Online retail therapy

Finally it is time to say sayonara to my attempt to study Japanese language. It has been almost 2 years since I started and I am quite disappointed with my own progress :( It is ironic that if I continue, it will be to the pre-advanced level and yet I can't even string and say a complete sentence confidently. Learning language is tough. At the beginning, it was still simple enough and perhaps I was still enthu enough to revise diligently. But now, I am lagging like 2 terms behind in my revisions. I cannot remember the newer vocabs as well as sentence structures too. I guess it is a blessing in disguise that sensei no longer wants to teach on Sundays lol. I have a good reason that I am only available on Sundays instead of admitting that I suck that I don't want to continue. It really depends on my own willpower and desire if I really want to master nihongo :(

It is June and Japan Point is having 2x promotion for Iroha Mart. I just noticed about this Japan Point thingy because of the banner outside Iroha Mart. Damn! I am so sad that I only knew about it today. Teppei Syokudo is also one of the restaurants that I can get points and I have ate there 8x this month! Although I know there is no way I will be the top spender to get the air ticket to Japan even with those 8 meals, I don't know if I am sadder about that or I am sadder about the fact that I spent so much already for food T_T

After a failed physical retail therapy to lift up my mood, I am hooked with the online one. Sigh.. It all started with my attempt to look for Conan movie medallion that was already sold out by the time I queued for Conan movie 2 weeks ago. I discover that there is always 1 movie medallion for each Conan movie! Wow.. 21 movies so far so there are 21 medallions to hunt for.. At Yahoo! Auction Japan, the price for 1 is about 800-1000 JPY each. It is too much hassle to buy one by one, not too mention all the proxy fees and domestic fees will build up so I am just waiting for people to sell a few at one go. So far I only managed to get a set of 3 for just 600 JPY!! Mwahaha...

After it reached the proxy warehouse, I thought it would be a waste to just ship 1 item. I had nothing else in mind to buy so I have no idea how I end up finding out about AAA Fantastic Over photobook. I don't usually buy concert photobooks but since this will be the last one with 7 members, I decided to buy it. The retail price is 3900 JPY and I paid 2760 JPY so I hope the condition is still okay. Apparently there are variants with each member as the cover (the contents are the same), The variants are already sold out and the second hand prices are scalpers' price.

I also bought Sexy Zone's second photobook. The cheapest I found was 1100 JPY and the condition was stated as unopened. It better be as such. The original price is 2300 JPY.

As part of promotions for Detective Conan's movie this year, Aoyama Gosho created a few limited manga covers with title Detective Heiji. It is supposed to be a joke since the designs are exactly like Detective Conan covers, only that it features Heiji and some Osaka landmarks. This Detective Heiji joke also made an appearance in the movie.

I spent 1500 JPY or 300 JPY each

Last but not least, Universal Studios Japan had Detective Conan's attraction: The Escape which unfortunately only ran until end May this year. 1 of the special merchandise is a Conan's watch minus the actual anesthetic effect. Lol. I actually avoid buying wearable anime merchandises (especially watches since my current 2 daily watches are good enough and I don't want to damage the merchandise watch) but I gave up resisting since this is not just a watch with Conan picture or logo smacked on it but it has a lid that can open like Conan's watch in the anime/manga. I can't find information of the actual price etc but I decided to just YOLO and buy it since I want to quickly ship all my items together :p In some of the item descriptions, sellers mentioned that can only get 5 a day at USJ and it is already sold out bla bla bla.. Don't know if it is the truth but this is partly what makes me to buy it. There is not any decent official pictures of it as well so I guess I will only show pictures after I receive the actual item.

Still about Conan, I am emo to find out that this year's Conan mascot actually went around for some promotional activities, just that they were not at Plaza Sing!! Sad.. I realised it only when I checked Odex facebook page to look for information on how to redeem the Conan pin.. Haiz.. So this year no picture with Conan :( The learning point, however, is now I know every year definitely Conan mascot will go around for promotional activities. So I better find out where next year and I must take photo.. wearing the Conan watch perhaps :p