Anime Festival Asia 2012

From the 9th to the 11th of November, Anime Festival Asia or better known as AFA was once again held in Singapore at the Singapore Expo and it is it's 5th year running. It's biggest event was the Electric Groove: I love Anisong concert featuring 11 artists all the way from Japan divided into three days. I regretfully didn't go for any of the concerts due to inconveniences but I still had my share of excitement at AFA.

Months before, Cheryl, Misaki and I planned to go to AFA. During that time, I just got to know Snow who happens to be studying in the same college as us. With her friends Shusuke and Geraldine. Snow had arranged a group to go down to Singapore for AFA so Cheryl, Misaki and I just hopped in their group, I later learned that Laura wants to go as well, which was quite a surprise for me. After booking our accommodation and buying our bus tickets, all we had to do was wait for the exciting day. The total in the group are 9 of us excluding one guy who couldn't make it before we bought the tickets. Which comes down to what I had feared: I was the only guy, again. I was going down to Singapore with 8 girls and worst part is, more than half of them are yaoi fans.

Our bus leaves on the 10th, Saturday morning. We had to miss Day 0 of AFA. It's the day when event tickets are sold and the night where Electric Groove: I love Anisong's Electro Stage comes to live with the full solo concert of the truly amazing T.M.Revolution. Weiss had been screaming about going to their concert and she described herself as 'crying like a witch' after the concert. She was seriously overjoyed. The bus we were taking is the One Coach which takes us from One World Hotel to Singapore (not exactly sure where). The night before, Laura and I slept over at Cheryl's place and in the morning, Misaki came to pick me up while Cheryl and Laura waited for Cheryl's dad to get ready to bring them to 1Utama. We had breakfast at McDonald's the four of us together and then we headed to One World Hotel where our bus takes off. There I meet the others, Rosa and Julia; Rosa being the oldest and Julia being the youngest in our group. Long story short, all I did on the bus was watch anime and sleep (and listen to conversations).

We reached Singapore in 4 hours where to bus dropped us at the One Coach agency outlet. The rest of the building was pretty much deserted, closed, like everyone went on a holiday or something. We made our way out and took two cabs to our hostel, the Betel Box Backpackers Hostel in Joo Chiat. When we went to check in, problems arrise. Turns out that the hostel had rules about not letting people share beds. We had earlier thought of saving some money and sharing beds but we can't do that. So the five of them, Snow, Shu, Geraldine, Rosa and Julia took the room we booked (6-persons mix dorm) earlier and the remaining four of us, Cheryl, Misaki, Laura and I took the 20-persons mix dorm. We had some bad beginnings with the hostel but later on we find it splendid. One night in the hostel is $20 and you get a $3.90 coupon off any one meal at the Betel Box Cafe downstairs. There were lockers you can use, television you can watch, they had a pool table, free wi-fi, kitchen with a fridge, hot water and mugs, and computers that you can use for only 30minutes a day. They also provide activities and sightseeing brochures and other hostel locations. The beds in the 20-persons mix dorm are double-decker beds and all the bottoms are taken so the four of us chose the four closest beds and settled on the top bunks. So Misaki and I are on the same row while Cheryl and Laura are opposite us.

By the time we finished settling down, it was pretty late at around 6pm. We went down to the cafe to have dinner and we planned what to do after. It was too late to go down to the Expo for AFA Day 1 and Anisong's seconday day concert, the Jump Stage featuring Babymetal, FLOW, fripSide, LiSA and m.o.v.e. was about to start. We then decided to locate the MRT station near the hostel so that we know where to go the next morning. Using the map the receptionist gave us and with his guidance, we followed the map to the MRT station and back.

Back at the hostel, Cheryl, Misaki, Laura and I got to know Jeffrey, a Malaysian in his 50s working in Singapore. He told us various things, stuff like other good hostels, his life and his work. After his storytelling, we took our baths and we went up to Snow and the other's room. I just chilled around while the girls chatted (rather, squealing with excitement) about yaoi stuff while trying to keep their voices down because the whole hostel could hear them. Laura, being the only girl who's not a yaoi fan decided to play Team Fortress 2 on her laptop, to my dismay because I wanna play too!!

After all the hoo-hah, the four of us left the room and brought our laptops to the lounge and started doing our work. We can't really take a break on our trip because it's not even our holidays yet. Ugh. Misaki and I went to bed first. Our plan was to wake up at 5.30am and then get ready to go to the event at 7am. We had planned it for 6am but we found out that public transports don't start running until 7am on Sundays.

