baldylox Posted April 8, 2017 Ok, since this day was quite busy with one big thing, I'm splitting it into 2 separate posts.... one here of what we did during the day and the other over in the Smartdoll area since our big thing was visiting Danny Choo at the Mirai store! I'll put a link to that thread here once I've made that post. EDIT: Here's the link to the Smartdoll store photo thread: viewtopic.php?f=51&t=15738 Now, on to what we did for the rest of our day! We started off with breakfast at our corner conbini. This place had such good food! 001 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr I had an egg salad sandwich and a salmon onigiri..... Rin decided to claim my orange drink for herself. 002 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Did I tell you our conbini was awesome? No? Well it IS awesome. Does your conbini have a disco ball in it? No? I didn't think so. 003 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Since it was cold and rainy, we had to buy some clear umbrellas from the conbini. Ed and Becca will model them for us. 004 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr We headed out on the trains towards Shibuya so we could see Hachiko and the big crossing. I had Manami stuffed into my backpack but Ed carried Rin out. She rode up over us on the trains luggage rack. 005 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Saw this awesome 3D owl backpack/purse thing on a girl getting off the train. 006 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Hachiko-san! Time for everyone to have their pics taken with him! Well, everyone except me. I was token pic taker. 007 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 008 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 009 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Shibuya Crossing! The largest pedestrian crossing in the world. Supposedly, around 10,000 people walk across here EVERY DAY. Since it was raining, there weren't as many people out but it was still busy. 010 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 011 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 012 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 013 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Time for some snacks and a break from the rain. We went to the 2nd floor Starbucks to sit and people watch from their huge window overlooking the crossing. Manami got herself a big cinnamon bun and a matcha smoothie thing. I did get to taste both, they were pretty darn good. 014 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 015 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Beeca brought along Jade, she popped out to have snacks and people watch too. 016 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 017 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Rin just had a small coffee and was ready to go shopping for clothes. 018 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Cute little buses with a Hachiko theme. 019 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr It's busy out there but nothing like we saw later in the trip. We went back on a Friday night and it was nuts! 022 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Shopping time! We headed out to find a few stores like the Disney store and the Kinokuniya book store. 023 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Another super skinny building. On the side facing me is the spiral staircase. It was super small and steep! 024 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Loft is a big store chain that is kind of like a department store but it had a ton of art supplies. This sign was awesome because all the gears spun and moved around until the letters lined up like this. It would hold there for 5 seconds and then spin again. 025 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Little models of the various stages of Shin Godzilla. 026 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr We finally found the Disney Store and Becca was in heaven. 3 floors of stuff to look at. I wasn't sure if I could take pics or not but I snuck a few anyways. 027 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 028 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 029 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr We found the book store next. This is the chain that Danny Choo did a collaboration with before. Here's some pics from inside. 030 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 031 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 032 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr The Shin Godzilla DVD and Bluray release was this week so they had Godzilla stuff everywhere we went. 033 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Look at the cute manga for Fate/Stay! 034 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 035 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Ok, time to gush on something cool. I'd never seen these things before so to me, this was amazing. Since it was raining and everyone had wet umbrellas to carry into stores, the stores would put these machines out front for you to cover your umbrella with. You push the closed umbrella into this and then pull it forward and BANG! Your umbrella has a clear plastic sleeve around it to keep it from dripping inside the store! I know it's silly and simple and it's probably been around for years but this was my first time seeing it and I thought it was super cool. 036 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Inside the Loft stores art area. One entire floor was nothing but art supplies. 037 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 038 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Sailor Moon pens. 039 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr This Sumo stationary cracked me up for some reason. 040 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 041 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Building kits were everywhere! Small kits made out of things like flat metal, paper and like these, wood. The details were insane on them. 042 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 043 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr THE most inappropriately named thing ever. LOL 044 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr And of course, sitting right next to those were these dogs..... pooping. 