I like playing chess, all forms of chess. This is shogi (将棋) – Generals’ chess. But usually referred to as Japanese chess. I was first introduced to this game by my mentor and good friend Tomo when I was in my final year at UNSW. In Sydney no less!

Shogi pieces have an arrow-like top and are placed with that edge facing the other player. There are no colors to separate the pieces.

The most fascinating thing about shogi is the “drop rule”. See those pieces on the bottom right of the image? Those are all the pieces that I’ve captured throughout the game. The drop rule allows me to place those captured pieces on any empty grid and reuse them as my own. Effectively using your enemies’ troops against them. Adds a whole new dimension to the game. One has to consider what the other player has captured as those pieces can reappear anywhere on the board!

Another neat rule in shogi is the ability to “promote” pieces. The pieces have characters printed on other sides. For example, the pawns (歩) promote to gold general (と) when they reach or pass the third role on the opposing side of the board. There’s a whole lot more to talk about promotions – pieces promoted to gold general (金) have different characters based on what they were before. Differences can be slight variations in how they are written, i.e. extra cursive, or a totally different character. But I’ll just stop here. Hope I’ve piqued your interest. ^^.

Anyway, I thought I’ll have some fun with the AI in this shogi game on the iPad and play just for the sake of playing as long as I can. After 314 moves, our king’s exchanging positions on the board and his king surrounded by gold generals, I gave up. ^^.

Have you tried your hand at Shogi?

Hey, look what arrived in the mail today.

Nope, this is not the watered down Japanese version. This version is full of gore, brutality, sex, blood, violence, carnage, butchery and bloodiness. Did I miss anything?

Read on the Japanese wiki page that quite a few scenes as well as gameplay had to be modified for sale in Japan. For example, no sacrificing of humans to solve puzzles – monsters are used instead.

Do you know of the God of War series? It is pretty notorious. ^^.

Got hooked the moment I saw gameplay videos on YouTube. Particularly at the moment when I saw Kratos rip an undead body in half!

I read a review on ars that to fully appreciate GoW3, we should play and follow Kratos’s tale of vengeance from GoW1. And that was exactly what I did. ^^.

All I have to do now, besides playing GoW3, is to find time to play GoW3!

They aren’t brothers,
though I substituted some for others.
Can you find the pattern and answer,
to this catty puzzle?

I know… it’s a horrible rhyme.

Lupin III (ルパン三世, Rupan Sansei) has beaten the Empire to it and stolen the beloved Moyai Statue from Shibuya station!

Where do you suppose he is hiding the Moyai Statue? I don’t think he’s hiding her at the Lupin Station Tokyo. ^^.

Send Lupin a personal “steal request” at steal-japan.jp.

What would you like stolen? All the trains in Japan maybe? ^^.

And they even had a guard stand out there in the blistering cold.

FYI, there’s nothing left to guard! ^^.

Took this at Tokyo Dome City. There’s quite a number of Lupin collectibles available at this store. I like Lupin and his gang. Although my favorite anime is Castle of Cagliostro, my eyes always light up when Fujiko’s on screen. ^^.

Saw these on the shelf recently going for ¥3980 each. So what do you reckon?

Is POTUS Barack Obama a Jedi or a Kryptonian? Mace Obama or Obamaman?

While browsing through my photo library, I came upon some photos I took of my Yamato battleship. It’s of 1/700 scale from Tamiya’s waterline series. Waterline models have a flat base. I like the waterline series. Very easy to display the ships because of it’s flat hull. If you’re into ships, you would know that the waterline refers to where the hull meets the water surface.

There’s something about Yamato that mesmerizes me. I even visited the drydock in Kure where she was constructed.

It was my first attempt at building a ship model. I got all the necessary paint when I bought the model. The colors you’ll need are usually listed outside on the box. I didn’t want a simple gray ship, so I spent the extra time in adding color to it.

Can’t remember how long it took me to put it all together. I think it was somewhere between a few days to a week. I remember most of the time was spent waiting for the paint to dry. Putting all the small parts together also proved to be quite a challenge. Had to use tweezers to pick up most of the small pieces.

I had a dream of making specific ship models at this 1/700 scale and reenacting a past battle. Building all those ships and having them all laid out on a blue tabletop reminiscent of the Pacific ocean. Alas, I do not have the space for it right now. Have to shelf this dream until I have enough space to spare my own display room. ^^. I hope Tamiya will still be producing waterline series models then.

My Yamato came out pretty ok. Not too happy about the paint job. ^^. I think I’ll try again with a larger scaled model. There are only 2 other Tamiya models I’m looking forward to build at this time. Both are of 1/350 scale. Twice as big as this Yamato. They are the Battleship Yamato (again) and the Aircraft Carrier Enterprise. Did you know that the Enterprise has been in commission for almost half a century now!

How do you like building ship models?

Went to the opening party for the Tokyo Figure Show which was organized by danny and Good Smile Company. It was held on the top floor of the H&M building in Harajuku. This figure’s name is Canaan, but I don’t know much about her except that she’s not aiming at me. ^^.

The whole event was sponsored by Vitamin Water. We could drink as much as our bladders could take. Lots of different colors and flavors too. You like? I wasn’t too adventurous and stuck with the lemonade flavored vitamin water most of the time.

Everyone came with a camera. Some were bigger than others.

Figma lineup.

The display was very simple. Good Smile figures and Vitamin Water. There was a lounge area on the floor below. Didn’t snap any photos of that, but there was the place to go to chill and sip more vitamin water… including vitamin water cocktails!

Figma, undressed, unmasked, uncolored… translucent.

Here’s the star of the show. A figma of Danny’s famous mascot Mirai Suenaga. I found it amazing that he finally managed to figmatized his mascot. When this goes into production, he probably don’t carry Kagami around anymore. ^^.

Here’s a full body shot.

Pretty cute nendoroid. I like the pillow. Currently only have 1 nendoroid. L. I bought him because he came with a nice red armchair. Not because he has a big head. ^^.

Miku Hatsune: World is Mine.

Yoko from Gureen Lagaan. She’s Team Gurren’s sniper and comes with a nice big gun.

Can you name these nendoroids?

Didn’t really take much photos. Was busy catching up with alot of people and downing bottles and bottles of Vitamin Water. Sorry. ^^.

Was just minding my own business walking along the finite corridor when I spotted boxes and boxes of PS3s piled up by the side.

This platoon of PS3s is owned by Amano Lab of Keio University. They research all things Information and Computer Science related. I couldn’t resist taking a box home until I took one and realized it felt too light. I asked the students what the PS3s were for….

Did I really have to ask? It’s for playing 72 instances of GTA4 at the same time! ^^.

Unfortunately for them, it’s not for pleasure. I didn’t ask in detail, but I can imagine that it’ll be used for some serious number crunching.

Reminiscence of an army barracks, PS3s all get multi-levels bunkbeds.

Isn’t this cool or what!?!

I don’t know what they are going to do with 72 PS3 controllers though. ^^.

Does it make you want to study again?

Didn’t really jump on the Nendoroid band wagon until I met L from Death Note.

Was told he is an old Nendoroid. Anyone has him?

There are many of his trademark faces to choose from. Pretty nice Nendoroid I must say.

I just like his “thinking” pose on his chair. Do you like Nendoroids?

There are a few more from the Death Note series.