Friday, May 2, 2014

Gundam Front Tokyo

DiverCity Tokyo Plaza is famous for the giant Gundam statue that stands in front of the shopping complex. There's also some Gundam stores here so I went to take a look.



The big Gundam statue.




Back of the statue.




Closeup of the upper body.




Left foot. The amount of detail is quite impressive.




Right hand.




Back of left leg.




Back of right foot. There's all these warning labels on the statue.




Ankle joint on right foot.




Front of lower left leg.




Booster backpack.




I also got this side shot with the sun in just the right place. ^_^




Right behind the statue is this trailer store.




They sell goods like t-shirts and handbags.




And model kits.




Lots of model kits.




Poster showing Gundam Front Tokyo exclusive goods.




There's also a Gundam café here.




They also sell some goods.




Including mugs and plates.




And they got cookies and chocolate.




Since it's a café you can get Gundam food and drinks.




Umbrellas for sale in case it starts to rain.




On the seventh floor of DiverCity Tokyo Plaza is the main Gundam Front Tokyo exhibit space.




There's a large screen showing trailers for various Gundam shows and merchandise.




Including trailers for the recent Gundam Build Fighters.




Most of the exhibits you'll need to get a ticket to see, but this Gunpla Tokyo space is free to access.




Here they have over 1000 models on display.




Gundams of all sizes.




Some of the recent high grade models.




Here's some night shots of the giant Gundam statue.




There's lots of lights on the statue.




And another upper body closeup to end this post.



No map since this is a famous tourist attraction.

This location was visited on 2014/04/16.

Links:
DiverCity Tokyo Plaza official website
Gundam Front Tokyo official website

Steins;Gate - Shrine Location

I was staying in a hotel near Akihabara while in Japan, so I checked out some Steins;Gate locations. First on the list was Yanagimori shrine. This was the location of the Yanabayashi shrine in the anime and one of the closest train stations is Akihabara station.



Image from Episode 2 - 05m22s


This is the entrance to the shrine.




And the purification font.




Image from Episode 18 - 05m56s


A few closeups of this font was shown in the anime.




Image from Episode 15 - 16m28s


The actual shrine building does NOT match the anime, but it was shown in a quick shot in one episode. The shrine building shown in the anime is in another location in Tokyo.




Image from Episode 2 - 07m57s


Near the shrine you'll also find this bridge that was shown in the anime.




Image from Episode 18 - 12m21s


This was where Okabe and Ruka met up.




Image from Episode 18 - 12m32s


You can actually see the shrine from the bridge. I've marked the path from the shrine to the bridge on the location map.




Image from Episode 20 - 09m44s


On the way back to the hotel I saw this that reminded me a little bit of Steins;Gate. I thought I'd include this image even if it's not really a match shot at all. ^_^



Location map:



This location was visited on 2014/04/16.

Links:
Yanagimori shrine official website

Special thanks to the ones who went here before:
http://otakumode.com/sp/visit_japan/seichi-junrei/s010

Oreimo - Park

Like the Chiba monorail, Chiba park can be seen in Oreimo. In fact, you can take the monorail to Chibakōen station to get to the park like I did.



Image from S1E1 - 00m10s


View of the monorail tracks from the park.




Image from S1E3 - 05m40s


Closer shot of the monorail.




Image from S1E3 - 06m11s


The place where Kyosuke and Manami was sitting.




Image from S2E2 - 00m48s


You can see this building to the right of Kuroneko in the season 2 OP.




Image from S2E2 - 01m01s


Another shot from the season 2 OP.




Image from S2E8 - 09m38s


The place where Kyosuke and Kuroneko went on their date.




Image from S2E8 - 10m25s


Closeup of the park benches.




Image from S2E5 - 12m36s


This street is next to a shrine that is on the other side of the park.




Image from S2E5 - 13m09s


This is right in front of the entrance to the shrine. The street shown in the anime is on the left. This is also the place where Kyosuke and Manami usually meet up before going to school.




Image from S2E5 - 14m12s


This is not a match shot, but I wanted to include this shot of the shrine itself. I also marked the path from the monorail side of the park to the shrine on the location map.




Here's the purification font in front of the shrine.




Closeup of the instruction placard on the purification font. This is the same placard that I also saw at the Lucky Star shrine.



Location map:


This location was visited on 2014/04/15.

Links:
Park official website

Special thanks to the ones who went here before:
http://otakumode.com/sp/visit_japan/seichi-junrei/s001

Oreimo - Train Station

Both Chiba station and the monorail in Chiba can be seen a few times in Oreimo. You can either take a JR train to Chiba station or take a Keisei train to Keisei Chiba station to get there. I took a JR train there and got some pictures.



Image from S1E3 - 11m28s


Image from S2E5 - 03m52s


This is in front of the station. The station is currently undergoing renovations so they've taken down the big sign seen in the season 1 shot. The same entrance can be seen in the middle part of the season 2 shot, this time without the big sign.




Image from S1E2 - 01m11s


Image from S2E2 - 00m37s


The monorail can be seen in the OP of both seasons. I've marked the nearest buildings to both the JR station exit seen above and this spot in the location map.




Here's a picture of one of the monorail trains arriving at Chiba station. I used the monorail to get to Chiba Park.




They actually had Oreimo decals on the monorail trains for a while. I arrived in Japan 2 weeks too late to see them unfortunately. There were still some goods for sale though.




Train alarm clock. This is how the train looked with the decals on it.



Location map:


This location was visited on 2014/04/15.

Links:
Oreimo x Chiba monorail official website

Special thanks to the ones who went here before:
http://otakumode.com/sp/visit_japan/seichi-junrei/s001