Day 1 of my Japan trip!

As some of you may know, I've been in Japan for the last 2 weeks with my buddy AsianEd and my girlfriend Goodgolly. It was an amazing trip ( we got on Japanese TV! ) and even tho I'm burnt out and jetlagged like crazy, I'm still excited about all the cool stuff we did.

 

I've got tons and tons of photos, well over 1400 of them from my phone and my big camera, so I can't share all of them here. So the plan is to share pics of Manami and her adventures here in the doll photo area and then I'll share regular touristy and nerdy pics over in the "Off Topic" area so if people are interested in seeing what we did and where we went, you can enjoy them there.

 

Starting off, we had to drive up to Charlotte NC to fly out to Chicago and then to Tokyo. We all brought a single doll with us to share adventures with.... Ed brought his Rin and I brought my Manami while my GF brought her little resin girl Jade. Whenever we could we brought them out for pics and fun and that started at Charlotte where Manami quickly grew bored and decided to go out looking for trouble.

 

001 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Have you got everything ready Manami?

 

"Yeah, I think so. When do we get on the plane?"

 

002 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

We cant do that for a while yet. You have your boarding pass?

 

"Yep, it's right here along with my passport."

 

003 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

004 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

"I'm so bored..... where are the beer stands at?"

 

005 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

"This place sucks, there's no beer and no cookies. You need to fix this."

 

006 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

"Can we change the channel on that TV? This show is boring."

 

007 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

"Oooo, touch screen! Let me order some cookies!"

 

008 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Will you please settle down? I know this is your first trip to Japan since you were originally shipped over from there but sheesh, you're all sorts of wound up.

 

"What do you expect? I'm going to the land of panty and beer vending machines! It's like my Heaven!"

 

010 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Rin is napping and trying to use Manamis boobs as pillows...

 

011 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

"Dang it, these don't work unless you put money in them."

 

012 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

"Gotta call Rei....."

 

013 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

RING RING

 

Rei answers phone "Bennett residence, may I help you?"

 

"Hey is your fridge running?"

 

Rei - "Why yes it is. Why do you ask?"

 

Manami - "Well you better go catch it before it gets away!"

 

 

014 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

Manami, you're going to go into checked luggage if you don't calm down.

 

"NO! I fit inside the box see? I'm small enough to ride up front with you! Right? RIGHT??"

 

015 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

After settling down, Manami joins Rin and Jade and Saber Lion before we hit the plane gate.

 

016 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

The girls stayed in their bags until we got to the apartment we rented in Akihabara. We had so many long flights, we were burnt out bigtime when we arrived. But it was still cool to be back in Akihabara again. I never thought I'd be able to revisit the place after my last trip in 2010.

 

Here's some pics of the plane rides, plane food and when we got to Akiba. More photos to follow!

 

017 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

018 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

021 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

024 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

025 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

20170318_144115 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

20170318_171038 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

20170318_194646 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

20170319_180732 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

20170319_180740 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

20170319_190904 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

20170319_193502 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr

 

 

More photos to come in the following days!

 

 

 

Billy

That's awesome, I'd love to go sometime in my life.

It looks super exciting!

It's great that the three of you were able to go together. It sounds like travelling with friends with similar interests is much more fun than going alone.

Manami's travelling outfit is cute. I like how much it resembles real casual/streetwear fashion. The shades are a great touch.

I was checking these out on Flickr last night while suffering through Macross Delta VF-31C pre-order madness. Great stuff!

That's awesome, I'd love to go sometime in my life.

 

Thank you! You can go if you save up some moolah and plan it out right. If you don't go crazy with buying doll and anime figure stuff like me, you can definitely visit Japan and see some really good stuff on the cheap.

 

It looks super exciting!

It's great that the three of you were able to go together. It sounds like travelling with friends with similar interests is much more fun than going alone.

Manami's travelling outfit is cute. I like how much it resembles real casual/streetwear fashion. The shades are a great touch.

 

Thanks! It was definitely exciting and fun. I went by myself back in 2010 and while it was amazing, this trip was more fun because I could share the experience with friends. That made a huge difference. And thanks about Manami's outfit! She's like me, it's all about being comfy while out and about. I wear shorts 90% of the time so most of my girls do too. Shades are a big thing for me too so I made sure she had some nice ones to wear to keep the sun out of her eyes.

 

I was checking these out on Flickr last night while suffering through Macross Delta VF-31C pre-order madness. Great stuff!

 

Thanks so much!

 

 

 

Billy

Woahhh super lucky. I'll be actually heading off to Japan (Fu kuoka) for my next vacation.

 

Although I'm kinda scared since I don't know the language. I'm gunna need somekind of translator to help me out. How easy was it to navigate there? Did you need any sort of translator help?

Woahhh super lucky. I'll be actually heading off to Japan (Fu kuoka) for my next vacation.

 

Ahh nice! You'll love it there.

 

Although I'm kinda scared since I don't know the language. I'm gunna need somekind of translator to help me out. How easy was it to navigate there? Did you need any sort of translator help?

 

Navigation in any of the bigger city areas is quite easy since all signs on roads and subways/trains are written in Japanese and English. And if you happen to get lost, just stand there looking lost. Someone will walk up to you within a few minutes and ask if you need help. It's an amazing thing.

 

As for getting around with no knowledge of the language, that's what we did. I know very little Japanese but many people there know a bit of English, even if broken. It's especially easy to shop or get food as most people in those industries know enuff English to get a customer thru the basics. And if that doesn't work, do what I do.... point at what you want and put up how many fingers you want of said item. Works every time.

 

We also used Google Translate on our cell phones and that helped out a lot too. You jst type in what you want to say and it will translate and print it up on screen in Kanji and Romanji so if you want to show them the screen, they can read it or if you want to say it out loud, you can read it. We only had to use this a few times but it helped a lot when we did.

 

So don't worry about any language barrier, it's not as bad as you think it will be. I was impressed at how many people had good English skills in the smaller shops and restaurants compared to the more touristy areas.

 

 

Billy

I like how hyper she is. And that little DD-size boarding part is so precious!

 

I've been so excited waiting for you to post the pics you said you took in the photo spaces of the Volks stores.

I like how hyper she is. And that little DD-size boarding part is so precious!

 

Heh, thank you! She was very excited to be going to Japan with me. She wasn't happy she didn't go last time so once she knew she was going this time, she's been all sorts of jazzed up.

 

I've been so excited waiting for you to post the pics you said you took in the photo spaces of the Volks stores.

 

I'm glad you want to see them! I can't recall what day those are on but I'll be going chronologically with my posts so they'll pop up sooner or later. We did the typical pretty shots with the supplied props like everyone else does but of course...... this *IS* Manami we're talking about here..... she went off the rails and started being herself. I guarantee you that prop area has NEVER been used like it was that day and it probably never will be again.

 

 

Billy

Thanks for showing pictures of you're adventure