Nothing shouts Japanese residential area like Nerima does. We might get to meet Ranma or Doraemon if we’re lucky.

How do you like the new sidebar? When I was doing the showcase events, I realized that I’ve been slacking in the photo department. My autumn hols have started, so it’s time to pick up the pace. I present to you, the Summer Series! AKA stuff I did during my summer hols.

To start it off, Daim and I visited Nerima. Such a peaceful housing area was the inspiration for the setting of Ranma and Doraemon. In fact, Takahashi Rumiko, the creator of Ranma lives and works here! It’s also the birthplace of many anime studios, including Toei Animation who was behind the classic Sailormoon.

We found Akane’s house! If everything went ok, Ranma should be in there too.

The house used in the Ju-on movie was in Nerima too. Is this the one? L-L-Let’s move on!!

The local neighbourhood school. Thank god there were no students, or I’d be labeled as hentai-san.

Aahh, so peaceful. It feels good to get out of busy central Tokyo.

Our obligatory street mirror camwhore shot!

That was one heck of a short ride.

Now which one is Nobita’s house…

Drying your shoes up like this in Malaysia is like saying goodbye to them! The theft rate in Japan is low. There was one time a middle-aged man left his laptop bag outside to go into a bank!

A big park in the neighbourhood, with nice scenery to boot. Reminds me of my neighbourhood back home heh.

Look at us laughing childishly as we swing! Gosh, how many years has it been? Btw in Japanese, swings are called buranko ブランコ. This buranko is quality assured, I mean, it didn’t break after I rode it :P

This is the usual spot where a guy will stare at a girl as the water splashes to her lips as she drinks. Ok too much anime.

Shameless advertising ftw!

Daim loves cats. Me too actually, but I’m asthmatic and won’t be able to stand a single fur on that… white…. kitty… argh so cute!!!

Strange as it may, but you see a lot of baseball fields in the housing areas here. Thanks to Cross Game, I got a little more interested in baseball recently :)

Daim, on the other hand, was busy taking pictures of two flies bonking. Way to go dude.

A slope just outside the park. I just learned the slope Kanji two weeks ago. A slope in Japanese is called Sakamichi 坂道. Clannad fans should be familiar with the term coz that’s where the story starts ;)

For you guys who live in Damansara Jaya, doesn’t this road look familiar? It looks like the slope from LDP approaching SRJKDJ/Atria, no?

Wow, fishing. Now that’s some peaceful activity. We seemed to have stumble upon a beautiful river park.

Danny Choo once said that it’s best to take pictures in a way that it indicates the country/place upon first glance. I’m not applying it in all my pics (that’s impossible!) but I took this one with that advice in my mind :) Thanks to him, it turned out great!

Just to let you know, we’re properly following the rules here!

Not everyone in Tokyo live in small houses. Okanemochiii~

A great place to buy a drink, beneath a big bonsai tree. Behind the vending machines are some high-class apartments and a French restaurant. Don’t remember seeing that in Ranma.

After a little stroll, we have reached a little town center. Yes, McDonalds still rule the world.

Nerima city officials have been promoting its anime roots for years. Last year they had this wonderful nerima anime walk where you can take a tour of the studios in one swift go. Here’s their webbie, not viewable in Firefox though. Tsk tsk.

If there are electric lines laid out all over the place, it’s Tokyo without a doubt.

A small humble game center in the area. It’s small but it still had Pop’n Music, hell yeah!

Next up is Toshimaen, a little place near Nerima that houses a popular water park. It’s getting late so we went to the next best place, Toys R Us! Today is the day to relive the kid in all of us!

Pikachu box. Yellow as always.

Haha you gotta look at this! The boys here are having so much fun; obviously, who wouldn’t when you have an awesome-possum castle with a roaring green dragon in your right hand!

Now observe this girl’s WTF-am-i-supposed-to-do-with-this face. It’s from the same maker too. I call that gender discrimination!

Let’s see how your Japanese vocab compares to a child’s!

Must be tough having a lot of meat stuck between his teeth.

Catch ‘em all at 279 yen damage each!

The Japanese just love designer items. Here we have Monopoly Japan…

…and here, a designer’s edition of Looney Tunes character figures. Real slick-looking. Sylvester never looked prettier.

The Toshimaen cinema is huge, it’s a building by itself! Quite a rarity in Tokyo.

If there’s one thing that Japan is slow in, it’s movie importing. UP is only coming in December :( According to Daim’s colleague, movies are scheduled to fit popular holidays, so it won’t be shown immediately upon release. Argh the injustice!

Now why is Daim suddenly appearing in this photo? That’s coz he played a role in animating for Hottarake no Shima, a 3D movie by Production IG. In the credits, you can see his name clearly, as it’s one of the few that are in roman characters. So proud :)

Here’s the trailer, in case you’re in the dark. Beautiful and imaginative, can’t wait to see it!

I played a role in another movie as well.

That sums up the Nerima trip. Watch out for the next event in the Summer Series!