It's Snow Time! [Part 3]

Having lost my train pass, I had to plan my transit very carefully based on the stamp locations. My first stop then, was where I had initially arrived: New Chitose Airport. You might think it's a little weird that there would be events in an airport, but it spans two sprawling levels that include three exhibition halls and an IMAX theatre. When I got there, in between the terminals a special NicoNico Douga event was going on, though it hadn't quite been set up so I couldn't buy the CD I wanted because by the time I got back...well...

Incidentally, this was right next to the Miku moon bounce for the event.

There were a couple banners advertising the events.

The person they're interviewing in the van is a famous dancer on the site, and thought I couldn't get a name out of any of the people around me, who for whatever reason did not think I knew anything about the site, the most I could find about him on my own is that his famous enough to be the main dancer in the game maimai for the song Dancing Samurai. The game is pretty big in arcades, so it's a big deal to be featured in it. The main reason I was there, though, is for two stamp locations, one at the Animate, a chain store that specializes in anime and manga good, and the other at the Hatsune Miku art exhibit.

The Animate store was packed when I got there after hitting up the exhibit (which I'll talk about more below), because everyone wanted the goods for the stamp or as a souvenir. I hadn't been aware that you needed to buy a certain amount of goods to get the stamp, but luckily the person in line behind me spoke a little English and let me know, but he was a lot happier to talk to me in Japanese, and somewhat surprised that I spoke any. We waited in line for about twenty minutes before checkout and he ran off to catch his flight.

It stood at 163 centimeters, and was still taller than some people.

The exhibit itself was a sort of art museum and store at the same time. It focused mostly on the artworks of someone famous for the song Melancholic, Deep Sea Girl and 1925. They also set up a 1:1 scale Miku that included lights and was really popular. The cute smaller versions of the other VOCALOID's were also popular with the kids there. They also had BiniPuri, a specialty art project where you could paint a design on a metal plate based on the premade outline in this case, and get in grilled to set the paint. The paint itself is made out of vinyl so it sets nicely, though it takes some patience as you're painting everything in with a toothpick. I didn't mind because I was making it for my mom and they had one of my favorite songs Counterclockwise playing.

This was halfway done.

After the airport, I headed back to Sapporo for the rest of the day. Before I did that though, I had to make my way past Hokkaido's terrifying mascot: melon bear.

His gimmick was running into people that looked scared.

Last year's Snow Miku design was also on display.

Mostly I did I some more sightseeing on my quest to find the Sapporo Beer Garden, where the other Miku exhibit was being hosted along with the Neon Genesis Evangelion exhibit that had been extended and recommended to me by a friend. I got lost along the way, as I learned that when you give directions in Japanese and someone tells you "right away" they actually mean "go straight." That was a grammar point we went over, somewhat ironically, the next week in class. It did allow me to see the famous Sapporo Clock Tower, though. When I did make it to the factory, I found out how much of a maze it was and it took me almost a half hour to find the building I was looking for. It was well worth it, as the building featured an art wall for fans to write messages on, a specialty card being given away, and the opportunity to demo the new Project Diva F game before it was released. While I was in line, I got a chance to talk with some of the fans, and talked about how VOCALOID is received differently in the US. I told him that I liked Luka most out of the Crypton made ones, but that Miku was the most popular in the US. He was somewhat surprised at that, and though the conversation was short because of my limited vocabulary, I found out that there's definitely a different aim for the characters in Japan than the US. In line there were a lot of people my age or older, whereas an event like this in the US would draw mostly middle schoolers.

While I had been searching for the Miku event, I had found the exact location of the Eva one, and headed there next. It was a real treat for fans, as it featured original character sketches, cels, a map of Tokyo-2 that showed off the attacks and major locations in the show, and of course, an Eva model. The most exciting thing for me, though, was the reenactment of a famous scene for the show where an enemy was attacking and the trigger had to be pulled at just the right moment. They had someone acting as one of the characters, too, and she stayed in character as she asked me questions about Kansai and even Pokemon.

It was probably the nerdiest and happiest I was the whole trip.

After I finished geeking out in Sapporo, I grabbed some ramen at a small store that was almost entirely full despite being on a backstreet. It was pretty good, but I was also starving, and after I had eaten my fill of the tasty pork topping, I made my way back to my hotel and then back to the airport the next morning for my flight home. There were plenty of things I wanted to do in Hokkaido, and while I didn't get to do most of them in only three days, what I did do was a lot of fun.

The mountains that day were beautiful.

See you next post!
-Zenko-