AKB48ers.

Before I went to Canada for two weeks, I spent four days in Tokyo with a friend from University and his wife. On our first day, we went to Akihabara because...Duh, it's Akihabara! Since I'd already been in the Gundam Cafe, I thought we could check out the AKB48 Cafe.

It was SO cheesy! There were a half dozen creepy dudes just sitting in the lounge watching AKB48 videos (you can request your fave if you order an entree). What surprised me is that they didn't show the ones with the gals in bikinis.

Yay, we each got a free coaster of a random AKBer.

After that, we wandered through Electric City and surprisingly I didn't buy anything! (Okay, not entirely true. I did score a few new Gurihara characters from a Gatcha.)

I only had enough coins to buy three, now I need to track down the other four.

Iron Man and Pacific Rim at Yodobashi.

After that, we head to Shibuya and due to a wrong turn, ended up at the opposite side of the Station. This turned out to be fortuitous for we discovered a sightseeing view from atop a new building.

We finally made it to Hachiko and this time I looked down to see this plaque.

On the way to Tower Records, I espied a Spiderverse video.

Within the building, there was a Spiderverse display and we watched a 5-minute clip of the film in a Sensurround-style.

After my friend uploaded the picture to Twitter, I scored a mini-Miles!

While wandering around, I discovered some murals devoted to Akira. Very cool and just in time for the 2020 Olympics when Tokyo gets destroyed.

We ate in a British Pub (Hub) and it was the first normal meal they'd had in weeks. After touring India and Thailand, Bob and Cathy needed some normalcy.

More Tokyo hijinks later.

Staying In Caricature.

I'm back from a vacay in Canada and before I left, I had my students provide me with some portraits of me as Sayonara presents. Since I start school anew tomorrow with a new batch of kiddies, I'll showcase some of my caricatures from these aspiring artists. In no particular order, here we go.

I'm more concerned with the accuracy of the crow's feet around my eyes than I am with being portrayed as wall-eyed.

Some of the kids emphasized my hobby as a UFO Catcher master.

 

Rocker Michael...

At my favourite school (and I won't say which one), the Grades 5 and 6 decorated the blackboard in the Music Room with messages and then performed an original song and dance for me.

Since I'm only teaching at 3/6 schools this year, one of the teachers gave me a few gifts. (I do suspect that he was just cleaning out his desk.)

Another school provided the kids with fancy paper and they all wrote their messages.

These were two of the few to be written in English.

The rest wrote mostly in Japanese...

I like my little Trump hands above.

That's about it. Tomorrow I start afresh with a new crew of youths. Let's see what new aspiring artists arise!