Just Wild Beat Communication
31 May 2009
It's been over a week since my friends and I went over to Germany to play in the German Reach Mahjong tournament. It was an enjoyable trip overall, but it did have a couple of rather annoying moments. One of those being the half-hour delay to our train back to Bremen from Hanover, and the other the extreme lack of sleep from staying overnight in the airport. Of those two, the train delay was definitely the most irritating. I was extremely tired after staying awake for thirty-six hours straight and it was something I really didn't need. Plus the fact that the German announcer didn't tell us what was happening in English, when it's an international station, really got on my nerves. I think the reason for the delay was down to the football fans (of which there were hundreds) that were crowding the train station, both in Hanover and Bremen. In any case, it was severely irritating. I hope that I'll never have to experience that ever again!
Apart from those two niggles, the rest of the trip was good. We did run into a massive rain shower during the afternoon in Bremen but it cleared up not long after it started. We spent a few hours looking around the city and got lots of free rides on the trams. Speaking of the trams, it appears that you don't actually need to buy a ticket for it, even though there are ticket machines on-board. You see, no one actually comes around and checks for tickets. And the locals don't ever buy them either. So I'm guessing the machines are only there to fool naive little tourists like us. Another interesting thing about the trams and trains in Germany is that they use a very strange bell tone when they announce each stop. It's a single, very dull 'dong' sound - very similar to that of a death toll. Extremely eerie, especially at night.
The tournament itself was fantastic. We only just about managed to get there on time, thanks to some ingenious navigation by the sun. The first round was extremely nerve-racking but I soon settled into a rhythm and played three decent rounds. By the start of the fourth round I was in 25th place. Unfortunately, I began to chase the win in the last round and lost about 20,000 points. If that hadn't happened then I would have finished in the top half of the table. Unfortunately, it did and I finished in 35th place in the end, which I was slightly unhappy about. My friends, rather disappointingly, finished in 42nd and 45th place. But it is our first tournament and I'm sure we'll be able to do a lot better next time, when we've actually had a decent night's sleep!
I've finally got around to taking a picture of my figure collection. The Ignis figure that I ordered arrived last Tuesday and it quickly became my new favourite. The detailing on the figure is fantastic and Ignis' pose is extremely fluid and dynamic. The cast-off features are an interesting bonus but doesn't really add that much to what is already a superb figure. My only concern is that the whole figure is supported on only one pin in Ignis' left foot. This means that there's a risk of the figure leaning over after awhile. I don't think it shouldn't be too much of a problem, though, as the tentacle also provides some extra support to the weight of the figure. I'll just need to make sure I check it regularly for any signs of it leaning.
Posted byHocchan at 8:24 pm 0 comments
Mou Isshuukan
14 May 2009
I'm pleased to say that all of my PVC figures have now arrived; a whole week sooner than I expected. The last item to arrive was the Clalaclan Noir Ver. figure on Monday. The figures from Hong Kong didn't take nearly as long as I thought they would, and the delivery from Japan via SAL took only eight days to get here. I'm glad to see that they're all genuine products and not bootlegs (especially since a few were from eBay). My favourite has to be the 1/6 scale Kos-Mos figure. The sheer size of it gives it a tremendous presence, and the detail on Kos-Mos's outfit is fantastic. I particularly like the way they've rendered her hair in a translucent plastic. My second favourite is the Clalaclan figure. I really like the black and purple colour scheme of her dress, and the slight see-through effect on the stockings gives it a nice touch.
Although I said that I wouldn't be buying any more figures until the end of June, I've made an exception and bought another one from Hobby Link Japan. The store is having a massive one-year anniversary sale and I couldn't resist. The prices are just too good to miss. This is the one I bought:
Creators' Labo #016 Jingai Makyo Ignis 1/7 scale (Yamato)
It's a nice looking figure with an energetic-looking pose. It also comes with cast-off features which will be interesting to play with /laugh. It's not been sent yet so I expect it'll arrive towards the end of May.
