A day in Sydney!
Yesterday I left home at about 5:15am, to get to the airport and arrive in Sydney by 8:30am. It was (in one word) cold. I managed to make my way to the consulate pretty easily thanks to Google Maps, and got everything done, visa approved, and was off on my short day trip to explore Sydney! (Note: Pics are taken form my phone so they can be dodgy)
First up I walked into what I believe was the first David Jones store. It actually feels like a department store that I've been to when I've been overseas. With a "foodhall" as the basement, with some gourmet food to devour and purchase, to some high class brands such as Polo having a store inside the department store.
Inside the foodhallThe food halls have a variety of different stores and bars as you can see here. Bars usually have a wine glass and is usually a sign of upper-class status. I hope next time I ever come back here, I'd have enough money to actually try one of these places.
Aussie Apple Store
I decided to head towards Chinatown direction after that, for some "real" Chinese food, and found an asian foodcourt. Inside this place, it felt like one of the hawker places in Singapore, where there were a lot of small stalls, with pretty cheap food. I ended up getting Hainan Chicken Rice for $7.80! Pretty good deal, and was pretty tasty. =D
Afterwards I just helped mum get some asian bread from a bakery called "Bread Top", as they make really different bread from the bread you can get here. The joys of having a higher population.Speaking of which, I almost felt that stepping into Sydney by myself this time around, I was in a different culture. There were more smokers, jay walkers, and everyone just seemed to be really busy people. Perhaps next time I ever come visit here again, I hope that I would have more time to visit a few different places outside the city worth checking out.
Highlights:
- Fast interview process
- Interesting city to wander around compared to Brisbane
- Chinatown in Sydney is actually Chinatown, and feels like you're in an Asian country
- $1.30 afternoon tea (see below)
$1 Apple Pie and 30c cone from Maccas at Sydney Domestic Airport (yay!)The next ayaka X kobukuro collab!
As you should have realised already, I am a huge ayaka fan. Within a month of her album release, ayaka has been working with Kobukuro to produce their second collaboration single, "あなたと” (anata to - I believe it means 'with you'). It is used for the latest Nissan Cube ad, like this one:
Some people find the deers cute, others reckon they're just plain scary. Either way, it's a nice tune, can't wait to here what the full release sounds like! You can listen to more of it here, but there are some commentary in the background:
The previous collaboration WINDING ROAD was also an ad for the Cube too. This song really popular, and was the highest selling single for ayaka! Here is a clip of the live performance:
Something small...
My friend came back from Hong Kong recently, and I told him to grab me this while he was there. This is a pqi Intelligent Drive i810 Plus - it's a series of USB flash drives that a Taiwanese company, pqi made. This series markets the fact that it is the smallest usb drive ever. Even compared to the Sony Microvault drives, these ones are smaller. How small? Just check out the following pic:
Compared to (the width of this drive is the same as the above):
How does it manage to get that small? The thing is, it is a retractable flash drive. Beneath the "shell" of the drive is a moveable section that you can use to have the usb connectors stick out, just like this:
And all that is left is to stick that into your pc! Pretty clever, ay?
This flash drive was 18AUD - roughly around the same price as your typical usb here. The thing is, you can't get one for that price for something this small - the Sony Microvault drives are sooo much more expensive!
Credits to Hexus for the pic!
Kansei Dorifto!
Boy I wish I had a PS3 now.
I received my belated birthday present last week, and that being the PS3 game, "Initial D: EXTREME STAGE". Pictured here is:
the cover (sealed xD) :
And the back:
I didn't think that a few of my friends would actually get me this for my birthday, as I don't currently own a PS3. They told me to force me to get a PS3 A.S.A.P. Hopefully I'll be able to get one by the end of the year, during x'mas time!I managed to drop by my mate's house today to give it a whirl, and I sure was addicted to it. Slick graphics, online gameplay, and tweaked racing physics make it a nice first addition to my future PS3 game collection.
Graphics wise, they are a huge improvement over the PSP and PS2 versions, and are the same, if not better than the arcade versions. They are crisp, and work well with the action. I can't exactly compare it with the arcade graphics, as I haven't played at the arcades much, and the PS3 version I played on, wasn't on 720p.
Online play was an enjoyable lag-free experience. I don't really understand the ranking system yet, but basically you have a rank starting from D4, and then gets up to SS. The more you race in a ranking match online, the faster you go up a rank. There was also the option to turn on handicaps if you wanted it on as well. (i.e. the car behind would suddenly be quicker It was enjoyable, and it felt like you were actually at an arcade sitting next to your opponent. I didn't win any matches, but my friend managed to win one - it shouldn't be too hard after you have played through the story mode.
