Toy Shopping

Shopping in Japan! Each of us have our own list of shopping to be done. And this is the one time that Raimie is allowed a free rein to do some toy/games shopping (within an allotted budget, of course).

He knows how much he is allowed to spend and with that budget, he already has list made out. He is pretty much his father's son - him and his list. LOL

1 More Month

Just one more month (one month three days to be exact) for our Son to meet his heroes and celebrate his birthday with them.

Nuff said. *^-^*

Cosmos

Cosmos flower, the classic flower of Autumn. I read somewhere that the kanji of Cosmos is written as the "autumn cherry blossom".

What else makes me think of autumn? This too...

Persimmon

Mention Cosmos to my Son and I know his first thought of Cosmos would be, what else? Ultraman Cosmos!

He'll be meeting all those Ultra Heroes soon, as his 9th birthday treat. :)

Kawasaki Walking? Not So Much...

We didn't travel much around Kawasaki the two times we spent the night there so we only saw just a bit of the place but here's the bit of Kawasaki we saw.

The view from our hotel room at Nikko Hotel. One of those rare times we actually have a room with a view. ^^ We usually stayed at Toyoko Inn chain and the view from our room would either be the next building's wall or an empty lot in Tokyo if we were lucky! XD

Night view, again taken from our hotel room at Nikko Hotel.

A shopping arcade. Plenty of pachinko and game parlours along the streets too. Rows and rows of them! @.@

A pedestrian scramble in Kawasaki. Of course the famous pedestrian scramble would be in Shibuya. 

Tip on how to annoy others in your group when travelling - stop at random places and get left behind just so you can take photos. Then, pout a bit (A LOT) when you do get left behind and start an argument! Repeat this all through your vacation. LOL

Walking down the street. Where were we headed to? For some dinner and we found our favourite place for cheap eats - there is Yayoi-ken nearby Kawasaki Station. Yeay for cheap eats!

Ready for dinner!

My dinner. It cost less than 800yen and come with free refill of rice and all I can drink hot tea & cold water! ^^

A different view from this hotel room. This time, we stayed at Toyoko Inn and got ourselves a view of a carpark and a train station right in front of our room!

Entering our room at Toyoko Inn Kawasaki. It's an annexe from the main building hence the uncovered corridor to our room. But pretty interesting, and the car park view is sure nice. Well, much nicer than seeing a gray wall when you open the window!

So if we didn't actually go around the area to sight-see, why exactly were we there in the first place?

To bring our Son to this place - the place to be to meet Ultraman in Kawasaki! And meet his Heroes, he certainly did! Anyone wanting to meet Ultraman when they go vacation in Tokyo and ask me for a place to recommend, I always recommend this place to visit.

Ultraman Mebius greeting the kids

 

Raimie and Ultraman Zero.

More Osaka Walking!

A continuation of the first post on Osaka Walking, the idea I copycat  from Lisa's Tokyo Walking series. Sorry, Lisa! 

Just some excuse to post more photos of us in Osaka.

We went to Yao one day, for the sole purpose of visiting Tsuburaya Jungle. What's that place, you ask? It's a place filled with Ultraman! WooT!

Being us, instead of the easy way of taking the bus direct to the place, we decided to walk.

Along the way, we saw this pink National battery vending machine or something

Passed by a cemetery

and a school

and finally we got to our destination. Tsuburaya Jungle, which is located in Ario Mall.

Who needs public transportation when one can just wander around a strange country and take lots of photos, make a nuisance to local folks and then somehow managed to find our way back. On our way back, we got on a wrong bus and ended up at some strange station I have no idea where. So strange that  we can't find  Osaka Station on the station's map that I had to ask for the stationmasters help to direct us to the correct platform and at which station to transfer. Great experience that.  

Scouring The Country For A Super Hero

We virtually went all around Japan, just to find Ultraman. There are a few more places we've yet been to, but I think we are pretty happy we visited the big ones already. ^^

Of course, my boy was/is always chuffed to bits being able to meet his favourite super hero!

