National Pride 2008: a Den Den Town TC holiday

(tags telephone card, game, collectable, Yuiko Tokumi, Di Gi Charat, Nana Mizuki)

I took the Friday off, so that I have a four day weekend. Monday is the Japan's National Foundation Day holiday, 建国記念日. I have my cheep Japanese flag to celebrate the day, yeah. Who would pay 2100 yen for a indoor flag from Tokyo Hands? 100 yen shop FTW.

However I shouldn't dawdle on a weekdays like Friday, because it's the only chance to do personal business at places like banks. For example, I haven't updated my account statment booklet (口座記帳) since last August. o_O; Luckily they keep records for the last twelve months. The online banking however only shows the last month. WTF. BTW, GnuCash is working like a charm for me now.

With business out of the way, it was time for play. :-) Today seemed like a major telephone card (TC) day. I made preparations to buy three anime-related magazines' mail-order TCs. I also went to Den Den Town just to get it over with for the weekend. I picked up some odd ball TCs there, including a original illustrator (つだみきよ) Mikiyo Tsuda's Princess Princess Quo card set. Mmh, cross-dressing guys in meido outfits. Di Gi Charat (will I ever spell this name right?): two 2008 ones because of the red eyes and the other something Akihabara related, Iris TC from illustrator Yuiko Tokumi (篤見唯子), and Youchi na My Angel TC from illustrator Yuki Azuma (あづまゆき) via E2 Magazine are other purchases for the day. Rounding the photo out, the TC I ordered from Megami Magazine's 2007-12 issue came in the mail today. It's a something something Gurren, but I haven't watched this 2007 anime.

Also I keep my eye out for (桜野みねね) Minene Sakurano's TCs. There are a gangload of cheep ones (about 500 yen) because of old her breakaway hit, Guardian Angel Getten (まもって守護月天!), but they don't appeal to me. I like her drawing style now, but GAG stuff circa 1998-2002 seems a bit rough.

I also got a Iris clear file collectable. I like clear files, because they are not very valuable, despite their rarity. This one was 100 yen, heh. Anyways, I have yet to play this old game (2002?), and I forgot which version I got, the Dreamcast or the PS2?

I must be a sucker for "promides" (a Japanese term for "commerical photo portrait of celebrities"), because it was the only reason I bought (水樹奈々) Nana Mizuki's latest CD single. Rawr, twin tails and skirt. Nana-sama! Haa haa *vomits blood* Yer right, obviously airbrushed and photoshopped, but I wanna deny it. :-p

On those Microsoft Xbox Live 3500 point Idolm@ster cards, at my preferred shop, Sofmap, there was a pre-order limit of one to a customer. I was set on getting both designs (two cards) there but they refused my request. So I went to another store in Osaka to pre-order the other card. That Sofmap store didn't have any limitation. WTF. Oh yeah, playing in-store was a new demo video of Idolm@ster Live For You with a song I've never heard. February 28 will be a happy time. :-)

I was hoping to pick up any English voice version of Burnout Paradise (see flyer in photo above) but my go-to store at Den Den Town didn't have any stock. Did they ever have stock? The game is officially coming here on 2008-02-22, but I prefer to laugh at the announcer's English.

On other game stuff, there are no Xbox 360 arcade joysticks, as usual. There are lots of Super Smash Bros for the Wii in stock everywhere, and Sofmap is stocking up the old style GameCube controllers (but they are third party) for 2500 yen. Alas SSB for the GC is still 5000 yen or more, sigh. I frequented the GBA or PSP aisles , but nothing piqued my interest. Still I am currently tuned to aquiring Clu Clu Land (GBA), Guilty Gear's side scrolling beat-em-up (PSP), Contra 4 (DS, US), BioShock and Mass Effect (X360, Asia), Red Star (PS2, US), etc.

No game purchases this time around, though. Let's finish up Rez and Project Slypheed and Omega Five and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Idolm@ster and...