Racing physics wise - if you have seen any Initial D related stuff, you know that drifting is a major component of racing in it, so you can chuck realism out the window. Going to Initial D after playing GT4 for a few months makes it hard to adapt to the game quickly. It's fun drifting every sharp corner, and having rain as a racing condition changes the course dramatically. Compared to the older Initial D games, this one feels a lot more like drifting.
As my friend's setup didn't comprise of a steering wheel, I ended up using the SIXAXIS controller. As I was a d-pad user throughout my racing career, it took a while to adapt to using the left analog stick. It should be fun when I can play it with my G25!
Although some people beg to differ, being a fan of Initial D, I really enjoyed playing this game and it makes my PS3 wait a lot more harder. >_< I highly recommend it to arcade racing fans, and for those people who want a game they can pick up and play whenever.
I'll leave you guys with a trailer and a promo pic for the game itself. The person in the promo pic being a Japanese model and professional racer, Mika Kaboshima. Enjoy~
Credits to Dengeki Online for the pic!
First mecha game post!
Back in the times when I first had my PS2 came, when there was no such thing as "downloading demos to play" were the joys of demo discs that you get by purchasing the Official Playstation magazines. In doing so, I discovered this pretty looking, fast paced mecha series known as Zone of the Enders.
As time passed, I never got around to playing this series - ZoE1 and 2. Until recently, I started taking an interest in it again, and managed to grab a preowned copy of the first one. It was alright for its time I reckon, but had dodgy English translations as per usual. A tad short, but definitely sweet. I decided to try my luck hunting for the second title everywhere around here, with little or no luck. This was apparently a really rare title that only had limited numbers in PAL territory. But thanks to eBay, I managed to scrape a copy for a price cheaper than what EBGames was offering, with the listed stock in another town.
The cover of the very rare ZoE2
The inside cover of ZoE2- new VR Training options
- added scenarios
- more difficulties
- a music video featuring a remixed "Beyond the Bounds" theme
- improved anti-aliasing and graphical optimizations
- new Orbital Frames for Versus Mode, among other improvements to the game.
This game took a bit over 8 hours to complete. It might seem a tad short, but I guarantee you, there is huge replay value. Fueled by a really intriguing plot in the background, and combined with the variety of ways you can use techniques to defeat enemies, ZoE2 provides 8 hours of good solid fun. Each boss has a different method to destroy it, and can be challenging at times too.
I really liked the anime style animation and I'd have to prefer it over the CG animation used in the previous title. It's a brilliant breathtaking visual experience. Robots and "end of the world" plots just seem typical of a mecha anime.
If there was one annoying thing about the game (apart from length) is the dodgy camera that can sometimes get in the way of the action and makes completing some bits harder than they should be.
All in all, I like many have before me, have to recommend this title to all those who like piloting mechas/robots; those who like fast paced action titles as well; and people who enjoy watching an involving story presented in an anime style. For me, it's all of the above.
Here's to hope that ZoE3 will be out soon to add to my collection!A first for everything...
Thursday was my first time attending an expo for anime and gaming stuff in Australia! I must say though Gencon 2008 was pretty interesting and opened up my eyes about the different "gaming" hobbies that people have. From video gaming to card playing to cosplaying to warhammering to ...any other kinda games relating things. Hobbies are a part of everyone's life, and it kinda made me wonder what exactly is my hobby... for me its from old Pokemon cards to video gaming, to anime nowadays. I guess there's nothing wrong with a bit of everything!
So how did the day go? Like most things, if you go to these events that appeal to a lot of different people, you have to be open minded and be able to appreciate that there is always something for someone there. Otherwise you'd find yourself bored, and leaving pretty early! Day started off pretty early, with heaps of people lining up by then. (Forgot to take a pic of the queue, as most people do for these events xD)
After we got in, with our showbag (there was one and only one T_T, was hoping for more...) we toured around the different stalls where hobby shops have them set up. After browsing and SSBBing there for a bit, ended up wandering to the anime karaoke stand, and belted out some tunes, while realising that I'll never be able to keep up with fast Japanese songs no matter how much you have listened to it. You'll have to memorise it like a dictation test.
Lunch was next, grabbed what they called a "Wagyu Beef Burger" - doubt that the organisers really know what they were on about. Should've taken a pic of the burger, but was too hungry to do so. (FYI - Wagyu beef is considered to be the best beef, more info on wiki; burger was average, and not enough meat!) Not long after, was the cosplay competition, and was interesting to see how much effort some people put into their costumes and pics can be found on this blog here. I came to appreciate cosplaying by being in the audience and as a photographer there too.