With a giant Ultraman Mebius statue at Ultraman Festival in Ikebukuro one fine summer in 2006. This was Raimie's second trip to Japan. On his first trip, we went to Ultraman Club in Asakusa (it's now closed though) and he was in seventh heaven meeting up with Ultraman Xenon there.

Ulfes is usually held during the summer holiday, and Zaini suggested if we wanted to cut cost down, we come during the summer holiday and just stayed in Tokyo & visit Ulfes. Much as I like Ultraman and Tokyo, just staying in Tokyo for a week isn't something I want to do while in Japan now. I still have lots of place to cover! 

At Ultramanland in Arao in Kumamoto Prefecture, which we visited in 2007 and 2008. We made sure we didn't miss a single "meet-the-heroes" sessions or the live-action shows.

Meeting Ultraman Mebius and Hikari at Ultraman Stadium in Terai in Ishikawa Prefecture in 2008. It's literally located in a middle of nowhere! The staff there got pretty "excited" when I wrote my son's name (to enter the jungle gym) in romanji. I guess not many non-Japanese speaking foreigners came to that part of town much.

With Ultraman Nice at Tsuburaya Jungle in Yao, Osaka in 2008. Where is it exactly? Let's just say it's on the way to Nara.

With Ultraman Mebius at Ultraman Club in Kawasaki in 2009 and 2010. Raimie made some friends there and was happily shooting "kaijus" with his newfound friends. Language barrier completely forgotten.

It's going to change soon though. Its inevitable I would say, because he is growing up/out of idolising Ultraman. Give him Kamen Riders, Goseiger or whatever ranger now.  However, don't ask him to let go of all his Ultraman figures yet! Those, we can't donate to anyone ever.

Drinks Fit For A Super Hero

Another juvenile post, after last week's super heroes post. *^-^*

Fancy a can of cider or two with Kamen Riders?

or some cola with Ultraman Jack, Leo or Hikari?

or are you a bad ass and fancy drinking with the villains - Macron, Zetton or King Joe Black?

Some of those drinks you can find only in Japan and for sure, we bought some for our son; him  (not to mention the Dad too) being consumate fan of all tokukatsu series.

Super Heroes Time!

I'm going all juvenile for this post!

What do you think when you think Japan? For us, it's super heroes, aliens and monsters! That was the reason we made our second, third, fourth.... trips to Japan, by the way.

Meeting up the Ultra Heroes were awesome memories for our son. He still loves them but has now moved on to Kamen Riders. He's already a big boy, after all.

Some of the heroes he met all these years vacationing in Japan, and met a lot, he certainly did!

Ultraman

Ultraman Agul

Ultraman Cosmos

Ultra Father & Taro

Ultraman Justice

Ultraman Mebius & Hikari

Ultraman Tiga

Xenon

Ultraman Zearth

What's Japan for kids if not for those tokukatsu series? Those Kamen Riders, Super Sentais and ofcourse,Ultraman. HENSHIN!

Anyone still remember Space Cop Gaban? *^-^*

Another entry for  Budget Trouble : Show Me Japan.

Day 5 In Japan: A Great Time At Ultraman Club

Raimie sure had a blast at Ultraman Club, spending time meeting up his heroes and did some shopping too! If your kids love Ultraman and you are in Tokyo or Yokohama, this is the nearest place you can meet Ultraman everyday.

I bet any Ultraman loving fans would love to be here, regardless of age. :)

Raimie receiving briefing before meeting his current hero : Ultraman Zero

After the meeting (that include some nice personal moments with his hero), off he went and played in the play area. You can play shoot, bounce and kick at the bouncy gym (or whatever they call it), play the latest Ultraman video games and so much more there.

After the play session, it's time for some retail therapy at the M78 shop (official Ultraman Shop):

Snacks, Ultraman can drinks or  Ultra Heroes SD figures. Or do you fancy an Ultraman Kids' beer?

Raimie was happy playing the arcade games too!