AkibaBlog

Before, a magazine once showed a picture of maid who put her face in a man's crotch at night in Akihabara, but on the 20th (Sunday), after finishing the vehicle-free street, a man was playing the vertical bamboo flute (Shakuhachi) in the dim light. He looked like he played with a practiced hand. I guess it was the first time for him to play the flute in Akihabara.

In front of Akihabara Station, a handbill of "an Explosion- a Theater of Breasts" was distributed on the 26th. On the paper, there were messages: "an explosion- a theater of Breasts is now open!" "shake, tremble, and gush out: a hyper battle of huge boobs," "the really popular anime finally makes a debut on Pachinko & a slot machine!" etc. Ikkitousen Dragon Destiny has become into Pachinko and slot machines, and stores will let people play it on the 27th & 28th, so the handbill was for that.

Toranoana Main Branch has an announcement of "Ookami to Koushinryo Café". According to Akiba Keizai Newspaper, when DVD "Ookami to Koushinryo" vol.1 comes out, the café opens at the same time. There will be a distribution of some sheets of characters of Ookami to Koushinryo. The menu at the café would be limited for the event: meal for a traveler, an apple tarte with ice cream, and grape juice.

In front of Akihabara station was somehow Chaos. There were many people around the station: maid who distributed handbills for " maid date," a lady who wants to be an idol, people who wore swimwear as announcements of events and of release of DVD, etc. Around 4pm on the 15th, at the space in front of Akihabara station, there were many kinds of people: Haruhi Cosplayer, people who wore tiger costumes, a person who wore headgear of a horse, Free Hugs, Puzzle, Cosplayer of Rena?, maid, etc.

After 4pm on the 2nd (Sunday), there was a blackout at the Hirose Musen Main Branch building, which Melonbooks Akihabara and Game Center Hey are in. Because of that, inside the Melonbooks and Game Center Hey became dark; as a result, at Melonbooks, casher stopped and at Game Center Hey, customers could not play games including Street Fighter IV (Location Test). According to a staff at Melonbooks, this was the first time since the store has opened.

An announcement of midnight sale of 2/29 was at Messe Sanoo, Asobit Game City, and Gamers Main Branch. Eroge ToHeart2 AnotherDays, Beat Blades Haruka, etc will come out, and I have seen the total of 6 stores that will do the midnight sale. 3 more stores join to do the midnight sale compare to when ToHeart2 Xrated came out (December 9, 2005).

"Bokutachi no Hallowork –Moe Shokugyou Annaijo-" (our HelloWork –Moe Guide of Jobs-), which introduces 62 kinds of jobs, was released on the 18th. I saw it at Toranoana and Melonbooks on the 18th. Project:Vestige-san introduces it on February 11th that "finally, 'Moe' has become into the Department of HR." The band of paper carrying a blurb placed over the dust cover of "Moe Guidance of Work" says "get the job that you want, and get away from NEET." Home guards are able to change into all kinds of jobs; it's a Super Job.

Nowadays, we see Ita-Chari (Ita-Bicycle = Painful Bicycle) every weekend at Akihabara. On the 17th, I saw an Ita-Chari that has put a monitor! It played "Nanoha de U-U-Umauma (YouTube)." This bicycle has a monitor in a box on its carrier, and to play Doga (cartoon film), it Uses PSP. On its box, there is a message, " failed person is boarding!"

On the 17th when Tokyo Marathon was held, at a vehicle-free street in Akihabara, there are girls who distribute handbills, cosplayers, Mr. Feti, and as usual, many cameramen were gathered. May be because police were at Tokyo Marathon, I felt like there were less police at Akihabara. There were crowds of girls, cosplayers, Mr. Feti, and an ambulance.

Members of Falun Gong/Falundafa, distributed "educational" handbills where usually, people of cult (religion) or a fan club of Qigong or Chi Kung (similar to Yoga but in Chinese way in order to be healthy both inside and outside) distribute handbills. Their god is Supreme Master Ching Hai and in most part of the handbill, they recommend to become a vegetarian for saving our earth from global warming. There are also some information about what we should do to save our earth including "to pray."

At the entrance of electric town, Akihabara, people who wore costumes of maid as well as who were from electric stores lined up and distributed handbills. They were between a street and a lot of the station. On the 16th, there were more than 20 people around there. They tried not to be in the lot of the station, but because they lined up by leaving little space between one another, it looked like they blocked people who come from the station.