045 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr I really have no idea what the hell was up with the super chins. 046 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Oh yeah! Lunch at Mos Burger! Seeing as I'm a dork and I like to handle my food, I took that wrapper off to eat my burger. Big mistake.... the teriyaki sauce got all over me and the table, leading to what was deemed as me eating at MESS Burger. 047(2) by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Our next stop was at Gotanda. Anyone know what's there? 047 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 048 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 049 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 050 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 051 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr If you still don't know, here's an obvious hint: 052 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 053 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 054 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Yup! The man with the plan is stationed here and we had an appointment with him! We got there a little early so we had to wait in the downstairs lobby. But we passed the time with some photos! 055(2) by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 055 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 056 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr "Look! I'm here! It's real!" 057 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr "Who is this Mirai chick and why does she get her own store? I want a store Papa! I want to sell cookies and beer and sexy clothes! Well, I might keep the beer and cookies..." And this is why you don't have a store dear. 058 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr And now we diverge a bit. Since I don't want to flood this post with all Smartdoll pics the rest of the time ( gotta stay on topic with the DD girls! ) I'm going to put all the Mirai store pics into a thread in the Smartdoll area for everyone to see. I do have some pics of our DD girls in the store that will be here but I'll put them there too. So make sure to go over there to see all the pics of the inside of the store! To tide you over, here's a couple of pics of the main store lobby. 059 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 060 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 061 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr And here is the link to the photo thread with all the pics of the store and the dolls therein: viewtopic.php?f=51&t=15738 Now, on to the man himself, Danny! He was so cool to talk to and was very easy to chat with. He even helped get Ed setup to build his own Smartdoll while we were there! Here's proof that I was there and met him.... obligatory selfie with him. 127 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr And him helping Ed pick out parts for his new girl. 129 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr We chatted with Danny for a good while and then since he kept alluding to things upstairs, we managed to get him to show us his R&D department where all the secret goodies are kept. He was careful to tell us that we couldn't take any photos or talk about anything we saw up there so I can't divulge any info on anything he hasn't already shared on his social media accounts. But what I *can* say is that if you aren't an investor of his now, you better jump on the bandwagon while you can because this guy is going places. He has so many awesome thing in the pipeline that we were blown away. His vision and drive for getting new licenses is crazy.... he has two HUGE ones he just picked up and his plans for dolls for those are insane. He already named and hinted at them on Twitter and Instagram so I'm safe to mention them here now. DC and Marvel. Just sit and think about that. Anyways, back in the store, our girls were getting restless. 141 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Manami went exploring... "Hey Papa, buy me this dress. I'd look way better in it than this girl does." "EXCUSE ME???" 142 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr M - "Oooo, can we take her home? She's hot." Sorry but no, I don't have enuff money for that adoption right now. M - "Can we at least buy her clothes? I want that shirt!" We'll see... 143 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr "Can we bring these hotties home?" Will you stop asking me that? I can't adopt every girl here! "You never get me anything I want...." 144 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Manami, since you won't stop with your antics, I need you to talk to someone. He's right behind you. M - "Uh oh. This can't be good." Trooper - "Maam, you need to come with me for a body cavity search." M - "Well..... crap." 145 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr After pestering Danny for hours, we finally headed out for food. We went back to Shibuya to eat since it was close and we found this total hole in the wall spot. See all that food there? I got all that for 700 yen! And it was outstanding! Everything tasted so friggin good.... 20170321_123416 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Supper was amazing so what could we do to top that? Why go shopping at From-Sen for doll goodies! They have a nice store right in Akihabara and we went there to check them out. I bought a bunch of stuff from them.... clothes, accessories and shoes. Ed and Becca spent some cash there too. And on a shelf in the store was this cute WS 07 DD girl! I asked if I could take a photo of her since there were signs all over saying no pics. 20170321_182121 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr On the way home, Becca got distracted by these gashapon machines. She didn't know what to do or where to look first because there were so many! 20170321_202407 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Back at the apartment we crashed and settled in for the night. We had a fridge so I made sure to stock up on drinks since I drink A LOT during the day. These were my two main drinks. 