Cheryl woke me up at around 6am after the three girls were ready. In less than 10 minutes, I got ready and we went out to the lounge to meet the others. They were all in cosplay already and had most of their makeup done. Cheryl, Misaki and Laura decided to go to the event to get dressed instead. At around 6.30am, we all got up and left for the MRT station. We had to take the MRT down to Tanah Merah and then interchange to the Changi Airport line. The Expo is the station before the airport and when we were entering the Expo's station, we could see the whole Expo. It was really huge!!

AFA was held at Hall 7 and 8. The concerts are held at the Max Pavilion. When we got to the event entrance, we saw crowds sitting in front of the entrance waiting for the doors to open and we were relived to see that the que for the tickets were empty. After we bought our tickets, the girls all went to look for a toilet to get changed and put on their makeup. We went all the way to Hall 9 because the other toilets were locked. I sat outside and waited for them. I felt like forever! To think that I was so excited when we were walking towards the event and then, I'm bored like dried fish. Snow and the others came out first because they were done. However Cheryl and the others were not. So I followed Snow's group to have breakfast at Subway.

After a satisfying breakfast, we went back to the toilet to find that Cheryl and the others were not ready. Weiss was also there getting ready. Snow and the others decided to go in first so I followed after putting on my Cardboard box Gundam costume on (click on the link to learn more!).

In the event hall, wow. It was exciting at first but then, I got bored pretty fast because it was like any other ACG event hall, just more stuff to see. We went around the Sword Art Online booth, the Bandai booth, some other booths and then, I spotted it, the booth I planned to go to after seeing the map while waiting for the girls to get ready! THE POKEMON BOOTH! I ran over while the girls were looking at figurines. But to my huge disappointment, like finding a toothpick in a huge birthday present, the Pokemon booth was sad. It was only featuring Japan's newest Pokemon arcade game and some merchandises. Where are the  DS battles? Where are the TCG battles? Where? I was disappointed. I went back to the booth the girls were at and took a final look at the Pokemon booth. A television displaying various advertisements about Pokemon games and TCG were running and two (probably hired) cosplayers as the Pokemon Plus Nobunaga no Yabou (or the lame English name, Pokemon Conquest)'s main hero and Oichi. The girls were done and continued to walk on. As I followed them, I looked over to the Culture Japan booth (as usual it's bright orange with Mirai everywhere, ahh~) which is next to the Pokemon booth and among the few people I spotted Yun Hann. Like a natural reaction, I ran up to him and greeted him. He was clearly surprised. If Yun Hann was here, Jun Ee would definitely be as well. Yun Hann pointed him out over at the Pokemon booth. He was looking at the Pokemon posters on the back of the disappointing booth. Worried that I would get separated from the group, I excussed myself and went to find the Kuro no Basket cosplayers but I lost them so I went back and met up with Jun Ee and we started chatting. Jun Ee and Yun Hann got to AFA on Friday and they went for the TMR concert. Jun Ee discussed about his experience at the event so far. He was also disappointed about the Pokemon booth. Of course we would, we both grew up playing Pokemon TCG together. We had our own Pokemon games too. We were Pokemon fans! After chatting we walked together. Jun Ee gave me a brief run-through of all the booths in the event hall. Half-way through, we saw a crowd standing gathering at a booth. The booth was the Babymetal booth (featuring a little fox shrine and a group cut-out photo thing), seemed like they were coming so we stood there as well to try to get a look at them. For some reason, as we waited, we got pushed further behind until a wall of photographers were in front of us. Jun Ee was joking that they're a group of pedophiles waiting for the little girls to come out. Hahaha. We went to wait at the next booth were LiSA was gonna make an appearance. While we waited for LiSA, Babymetal walked pass behind us. I got to see the three members of the unique J-pop mixed heavy metal group in person but I couldn't take any pictures when they posed for the cameras because all the 'pedophiles' were blocking.

Anyway, after Babymetal left, LiSA's manager, Nishihara-san came out and talked to the audience (us). We were not allowed to take pictures and videos when LiSA comes out so I didn't get any. Sad. Jun Ee was saying how during AFA'11, LiSA was like a nobody, when he was fanboying over LiSA, everyone didn't know who she was. Now, because of Sword Art Online, LiSA suddenly became a boom and he said that he has to graduate from being a LiSA fan because she has become mainstream. Haha. I know how he feels, it goes the same for me with manga, especially when the manga becomes an anime and gets popular from it. We got to see LiSA in person and they were discussing about the concert and Singapore and future projects. When given the audience one question, a guy asked when will LiSA be coming to Malaysia (Yes! Good job whoever you are!). LiSA asked what's good in Malaysia and the only thing the Malaysians present thought of were our food. It was funny. After the little appearance, everyone dispersed from the booth and as the three of us left, we caught FLOW waking pass (without any bodyguards). A couple of fans who saw them quickly ran up to them and got their autographs and photos with them with the help of a Japanese staff member.