Sofmap said probably they were going to do midnight sale on February 29 (Friday) before. Now, the store has decided to do so, so on the 15th, Sofmap AM Branch and PC Game Anime Branch had an announcement. For you who buy ToHeart2 AnotherDays at midnight sale, there is a bonus of a special stick poster. POP at Sofmap PC Game Anime Branch says "we are going to have a midnight countdown sale desperately."

An announcement of Mr. Tetsuya Takahashi's autograph session was "Yes! Just to imagine, I'm soooooooo happy that I could die for it!" at Toranoana 1st Branch (2F). On the 11th (holiday in Japan), the autograph session was held to celebrate the release of "Penguin Musume 3." This is only for the first 100 people who bought "Penguin Musume 3," and Mr. Tetsuya Takahashi said "this is the first time for me to do an autograph session, so I'm little nervous."

I'm going to report what's going on in Akihabara the day before Valentine's Day. Busou Store is doing a "Donation Chocolate Champaign"; an eroge floor at Asobit Game City gives chocolate; and Sofmap is holding a special Champaign of giving Telephone Card.

There was already an announcement in Nipponbashi, Osaka that a store is going to start selling games at midnight; Sofmap AM Branch writes the store is going to hold midnight sale on February 29 (PROBABLY). If midnight sales for bishojo game will be held, it has been 2 years and 4 month since Sofmap did midnight sale for Fate/hollow.

There were people who did Wota Dance (Otaku Dance) on a vehicle-free street at Akihabara on the 11th. Hikkyistation-san writes about them as "a group of funky Otaku dancers." This group is different from a group that was taken to a police station (Manseibashi). I saw this funky Otaku group for the 1st time. During their "accomplishments", somebody screamed "throwing shameful---!"

Two idols who are in the CD called "Brother CD advance," which will be released on the 14th, distributed its handbills on the 11th. Brother CD is, Mami Kingetsu, who plays the role of Shiori Fujisaki in Tokimeki Memorial and other voice actresses become younger sisters and talk to brothers. In more than 10 kinds of situations, they call "brother" in the CD.

On the 11th at a vehicle-free street in Akihabara, there were 8 cosplayers who are from a cosplayer's circle "Pinkish Trick" and they wore costumes of Miku Hatsune, Shana, Haruhi, Nagato, Fate, etc. They distributed a Valentine card made by Origami. That was an event called "Strategy of Valentine's Day." Cameramen surrounded them and some people (visitors?) took pictures with them.

On the 10th, I saw "live painting" done by Ai-madonna-san who draws illustrations on clothing. Ai-madonna-san's performance has been seen frequently at Akihabara, and if a model is a girl who wears mini-skirt, low anglers gather as I reported before. On this day, there were some low anglers, and among them, there was a low angler who covered his face by using a mask.

On the 10th of a vehicle-free promenade at Akihabara, a group of women who wore some kinds of maid costumes distributed chocolates (asagawo-blog-san also writes about it). Ladies who distributed chocolates were: 2 maids, Drami-chan maid, Mikuru Asahara Maid, and Cosplayer of Miku Hatsune. They had a panel that writes "free chocolate" as well as chocolates that were in a basket.

Valentines Day is near at our hands. In front of Akihabara Station on the 10th, there was a guy who distributed handbills of an announcement: "Feb. 14 is a day of dried small sardines." The handbill says "on the day, a woman gives one kind of cacao product to a man with the 200% interest a month. It was (has been?) popular that men had to return something that is 3 times more expensive than what they got. Dried small sardines do not ask you to return something that are 3 times more expensive, and they never get hurt if they don't get anything at all."

On the 3rd, Akihabara was covered with snow. It has been 2 years since the last time we had snow (January 2006). There is a guy, Feti, who has been doing exercises since June every weekend in Akihabara. Even though it was snowing, he did exercises as usual. Fuji TV, which just happened to be in Akihabara, asked people, "what do you think about the guy?"

At the entrance of Gamers Main Branch, there was a panel of Hamaji Yakumo who is a character of Anime "H2O –Footprints in the Sand-" on the 2nd. It was probably because there was an event of "Henyoku no Ikaros." Her swimwear had a message: "you can take picture with me." Because of that (?) some foreigners took pictures with her.

On the 31st, "Disgaea: Hour of Darkness 3" was released. As Dengeki online reports, Messe Sanoo had an event to celebrate its release. Customers who bought Disgaea 3 could do a lottery and if you won, you would be able to get either an autograph of its voice actors/actresses, a teacup, or its promotion DVD. There was a penguin-like mascot (?) called Pouligny.