Sometimes I think my friends and colleagues encourage me to blog even though they don't mean to! I also think I have told one too many friends and colleagues that I blog ¬,¬" ... Well one of my colleagues (calling him Mr B... he keeps sending me stuff to go to! I can't keep up mate) sent me an email weeks ago alerting me about a discount from Amazon Local to go to Hyper Japan in Earls Court. The ticket was £12 for two people, and children under 10 could go in for free!! Woah, an offer I could not turn down... So that ticket was for me, Miss Pinky and Master H.
So I got this ticket, and tweeted it to the world... and then a week before the event I had to get one more ticket from the Hyper Japan website (they were selling them at full price at this point), and this one was for Mr Picky... that was another £12 not including the extra £2 something charge. :(
Hyper Japan is an event about Japanese culture. It unites the gamers, foodies, anime / manga fans, shoppers and anybody who likes kawaii things! An all-round event for me then! I think this event started last year or in 2011, actually it was in 2010, and not too sure how it all came about... I wanted to show Miss Pinky the Japanese culture so that when we go to Japan one day she knows what she wants! Hahahah :D
Our Saturday started out early after 10 am. Miss Pinky, Mr Picky and Master H had breakfast but I already had something to eat! We got to Earl's Court before 12 pm, but we didn't see how long the queue was until we reached the end...
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| Outside Earl's Court 2 |
Unfortunately the queuing system was not brilliant, as at one point it was curved around for some reason - that's before we even got there... and we think a few people jumped the queue. It was annoying as the car park entrance was also next to the massive queue! OMG!!!!! It took a long while before the volunteers and staff to sort us out, we had to lean against the wall, and some were advised to come back at 4 pm as it was a one person ticket in and one person ticket out system... That's just silly... And also tickets were also being sold at the door... That would just make people who already have tickets more frustrated!! It just wasn't fair... Our umbrellas were out, the sun was out, and we were all hot... I know I'm British and queuing is our thing (but the British actually hate queuing), however I'm also Chinese and when I see disorder it must be organised straight away! Argh! ...
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| Queuing the wrong way round |
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| Looks like these two characters needed a break! ^_^ |
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| And this was just part of the queue... It got longer... as you can see people had their brollies out as it was hot |
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| Character from Kingdom Hearts (my brother doesn't know which one!) |
After an hour of queuing, a volunteer said we could go to the fast track queue as we had Master H as our saviour!! :D I have thanked Master H so many times on the day... Yay we got in!!!! Sorry for all the people in front of us! (as they would have been queuing for a bit more longer...)...
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| We got fast tracked... Yay! Thank you!! |
First thing was to go to the loo, :D next thing was to split up and walk around... So Miss Pinky and I walked around together, and Mr Picky took Master H around... That was a good deal to split up as I think we would have gone crazy with each other! And here goes the pictures...
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| The start |
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| So many cute stalls ^_^ |
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| So many people!! |
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| Nice pink van :D |
I love Nanoblock!!! I haven't blogged about this yet, but I will do after I have finished making a few... There's another picture towards the end of this post of some more Nanoblock toys... They are just like LEGO...
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| Nanoblock toys |
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| These designs are not available for sale... They were created by the team... These are so AWESOME!! :D |
Cosplay was a main feature in this event. Lots of people turned up in anime character costumes, and I loved it so much, because some of them were really cute in them!! ^_^
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| Lots of people were in cosplay |
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| Hello Kitty bags!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I resisted big time!!!!!!!!! |
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| Japanese clothing stall... it was a bit expensive... |
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| This reminded me of Mr Bear... He loves cats!! |
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| I wonder if Master H saw this water bottle... He loves Dragon Ball! |
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| A costume being prepared... |
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| Some cute characters!! (^_^)v |
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| More cosplay!! :D |
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| Food stand!! :D ... There were long queues for the food!! |
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| Sake stand... You had to pay to get in :( |
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| Wow... Loving these guys in their costumes! |
In this section a lot of people were entering into a photo competition... The best photo is....??!!
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| Hahahaha... Not sure which character this guy is... |
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| Cute girl playing a cute school girl :D |
Aha!! Found the Japan Centre stand!! They were selling a lot of stuff on their stand including sake... I got to have a taster of the peach sake. :D
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| Japan Centre Stand |
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| There were a few guys wearing these long tubes... I think he is from the band Siro-A |
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| Lots and lots of people arriving... |
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| I bought a tote bag from this stand... Tofu Cute ^_^ |
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| Japanese food and drinks demonstration stand |
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| Lots of gamers about!! |
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| Cute bells |
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| Lots of cute bowls!! |
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| So many people eating... |
Look who we saw in Hyper Japan... Okan!! I blogged about them a while back. They were there making lots of okonomiyaki!! ^_^
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| Okan was there making okonomiyaki! |
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| Lots of cute, cute things!! |
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| Mr Picky and Miss Pinky got me a beer... buy 3 beers get a t-shirt free... I bought Miss Pinky and myself takoyaki (octopus balls) |
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| Loads of toys to buy which you can't buy in London unless you know where to find them... |
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| Artbox stand!!! So many toys!!! :D |
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| Hehehe... another lot in cosplay! |
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| Earl's Court 2 from the back |
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| Heheheh... I have no idea why this guy was showing the human body... |
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| So many cute neko (cats) |
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| Cute cute dolls :D |
Here's the other Nanoblock picture... I wanted that minion but they sold out in 2 hours on the Friday :( ... don't worry I bought a couple off from ebay. One's for Mr Games' birthday present and one is for me! I also bought Bender, the robot from Futurama. (^_^)v ... I did not want Steve Jobs... He's the Apple guy...
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| I want that minion nanoblock!!! |
Siro-A are a Japanese entertainment group, they will be performing in London for a bit at Leicester Square Theatre from August to October... So join them... They were performing at 5.30 pm on Saturday but we left before the show...  |
| Member of Siro-A |
I love Dragon Ball tooooooo... I want that Buu cuddly toy.....!!
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| Lots of cuddly toys |
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| Godzilla figurines |
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| Anime characters I think |
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| These cute chibi dolls are part of a cyber band... my brother knows more! |
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| One Piece and Dragon Ball Z figurines |
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| Which one is this one from? |
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| Lots of filming going on... |
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| Heheh, couldn't help myself... a girl in a Pikachu suit!! Had to take a pic!! |
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| More gamers about... |
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| And finally some girls in modern day geisha wear... getting ready for some entertainment show... |
There were so many cute things, food and lots of things to see, but most stalls preferred you paid in cash so I didn't buy much... I hadn't realised I knew so much about manga, anime, food and cute things from Japan! Thanks to my brother who got me really into this stuff... I'm hoping to go to Japan in the nearest future... Fingers crossed!! :D
Hyper Japan was a very good event... just the queuing system needed to be sorted out... Lots of Tweeters were thinking the same, and one said more people could have entered into the arena... but safety and entering a certain amount of people into one area is the issue in all events.
Hope those that got in had a lot of fun, and those that didn't will go next year!
And finally we got to Embankment and walked towards South Bank... We got ice cream too... I had a bit of food at Miss Pinky's mother's place before heading out to eat again... But unfortunately Mr Picky is a definite picky person and Miss Pinky didn't want to eat what he wanted... He doesn't like to eat out :( ... So I headed home and grabbed a Subway sandwich...
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| In Southbank |
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| My ice cream of Eton Mess and Cookies... |
