I searched for map-centric communities via the LJ interest search,and I did find a very active one that I joined(and is actually cleaner than its dirty name suggests)...

Browsing through Flickr,I accidentally stumbled into interior pics of a couple Hawaiian K-marts though I haven't shopped in one in years.Turns out the bilingual signage in those stores are in English and Japanese.Even in the Pacific Coast states,despite decent Asian populations(including Japanese),bilingual signage in mainstream stores tends to be English/Spanish.For anyone who cares,speaking of Flickr,I've posted some photos,mostly of buildings.Maybe once I fill up a camera memory card,I'll post lots more high quality digi-pics...

Happy birthday to Norio Wakamoto(who turns 64),Yuuji Mitsuya(who turns 55),Reiko Yasuhara(who turns 40),Eriko Fujimaki(who turns 35),Akiko Kurumado(who turns 32),and Minoru Shiraishi(who turns 31)...

Lately,I take more pictures on this than on my normal digital camera,especially on work days like today...

Happy 39th birthday to Chiyako Shibahara...

Post from mobile portal m.livejournal.com

For roughly a year now,I'd been yearning to pay a visit to the one Japanese food shop in all of Sacro;but for one reason or another(mainly because it's on the other side of town and was planning to move to a larger storefront with a mile from the old location),I ended up hesitating and putting it off.However,I did learn recently via sacramento that the delayed move finally happened last month.As recently as last night,I was still undecided whether to go on an outing today(the last weekday of this vacation week),but I somehow went to bed at 10:30 last night(at least an hour earlier than normal).I usually don't remember 99.9% of my dreams(since they're basically blatant distortions of past and present reality),but I somehow managed to awaken at 4:50 in the morning,due to an emergency bodily function.Afterwards I tried to go back to sleep,but I just couldn't get drowsy again.About 6:45,I gave up.At the same time,I decided that I wasn't hesitating any more.By about 7:40,I slipped on some otaku gear(including a Newtype USA t-shirt received as a renewal premium,my Kirara cosplay cap,some jeans,and the smaller of my Furuba messenger bags),grabbed a couple drinks(a water bottle and Sangaria bottled cold coffee sold at a Korean shop near home),and ventured out on the journey to paradise in the middle of an otaku backwater.

Two bus rides,a brief light rail ride,and 2 ½ hours later;I blurted a 'Yatta!' just before stepping foot inside Oto's Marketplace on Sacramento's Freeport Boulevard(next door to Rite Aid's oldest unremodeled Sacro location,semi-ironically since it's an older section of town).Once I got off the bus a block away,I took a couple of exterior snapshots,since I had my digital camera.Once I stepped in,I knew it was pure bliss.Though some non-Japanese products are scattered along the shelves,I was surely at the right place.I spent some 90 minutes in their new digs(chain-drugstore sized,but at least twice as large as their old location)and I loaded my basket with instant noodle cups/bowls(including several large sized packages of the original Cup Noodle,not the Americanized Cup-O-Noodles),several Japanese drinks(Calpico,Coca Cola's Soukenbicha,bottled/ready to drink Pocari Sweat,C.C. Lemon,UCC canned coffee,and a couple others including anoth Coke-made tea dring called Hajime),and a lot of Japanese snacks(tiramisu Pocky,a couple bags of Calbee potato chips,citrus-flavored rice candy,ramune candy with a Yes!Purikyua 5 toy,and other Japanese sweets).Since they also had cooked/prepared foods on site,I also decided to grab lunch:potato croquettes(popular in Japan though the croquett wasn't a Japanese creation)and rice appetizers(an onigiri and layered rice cubes with a fish layer in the middle.Once I checked out,it was cheaper than I thought.Though I couldn't find any personal care products,I was told they were sold at their auxillary location a few blocks down.After eating,I went to the addy they told me,but the block number was non-existant.I called the main store,and it turned out I was given an incorrect block number.After receiving the proper directions,I then found the other location,next door to the main store's original location.It turned out to be their video-rental and variety shop(selling mainly non-cooking items).In their magazine section,they had some manga phonebooks.There were some outdated ones at reduced prices,but I was told that the covers had to be removed for credit-out purposes.I ended up settling on the latest Nakayoshi(that included at least one premium item),a 2-pack of Japanese gel-rollers,a pack of erasers,and a couple other things.Once it was all said and done,I was lucky my load was still carryable(two paper bags).A few minutes before boarding the first bus for the long journey back to the northeast side of town,one of the bag handles broke,but not enough for stuff to spill/fly out.Not only that,after I boarded that bus,I rode it to the next stop before making the first of two transfers.That bus stop turned out to be in front of a new Rite Aid that just opened earlier in the year on the edge of downtown.I browsed in there(half the size of a typical west coast Rite Aid)for a few minutes,and managed to get a jumbo plastic bag to wrap around the broken paper bad,and continued on my journey back home.Not only was the weather nice(80's even with summer-style daylight hours),I didn't even sweat until I got home.Even better,I fortunately haven't even been subjected to those nihonjin kanojo jokes...yet.It very well could be worth at least one return trip...

