The 51st Shizuoka Hobby Show will be held from May 17th to May 20th, and I intend to go! I don't know how many forum members here live in Japan, but I doubt that I am the only one. I live in Fuji City, which is the next town over from Shizuoka. I will attend on the 19th, and possibly again on the 20th if I am unable to see everything in one day.

I will do my best to capture much of the event on my YouTube channel, so look for videos there sometime after the event. Also, Hobbylink Japan does great coverage of the event too on their YT channel.

Wow, what a big event! I am glad that it was more than just a trade show for the big companies. A huge room was devoted to model clubs and organizations. Entire displays were dedicated to Gundam, Miyazaki anime, WWII planes, battle ships, cars, model trains, you name it!

This was a much bigger event than the IPMS convention I attended two years ago. It was also free of charge, surprisingly.

Here is the video for part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BRufxzaVT0

Part 2! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS1EgRtCrko

The Battleship Andromeda at the beginning of part 2 looked absolutely incredible. I've been following his build but I didn't know he had finished it. It's an incredible build especially when you know that he scratchbuilt it. I've seen some previews of the new anime Space Battleship Yamato 2199, the character designs looked meh. Also, getting an autograph from Max Watanabe was epic, definitely very cool. The show itself looks like a lot of fun, model builders paradise. Also, the videos on Japanese snacks are great, hope to see more.

Thanks for watching! Yes, that Andromeda was incredible, especially lit up. The Andromeda looks way cooler than the Yamato, for sure.

Yeah, so I got to meet both Max and the incredibly sexy Oogoshi. Everyone behind the tables were older men, then all of the sudden there's a pretty girl standing there and I instantly recognized her.

Last night I uploaded a picture gallery of the photographs I took at the Hobby Show. You can see them here:
http://stevethefish.net/life/life074.htm


They made Yamato look like a modern anime. Matsumoto's designs were ditched, Koudai-kun looks like a puss, Yuki's boobs are too big, etc. This is why I am so disappointed in the vast majority of anime released in the past 14 years or so.

Greg,

So where are the pics of the hot chick?

The pic with me and Oogoshi is on page 2 of the linked gallery. Or, I'll just post the pic here now while I'm at it:



Her website is here: http://www.054taste.jp/

You may have also seen her on an episode of the "Plamo Tsukurou" TV show. A cute chick who builds Gundams is a plamo nerd's wet dream come true.