Taken in the Sega arcade near the Con hotel.

Saw this one on the pavement in Chiba. We decided that it meant: "If you stab your car's windshield with a hypodermic needle, you will make it cry."

This was a super-giant, super-scary Tarako kewpie thingie we saw at a collectibles shop in Chiba.

Japan has gotta be the sleepiest country in the world. Even though there's this cultural stereotype of the Japanese as super-hardworking, which seems to be pretty true, every time they sit down, they seem to nod off! We rode the subway a couple of times with some random person snoozing on our shoulder - and not some crazy homeless person, we mean an office worker. When distributing the medallions to the audience at the collectibles panels at Celebration, we often had to nudge people awake. Not really sure what to attribute it to, though the super hot/humid weather certainly didn't help. Maybe because it's so safe, people feel ok about nodding off in public knowing that they'll still have their purse or wallet intact when they wake up.

Wednesday night (which, due to time changes and crossing the international date line, which is not really a line at all, was about 4,657 hours ago) was our last night in Japan.



So of course, we went to play claw machines!!!!



Eeee! Stitch panda bunnies! Win them for us, Mr. Tiki!!



Can Mr. Tiki work his magic????

EMS teh rocks.

The line to get into the collecting panels.




Folks who couldn't get in watched from the balcony above.



We distributed the last of the medallions after the final talk. As usual, everybody was pretty orderly and polite.



Of course, we had Clone Trooper-san to keep order!

Yesterday's Tokyo Dizzney haul.



Here's the dudes who mailed our Stitchies. Yay, J Post Office Guys!

We went to Tokyo Disney.

Twice.

Yeah, in the same day.

Hee.




Also, Mr. Tiki got us a new friend from Amazon.co.jp!!

The Japan post office's official R2 post box. Squee!!!




Andy's booth. After the con opened, we couldn't get NEAR.



Here's the official con store exclusives. Those are hoodies on the top, and there are Bearbricks, and a fan.



We ended up picking up a couple of the tee shirts, even though, at $40, they're a tad pricey. The little round things are bottle caps, which are packaged like gashapon, in blind capsules, much to the frustration of collectors.

So, lest we forget, the whole reason we're in Japan is 'cuz of Star Wars toys. Were here at Celebration Japan to spread the Star Wars collecting gospel, plus to hand out these pretty, pretty medallions.

( meet the collectors )

In answer to the first question everybody's been asking, yes, Virginia, there IS Stitch at Celebration Japan. There's Emperor Stitch and Yoda Stitch actino figures, AND lookee what we spotted at the Hot Toys booth! Plus, nice people have been coming to us with little Stitchies, like bittenbefore gave us an adorable plushie and a neat little cloth (we were too tired and stupid to take pix) and Card Guy Andy found a mysterious Stitch card and Shadowcat found some mascots.



PLUS! The dollar store nearby has a bunch of leetle Stitchie tchotchkes.



And they've even got their own Stitchie air force!!

Sorries we haven't been blogging much, but tikis like to sleep very very much.



So, yesterday was the first official day of Celebration Japan. Naturally, you always wonder how these things will go, first time in a new country. We walked out of our hotel and into the near end of the con center, out of the tropical heat. The first thing we noticed was that they'd finally turned on the air conditioning, yay! The SECOND thing we noticed was the line....

( The Wait )

Arrived in Tokyo. Spent 90 minutes on shinkansen down from Nagano, and then what seemed lik 16 hours puttering out to this place. It's 800 degrees. We're setting up for Celebration. Y'all come on down!

Not bad for a start. ^_^

Though, when we were changing trains in Omiya, we noticed we were literally across the street from the Japan Stitch store. EEK!!

( Stitchiness" )

Stitch mascots we found in a convenience store in the Tokyo subway.



A lot of these are themed for certain cities, and supposed to be limited to specific areas in Japan. We especially like Stitch chomping Tokyo Tower.

The train station at Tazawako.

Star Wars Bearbrick yay!

Also, went Tazawako. There was nobody else there. NOBODY. Weird, dude.

Because nothing says "Star Wars goes to Japan" like Stormy n Darth picking up a Mr. Squishy and some Cheese Doodles!!



From.