It's now only a week until I head off to Hanover, Germany to compete in the Mahjong tournament. I'm getting slightly nervous about the trip but I don't expect there to be any problems. I still have to type out a rough itinerary for the trip so that we know what we're supposed to be doing at any given time. I also still need to buy a small German phrasebook from Amazon so that we can communicate with the locals if we need to. In the meantime, we've been playing lots of games of Mahjong to get us ready. I don't want to jinx myself but it appears that my luck is finally picking up after a small slump. I hope that it continues to get better over the next week and that it holds up during the tournament. After all, I don't want to embarrass myself in Hanover.
Posted byHocchan at 9:09 pm 0 comments
Shuuryou Shimashita!
09 May 2009
Hurrah! I've completed my first year! I took my final two exams of the year today (Japanese Language: Aural and Oral) so I'm officially finished for the year. It was such a huge relief to finally get these two exams over with. The listening exam was a lot tougher than I expected it to be. Not only was the speed at which the people on the tape spoke faster than what we're usually used to, the sheer amount of information we had to get down as well was immense. It was all I could do to scribble down some really rough notes and hope that the examiner would be able to read them. I don't think I missed too many bits of vital information but my handwriting could turn out to be a problem. I know it has been in the past. There's nothing I can do about it now, though, apart from hope that they don't penalise me for the messy presentation.
The speaking exam was probably the most nerve-racking of all the exams. I didn't find the role-play section too difficult, but I may have got my intonation wrong in a few places. The general conversation section about a memorable summer holiday was a lot tougher. Before I went in, I had a whole soliloquy worked out in my head and I was ready to go through it from start to finish without stopping. Unfortunately, I suffered the same problem as I always do and left too big a pause after my sentences; thus giving chance for the examiner to ask me a new question. After that I was merely reacting and my original plans went out of the window. I felt that I could have added some more complex grammar constructs into my speech but I was too busy trying to make sure that I didn't have any periods of long silences. Overall, I think I did fairly well. I'd be disappointed to come out with less than 70% for both of the exams.
Now that all my exams are over I can look forward to a couple weeks worth of intensive Mahjong training! I have to make sure that I'm ready to face the opposition in Hanover on the 23rd. The only problem I can envisage is that there are only three people going to the tournament and that might pose a problem when trying to find a fourth player for our training matches. We'll be wanting to play at least once per day, everyday and I'm not sure how willing the casual players will be to play so often during those two weeks. There's always the option of playing three-player Mahjong, but that's so different to four-player Mahjong I don't think there's any point. I'm sure we'll be able to work something out though.
Posted byHocchan at 1:26 am 0 comments
A Votre Sante!
05 May 2009
It seems like the title for Horie Yui's 7th solo album has been decided! According to her official website it's entitled, 'Honey Jet!!' and is due for release on the 15th July. I've already pre-ordered the limited edition version from CD Japan and I'm eagerly anticipating its release. The best thing about this album is that I actually have plenty of money to buy it! Usually, I'd be struggling to find the money to purchase Horie Yui's albums since they're so expensive to ship over. I always use EMS delivery since it's the quickest and safest method, but it's also the most expensive. But I don't mind paying for it though; it is my beloved Horie Yui after all. I want July to get here as quickly as possible so I can hear this latest album. The style of music changes with each release and I'm wondering what this one will be like. It's got the Toradora! songs on it so it's looking like it's going to be pretty good already. We shall have to wait and see.
In other news, one of my figures arrived today. Fate attempted to screw me over again though. I woke up this afternoon (I went to bed late >.>) and checked the tracking sections of both Royal Mail and Hong Kong Post for my parcels. My parcel from Hong Kong was still waiting for a flight, but it appeared that they had tried to deliver my Royal Mail parcel this morning. For some reason, however, the postman didn't leave a calling card in my letterbox. I had to head down to the depot to see if they were holding it for me and, luckily, they were. The item was well packaged, with plenty of polystyrene bits protecting the contents. The figure itself is better than I was expecting. As far as I can tell, it's 100% authentic (as was my first figure) so I'm pleased about that. I bought it from a company called Eye on Asia based here in the United Kingdom. I didn't know how legitimate their figures were but it appears that they're authentic enough. I'll be more willing to order from them again in the future. I don't have any pictures of the figure since I don't have a digital camera any more. If I can get hold of one I'll upload some photos next time.