Being at one of these expos usually equals increased spending. I was tempted to buy the Haruhi boxset, but the price made me think otherwise. In the end I just bought a bleach booster pack, and was lucky enough to get a Unohana shiny foil card, as shown here (along with random and other character cards):
I guess the one thing here that I thought wasn't done as well at GenCon, was the less emphasis on console gaming as such. The only console gaming tournament being a Guitar Hero one, which just happened to be one of the only genres that I don't play. On the whole it was enjoyable, and I'd like to go to another one of these expos another time. It finishes this Sunday, so you still have tomorrow left if you really want to go. I'll leave you guys with two random Star Wars pics I managed to get on the day:
Why you...
Asleep as usualLet's sing to the sky!
For those of you who don't listen much to J-Pop or any other kind of Japanese music, you may not get the title of this post. But yeah, my copy of ayaka's latest album, "Sing to the Sky" arrived today. It was released in Japan last Thursday (26th of July). I was quietly surprised at how quick it did arrive - was expecting it to be for 2 weeks.
So why ayaka? Once you have heard this girl's voice, you know that she's good. Although her voice can be a bit deep for a girl, the power and emotion she uses to do so is empowering (I know such a bad word, but my vocab sucks atm xD). In my opinion, an artist's recordings of their songs don't do them justice; you only know how good they are depending on their live performance.
This song "I believe" was her debut song, and the first song I heard of hers:
As you can see, she's something really different, and should be pretty popular in the future! Without further ado, here are some pics of the new album I bought. Here's the cover of "Sing to the sky", unopened:
And the back of it unopened:
The inside of the cover itself - as I bought the limited special edition that comes with a Live DVD, its one of those 2 disc cases. Here is the first side:
And the second side where the DVD is located:
This might be the start of my ayaka collection too. Here are pics from my collection so far:
Which cover do you prefer?
I like the first cd art more - dunno why the new one seems a bit plain...
I'd have to say I'd prefer the first one again on thisIn terms of the music itself, overall I'd have to say I like the variety of songs that are in the album, but the first album has more "great" songs. I guess I can't really say until I've played some more of it! Tracklist at the end of the post.
To finish this post on ayaka, I leave you with a live performance of my number one favourite song of her's - Mikazuki:
The Tracklist:
- POWER OF MUSIC
- Ai wo Utaou (愛を歌おう; Let's Sing Love)
- SKY
- Jewelry day
- Good Night Baby (グンナイベイビー)
- For today
- Why
- Gold Star (ゴールドスター)
- Mahoutsukai no Shiwaza (魔法使いのしわざ; The Magician's Deeds)
- Te wo Tsunagou (手をつなごう; Let's Hold Hands)
- Ai mo Uso mo Shinjitsu (愛も嘘も真実; Love, Lies and Truth)
- CLAP & LOVE
- Kimi ga Iru Kara (君がいるから; Because I Have You)
- Okaeri (おかえり; Welcome Home)
- Kon'ya mo Hoshi ni Dakarete (今夜も星に抱かれて; Wrapped in the Stars Tonight)
- WINDING ROAD (ayaka x Kobukuro (絢香×コブクロ)) (bonus track)
- I Believe (English ver.) (bonus track)
A new beginning...
Some of you may wonder, what's the purpose of having this second blog? I pretty much made this blog primarily for the sake of my US exchange as well as a blog about my personal interests such as in anime, gaming, Japanese stuff, as well as random things worth noting about in life. Oishiilog will still be around and updated, but that primary focus is on food only - I also got sick of people asking why I don't blog on things other than food...
As mentioned before, today marks the start of the new financial year, there have been a lot of sales around town. I myself have picked up some stuff too. (Ever since I got money, I've decided to support developers and artists xD) I managed to get these during my trip this year:
Now just waiting for the PS3 one....Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (VP1) I got from EBGames brand new during their half yearly sale: it was $49.95AUD before that they managed to take half price off. It seems really rare that JRPG's get discounted there though...guess I'll have to wait a bit longer for the other ones.
Surprisingly, I managed to get Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (VP2) from Blockbuster sealed for $24.95AUD too. (They have a lot of discounted movies and games, so it's worth checking out your local store)
Here's a pic of the insides of the cases:
UMD, DVD, what media could be next in the series?I'm only about 3 hours into VP1, and I'm enjoying it whenever I have the time to play it. I'll probably provide an in depth review when I manage to finish it. Even though VP2 is a sequel, I'm the kinda person who'd want to finish the first game first to appreciate the links to VP1 from VP2.
There is a huge probability that there will be a third title though, considering that there are the three Valkyries...it could well complete my little collection when I get a PS3!!
Well that concludes my first post on this random blog. Expect to see more random stuff soon! =)