20170322_055137 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20170322_055203 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr That milk was good but tasted different from the stuff here. Not sure why but it didn't matter since I need moo juice every night and every morning to feel human. That's it for day 3! I'll be heading to the Smartdoll area now to share all those pics! Billy I gave up counting the girls I own, they keep multiplying and won't stop. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Monty Posted April 8, 2017 The teasing about what Danny might have in the pipeline is too much lol. I kinda wish I'd asked if I could go upstairs while I was there last February, but I didn't really want to bother him too much. I already felt like I was imposing on him by asking him to come down to say hi 8') It's a really swanky store though, I really liked stopping by. I also like that you can take photos, and bring in other branded dolls. All he needs is a diorama space for photoshoots! *twitter*instagram*art* Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Poofiemus Posted April 8, 2017 030 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr AAH that Yuri!!! On Ice book in the front, I want to buy it and FRAME it! I agree, that owl backpack is amazing. I'm kind of a sucker for owls, and I'm not sure why. That Loft sign with the gears speaks to my steampunk-loving heart; did you happen to get video of it in action? Just LOOK at all those PENS! . . .I would be buying SO many micron pens there, you have no idea. There's only like 2 kinds of micron pens you can find in craft stores around here, and they always dry out halfway before they even hit shelves. >.< The building kits are pretty cool; I wonder how hard it is to paint them, or in the case of wood ones, stain them. Maybe you can do that prior to assembly? . . . I don't know hwat's up with the pooping dog figures, and frankly, I don't WANT to know. From-Sen has a PHYSICAL STORE!?!?! Oh god; I think that when I start saving up for my own trip to Japan (will probably be a couple years down the line, sigh), I'll have to budget like an extra $2K minimum JUST for shopping. @_@ In this household, sanity is considered a tresspasser. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baldylox Posted April 9, 2017 The teasing about what Danny might have in the pipeline is too much lol. I kinda wish I'd asked if I could go upstairs while I was there last February, but I didn't really want to bother him too much. I already felt like I was imposing on him by asking him to come down to say hi 8') It's a really swanky store though, I really liked stopping by. I also like that you can take photos, and bring in other branded dolls. All he needs is a diorama space for photoshoots! Hee hee, if you knew what I did you'd be in the same boat as me..... about to burst at the prospect of knowing a bunch of cool stuff and not being allowed to say anything to your friends. I'd love to say so much but I also can't betray Danny on it. He's too kind, too cool and let us behind the scenes because he trusts us. No way will I endanger that trust. I'll be glad to talk about stuff he's already unveiled himself tho! And yes, if he had the space for a photo area like Volks, that would rock! Oh Poofie.... now you see why I thought of you quite often while I was there. AAH that Yuri!!! On Ice book in the front, I want to buy it and FRAME it! YOI was everywhere there. You'd go nuts with all the merch they have. I agree, that owl backpack is amazing. I'm kind of a sucker for owls, and I'm not sure why. My sister and Becca are both all about owls too. It's a girl thing I'm guessing. That Loft sign with the gears speaks to my steampunk-loving heart; did you happen to get video of it in action? I wish I had gotten some video of it but we were moving thru that area so quickly that I didn't even think about it. It was damn cool while it moved tho. Just LOOK at all those PENS! . . .I would be buying SO many micron pens there, you have no idea. There's only like 2 kinds of micron pens you can find in craft stores around here, and they always dry out halfway before they even hit shelves. >.< I told you it was a big art store! Becca bought a ton of ERASABLE pens there. Not the crappy one slike we have here, actual NICE erasable ink pens in many colors. She was super excited about those. She also got a bunch of owl and cat themed paper stuff. The building kits are pretty cool; I wonder how hard it is to paint them, or in the case of wood ones, stain them. Maybe you can do that prior to assembly? The paper ones come full color already but the wooden ones cold easily be stained before you build them. They weren't cheap for the medium to large ones but if you've got dexterity and patience, they're more than worth it. I don't know what's up with the pooping dog figures, and frankly, I don't WANT to know. There were SO MANY things that we were at a total loss on that were popular for no apparent reason there. Like those tiny figures of girls that sit on the rim of a glass or cup. They were literally in every group of gashapon machines we saw. From-Sen has a PHYSICAL STORE!?!?! Oh god; I think that when I start saving up for my own trip to Japan (will probably be a couple years down the line, sigh), I'll have to budget like an extra $2K minimum JUST for shopping. @_@ Yes. Yes they do and I spent WAY too much there. But it was awesome! They had such a diverse range of clothing styles and shoes and accessories..... every time I looked in a box or container, something cool was staring me in the face. I had to put back HALF the shoes I picked out to buy because I was going to be spending too much on them. They had some extremely nice boots and shoes there that were decently priced too, I wish I had more money to put towards them at that time but I didn't. I also really wanted that red plug suit from Eva to go with my white Rei one but they were out of stock on it. They did have another white one there tho. So yes, if you go there, be prepared to spend a lot of money! Billy I gave up counting the girls I own, they keep multiplying and won't stop. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
