Post-Japan Crunch Madness

Greetings to the two or three people who still bother to read this blog! Howya doing? Sorry I've been so remiss with my blog or my sketching. I'm rather afraid to say that I still owe 1 person a birthday greeting an another an overdue commission!

However there's fairly good reasons for my absence. Since my last post, I've been attending 3 (non-anime) training sessions (some VERY far away), travelled to Japan, celebrated my birthday, finished a TON of assignments, finished a TON(ner?) of work and generally lost all drive or ability to draw. Oh, and I'm currently hooked on Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness on the PSP as well as hurting from playing Guitar Hero: On Tour on the DS.

Yeah, that's what happens. However, I must at least highlight the fact that I managed to finally set foot in Japan to visit my mother (no, we're NOT Japanese), not to mention drop by to say 'Hi' to me old and forgotten mate VagaryLoc.

Ah the things in Japan. I still have vivid dreams of being so close to it I could just pop over for the weekend. I have to say that there's great seafood to be had there and I managed to fit in (my stomach) nearly everything I've heard or read about. Truly, it was a food extravaganza.

I did manage to buy numerous figurines (including Eureka from Eureka 7.... SQUEAL! I should have gotten Talho and Haruno Sakura too!), Taiko no Tetsujin (a DS game based on an arcade game my friend likes) and several manga including my beloved Zetsubou Sensei! I was presented with a hakama (Arigato Gozaimasu!) which hopefully will help me come September. I have to say that I was truly surprised at the lack of anime ON PUBLIC TV... or at least at my mum's place. She swears that it's her TV's fault, though. Nevertheless I did manage to catch some promotions on the trip to Akihabara.

Ahhh, Akihabara. There's a million and one references to Lucky Star (and Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu) there. There ought to be cosplayers of Konata walking around all day long (we only managed to get there in the late evening). Seriously, that place is kinda like Heaven for me (luckily I missed the crazed stabber, otherwise it WOULD be Heaven for me... literally). I swear that there's just wasn't enough time spent there (although it was great shopping at Hobby Off in Shibata and the food and service in Niigata was exquisite). I should note that I managed to get into the gallery showing the works of Vagabond in Ueno, too. Popped into Animate in Sunshine City.... You know, for a holiday lasting just over a week I have to say I really really enjoyed it. I got a good wakeup on how bad my Japanese was too!

Anyway, today's postings are all just some random sketches. Practice so that I can do better next time. Also, many thanks to XY for sending over that nifty pen. Can you tell which pictures were drawn with it?