The Force is strong with this one…

Crossposted from Glamorous in Retrospect. Author: Stephanie.

We keep running into Star Wars stuff as we travel. There are two especially cool things I want to tell you about, though.

Near our hotel is a historic doll maker that mostly makes traditional collectible dolls. And some collectible dolls that are not so traditional. I give you the Dark Side Samurai displays: http://www.yoshitoku.co.jp/list/10/

Those are awesome but, as you can tell from the prices (118 yen/dollar at the moment), not exactly in our impulse purchase price range.

Today, in a store in Akihabara, I spotted the Samurai Taisho Darth Vader. Now that’s a bit more affordable! Alas, the places I’ve checked online are either out or selling them at a markup I’m not willing to pay.

Bah.

YOUR ARGUMENT IS STILL INVALID

Crossposted from Glamorous in Retrospect. Author: Stephanie.

YOUR ARGUMENT IS INVALID…I HAVE A PAIR OF HATTIFATTENER TONGS.

I also have a plushie Too-Ticky, which is totally awesome.

Yes, I went all the way to Japan and bought a bunch of Finnish childrens’ book swag, but I am quite pleased at how popular the Moomins are over here. We happened upon the Moomin Mini shop in a Tokyo Station and of course I had to stop.

I could have got a bag of pasta shaped like Moomin characters, but I’m not sure we could have got it through Customs.

Akihabara

Crossposted from Glamorous in Retrospect. Author: Stephanie.

We wandered around part of Akihabara today. That’s the nerd/geek/gamer Mecca district of Tokyo, full of electronics stores, arcades, maid cafés, and every fannish thing under the sun.

(Speaking of maid cafés, the girls out on the streets in their frilly uniforms shilling for their cafés looked so cold and unhappy! They had coats and scarves on over their uniforms, but most of them had short skirts and thin stockings on in the Arctic winds. We felt so sorry for them!)

At one point we stopped for Toby to check his phone for the map to the gachapon store we were heading for, and I looked up to see the sun hitting these buildings in a nice way, and snapped a picture with my phone.
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After going up some stairs at the station

Crossposted from Glamorous in Retrospect. Author: Toby.

Stephanie: “Two more days of this, then I can sit on my ass and drive around like God intended.”

Visited the Japanese Sword Museum

Crossposted from Glamorous in Retrospect. Author: Toby.

They have a Masamune.

Fucking. Awesome.