Posted byHocchan at 6:09 pm 0 comments
Plastic Fantastic
04 May 2009
My wallet isn't very happy about it, but I seem to have found a new obsession. I've become addicted to buying PVC figures of anime/game characters. I've bought a total of five in just the past two weeks. I think I've spent almost £200 on the whole lot. So far, only the first figure that I bought has arrived. The rest are still on their way from various places around the world. I expect that they'll be here in the next couple of weeks. These are the figures that I'll be expecting in the post soon:
Clalaclan Noir Ver. 1/8 Scale (Kotobukiya)
KOS-MOS Swimsuit Ver. 1/6 Scale (Alter)
Himekuri Image Girl Moda Bianca Ver. 1/7 Scale (Kaiyodo)
Nagato Yuki Swimsuit Ver. 1/8 Scale (Alter)
And this is the figure that has arrived already:
Onodera Karen Swimsuit Ver. 1/8 Scale (Good Smile)
I've decided to put my foot down firmly and forbid myself from buying any more figures until at least the end of July. Otherwise, I might find myself completely out of money by the end of May at this rate.
One thing that I have learnt during this whole experience is that the British postal system is infinitesimally better than the rest of the world's - especially the USA's. You wouldn't believe how much it costs to have stuff sent overseas from America. It's bloody arsehole-ish! Over thirty-stinking-turd-Dollars to post a small parcel to the United Kingdom?! If you were sending it from the United Kingdom to America, it would only cost $15 at most. What the bloody hell!? Not only is it slower, it costs a hell of a lot more. I really don't understand why they charge so much for an inferior service. It makes it financially impossible for anyone to buy stuff from America. In any case, sort it out!
Posted byHocchan at 5:45 pm 0 comments
Easter Can Go Die
02 May 2009
There's something about the Easter period that makes it completely mess up my life. This year's Easter holiday was one of the worst ever. No sooner had I broken up for Easter than I was struck down with a nasty case of Mumps. I had heard that it was going around the university but I wasn't too worried about catching it. In hindsight, considering I had a flatmate who had caught it a couple of weeks before, I should have gone and got myself vaccinated. But I didn't. So I ended up with cripplingly painful, swollen saliva glands. It was agony to eat anything. I also ended up with a massive fever and couldn't do anything. Although the fever only lasted a few days, the swelling stayed for over two weeks. The worst thing was that I ended up with a second fever towards the end of the illness, like it was giving me a farewell present.
As a result, I didn't manage to get any of my essays done during the Easter holidays. This meant that I had to cram all the work into a single week - not a fun experience, let me tell you. Thankfully, I somehow managed to get everything done by working day and night. I even managed to get some revision time in. I'm glad to say that I've now completed a majority of my exams and handed all my assignments in. Just a couple more exams on Friday and I'll be finished for the semester, and indeed the first year. I can't really believe that it's gone so quickly. It's kind of flown by without me realising. I've enjoyed it immensely, though. I consider 2001 to be one of the best years of my life, and the last eight months to be just as good. I've made some very good friends during that time and had a lot of fun. I just hope that my second year will be just as enjoyable.
As a sort of reward for finishing the first year, a couple of friends and I are heading over to Hanover, Germany to compete in a Mahjong tournament. We'll be flying out on the 22nd May and staying for the weekend. Due to our limited budgets, we've decided not to book any accommodation whilst we are there. Instead we'll be sleeping in the airport. I'm not entirely sure how well this is going to work out but I'm optimistic that it'll all be fine. As for the tournament, since it's our first time playing against other people I'm not sure if we'll be up to scratch. However, I'll be happy as long as I don't end up last. In any case, it'll be a nice trip over to Germany. We'll have a bit of time to do some sight-seeing before the tournament so that should be interesting. I can't wait to go!
Posted byHocchan at 5:19 pm 0 comments
Updates Coming Soon!
01 May 2009
Just a small note to say that I haven't forgotten about this blog. I've had a lot other stuff to worry about recently, but I'll have more free time to update now. I'll explain the reasons for my absence in my next post. Expect one in the next day or so. Until then, mata na!
Posted byHocchan at 2:39 am 0 comments
