Cosfest 2008

More cosplay pictures! This time it’s from the annual Cosplay Festival which currently in its 7th year. Held at Downtown East’s D`Marquee, this year’s event attracted over 9000 visitors over 2 days! Ok, I just made that up. I don’t really know how many people attended or how to find out such information. So for consistency, I’m using that number until somebody informs me otherwise.

Now Cosfest was held over 2 days but I couldn’t make it for the one on Saturday so I told the team blue guys that I’ll meet them on Sunday. As luck would have it, I woke up late on Sunday morning and I also had to fix a problem with my network drive that my brother keeps complaining about. So what do I do when I’m late for one of the biggest cosplay events in Singapore? Why, I get there in Full Warp of course!

With my trustee Nikon D80 in hand, I quickly called the guys to meet up with them but this was again delayed due to extreme distractions of the photogenic kind.

Oh it appears that I have failed to inform you guys earlier that this is going to be a very picture intensive post. I would also like to say that due to the number of photos I have, I honestly can’t be arsed about identifying who’s who and what’s what. Unless they are worth the special mention, like Optimus Prime and Anakim from Lineage 2 above. Incredibly well done but unfortunately for Anakim, parts of her costume were falling off and somebody had to hold it up for her as she posed.

Inside, it was bloody crowded. I barely had space to maneuver my camera around and the lighting was really bad so I had a lot of underexposed shots. Looks like I need to level up my photography skills. I also need a decent hot-shoe flash. Anyway here are the few decent ones I managed to accidentally take.

Maka from Soul Eater

HOLYSHI-

This Gundam Exia cosplay is the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen in the local scene. HIS EYES FUCKIN GLOWS DAMNIT! LOOK AT IT!. Here are moar pics…

Also met up with Akabane who was cosplaying as one of the members of Organization XIII from Kingdom Hearts.

IAHGames also had a pair models cosplaying as the female Scouts from Granado Espada at their booth.

Before I go on I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the cosplayers for the quality of the photographs. I iz t3h SUXX0rz.

Time to move outdoors for some sunlight and breathable air. First up is…..I don’t know? I think she’s suppose to be a character from Ikkitousen.

Unfortunately for her the wind wanted to give her a few Marylin Monroe moments. WHOOOPS!

Shinigami captains needs to practice their swordplay skills too.

I also found Ayu! UGUUUUUU~~~~

I also saw what could be the cutest Haruhi cosplayer in existence.

Oh yeah, Allen Walker is beside her….PFFT~!

Now Haruhi with Lena Lee…

Also, CI…

I SMELLZ LOLIS

He also wanted to take a picture of my camera.

OK back to cosplay now. Not sure about this girl but she’s HAWT. I believe it’s KoF?

WAT HAPPENED TO MAH HANDZ?

Not too sure about this either…

It must be really tiring to pose around all day.

Even the photographers needed a break.

Well I’m tired too. This is probably the longest post I’ve made since this blog came online so I’ll continue with more pics in Cosfest 2008 part 2. Or if you can’t wait that long, more pics can be found here.

Alcohol Harassment

It seems that in Japan, the act of coercing someone to have just “one more drink” and to go “bottom’s up” is starting to be a problem. The Japanese love their drinking parties or nomikai(飲み会) so it’s not unusual to see this sort of thing at the local drinking joints. Especially since the April intake of new staff would mean even more of the Japanese salaryman’s drunken antics. Those who do not want to go home an incoherent, puking mess were forced to come up with a solution.

So in steps the Ikki Harassment Prevention Committee to save the night(or day if you’re really hardcore and/or have no life). Ikki(lit. “one more”) is the Japanese word for the act harassing someone to take that “one more drink”. Their solution to the problem are these innovative coasters.

With slogans on them that says “I’m not drinking, I’ve got limits – one drink is quite enough” or “I don’t do ikki – I like to savour my drink”, it will surely drive the message to your drunken friends and colleagues that you do not want one more. If that doesn’t work or nobody notices the message since it’s sitting under a glass of you favourite beverage, the coasters also work as a badge of sorts when inserted into the breast pocket of your shirt or jacket.

via TokyoTimes

So how is it that a society said to be traditional and conservative can get to such a state of drunken debauchery? I’m not entirely sure myself but this could be a clue:

via TokyoTimes

That’s right folks, it’s beer for kids! Its called Kodomo no Nomimono(lit. “Kid’s Beverage”). Start ’em young, so they say. >_>

On a related note, if you love t3h beer but still want to watch you calorie intake, this might be useful.

Too bad iｔ only works when you’re sober enough to actually care about counting calories. （￣－￣；）

Haiku

Haiku is the most famous form of poetry to come from Japan and is probably the shortest type of poetry in the world. Haiku is recognizable by its unique structure of 5-7-5 Japanese syllables (In Japanese the word haiku( 俳句、はいく ） is 3 syllables; ha-i-ku). One of the most famous haiku poet is Matsuo Basho and was actively writing poetry during the Edo period in Japan.

Haiku traditionally deals with peaceful concepts such as the beauty of nature or the calmness of the soul and because this concepts are conveyed in such a short sentence, the words in a haiku poem are considered to be deep and full of imagery. Example of a famous haiku by Matsuo Basho:

古池や蛙飛込む水の音

ふるいけやかわずとびこむみずのおと

furuike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto

Old pond

a frog jumps

the sound of water

As you can see, a haiku is broken up to 3 lines when written in English. This is because the breaks or pause to establish the 5-7-5 structure is not evident in English. In Japanese, this done via the kireji (lit. cutting word) such as the ya in furuike ya. Haiku also traditionally have a kigo (lit. season word) with sets the season in which the haiku is set and references the natural world. In the case of this haiku its the word kawazu (frog) and references spring.

Interesting? Well if you’re interested in more, my friends Takke-san is a poet and writes haiku in english on his website, Haiku by Haikaishi “Shinjuku Rollingstone”. Check it out. ^^

Dental Robot Simroid

That’s right folks, another robot from Japan. This time it’s a robot designed to train new dentists. It can feel pain, respond to pain and follow simple instructions by the dentist. This is done via a multitude of sensors that also help monitor the performance of the dentist. She even has a sensor on her chest to prevent lazy dentist from resting their elbows on her err cushions. ^_^

Developed by Dr. Naotake Shibui of the Nippon Dental University in Tokyo, who co developed the robot with engineers from Kokoro Co. Ltd (they also made Actroid, the receptionist robot). Simroid is actually modeled after a real 28-year-old Japanese women whose fear of dentist and pain has made her famous as “Pain Girl”(痛いガール）.

I don’t know about you guys but the fact that it can talk with it’s mouth open like that really freaks me out.

Via Japan Sugoi

Store Clerk Scares Thief

This video has been making its rounds around YouTube apparently. It’s a surveillance video footage of an attempted robbery in Tokyo recently.

When the robber walked up to him with a knife he basically freaked out and started screaming about just being a part-timer and having no money. This hysterics eventually led to him jumping on the counter, still screaming, which then freaks out the robber who promptly ran out. Heck, if i saw a jumping, screaming Japanese part-timer i would be scared shit-less too. The weird part is that when the robber ran away, the clerk actually gave chase. Or maybe he ran home?