Anyway,I used the latest YesAsia coupon discount(issued before their coupon promotion expired)on two more Makkun CD's(including her most recent album).I also nailed the rare Saber Marionette J to X OP/ED CD maxi single(featuring Proof of Myself and Lively Motion,both sung by Megumi Hayashibara and previously sampled at seiyuu)from an eBay Buy It Now listing.Also,I nailed a 1990's edition of Kenkyusha's Little English-Japanese Japanese-English Dictionary from an Amazon.com Marketplace seller...

Happy birthday to both Ai Nonaka(who turns 26 and also hails from Kappei-sama's hometown)and Light Yagami Mamoru Miyano(who turns 24).Speaking of Kappei-sama,he may have landed a decent new post-Death Note anime voice role.As long as the producers responsible for voice casting don't decide to ruin a good thing by pulling a Michiru Kiryuu not even half way through like what happened last year(Purikyua SS turned out to be Frappi-sama's toughest voice role in years)...

Well,it seems when I boot up,Yahell! Messenger today has consistently malfunctioned at the outset.On an unrelated matter,one of my smaller SD cards suddenly corrupted when I tried to use it in my Eye-Q 4060 AF and had to be formatted...

OTOH,everything else is working fine(I tested the Express Media Player last night with no problems)and I installed the latest edition of Hoyle Card Games.If it weren't for video/PC games(another being Ultimate Card Games for the GBA),I would have never played card games such as canasta,euchre,gin rummy,Pinochle,and spades...

If there were English instructions,I would download the Puyo Puyo 15th Anniversary freeware game...

If only I could find some good anime wallpapers optimized for 1280X800 screens...

Well,Godzilla vs. Hedorah was the first Godzilla flick that I saw that didn't go offshore(i.e.,stayed on the main Japanese isles);and under complex circumstances,the ending was a "hinging" one.It was interesating that a child character idolized Godzilla as a hero...

Speaking of Japan;happy 36th birthday to Satsuki Yukino who was mired in obscurity before landing roles in Trigun,Love Hena Hina,and Inu Yasha...

With photo memory cards,it seems that the more pictures that are on it,the more tedious it gets when you try to empty it onto a CD-RW...

For some reason,some of my Japanese-made Energizer rechargeable AA batteries are already going out.It gave me the false impression that my Eye Q 4060 AF was out of order after changing the batteries to photograph my AMG bilingual manga as well as unopened packages of Japanese Kit Kats and Aeros(as keepsake evidence that I've actually tried these Japanese snacks)...

The winter edition of the twice-yearly Sac-Anime was a blast,and not even a wrong-way city bus could steal my thunder.I even gave my Momiji cap a test drive at the event.I found all kinds of rare anime stuff for myself and other people.Strictly speaking of stuff I got for myself,I nabbed the following:

• 3 DVD sets containing the uncut first 97 episodes of the One Piece anime plus one of the movies(it turns out to be fifth)featuring Japanese dialogue by default with optional English and Chinese subtitles.It's one of the few times I would normally buy region-free Hong Kong/Taiwan bootlegs of domestically licensed anime,and Not-4-Kids-or-Adults-Entertainment brought it on to themselves too.At least a few of the Kappei tunes in my Rio Carbon are actually Usopp character songs...
  
• Japanese-imported volume 2 of the Maison Ikkoku manga.Perhaps the big steal of the day,it only cost a mere dollar!
  
• a Gate Keepers pencil board picturing Ruriko Ikusawa,Reiko Asagiri,and Fen Feiring
  
• 3 candy/gum packagaes with free gashapon.They had normal Japanese toys and weren't from actual anime.
  
• an authentic pair of Japanese chopsticks,just for kicks.
  
• an "Anime:Drugs would be cheaper" sticker advertising one of the vendors.
  
• the following Card Captor Sakura novelties,all Japanese imports:a pencil board,a set of 2 pins(Sakura and Kero-chan),and 2 notebooks(one duplicates the front cover on manga volume 4).
  