LiSA was going to the Sword Art Online booth to sign autographs and take pictures so I parted ways with Jun Ee and Yun Hann. I had no plans of getting stuck in a group of crazed fans in a small booth. We went around to see other booths and find the girls. I was lucky to find Cheryl and the others. Because I pretty much had looked at all the booths, the event was boring for me already. I did get some excitement seeing cosplayers cosplaying my favorite characters and a tall slenderman (a female cosplayer in stilts). The rest of the day I was the girl's lackey. Helping them carry their stuff around. We went for lunch in the food court in mall next to the Expo (I don't remember what mall it was). We went back and continued the usual stuff. I ended getting really tired. We met with Jean and the twins (I still don't remember their names... I only know the two of them as Hayashi Kirin, as one). We went around the doujin booths many many times. Unfortunately for me, I didn't have anything I wanted to buy and when I did, it was sold out. Hachioji-P's electric love feat. Hatsune Miku... Sob.

So I was running low on money so I didn't buy anything for myself. I bought a badge for my sister and that was it. Later the five of us went out and got out of cosplay. Cheryl, Misaki, Laura, Weiss and I sat outside Hall 9 and chatted. Soon, people started queuing up for the last night's Anisong concert, the Diamond Stage featuring Hachioji-P, May'n, Minami Kuribayashi, Sea☆A and Sphere. When the que started to go into the Max Pavilion, we decided to go back. After taking a photo with Weiss, we parted ways. The four of us took the MRT back. Earlier we had discussed with Snow and the others that at a specific time we should have gone back already so we thought Snow and the group had went back ahead of us.

When we got back, we were shocked to find that the others were not back yet. While I was worried, Cheryl said that it shouldn't be a problem because Snow's pretty responsible and Rosa's the closest to being the adult of the group. While we were unpacking our stuff (Me? I just sat around looking through the brochures I got). A man walked out of the bath and when we greeted him, he asked us if we felt cold last night because he was feeling very cold. That eventually lead to a conversation with him. The man was Christober from Spain. He loved Asia so he's been around looking for a job and a place to settle in. We chatted for a while but because I was tired, I rested at my bunk. When Snow and Shu walked into our dorm, I was really relieved. Being the only guy in the whole group puts a lot of responsibility on me (me putting them on myself really). The four of us decided to have dinner down at the cafe before it closes after bathing. While the girls when to bath, I fell asleep on my bunk. I'm not sure how long I slept and I forgot who woke me up but I took a quick bath and we went to have our dinner.

After filling ourselves with vegetarian curry and rice, the four of us went back up and we find Snow and the others at the lounge eating snacks and instant cup noodles. Cheryl, Misaki and Laura went back to the dorm to get their stuff but they got absorbed into listening to Christober's stories. I just at at the lounge passing the time. I was only waiting for the right time to buy a can of beer to enjoy because before the trip, I promised myself a can of beer because why not? Later, the girls came out of the dorm with Christober and they joined us. While most of were doing our work, Christober was very impressed and awed by Autodesk Maya. I eventually got my can of beer, a tall one because the hostel didn't have any of the normal cans. I think I got a little drunk? When I went to sleep, I didn't stay awake the moment I hit the pillow.

I woke up to the sounds of Cheryl and Misaki talking. I went to clean up and got changed and when Laura was ready, we went down to the cafe and had breakfast. Snow and the others just finished their breakfast so we arranged to meet at the lounge after our breakfast. Like I promised myself, I had the Betel Box Big Breakfast (or also known as the B4). It had a hash-brown, grilled mushrooms, grilled cherry tomatoes, fried bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs (to my favor of style), salad and a croissant. While we enjoyed our breakfast, we talked to the kitchen staff present at the cafe today. He talked about all kinds of stuff with us.

After our breakfast, we went back up and Cheryl checked out for us. We put our bags in the lounge after informing the receptionist about going sightseeing before coming back to get our luggage. After Snow and the others came down and checked out, we all headed out to the bus stop outside Joo Chiat Complex. We were heading to VivoCity Mall. Snow and the others wanted to go there and so we did. At the mall, we split into our two groups and we went our ways. First, Cheryl and Laura went to the toilet and then we went to a pharmacy because Laura had to buy stuff because she found out she had the 'whoosh'. We walked around seeing the shops.

