, but it was strange so I decided to take a picture of it.


I lol’d until I realized that they were serious.

As you can tell, the trip didn’t last too long, and as I mentioned before it was a school trip so we couldn’t wander around very much. Needless to say, though, we saw more than a few interesting sights nonetheless, the Guggenheim museum being the most intriging of the bunch. I don’t have any pictures (no photography inside, as always), but if any of you have already gone, you’ll know what I mean.

It doesn’t matter who I am. I just wanted to talk to you.

Random-text-written-along-the-walls FTW!

I also made it to Kinokuniya, as you can tell from this terrible picture. I didn’t bother taking any shots inside, but in a word, it’s amazing. Pretty much the only thing that intrigued me more than the fact that it has three floors of Japanese books, ranging from history to fiction to Strike Witches artbooks, was the little lounge up on the top floor. I can just imagine all of the locals hanging around there and meeting other locals…what a convenient way to meet people with the same interests without waiting ’til the next con.

Also, I didn’t have enough time to make it to Bookoff, sadly, but thanks anyway for the recommendation. I’ll keep them in mind the next time I’m in a city with one of them.

Oh yeah, and my purchases are as you see above: a little headphone gallery thing (which looks surprisingly good), an artbook evidently based on Spiral, and most importantly, something involving Gyakuten Saiban. I haven’t actually looked through any of these yet, but I’m a huge fan of Phoenix Wright, and I’d be surprised if I don’t write anything about at least one of the above books. Also, I would have probably bought more, but time and money constraints kept me back. If only I was a local orz.


Rockefeller center. It’s one of my life’s dreams to go skating here on Christmas eve, and preferably not alone >_>

The restaurant in Seinfeld. A bit of trivia: the only modern Western media I’m interested in are games and novels, but I watched Seinfeld and Friends in their entirety, and thoroughly enjoyed both of them.

Speaking of which, this pretzel (or a pretzel much like this one that I forgot to take a picture of) was making me thirsty.

I also made it to Nintendo World, which is basically a huge Nintendo store in New York. There were a lot of kids around playing Pokemon and not snaking in Mario Kart, but despite by bias against casual gaming, there’s something about that place that appealed to me. Even though I may have turned my back against Wii Fit and Soul Calibur Legends in favor of the rather awesome Halo series and a real Soul Calibur game, I guess there’s still some part of me that supports Nintendo after all. Or at least, I support what they did for the industry.

Finally, and probably most importantly, election night. I’d hate to be one of those anime bloggers that drags real life events into their posts like this one (even though I’m nowhere near professional enough to bother with a philosophy like that), I think this election in particular counts as the exeption, especially as I was there in Times Square while all of this was happening. The picture above can give you just an inkling of just what it was like in that place; I can only imagine that New Year’s Eve is much the same, because there was hardly even walking room where the screens were set up. For as far as the eye could see – literally, if you’re short – one of the most famous places in America was filled to the brim with eager citizens awaiting the results of what will probably become a moment in history. I’m Canadian and I don’t know much about politics either way so I couldn’t tell you whether I supported one candidate over the other, but it seems clear enough to me that Obama’s victory will be remembered forever, and at least I can say that I was there while it happened.

Even if I was just trying to make my way to Kinokuniya.

And with that, I suppose this post concludes itself. I’m back here at home in front of my computer, still reeling from the awesomeness of Gears of War 2 and preparing myself mentally for everything that I hope to accomplish before the holidays. Also, a few noteworthy things that I feel obligated to mention:

– Fate Testarossa defeated Yuki Nagato in ISML. I didn’t pay much attention as neither of the two really appealed to me, but congrats nonetheless, Feito. May ISML continue to prosper in the years to come, and hopefully bring us a moe tournament that doesn’t force you to wait several hours to place your vote.

– I just got super rats’ figure doujin book from lulu, and I’ll probably be reading and reviewing it in a few days. Interestingly enough, it will probably be my first artbook review.