• the following Fruits Basket novelties:a set of 3 coasters(one with Kyoh,one with Yuki,and one with Tohru;all human),a set of mini-notepads in a plastic case,a UFO catcher doll of human Yuki,and a rat Yuki keychain.The former 2 are Japanese imports,and the latter 2 are domestic licensed.
  
• 3 imported Aa!Megamisama pencil boards:one each picturing Belldandy,Skuld,and Peorth.
  
• a Sakura Taisen pencil board picturing all key characters from the first universe.
  

Speaking of the first and last anime series mentioned,since it's already tomorrow(the 15th)in Japan,happy 51st birthday to Kanna Urashima Monkey D. Luffy Mayumi Tanaka.I know she and Hiroyuki Shibamoto(her husband,a seiyuu himself)have a son,but it would be curious to know if he's in the industry himself if he's grown.So far,the only parent-child seiyuu pair I know of is Akio Ohtsuka and his father Chikao...

Back to the fair itself,the booth where I bought my One Piece DVD's and Yuki keychain also sold some anime and Japan-related T-shirts and sweaters(some via J-list).One of the J-list shirts they had was Nihonjin kareshi boshu-chu.Thankfully,the masculine counterpart wasn't available;because as much as I like all things Japanese,I wouldn't be caught dead wearing one of those for certain reasons I won't elaborate on.Also,while there,I had someone take a picture of me with my digital camera.Hopefully,the pic will be posted sooner or later...

Well,when I created the most recent CD-R backup of my files,I may have forgotten to backup my Internet bookmarks.Though I never checked that,I did manage to check my 512 MB flash drive and I did remember to back them up on to that.Rather than wasting another blank CD-R,I decided to look for blank rewritable CD-RW's.Sadly,my store only sells them in 5 packs for the pre-employee discount price of $9.99.I'd figure I can get a better deal elsewhere,but my dad had a couple of spare ones that he gave me.Right now,I've been backing up all my Internet bookmarks and all content from my 3 ZIP disks onto a blank CD-RW;and I've also been emptying the contents of a few photo memory cards onto it as well...

A couple of days ago,by dumb luck,I managed to beat Popoi at the end of the Waku Waku course in Puyo Puyo Fever.The fact that the game's credits rolled shortly there after gave me the false impression that I beat the game while in reality there's still the Hara Hara course.I must admit however that the PSP version does seem somewhat easier than the DS(I've only reached Popoi in that version.)and Gamecube(I've only gottten as far as the Frankensteins and even then only once because Dongurigaeru and Klug are both tougher than in the portable versions.)versions,even as poor Raffine can't catch a break against the uncharming Ocean Prince...

BTW,happy 44th birthday to B-Ko Rei Hino/Sailor Mars Michie Tomizawa;and since it's already tommorow(the 21st)in Japan,happy 43rd birthday to Mint Winbee A-Ko Nova Hokuto Sumeragi Sonomi Daidouji Miki Itou...

Well,my two previous digital cameras(prior to buying my Eye Q 4060 AF)are now out of use for now after I emptied out both memory cards and removed both batteries.Believe it or not,my current camera couldn't recognize a memory card that I had used with the other 2 digital cameras;and even though there was nothing on it,I still had to format the card.Coincidentally,I can't view photos taken on that card.Oh well,I still have plenty of other SD cards...

Poor yachinami.What is considered a heat wave in the Pacific Northwest is typical May-September weather in sunny California...

Well,I'm just about to claim the first het seiyuu coupling in seiyuu_slash:Noriko Hidaka and Toshihiko Seki.For my second claim,I would clame a het pairing with Kappei-sama,but there are so many good female seiyuu to choose from...

Also,my 6 packs of Café Latte Kit Kats have arrived...

Finally,happy 25th birthday to Mikako Hyatt Takahashi,one of the 2 Excel Girls...

Well,my new Eye-Q 4060AF has already proven to be paydirt:Not only are the pics coming out much better than the worthless PDC-3070 outright;but with Macro Mode(intended especially for close-up shots),the pics also come out way better than on my Eye-Q Duo 2000(also a Concord Camera product).Even better,it works with my existing SD cards...

Well,I've found yet another Japanese site with a comprehensive listing of Kappei-sama's major voice credits(including some live-action ones);but for some reason,why does the staff and cast listing for this title scare me even though Rei Sakuma,Masako Katsuki,and Sakiko Tamagawa are also credited in this title?*hopes that not a single seiyuu fan that has read this journal knows where I'm coming from*
EDIT:I've found yet another similar site...

Somehow,someone will eventually claim a het seiyuu coupling at the new seiyuu_slash community...