Last of the Pan

What's that? More Captain you say?

Well here it is, my last post of Japan. Drink it in.

Ok that's enough. Greedy.

I can't really think of what to say to sum up Japan so err my suggestion is toread the previous posts then mail me a summary, which I can put here and claim I wrote it. Everyone wins. Except you. But yeah its awesome, you should visit sometime.





A few final actives have involved buying various trendy idiot garments, eating lots and going to a manga exhibition. The show is basically for fans who write their own manga's based on original characters or stories. This was a whole other level to the geekdom compared to the toy festival and
it was huge.

After getting there we ended up being sucked into an endless cycle of people walking around the exhibition hall with seemingly no purpose (in life). This continued for a good hour or so when we spied some/hundreds of cosplayers and duly tried to take pictures only to be told off - not sure why, surely that's the point? But anyway after this setback we tried to find out where the cosplay show was being held only to be directed back around the conveyor belt of people, which was about the time we sacked it off and went home disappointed, with only one suitcase full of gay toddler manga.

Managed to get a long distance photy of the cosplayer queue festival. I love Ronald McD and the guy in the robot suit, brilliant.














Till next time when I'll be knee deep in Aussies.

Again.

Cotton buds but branded with Takoyaki (octopus balls) on them because this is the food Osaka is famous for so why not turn those boring old cotton buds into a funky souvenir for your loved ones? I brought 4 boxes.


















Neckface graf I spotted. With my face, mostly my eyes.

The Captain

...after regaling a someone with a description of 'The Captain' - one of the strangest, most repulsive, yet strangely intriguing characters I ever had the fortune to meet/touch/laugh at (point of note - he had the clammiest hands I ever did shake, ergh) whist on holiday with the lads in stock/spockholm I had the urge to draw him once again. So that's exactly what I spent Monday doing. Might change the background a bit but you get the idea...actually this is a far more surly and brooding Captain than the man we came across, think its cause I just saw Dark Knight (banger! Oh Heathy! Why Heathy? I loved you Heathy...) and had to reinvent him all gritty like.




















A couple of sumo based things to look at with your eyes.

So, in light of my recent trip to backpacker island (Laos) I decided to knock up some comics about the 'highs' (eh? It's gonna be a hit already) and lows of backpacking. I hadn't counted on my own ineptitude at doing anything remotely complex or for that matter my
ineptitude at doing anything remotely simple such as writing legibly. All of which meant the process took ages but here it is in all its half-baked glory. New issue should be out in 2012


Ok, been to Laos to visit biglad Ben. Great, cheap food and nice relaxing atmosphere in Vientiane, the capital but not much by way of sights to see, which works out perfect if your lazy like me (in case anyone had forgotten). We hung out there for a few days, I met Ben's newest s

election of aussie mates, ate the local specialties (deep fried snail, duck chin. Do ducks even have chins?), got a back massage by an old man while peeing in the urinals of a restaurant - the done thing apparently, pure service. The next step is clearly a shoe shine whilst you shit.

After this we headed north and joined the well trodden backpacker trail, did a bit of hiking (Reebok definitely didn't have rainy season hiking in mind when they made pumps), some kayaking and caving all interspliced with various 'gapper' encounters along the way. The only disappointment was the absence of tubing due to bad weather. Somehow Laos is making its fame with travelers due to the activity of getting battered in a rubber ring and floating down a river, so much so that people talk about it as the reason to visit Lao (italics, bet you never thought you'd see them crop up round here). Naturally being one of these people this was a massive blow for me and ruined the holiday.

Bennan and me showing off our dubious kayaking skills and giving props to the infamous SM BIP (see bennan blog)....






















Back in Japan and I've been knocking around Kansai for the last week, hitting up Kyoto and Osaka and getting my sightseeing on and had my first capsule hotel experience, verdict is their awesome but you have to pay for the porn which is an obvious disappointment.
































It may not be used pants but ties in a vending machine, brilliant. Who needs a tie that urgently?