Anime Festival Asia 2014 !! #3

Technically this post has nothing to do with AFA anymore as it ended the night before. Then again my brain can't come up with a title that links this post to the previous two so Ima just go with it.

[Monday - 7/12/14]

 

Last photo taken of me taken at the inn before I left.

This marks the day I check out and leave Singapore... Ahh time passed so quickly.. I didn't get much sleep as I went to bed quite late or rather quite early in the morning so I decided to skip breakfast. But I couldn't sleep in pass 12pm unless I wanna end up paying for another night at the inn. I had a lunch date with Mayu and Aiko so I had to get up and get going before 12pm. Woke up, confirmed time and place to meet, start packing, check out and off I go. I was planning to leave my luggage at the inn while I wandered around but decided to drag it along with me. Save the trouble of coming back to Chinatown to get it later on. Mayu was already waiting for me at Somerset MRT station when I left the inn. Have a look at my bed this year and my yearly companion, a Rilakkuma pouch given to me by my Aika mates 2 years ago~ I left OO-Kun facing the wall since Saturday night..

 

While I was on my way to Somerset, I notice 3 guys who were from Malaysia (I assume based on the custom tag on one of their luggage) who went to AFA too. I had my OO-Kun with me so obviously at least one of them noticed I was there for AFA too. I'm mentioning this cause they had their luggage with them but they weren't headed for the airport. At least not yet. They took the same service line as I did but I got off at Somerset before they did. I assume they were heading towards Orchard. I like staring at people who has the same interests as I do. When I reached Somerset station, I started looking around for Mayu. I spotted a girl with a large pink luggage but assumed it wasn't her because she stays in Singapore. It was indeed Mayu... She was heading back to Malaysia to fly to Taiwan in a few days. We walked our way to *Scape for our McDonald's lunch~ Mayu was trying to collect the One Piece collectibles that you can buy along with a McD value meal. Aiko and her boyfriend joined us soon to sacrifice our tummies to help Mayu eat the meals. *cough* While nomming on my lunch, a kid came to ask me where I got my OO-Kun. Too bad for you kid. Aiko's boyfriend mentioned I should pass my OO-Kun to the kid since I can't bring it up the plane qwq While nomming and chit chatting, we mentioned our flight times and apparently Aiko's boyfriend and I are taking the same flight back to Malaysia. Coincidence much.

 

After lunch comes dessert! We walked back to 313@Somerset to have some Honey Creme soft serve ice cream! Ahhh thank you Aiko for mentioning Honey Creme on Saturday night else I wouldn't have been able to tag along for Honey Creme! I ordered Honey Comb while Aiko's bf ordered the same. Mayu ordered the chocolate one while Aiko ordered the Affogato! I totally forgot I wanted to order the Affogato qwq It tasted so heavenly! Aiko and the bf mentioned Milk Cow's soft serve in Malaysia tasted milkier. But they don't have Affogato here in Malaysia. Sobs. I'm heading out to try Milk Cow's soft server this coming Sunday with Dawn and Yuji. They have red bean related ones tho. My Honey Comb was sweet and tasted heavenly as well~ I love it a lot! Would totally come back for more the next time I am in Singapore! I asked ZH about Honey Creme the night before but he said he never heard of it....... Xen went jelly mode after seeing my Honey Comb Honey Creme photo~~ I was chewing on the honey comb when we left and was telling them how it was tasteless then Aiko and the bf started saying it's tasteless because it's wax and I'm not suppose to eat it..... I still continued chewing it and swallowed it lol. We bid Mayu farewell after our dessert and went Takashimaya. Aiko went Sanrio calendar shopping while I just stayed around to leech wifi from her boyfriend. Yes I'm that evil lol. They then mentioned there's 30 minutes free wifi available right at Orchard MRT station's entrance which my eyes immediately went *bling*.

