AFA14 Acquisitions and Autographs

It’s that time of year again and this year’s AFA was a pretty phenomenal one, if I do say so myself.

2013 Japan Trip Highlights and Acquisitions!

In a brilliant attempt to circumvent me running out of steam doing a day-by-day recount of my trip, this time, I’ll be writing just one post featuring only the juicy bits – Akihabara, Comiket (doujins) and more!

I’ll organize this post by sections that go in chronological order. At the end of the recount, will be a section that is dedicated to all the acquisitions that I got during my trip.

Without further ado, here we go!

(Warning! Image intensive and somewhat NSFW. Also, the changing aspect ratio of the pictures is due to the fact that a number of them were taken with different cameras.)

AFA12 Signature Acquisitions

Yup, ‘signature’ as in ‘autograph’, not ‘outstanding’.

I’m unequivocally late in posting these, but as the adage goes, “It’s better late than never!”. So, here are some of the signatures that I was fortunate enough to acquire at last year’s Anime Festival Asia 2012.

Actar in Japan …Part 2! – Day 2: Stand By Ready, Set Up! (For Wallet Pain)

With my opinions on the movie already covered in the previous post, it is time to chronicle my experiences at the movie premiere itself! Get ready to relive an epic tale of tragedy and triumph!

…well, not really.

AFA 11 Figure Previews

While I will not be able to attend on the first day, I have managed to snap a few pictures of the figures that are going to be on display as they were being set up. Do enjoy!

Attending a Japanese Summer Festival (in Singapore)

Here on Actar’s Reviews, we’re not all about Anime and Figures and Japanese Popular Culture, but Traditional Japanese Culture as well.

Today, I went down to the Japanese Summer Festival held in Singapore, organized by the Japanese Association, Singapore. The Summer Festival is widely celebrated in Japan and is a staple in Slice of Life Anime like Lucky Star and Ichigo Mashimaro. The Summer Festival is held every year at the Japanese Primary School (Changi Campus) and aims to provide an authentic Japanese Summer Festival experience in Singapore.

It is an exceedingly popular event and is attended by both Japanese and locals alike. This being my first time at the event, I brought along my camera so that I could share the experience with all of you.

First, the multitude of stalls selling everything from traditional Japanese food to festival favorites to small souvenirs.

Next, we come to the game stalls. Many Summer Festival essentials are there including the Shooting Gallery and Balloon Yo-Yo Fishing. Sadly, Goldfish Scooping was axed by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority.

Lastly, we have the traditional Bon-odori (Bon Dance) where anyone can gather around the main stage and join in the festivities. Once night falls, the even commences.

With that, the Summer Festival comes to a close. While there were no fireworks, JAS did a bang up job in recreating the feel and atmosphere of Summer Festival in Japan. Me, my family and everyone else there certainly had a blast.

Delicious Cake

While my 21st Birthday is technically on the 29th of June, I had a pretty extravagant celebration with numerous family and friends this past Friday. Being a pretty special occasion (as 21st Birthdays usually are), a pretty special decoration cake was made with none other than adorable Loli Fate! (^o^)

The cake is gigantic. The picture of Fate is made by putting together numerous individually colored pieces of fondant icing. The effect is simply phenomenal. The cake itself is made of fondant, marzipan (almond icing) and regular cake with layers of cream with strawberries.

Apologies for not providing any more pictures, but in the flurry of excitement and proceedings, the cake was chopped up and devoured before I had the chance to do so. (^.^;)

You could say that I literally ate Fate out. (The jokes keep getting worse and worse don’t they?)

Birthday loot (and everything else I got this month) soon!

At AFAX

…I didn’t buy much, but I did score on this brilliant Lucky Star wall scroll. After the jump would be my brief convention report…

Of Updates and AFAX

Well, it’s that time of the year again. Yup, AFAX or Anime Festival Asia X (my local Anime and Japanese pop culture convention) is right round the corner. It’s held on the 13th and 14th of November at the Suntec City Convention and Exhibition Halls, and as always, I’ll be attending.

An Actual Update? …Along with Thoughts on AFA

Er… Hi. As many of you would have probably noticed, recently, there hasn’t been much going on here aside from updates pertaining to new Actar’s Review episodes and Loot posts… Even my reviews have been becoming more and more irregular.

Do I have a good excuse? Not really, aside from the fact that my real life has been pretty busy now… Cliche, I know, but it’s the truth. My mid-terms just ended about a weeks ago and I have finals (Next month… ARGH!!!) and project deadlines fast approaching. Considering the fact that it’s my first semester of University, I’m still trying to get used to the system.

I know that many of you enjoyed the numerous articles that I’ve written in the past, dealing with relatively controversial issues in Anime fandom. Don’t worry, it’s not like I have no material left or have lost interest in writing, it’s just that it does take a considerable amount of time (gathering info, structuring my arguments, writing legibly, etc…) to complete one and I don’t have the luxury. Any free time that I do have is devoted to earning money for figures, creating figure reviews, catching up on a crazy backlog of Anime and sleeping. Though, rest assured that I do have about 5 to 10 articles that I’m currently working on, bit by bit, and should be putting them up one by one.

Aside from that, I do have some things that I want to talk about.