Watching the Dragons

Maria-chan came for a few days to visit me in Japan and we had a great time together.

We decided to spend the first day after she arrived in Nagoya so she could have time to rest from the long trip. I took her to some of my favorite places in Nagoya, like Osu Kannon or Sakae area.

While walking in Sakae we saw a street concert by some Japanese band. It looked like they were quite popular among Japanese as the public was following their songs with strong interest and waving their hands and arms.

We also went to the nearby Oasis21 area where there are nice views of the Nagoya tower and other buildings.

Very close to Oasis21, also in Sakae area, there is a place where there is always somebody playing on the weekends. In our case, we had the "luck" to see this hilarious group of imitators of Kiss :).

Finally, we went for the main event of the day, the Dragons baseball match!! We made a stop in the commercial centre AEON that is in front of the stadium (Nagoya Dome) and bought two Dragons bracelets and a T-shirt. She got the number 3, from Tatsunami, and I got the number 1, well.. because I am her number 1 hehe.

A Japanese friend called Ayumi, who is a fan of the Dragons, came with us and she also brought two more friends. She had all the necessary equipment to become a Dragons supporter hehe

The stadium was great and everything was well organized. Unfortunately the Dragons lost against the Yokohama Baystars, but nobody can always win. I more or less knew the rules of baseball but Maria filled the information that was lacking. Although I consider this sport a bit boring for the players that must be waiting for their chance to participate in the game, I admit that I had a good time :)

Note: Pictures taken by Maria-chan

Sango, Nagoya city 「三郷、名古屋市」

During the middle of August, I had some days off thanks to the Obon (お盆), which is a traditional Japanese festivity similar to the "Day of the Dead".

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As I had not prepared any trip, I decided to check by bike one place near Nagoya that I had seen in a map before. The place was called Sangō (三郷) and the reason for going there was that the short version of my family name is also Sango :). Actually, after visiting Sangō I went on further to Seto　「瀬戸」, which made the trip even longer (and brought double pain to my bottom hehe)

Leaving the city there are some great views of elevated highways crossing in amazing ways that I have only seen here in Japan.

After the highways, some bits of peace and quite life. These photos remind me of some Animes like Captain Tsubasa and others :).

But to be honest, the "rural" part of Nagoya could be the center of some small cities in Europe. You hardly see anything else than buildings or cars. The only piece of nature that I managed to see was the Shinrin park (森林公園).

And finally, after around 20Km by bike under a killing sun (it felt as if I were in hell!), I arrived to Sango's crossing, which looked like the pic above.

In Sango there is also a Meitetsu station so I could have gone by train but I think it is always much more interesting to go by bike.

And here I am in front of a building called Sango hehe. I also saw several shops, hotels, post office with the word Sango written on them :).

Probably a stupid trip that no one will ever want to repeat but at least I took some ordinary Japanese streets photos that might be interesting for fans of Japan (sorry that the quality is bad, I took them with my cell phone). Next will be trying this burgers hehe

My new apartment in Nagoya

During my first five months as a student of Nagoya University I have been living in the International Residence (check the views from it).

The residence is a great idea because at the beginning you get a very cheap place to stay until you get used to the new environment.

Unfortunately, this stay could only be extended for 6 months so I had to start looking for a new apartment to move out and I found one in the building above.

I decided that I wanted to be close to the University but also have shops around and live in a busy area. Fortunately, there was such a place, it's name was Irinaka. So I went to the Irinaka office of a famous state agency called Minimini. A very kind Japanese woman, Mami-san, showed me different apartments by car and it was very easy to find the one that I wanted. If you are looking for an apartment around Nagoya University I recommend you to contact with her (she can speak English very well): irinaka@minimini.jp (tell them you saw the link in my site :D). *May 2012, she no longer works there.

I am very happy that my apartment in Irinaka, apart from being close to the University (around 10 min by bike or by subway), is very close to a Book-Off store (my favorite shops!).


In this zone, there is also a great bookshop and rental shop called Sanyoudou (三洋堂書点) which has several floors.

On the top floor there is a big Manga shop where I can buy materials for drawing comics. I have the intention of drawing new comics soon.

In the second floor I can rent movies, animation series and even mangas. It is a great way to read mangas for a very cheap price and not having to store them at home.

I pay around 36000 yen/month and I have a simple apartment with a bed, desk, small kitchen and bathroom. Just what I needed!.

World Cospay Summit Parade, Nagoya Aug 1st, 2009

At the beginning of the month I went to see the World Cosplay Summit here in Nagoya. The word cosplay originates from COStume and rolePLAY and to summarize, it consists of people dressing up as their favorite characters.

Some days before the event I attended a conference by one of the organizers, Edmund Hoff (Vancouver, Canada). The conference was aimed at AGGN guides mainly and its title was "Popularity of Otaku Culture Abroad, what's good to see in Nagoya?". Edmund talked about manga and anime, shops in Nagoya and about the event itself.

The event was divided in two days and I went to see the first one which consisted of a parade around Osu Kannon (the manga district of Nagoya). The main temple in Osu Kannon was full of people waiting to see the outfits of the participants.

I took some videos in a crossing at Osu Kannon to show the parade. They all look like they were having lots of fun.

Naruto and its characters were very popular and I saw quite a few people dressing up like them.

There was also a great variety of participants, from young girls to more mature fans.Probably they had been working on their outfits for a long time before participating in the event.

Apart from the parade, there was an international contest with around 15 participating countries. It's amazing to know that they just came to Japan to participate in such an event!