 

After leaving the pair, I went to Orchard MRT station (in which I got a little lost) to leech more wifi. ZH and the rest was suppose to meet up with me to go to the Little Prince cafe but they ended up ffk-ing me. (ffk as in fong fei kei) Super sad! I ended up heading to Bugis to walk around, find my KOI and look for the cat cafe ZH mentioned. While I was leaving, my phone picked up the hotspot signal from Aiko's bf's phone so I figured they were heading back to Chinatown to pick up their luggage before heading to the airport. I ended up camping at Chinatown station thinking I might bump into them. I didn't. By 4.15pm I had to leave and head for Bugis. I took the Downtown line again as this time I'm really headed for Bugis. While waiting for the train to arrive, I did a mini photo shoot for my OO-Kun balloon pretending he's happily exploring Singapore! I have to upload those photos tho.. So no photos for now. I even skipped a train to take more shots. 

While walking around the station finding the exit, I spotted something I've been finding for 2 years, Lao Ban tao huey. Except this was Lao Ban's son?! I bought the almond flavored tao huey and headed for Bugis. When exiting the MRT area, something went wrong with my ezlink card.. I forgot what the error was but the staff had to do something to my card before I could leave. Even tho it's been the 3rd year I wandered around Bugis, I still get lost. Not like omg where am I?! more like which way do I walk to get to KOI again?... Since there's the Bugis Junction, Bugis+ difference. I saw the Hobbit promotional area thingy and took some photos~ People were swarming Gandalf so I didn't take a photo of the statue. How I wish I could stay longer to wait for the crowd to disperse...

 

Made my way to KOI Cafe after figuring out which way to head towards. Ordered another Black Tea Machiatto which I sorta regret cause I didn't drink my Green Tea Machiatto this year. After getting my drink, I stopped by the side to take a photo of my drink in which then the cashier asked whether the bag of thingies by the counter was mine. Holyshit I actually left my tao huey and iPod by the counter and didn't notice.... Lucky I have the bad habit of feeding my phone first.... (as in taking photos) I couldn't find MOS Burger at Bugis... Not sure if it closed or I just got lost and missed it. I did find the cat cafe ZH mentioned but I didn't have the time to visit nor even pass by it. I had to leave for the airport. It's good enough that I even manage to squeeze time out to wander around Bugis. I thought I wouldn't be visiting this area this year.. Hooray to getting ffk-ed! (not a good thing to be happy about)

After checking in to my flight, I started looking around to see if Aiko's bf is anywhere to be seen. But nope. Oh well~ I went down to the basement to take a look at Ramen Champion. This is probably the only year which I didn't dine at Ramen Champion. Opposite Ramen Champion was Four Fingers. Another fast food shop which is not available in Malaysia. While waiting for time to pass, I started taking photos of the Christmas decorations at the airport. Not to forget is to take some shots of OO-Kun exploring the airport! Dawn was suppose to join me this year in exploring Changi Airport but she couldn't make it so maybe next year. All of a sudden I realized I didn't take photos WITH my OO-Kun so I sat somewhere and started taking tons of selfies with it. I remember a random auntie was watching from the side probably thinking "why this girl so vain a taking so many selfies in the airport" Probably. When I was about to nom on my tao huey, I dropped it. The cover broke but the tao huey was still intact. Bless. *I brought the plastic container home lol) I had to finish it quickly as I still had to deflate my OO-Kun balloon. Ahh such heartache when I had to deflate it T___T After deflating it, I had to rush to my departure gate. I was so close to missing boarding time.. Like 30 seconds close. Yep. Despite reaching the airport early, I still ended up chasing the plane. I need someone to travel with me so that this doesn't happen again sobs. The guy by the scanner even rushed me to put my things on the belt as the gate was closing. Thank you miss air stewardess for putting my luggage up in the overhead compartment for me.