We eventually came to a toyshop called ToyTag. At first glance, you'll see that the shop sells a lot of unique board games and sort you don't normally find in franchising toyshops like Toys'R'Us. I didn't see any Scrabble or Monopoly there. Very neat. They even had hobby gifts like Rubik's Cube mug, t-shirt (The Minecraft shirts attracted all of our attention), etc. After I was fascinated by a disk-ball toy, I spotted a Rubik's cube on the casher desk, but it wasn't the Rubik's cube that only caught my attention, I was drawn to the cube next to it that was just placed on the desk after I spotted the cube, it wasn't just any Rubik's cube, it was white and pillowed and I know of only one company that makes cubes like that. I kept my cool and examined some other board games while I kept taking short glances at the cube on the table, it was no mistake, that is definitely a V-Cube3. I walked up to the casher and had a look at it to confirm myself. The cashier turned around and greeted me. He saw I was looking at the cube so he started to promote it. "Oh, this just came in today. Cool right?". In a flash, all sort of excitement filled my head. I asked if I could try it out and the cashier said okay. Oh my god, it was like some kind of heaven, I've never felt a Rubik's cube so firm and so smooth turning in my hand. I did a quick mess up and a quick solve as Laura asked the cashier some questions regarding international shipping followed by introducing where we came from. The cashier probably saw the sparkle in my eyes and talked to me about the Rubik's cube. I told him about how I was always looking for V-Cubes and asked if they had the V-Cube6 and he said "Yes, we do. They all came in today.". My brain started to work, should I buy it? I have my debit card, it's international, I can purchase it, I didn't buy anything from AFA so if I get this, I won't go back empty-handed. Cheryl and Laura alerted me about the Giant GummyBears on display in the fridge display thing (that bakeries have to display cakes). I saw shocked, it was those Giant GummyBears that Vat19 had advertised before! And they had the Party Bear too! And then I realised that the shop itself was selling quite a number of things I've seen on Vat19, the Robot Ice Cube Maker that Cheryl picked for her brother was one of them! The cashier came back with the cube I always wished for. I asked for the price and he gave me the price for the Pillowed V-Cube3 and V-Cube6. I did some thinking and after Cheryl's purchase I took my debit card out and purchased the V-Cube6, with so much joy I felt like crying. I kept saying, "I don't care how happy you are today, I'm the happiest now!".

After following the girls to buy some chocolates, we headed back to the meeting point, the entrance we came in from and we headed out to the bus stop to catch the bus back to Joo Chiat Complex. It took quite awhile for the bus to arrive and time was running short, the others were getting worried. The bus finally came but later on the ride, we overshot our stop. Time was really a factor now, lucky for us, there were three cabs at a cab stop nearby and we quickly got in them to get back to the hostel. Shu's parents were gonna pick her up from the hostel because they came down to Singapore so we kept two of the cabs waiting and we grabbed our bags and headed to where the OneCoach bus we were taking was gonna leave. The cab driver in the cab I was in said that the cab Cheryl took was going a long way. So Misaki, Laura, Geraldine and I got to the place first. We were not sure if Cheryl, Snow, Rosa and Julia were already at the place already or not but we saw a OneCoach bus waiting so in desperation, Laura and Geraldine went up to the office to check and request that they wait for us. While Misaki and I were waiting for the two of them, Cheryl and others got there. Snow had all our tickets so after checking with one of the workers by the OneCoach present, we find that it's our bus, we quickly put our luggage into the bus. Because Laura and Geraldine were not down yet, Misaki went up to find them but after about two minutes, the two of them came back out without Misaki. Things were getting bad as the person in charge was urging us irritatedly to get on the bus and take off even after Cheryl's explanation. Lucky for us, Misaki got down in time and we departed feeling awkward.

After passing through the customs and on our way back to 1Utama, I immediately scrambled my V-Cube6. After about an hour and 45 minutes, I solved it using my knowledge from previous cubes. Luckily I didn't come across any parity errors. When we reached 1Utama, it was pretty late at around 9pm because of the Damansara jam. While everyone went home, Cheryl, Misaki, Laura, Rosa and I went to have dinner at Sakae Sushi. My family were still in Penang so I went to stay overnight at Cheryl's place as usual. Laura's family were not at home either and she didn't drive so she also stayed over.

My first ever AFA experience, I guess I'm a little disappointed in it. Because we've been to so many events the stalls and the ambience are becoming mundane. But I always look forward to them so the upcoming Comic Fiesta better be swell. Coming back from AFA I have one problem: I am broke.