– I plan on getting a DSLR…someday. Whenever I do, and/or whenever I finish writing for the time being, I’ll try my hand at some figure photography. You probably wouldn’t guess from looking at this blog, but when I first started I planned on trying a bit of everything to see what I liked the most (and what my readers liked the most), so merchandise posts are definitely something that I plan on doing in the future. …As soon as I figure out how to take good pictures.

– Speaking of writing, I’m nearing the completion of my current projects, and thus added a bit more info to the “My Writing” page. I’m not sure what’s going on with Karui Shosetsu (or my non-existent artist), but I’m hoping for Ephemeral Wings to break the ground in the OEL light novel scene. But first I have to make it good OTL.

And on a final note, my adventures outside of this little snowy city aren’t over yet. Why, you ask? Because this March I’ll be making an even greater pilgrimage to a land on the other side of the pacific. It’s an island far, far away, and the jet lag will probably kill me, but it’ll all be worth it. This spring, I’ll be travelling to…….

Australia.

Yeah, I’m not going to Japan or anything, but I’m hyped for this trip to Australia for a totally different reason. It’s a school trip once more, but just for fun, I’ll keep the details a secret for now; all I can promise you is that it’ll be amazing. For me at least. You’ll probably (hopefully) just be waiting for me to get back so that I can continue posting.

But hey, failing all of that, at least they’ve got a Kinokuniya somewhere there as well.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }

Panther November 11, 2008 at 12:28 am

Wait, Australia exists?

Panthers last blog post..Another New Writer has Appeared!

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M12 November 11, 2008 at 5:48 am

Yeah, I live there, actually!

If you visit Sydney, perhaps we can unite :D! My work office is about half an hour’s walk from Kinokuniya.

“Don’t honk. $350 penalty”. We need signs like that here in the city…

M12s last blog post..Dance Dance Vhinobis

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Optic November 11, 2008 at 10:03 am

Seeing the Scientology building instantly reminded me of Tom Cruise. -_-
If ur coming to Sydney, M12 and I will happily show around. Sydney is the only city in Australia that has a Kino if u didn’t know. ^^
That’s a nice little loot u got there. ^^

Optics last blog post..Megami Magazine Vol. 103: My Impressions

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Blowfish November 11, 2008 at 11:20 am

Ahhh…A Headphone artbook? Care to share the name?Or even better write a review?
Ahh so youre one of the 25 guys that ordred the HappySoda Doujin? Its awesome!

A Classtrip to Asutralia sounds awesome.Youll be abke to meet some comrades ^^

Blowfishs last blog post..Happy Soda Doujin Vol.1

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ETERNAL November 11, 2008 at 7:43 pm

Haha, it sure would be nice to meet up with everyone while I’m there (hopefully “everyone” will include Adun and ron~), but I suppose we’ll see when the time comes.

Also, Blowfish, I’ll probably post more details on the headphone book as well as some scans whenever I get around to looking through it. I knew at least SOMEONE out there would be interested ;P

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Kairu Ishimaru November 11, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Saku November 12, 2008 at 12:16 am

Welcome back, Eternal :D

Sakus last blog post..Chaos; Head – Episode 5

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GNdynames November 12, 2008 at 12:33 am

Welcome back, glad you had fun ^^

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Rin November 12, 2008 at 4:00 am

Welcome Back Eternal!!!!!!
Looks like you had fun in NYC!!!!!!
Love those pictures….

Rins last blog post..New Package and Something Extra…

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Albert November 13, 2008 at 2:23 am

Did you go to the lounge in that shop? Anything interesting happen theerer?

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ETERNAL November 13, 2008 at 4:57 pm

Thanks everyone! Now I’ve just gotta get back into those episodic posts >_>

As for the lounge, sadly, I didn’t get enough time to go; in fact, I hardly had enough time to properly shop. It’s definitely a place I’d like to hang around in if I ever get a leisurely trip to the city though.

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