The seat next to mine on the flight was empty. The uncle even mentioned I could put my stuffs on it along with his wife's bag if I wanted to. There were assorted in-flight entertainments available. Including movies like The Hobbit : The Unexpected Journey and Sherlock (the one by Robert Downey Jr.). The moment the plane landed I switched on my phone and data immediately. Checked my FB messages only to see that Xen and ZH messaged me hours ago (after I left Bugis. I had wifi while still at Bugis) asking when am I flying back. I was like "er... do I still need to answer this question?" cause I already landed... Ahhh they were trying to plan to send me off... If only the message reached me before I left Bugis.. Oh well maybe next year.. I didn't see Aiko's bf in the flight till like when the plane landed. He was probably rushing to meet Aiko but still helped me with my luggage hoho. I lost sight of him by the duty free area as I was searching for chocolate! I did find what I was looking for! Nyums! Only bought two of the same chocolate before I left the area. Met up with the brother and mom after wandering around a little before leaving the airport. The airport is huge and I'm a little saddened I didn't get to wander around more. On the way home I even got to buy KFC's Double Down Maxx for dinner! Yep late dinner again. I was afraid if I didn't buy it now I would miss the promotion period and not get to eat it this year.

 

That ends my trip to Singapore in 2014! Next trip would be next year. I will still attend AFA even tho I complain a lot about the lack of things that interests me year after year. It is a tad bit saddening when I didn't get to hang out with them more but oh well~ There's always next time~ That is if we still stay contact... Fingers crossed. Oh they will be coming to Malaysia next week from the 25th to the 30th! For Comic Fiesta~ I doubt we'd end up spending much of the time mingling so fingers crossed I'd even get 2 hours of mingling okay. I sorta wish Xen would bring Olaf along but I doubt so. Bye Olaf~ 

Okay enough of random stuff. Ciao~ Be back after Comic Fiesta~

Anime Festival Asia 2014 !!

Hey-hie mighty-o!!
That was just a random thing that came up while thinking of how to start this post. Wow look at the date of the last post.. It has been close to 2 months since I last blogged.. That isn't too long I guess~ At one point I thought I haven't blogged for months so yeah~

Back to the main title! I just came back from Singapore last week! Why was I in Singapore? Why of course to attend Anime Festival Asia (AFA) 2014! It's officially a 3 full day event now~ And soon it's gonna be a week long event mwahahaha! Iit used to be a 3 nights 2 days event with concerts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights and exhibitions on Saturday and Sunday from 9am to 9pm. I skipped Friday thinking I was gonna be super bored there as I was pretty much all on my own this year and went for Saturday and Sunday only. Which of course I proved myself quite right. I flew to Singapore early Saturday morning and came back Monday night. The original plan to fly early morning is to skip trying hard to wake up and get out of bed while in Singapore and to listen in on Starchild's main stage event. Which I skipped cause I wasn't that interested in the other main stage events.

Now for the lengthier, detailed day-by-day part. Excuse the English.

[Saturday - 6/12/2014]

Pretty much skipped sleeping as my OCD kicked in and I was afraid of missing my flight. I woke pretty early (considering I only wake after noon time on a daily basis) on Friday... So I was pretty much sleepless for over 36 hours yey! Reached the airport, ate breakfast, checked-in and went on observing people at the departure hall. Didn't realize my FB status update had a typo due to lack of sleep... Instead of "Up up and away!" I typed "Off off and away!" and thought it was normal.......... 6.55am flight... Much yolo-ness in it. I picked the airport closer to home so I won't end up chasing the airplane. While waiting to board the plane, I heard someone playing the Minions' Christmas song video behind me. I get super excited whenever I spot Japanese around me and thought the girls in front of me were heading to AFA too but they weren't. Oh well~

