05.23.2009

Today was a San Francisco tour day.

We headed over to SF in the morning to catch the 11:30am ferry to Alcatraz.
This was everyone's first time at Alcatraz, myself included. Freelance translator S@ki mentioned that the audio tour in English is a normal documentary type, but she was interested in hearing the Japanese tour b/c her friend was giggling every so often. But I decided to go w/ the English tour to hear the original. Of course the GAINAX staff listened to the Japanese.

After the tour, we went to the gift shop.
Everyone bought the aluminum cup (replica of what the inmates used), and they were disappointed that the store was sold out of the spoons. But we found it at the gift shop in the theater area, so director Yamaga-san immediately bought two (for his two cups). He said the whole point is to bang on the cups w/ the spoons... They were rather intrigued(?) by the dining hall portion of the audio tour, where the inmates revolted from the bad spaghetti *laugh*

Everyone was talking about the Japanese voice actors for the audio tour. They said the tour used real voice actors, and had heard some of the voices before... and was good casting. They were talking about how they wanted to listen to the whole thing once again & I joked about having the audio tour CD on sale. And they had them for sale at the dock gift shop!!

Producer S-san, compositor Nagase-san & I all bought one.

After heading back to the mainland, we all went separate ways.
Fanime helper Kentaro took two staff (compositors Akamatsu-san & Ishikawa-san) to Exploratorium. I took the rest of the group to Union Square area for shopping, then took visual supervisor Yamada-san to Alamo Square. He's a big fan of Full House, and wanted to see the row of houses seen in the opening sequence. He wanted to pose like the family picnic-ing, so I took a picture from the angle.

Then Kentaro picked up director Yamaga-san, producer S-san & animation director Kojima-san to take them back to Fanime for the Gurren Lagann movie screening. Meanwhile I dropped off visual supervisor Yamada-san at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, headed back to the Exploratorium to pick up the two staff there, went back to Union Square to pick up compositor Nagase-san & animator Kouno-san, and back to MOMA to pick up visual supervisor Yamada-san. I made two circular trips around SF.

Oh, I'm out of time.
I need to head out, so more about Masquerade comments & stuff later~

05.22.2009

GAINAX staff & I went to Pixar animation studios today.
Pixar storyboard artists Bobby, Enrico & Billy showed us around the studio.

We also ate at the cafeteria area.
I also did a little bit of shopping at the Pixar store.

Then we headed back to Fanime to attend the opening ceremonies.
And went to the video room to make sure the DVDs GAINAX brought were playable on their machines.

For dinner, we went to an American style sushi restaurant so everyone can try strange sushi rolls.

The end.
Sorry for the short entry... I'm too tired to write anything clever.

05.21.2009

I arrived in San Jose.
Actually, I arrived first in San Francisco because the GAINAX staff were flying into SFO. There's more flights from Narita to SFO, which means cheaper rates. Plus it's less than an hour from SFO to downtown San Jose.

We just checked into the hotel, although GAINAX president Yamaga-san couldn't get his room yet. They're still waiting for it to get ready. So he's hanging in my room for now, eating a piece of $5 foot-long sandwich. I had the server cut it into 1/4, since it's a much more managable size.

We're  heading out to San Francisco in a few.
Yes, we were in SF... came out to SJ to check into the hotel & clean up... and head right back out to SF.
Lots of wasted gas & mileage, but hey... we all need to shower. (I don't, cuz I had a much shorter trip)

We'll be visiting an unnamed company near Fisherman's Wharf *laugh*, then we'll look around the pier and eat something there.

I might take them to Japantown, although it's weird to take people who just arrived from Japan to Japantown. But if they're already craving Curls or curry flavored Cup-O-Noodles... perfect!

And of course a trip to Target & the supermarket.
Cuz there's always people who forget toothbrushes & shampoo. Occassionaly underwear. Hmph.

Part 2 coming later~

05.18.2009

Since the Gurren Lagann staff are coming to Fanime, I thought I'd catch up on watching all the Gurren Lagann episodes.

I've only seen the first 5 episodes... and bits and pieces of the later episodes. I think...

But I only have the Japanese DVDs, so I don't know how terms are translated into English. I was hoping to get a copy of the English release, but no such luck.

Hmm. We have two copies of the Japanese DVD vol 2.
Maybe I'll get it autographed (cover featuring Yoko) by the staff & give it to Gia for a give-away here on Anime Vice.

Okay, episode 6...

05.13.2009

Urgh, long time no write.
There were a few things that happened that I didn't get around to writing about... like Sakura Con (didn't get to go), GAMA show & Crunchyroll mixer. Maybe I'll get around to them later.

Anyhoo, production manager S-san of GAINAX emailed me saying a group of their staff is going to Fanime Con along w/ director & president Yamaga-san. Since it's Memorial Day weekend, I decided I'll head up to the con to show them around San Francisco. I heard they didn't get to go to Alcatraz last year, so hopefully we can go this year. I wonder if there's a way to buy tickets ahead of time...

This is the first convention in YEARS that I'm going on my own & not for work.
I think the last time was AX 1999 *laugh*

A lot of former Broccoli USA staff are heading up too (they're addicted to the Vietnamese style sandwiches), so it'll be fun.