J-Pop Summit Festival 2011 - Day 1

Miku is now everywhere. She is being advertised and marketed so much that she's almost mainstream (in terms of in Japanese events and anime conventions).

New People Building, where many events takes place such as screenings and such.

K-On! is being promoted a lot due to the release of the official English Dub version of the first season. The full main cast of the English dub of K-On! was present, doing concerts and workshops. I have friends who are friends with the voice actors of K-On!

Calligraphy. There was a calligraphy event earlier in the day but I wasn't there at the time.

Demo of the Project Diva Arcade Game. Looks like a visually nice rhythm music game.

Various bands were playing on stage throughout the day.

This is the interior of a hardware store called Soko Hardware store. It has a great variety of tools and related items, with Japanese items as well. I believe that this store is family operated so service should be great if you need help looking for something. I bought tabi socks here for cosplay a while back.

Not as crowded as the Cherry Blossom Festival, thank goodness.

As I said before, this festival puts an emphasis on Japanese pop culture. Here some artists are selling artwork, just like from a con.

New People the Store is located on the second floor of the New People Building. It's full of unique items that you usually can't find anywhere else.

Danceroid goodies for sale.

Papercraft kits.

I liked this, this is a paint can that is designed to take photos the old fashioned way, by exposing photographic paper. It is a great way to learn about basic photography (like it says on the can).

Japantown and many other places are still in Japan support mode as these signs are common a common sight still.

Retro like calculators, cool.

Some sort of balance board?

These are bendable pencils, even the lead is flexible. It writes just like a normal pencil, but I'm curious about how you sharpen it if the outer part is rubber like....

J-Pop Summit Festival shirts.

Ads for the Danceroid Autograph Session. Apparently you need to buy their stuff in order to get a autograph with them. This makes for a sad experience for me, you'll see when I talk about it later.

At the last two cons I went to, Crunchyroll.com had their own live feed like this, but this time NicoNico.com is here to advertise themselves.

Standard mini keychains for sale, a lot of these are becoming very common in my photos so I'll probably take less of them in the future. I still can't find a specific Yui and Mugi mini plushi band version to complete the band.

This is the finished work of the calligraphy I showed you earlier.

It's so much more convenient when its easy to walk with no crowds. Cherry Blossom Festival is just choking with people and heat.

Taiyaki is yum.

Sword store got some sharp letter openers for you to buy.

Along with some other blades as well.

I'd like to have something like this in my own place.

Random cute things for sale.

These are those things you put on your car dashboard, though I don't know for what reason.

Traditional Japanese Geisha dolls.

Lucky Cat waves at you!

Some Tanabata with some wishes for Japan. Can you read this? I already know what it means but this would be a good test for yourself if you can too.

There was a lolita contest going on. I didn't stick around for the event, but just took pictures at the end.

Look who it is backstage? That's right! Its Danceroid members Ikura and Kozue. I first heard and saw them from Kozue's dance videos on YouTube.

During the Danceroid concert, winds toppled the back J-Pop Summit Festival banner. It fell backwards so there was no danger to Ikura-sama and Kozue-sama. I got the incident on tape.

The public watches the great Danceroid dancers do their stuff.

I was holding my tripod with it standing on one leg so that I could turn it smoother. It's so shaky when I try to do it with the tripod itself because it uses oil rather than ball bearings.

The Danceroid duo up close, but this is not the only time I get this close to them.

During the Autograph session, I was litterally behind them the entire time. There was no real line or security, though there was always a swarm of cameras and a couple of helpers around them.

Whats so sad is that despite being so near to such great dancers who are well known for their dances in Japan and on the Internet, I couldn't go and get an autograph or meet them for that matter. To me honestly, it wasn't worth it buying something just for that. This is the best I could do, pictures and more pictures, along with some video as well.

Yukie Dong meets Danceroid.

Kozue-sama signs not just paper, but shoes, receipts, and shirts whether or not they are being worn or not.

The line from the store after buying something to get an autograph with Danceroid. They check you if you bought $20 worth of Danceroid stuff and if you didn't then access denied.

I wish I could of gotten a photo with them, oh well.

I was able to take one final photo of the two returning back to their hotel. Seems strange that these popular dancers are like almost alone like shown here, but it's of course expected.

While I'm not a real big fan of Vocaloid music, the mixes that the DJ was putting on of various Vocaloid music was fantastic. Makes me wish I could do the same.

Oh yeah, I snapped this photo of a guy's bag who was standing in front of me. He didn't know I took this picture.

It's always nice to come and visit Japantown for whatever reason. This is probably my last Japanese related event I'll be going to this year. Anime Expo really did me in with money spending and also classes have started too. So it's back to school for me and saving money for future events such as AOD, Fanime, AX, etc.