After an hour's flight, around 8.15am, I finally reached Singapore! ♥ The plane somehow "parked" super far that we had to get on the shuttle bus to get to the airport building. It was awesome ♥ and suddenly dundundunnnnn why this? Tthe moment I switched on my phone, the horror of the year 2014 (in my life) happened.... NO ROAMING! Yep. For the first time ever I'm in Singapore with a phone that does not have roaming and best part? It's also the first time I'm traveling alone. And if that's not enough, the wifi at the airport doesn't work. I know it sounds a little exaggerated since it's only no roaming no wifi and stuff but it wasn't at all. Okay fine maybe a little. It wouldn't be a problem at all if I was traveling with friends. It wasn't that big a problem too even when I was traveling alone. But it is a HUGE problem when you're not sure if your friend is at the airport to pick you up and you have no way of contacting him to know. A friend sorta offered to pick me up at the airport but without roaming or working wifi, I couldn't contact him to find out. Maybe due to lack of sleep, it didn't cross my mind that I could just use the public phone (if any) or borrow someone's phone to make the call. "What if he's already at the airport waiting somewhere?!" is the only thing that came up in my mind. (Roaming thingy worked last year.. Then I realized I changed my mobile plan thingy just months ago....) Got on the MRT and off to Chinatown I go. For the third consecutive year, I chose to stay at 5footwayinn @ Chinatown for my AFA trip. It wasn't until I reached the inn, got connected to the wifi that I confirmed my friend did not go to the airport to pick me up. Phew~ Got myself checked-in, ditched the luggage, ate my second breakfast (since it was still available) and off to the venue, Suntec City I go~

There were no maid / butler cafes this year~ Moar space for other stuff *cough* Bought my ticket and in I go~ Walked around blindly since I'm not sure where to start. As usual there's Odex, Muse, AFA Shop, Culture Japan, Good Smile Company, Animax booths. I spotted the Asia Anisong-Singer Audition booth next to Starchild's booth and watched as people go up the stage taking turns to sing~ One of the main reasons I decided to step into the exhibition hall this year was to get Tsuda Kenjiro & Horie Yui's autograph. And to my expectation :

 

QAQ Did you hear the sound of my heart shattering into pieces?! Well yep.... I'm sure it's fully given out thanks to Horie Yui's appearance... My TsudaKen autograph T_T The other reason I decided to enter the exhibition hall was the Unlight Card Game booth by Gloczus which wasn't actually a whole booth thingy but just a corner of the table with characters with item codes on them being given away. Oh and a Evarist standee. The rest of the booth was mainly promoting Hakuoki otome game. I spotted one of the Unlight players cosplaying as one of the Unlight character but I didn't greet her and just walked off. *shy* 

The nico nico Kunikaigi area was huge and awesome! owo As much as I'd like to try the karaoke, I dare not to cause like... It's live and I can barely remember half a song |D I wish I joined the dance area activities... Looked fun qwq There were 3 karaoke booths. The AAA booth, nico nico karaoke booth and the one by brother. I wandered around listening to people singing karaoke for like 80% of the time I spent in the hall. Yep I was that bored. OO-Kun balloons (Animax mascot) were given out at Animax's booth from time to time and being the "I want all freebies" person that I am, I went to queue for it ///w/// Went out for lunch at the food court near the fountain area. I tried to order Japanese Curry Rice like I did last year and got the same reply of "oh curry no more" like last year...... Fine. I end up eating the same thing I did last year with an extra Chawanmushi. Yey! Cheap and pretty good chawanmushi~ Shared tables with 2 girls that came for AFA too. They were shy to ask where I got my OO-Kun balloon~ Darren spotted me when I was eating. We end up ordering from the same food stall. He came a day earlier for the concert and what not. 

Went back into the hall after lunch while still thinking whether or not to get angela's autograph again since I already got it last year.  Ended up not getting it since I already got it~ And it's collecting dust somewhere *cough* Around 4.45pm, I sat at one of the karaoke booth (brother) and started dozing off........ I was fishing (in chinese, expression of dozing off) there... When Lost Ash was about to come on stage again, I quickly dashed off. I was quite out of place so hehehehehehe.. I wonder what I did for the rest of the hours... Before the concert started, I was right outside the concert halls leeching wifi and bumped into Aiko! We were both like "wow we finally meet" We were both thinking when will we bump into each other. Greeted Mayu and confirmed my Monday McD lunch mwahahaha~ They went into the concert hall leaving me behind soon.

By 8pm the exhibition hall was pretty empty but the AAA booth was still on! I went to take a seat while deciding whether or not to get on the mini stage to sing. The emcee was like telling everyone "Come on stage and sing whatever song you want. It's free for all to sing. You already came in the hall so why not!" In which I finally gave in and did~ I came in and bought nothing, did nothing much so hey why not~ Once in a life time, yolo moment~ Chose moment by Vivian or Kazuma cause I'm pretty sure I can't sing Rolling Star by YUI well enough in that condition... I was shaking and shivering as expected but I finished the song nonetheless~ Thank you random event go-er stranger that sorta encouraged me and gave me a confidence boost :') At some point during the middle of the day, the emcee of the AAA booth sang "What does the Fox say?" on the mini stage. Like wow. It was nice! Before I got on stage, I had to run to one of the booths in the corner to get water. Haven't had water in HOURS. My singing probably sucked even more thanks to not drinking water *cough*excuses*cough* After singing, I went to Starchild's booth to ask about a lucky draw they were having. I asked the quite-kakkoi-looking staff since he's the nearest staff and he went "aa boku wa shiranai" and walked off cause he couldn't understand what I asked... Sorry dude I couldn't ask it in Japanese... It was cute and funny how he just moved away and let the other female staff deal with me~

Before I left the exhibition area, I went to buy the super cheap, price-lowered curry rice from Seika Cafe! It was sold at $8 during the day and by 8.45pm it was sold at $2 each!!! Regretted so much for only buying two! I spotted some Sherlock calenders being sold at one of the doujin booths! Too bad it was a little too expensive for me... Stood somewhere near the exit to have my curry rice dinner while listening to people singing FLOW's GO at the brother booth~ I left the hall just as it was about to close for the night. While making my way to the MRT station, I found a new KOI Cafe branch! I have no idea what I was thinking when I decided to get the KOI Cafe membership card thingy when I only go Singapore like once a year....... $5 gone. Finally got to try Black Tea Machiatto tho. It was as heavenly as Green Tea Machiatto~~ Went back to my inn at Chinatown only to see Xen's message saying I could just hang out at their hotel while waiting for supper...... Which was way back near Suntec...... Ouch. My kokoro is brokoro- wait wrong. My legs are brokoro. Ah much better. I could've... Saved my $5 qwq Oh well... What's done is done...

I had to ditch my other curry rice and my KOI BTM at the lobby while I moved my luggage to my room. While walking up to my room, I was praying the staff would lead me to the attic room and voila~ Attic room again it is~ I stayed in the exact same room 2 years ago during my first stay here~ Except this time I got the bed Hermes got 2 years ago~ But I got the same drawer/locker thingy I got two years ago~ Into the refrigerator the curry rice went~ Saved it for lunch on Sunday~ Waited for the supper call while surfing the internet like finally~ Met up with Xen, Zhao Han, Ashe, CJ, Wei Lee like finally @ 11.30pm. Supper time! I thought they figured out where to have our supper but nope. Most places were close so we ended up going somewhere near Zhao Han's place for tao huey owo Xen has an Olaf in his car!! And Wei Lee was messing with it .____. CJ thought I couldn't recognize / don't know him but I do. The first thing I said to ZH when I saw him was "hie stickman". ahahaha I'm evil :x It's the first time I got drove around in a friend's car in Singapore! It's usually either MRT MRT MRT or taxi. Thank you for fulfilling my nonsensical request for supper even though all of you were probably super tired m( __  __ )m They dropped ZH back at his place, then me, then went back to their hotel. I took my shower, set my things around properly and went to bed~ I notice the milo supply at the inn sucked badly this year. It's like 95% water and 5% (or heck maybe even less) milo powder... /muchsad/

That ends day 1 in Singapore and I shall continue later on as it is now 4am. HAHHAHAHA as usual when I start typing, I would end up typing for hours on end. Good night to me~